Economic War Connection ?

The Moscow Times ^ | April 9 2004 | Jesse Westbrooke

[Freesofar]

Friday, Apr. 9, 2004. Page 5

Russia 'Frustrated' UN Iraq Sanctions

By Jesse Westbrook BLOOMBERG

Bloomberg

John Negroponte

WASHINGTON -- Russia, France and China blocked enforcement of United Nations sanctions on Iraq, contributing to former dictator Saddam Hussein's alleged theft of money from the UN-administered oil-for-food program, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.

Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, asked Negroponte at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing if the three countries were unwilling to impose "strict" guidelines that would have prevented abuses of the program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy medicine and food.

The three nations "frustrated efforts" to enforce sanctions on Iraq, Negroponte said. When the U.S.- and the British-led efforts in 2000 to stop Iraq from imposing "additional fees" on oil sales, "we met resistance from the countries you mentioned," Negroponte said.

About 3.4 billion barrels of oil, valued at $65 billion, were shipped from Iraq under the program, which was suspended when the U.S.-led war against Hussein's regime began. Beginning in 1997, Iraq was allowed to export oil under an exception to UN sanctions imposed after the country's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

While there were regular audits of the program, and the UN Security Council monitored contracts for the sale of oil and purchase of humanitarian aid, Iraq's violation of UN sanctions had been reported for several years.

[Freesofar]

Somebody stop me. I have this nagging conspiracy theory that the EU is so adamant about devalueing the dollar and switching oil trade to the euro, in order to gain economic superiority. This is consistant with the appearance that Britain (THE oil empire) stands alone against the rest of western Europe. If we lose the War in Iraq and pull out, won't France and Germany broker the Iraq oil reserves ? Certainly not "dollar freindly" OPEC. This would have happened anyway before the Iraq war as the sactions were about to lift. France and Germany were drooling all over Iraq. And wasn't this unsanctioned oil going to Germany and France ? It seems a lot more is at stake than just terror. Each of our very livelyhoods would be at stake here in Iraq.

[AmericanVictory]

You are correct, sir, up to a point.