[Oil-for-Food was established in the mid-1990s, 1996-1997 in particular, to,
under pressure from the world at large on the Security Council, particularly
Washington and London, who drove the sanctions regime of the United Nations,
to provide a means for the Iraqi people to have access to foodstuffs,
pharmaceuticals and some basic equipment for education, the health care
sector, agricultural sector. The government in Baghdad was allowed to sell a
certain amount of oil, initially $4 billion gross per year. And that money
was then used for sending out invitations, international bidding on
foodstuffs, particularly pharmaceuticals. Those contracts were then approved
or not approved by the Security Council in New York. The goods were
delivered. The payments were made by the United Nations. No money went into
the hands of the Iraqi people. The fact is, however, under sanctions --
sanctions is a form of warfare. Any opportunity the Iraqis had to find hard
currency they naturally sought and obviously accomplished. Now, there was --
the scandal, quote, unquote, is in my view, nonsense. The United States was
perfectly well aware of the trade between Turkey and Iraq under sanctions.
They knew that Baghdad was exporting paraffin, gasoline and oil into Turkey.
It was monitored by U.S. satellites. It was agreed upon with Turkey, because
Turkey is an ally, a friendly NATO member and so on, and this was
compensation to Turkey for the loss of revenue given the sanctions on Iraq,
its close trading neighbor and partner. There is no scandal. Everything that
has happened has been monitored by the United States and Britain. The
contracts were approved by the United States and Britain. The kickbacks made
by companies who provided supplies, in my view, were also known. And
likewise, when it came to the sale of oil by Iraq, including some 40% going
to American companies indirectly, including Chevron, of Miss Rice at one
stage, they also paid those kickbacks indirectly and certainly in full
knowledge of what they were doing.--Denis Halliday, "Fmr. Iraq
Oil-For Food Head: Kofi Annan 'Should Open the Doors, Open the Files',"
Democracy Now, November 17, 2004]
[While money derived from the off-the-book sale of oil did indeed go
into the purchase of conventional weapons and the construction of
presidential palaces, the vast majority of these funds were poured into
economic recovery programmes that saw Iraq emerge from near total economic
ruin in 1996.--Scott Ritter, "
The oil-for-food 'scandal' is a cynical smokescreen," Independent,
December 12, 2004]
[Yet two letters sent by the State Department to Congress in 1998 and
2002 clearly show that successive US administrations knew of
sanctions-busting and turned a blind eye to it. Some US lawmakers are now
demanding that the US also hold itself to account for those decisions and
not shift all the blame to the UN.--Mark Turner, "US And
Congress Knew Saddam Was Smuggling Oil," Financial Times, January 19,
2005]
George Monbiot, "
Forget the UN. The US occupation regime helped itself to $8.8 bn of mostly
Iraqi money in just 14 months," Guardian, February 8, 2005
Colum Lynch, "Treasury's
Role in Illicit Iraq Oil Sales Cited," Washington Post, February 17,
2005
[There is a breathtaking hypocrisy to the indictment of Kofi Annan over
the oil for food programme for Iraq. It was the US and the UK who devised
the programme, piloted the UN resolutions that gave it authority, sat on the
committee to administer it and ran the blockade to enforce it.--Robin Cook,
"Why
American neocons are out for Kofi Annan's blood," Guardian, April 1,
2005]
[The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive
sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new Senate
investigation.
. . . Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the
kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than
the rest of the world put together.--Julian Borger and Jamie Wilson, "US
'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'," Guardian, May 17, 2005]
[The United States handed out nearly $20 billion of Iraq's funds, . . .
Most of these funds came from frozen and seized assets and from the
Development Fund for Iraq, which succeeded the U.N.'s oil-for-food program.
. . .
An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said
U.S. auditors could not account for nearly $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds--Sue
Pleming, "U.S. was big spender in days before Iraq
handover," Reuters, June 22, 2005]
VIDEO: George Galloway, "Galloway v
the US Senate: transcript of statement," The Times, May 18, 2005
[At the beginning of the Iraq war, the UN entrusted $23bn of Iraqi money to
the US-led coalition to redevelop the country. With the infrastructure of
the country still in ruins, where has all that money gone?--Callum Macrae
and Ali Fadhil, "'Iraq was
awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills',"
Guardian, March 20, 2006]
[The penalty, which is still being negotiated, would be the largest so far
in the United States in connection with investigations of companies involved
in the oil-for-food scandal.--Claudio Gatti and Jad Mouawad, "Chevron
Seen Settling Case on Iraq Oil," New York Times, May 8, 2007]