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Oil for Food Sales Seen As Iraq Tie To Al Qaeda U.S. Probes Bank Network By MARC PERELMAN FORWARD STAFF The hunt for Saddam Hussein's money could provide some clues to one of the claims made by the Bush administration to justify its war in Iraq — the possible link between the former Iraqi regime and the Al Qaeda terrorist group. Two entities, a shadowy banking network linked by the administration to Al Qaeda and a Saudi oil company close to the Taliban regime, were involved in buying oil from Saddam Hussein under the United Nations' oil-for-food program, the Forward...

Saddam Hussein secretly bankrolled a notorious Palestinian terrorist group with $72 million worth of vouchers from the U.N.'s corrupt oil-for-food program, according to a bombshell new report. The former dictator funded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine through a Syrian business front, the Scotsman newspaper reported, citing records uncovered by investigators in Iraq. It could be one of the strongest links yet of Saddam's ties to known terrorists. Thousands of documents handed over to authorities by a former Iraqi oil minister, include a paper trail showing that the scheme to give money from oil vouchers to the PFLP...

The Iraqi Survey Group also found that supposed "humanitarian" imports under Oil-for-Food gave Saddam the ability to restart his biological and chemical warfare programs at a moment's notice. Spertzel said what scared him the most in Iraq was the discovery of secret labs to make deadly weapons like the nerve agent, sarin, and the biological poison, ricin, in spray form. "If that were released in a closed [area], such as Madison Square Garden or, even some, some of your smaller closed malls, shopping malls, it would have a devastating effect … killing hundreds or thousands," Spertzel said. But Spertzel believes...

NEW YORK - Internal audits conducted by the United Nations (news - web sites) of its oil-for-food program revealed lapses in U.N. oversight that allowed contractors to overcharge by hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to copies obtained by The Associated Press. Two of the audits examined irregularities including overcharging by two companies who were hired to monitor oil sales and the import of humanitarian goods under the program. Another detailed financial mismanagement by a U.N. agency administering humanitarian aid under the program. An independent panel led by former Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Chairman Paul Volcker, who was...

POST WORLD EXCLUSIVE WASHINGTON — Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned. Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said. "We think he was a major player in this...

LONDON (AFP) - United Nations (news - web sites) Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), under fire for his part in the controversial Iraqi oil-for-food programme, said in an interview with the Financial Times that he did not intend to resign. "I think resignation is comparatively easy," Annan told the journalist who asked him if he considered resigning. "It is much more difficult to stay on and continue to do the job you are elected to do, and focus on the important agenda of the organisation and the membership." Annan has been under mounting pressure in the United...

Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel, say congressional investigators who uncovered evidence of the money trail. The former Iraqi president tapped secret bank accounts in Jordan -- where he collected bribes from foreign companies and individuals doing illicit business under the humanitarian program -- to reward the families up to $25,000 each, investigators told The Associated Press.

Statement of The Honorable Henry Hyde before the Full Committee Hearing on "Oil-for-Food: Tracking the Funds" Wednesday, November 17, 2004 Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects Unseen. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet, Act 3 I am beginning to believe that the prevailing sentiment regarding the United Nations Oil-for-Food program may have been "hear no evil, speak no evil, and see no evil." No one seemed to be in charge of watching Saddam Hussein while he and his government were conducting perhaps the largest financial swindle in history. The corruption Saddam and his regime sowed created scores of accomplices around the...

C-Span now showing the Oil For Food Scandal with Congress members.

NEW YORK — Saddam Hussein's regime made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the U.N. Oil-for-Food program (search) through surcharges, kickbacks and smuggling oil — more than double previous estimates, according to congressional investigators. The figures are based on troves of new documents obtained by an investigative panel of the Senate Committee on Government Affairs (search), which was presenting them at a hearing Monday in Washington. The documents illustrate how Iraqi officials, foreign companies and sometimes politicians allegedly contrived to funnel vast illicit gains to the Iraqi government. The findings also reflect a growing understanding by investigators...

We just got a tip......that a major newspaper will break a front-page story Monday morning that could create a serious problem for the Kerry campaign. We don't yet have any details, but it relates to a foreign policy issue, and it will call into question--amazingly enough--John Kerry's truthfulness. We'll watch for the story Sunday night and post it as soon as it becomes available.

Oil-for-Food Scandal Key to CIA Report Monday The U.N. Oil-for-Food program — already the subject of federal, congressional and United Nations financial abuse probes — took a fresh hit with an explosive new report that said Saddam Hussein was using the program to fund his ambitions. The report looking into whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction — found that Saddam was able to "subvert" the $60 billion U.N. program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997-2003. In light of the report, FOX News presents another hour-long special investigating the biggest financial scam in...

[Breaking News Ticker] SADDAM’S ITALIAN LAWYER GIOVANNI DE STAFANO TOLD A LONDON-BASED DAILY THAT A MEETING WAS HELD BETWEEN HIMSELF AND OSAMA BIN LADEN AT THE RASHID HOTEL IN BAGHDAD IN 1998. (AL-SHARQ AL-AWSAT, LONDON, 10/15/04)