The UN Oil for Palaces Program

[jimmoyer]

"By the year 2000, the imposition of kickbacks and surcharges by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein brought about the emergence of illicit payments. This irrevocably changed the nature of the program."

The report said, "Oil surcharges were paid in connection with the contracts of 139 companies, and humanitarian kickbacks were paid in connection with the contracts of 2,253 companies," it said.

The largest single kickback came from the Malaysian firm Mastek, the report said. Iraq's oil marketing company, SOMO, received more than $10 million in illegal surcharges from Mastek in 2001-2002.

The activities of France's BNP-Paribas, which held the escrow account for the multi-billion-dollar program, were also scrutinized in the report.

The report said BNP did not disclose "fully the first hand knowledge it acquired of the true nature of financial relationships that fostered the payment of illicit surcharges."

The report alleges that Jean-Bernard Merimee, France's former U.N. ambassador, received $165,725 in commissions from oil allocations awarded to him by the Iraqi regime. He is under investigation by French authorities.

Thursday's report marked the end of the $30 million investigation that has uncovered widespread corruption and mismanagement in the U.N.'s largest humanitarian aid program.

The investigation has implicated the former head of the program, accusing him of accepting bribes from an Egyptian businessman who bought Iraqi oil.

The inquiry committee has also faulted Secretary General Kofi Annan, saying his son took advantage of his father's position to profit from the program, and it has criticized the U.N. Security Council for mismanaging the program.

"The program left too much initiative with Iraq," the letter said. "It was, as one past member of the council put it, a compact with the devil, and the devil had means of manipulating the program to his ends."

The report said Iraqi leaders denied American, British and Japanese companies the right to purchase oil because of their countries' opposition to lifting sanctions imposed on Iraq.

At the same time, though, Iraq gave preferential treatment to France, Russia and China, permanent members of the Security Council whose governments leaned toward lifting sanctions.

Senior investigators say they believe the report provides a starting point for prosecutors around the world to carry out their own criminal investigations.


The Bush administration has cited Volcker's findings in making its case in the U.N. General Assembly for establishing an independent auditor to oversee the organization's finances. But the United States has faced resistance from poor nations, who fear Washington is trying to exert too much control over the international organization.
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NOTICE THAT ABOVE SENTENCE ?
WILL THE UN ACCEPT AN INDEPENDENT AUDIT FROM ANYONE ?
IF THE US FAILED AT AUDITING AND ENFORCING THIS PROGRAM BACK THEN, IT MIGHT BE BECAUSE THE UN REJECTED AN AUDIT THEN AND REJECTS IT NOW.

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The oil-for-food program was created in December 1996 to provide assistance to Iraqis suffering under a U.N. trade embargo imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The program allowed Iraq to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food and medicine.

 

[PoisonPete2]

check out the countries that bought the 'smuggled' oil. allies of the U.S. and fellow invaders of Iraq in 1991. it took a conspiracy and the CIA had full knowledge and therefore collusion in it.

 

[jimmoyer]

Oh yeah, PoisonPete2, I'm sure the CIA ran the two entities mentioned below as just mere puppets on a string.

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The largest single kickback came from the Malaysian firm Mastek, the report said. Iraq's oil marketing company, SOMO, received more than $10 million in illegal surcharges from Mastek in 2001-2002.

The activities of France's BNP-Paribas, which held the escrow account for the multi-billion-dollar program, were also scrutinized in the report.

The report said BNP did not disclose "fully the first hand knowledge it acquired of the true nature of financial relationships that fostered the payment of illicit surcharges."

The report alleges that Jean-Bernard Merimee, France's former U.N. ambassador, received $165,725 in commissions from oil allocations awarded to him by the Iraqi regime. He is under investigation by French authorities.
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Mere puppets of the CIA.

I wish the Far Left could make up its mind about the CIA.
Either they perform the biggest bungle in the jungle (which I think happens most often) or they have superhuman abilities to control everything they touch.

Right now on this issue it suits the biased purpose to believe the CIA has GOD-LIKE abilities to part the Red Sea.

Typical.

 

[PoisonPete2]

Re: RE: The UN Oil for Palaces Program

Oh yeah, PoisonPete2, I'm sure the CIA ran the two entities mentioned below as just mere puppets on a string.

Right now on this issue it suits the biased purpose to believe the CIA has GOD-LIKE abilities to part the Red Sea.

Typical.

Answer - gee whizz! what is it that you read? Yes, the CIA screw up a lot. The intelligence culture is very difficult to deconstruct. They have a huge budget but they also have the privelege of profiting from whatever international scheme they are in. Thus they became heroin traders in Viet Nam, transported hashish for Palastinians, oversaw the smuggling of weapons against a popularist movement in Nicaragua, murdered the PM of Viet Nam, overthrew democratically elected Presidents in Chili and Algiers. backed Bin Lauden in Afghanistan ETC. ETC.

However there are some very good inteligence officers in the CIA. Like those who wouldn't doctor their files on Iraq to fit with Cheney's expectations.

The CIA have the most advanced spy satalites in the world. They can see oil tankers being filled. They have mathies who can calculate accurately how much oil is loaded. They track every tanker in the world. They know who is getting what from who. The agents supply information. The political machine decides what to do with it

 

[jimmoyer]

Wow !

Nobody else does all of this on their own ?

You mean every schemer on the planet can't do it on their own?

Hmmm....

By the way, President Truman regretted this creation of his, as will we all regret the Office of Home Security, another bureaucratic monster unable to tame the turf warfare, unable to handle the complexity of conflicting needs.

 

[jimmoyer]

Wow !

Nobody else does all of this on their own ?

You mean every schemer on the planet can't do it on their own?

Hmmm....

By the way, President Truman regretted this creation of his, as will we all regret the Office of Home Security, another bureaucratic monster unable to tame the turf warfare, unable to handle the complexity of conflicting needs.

 

[jimmoyer]

Wow !

Nobody else does all of this on their own ?

You mean every schemer on the planet can't do it on their own?

Hmmm....

By the way, President Truman regretted this creation of his, as will we all regret the Office of Home Security, another bureaucratic monster unable to tame the turf warfare, unable to handle the complexity of conflicting needs.

 

[MMMike]

Ooooooh! Triple strike, Jim? Calm down man!

 

[jimmoyer]

Okay.

 

[MMMike]

Re: RE: The UN Oil for Palaces Program

The CIA have the most advanced spy satalites in the world. They can see oil tankers being filled. They have mathies who can calculate accurately how much oil is loaded. They track every tanker in the world. They know who is getting what from who. The agents supply information. The political machine decides what to do with it

I have installed Google earth recently and am starting my own 'ledgers'. Hold on to your hats... just watch what I do with this information.

 

[Reverend Blair]

RE: The UN Oil for Palace

You are misrepresenting the facts again, Jimmy. Is that why you didn't provide a link?

Nobody in their right mind would put the US in charge of the UN though. Between your war crimes and your refusal to adhere to international law, not to mention your mishandling of money (what happened to the $20 billion that Bremer lost in Iraq?) we'd be better off putting the Mafia in charge of the UN. At least they have a code of conduct, after all.

 

[jimmoyer]

But you were the one, REV, that charged the Americans and Brits for not auditing and enforcing and correcting the corruption and bureaucratic mistakes with that UN Food for Oil Program.

Now you're saying quite correctly who in the UN would trust Americans to do that audit ? And by the way who would trust the UN to do the audit itself when you'll be the same one to complain Security Council didn't do its job of monitoring the program.

You can't have it both ways.

I can provide you a link to your own post that does exactly that.

As for the other link, it's the Washington Post, today's editorial page.

 

[MMMike]

go

 

[Reverend Blair]

But you were the one, REV, that charged the Americans and Brits for not auditing and enforcing and correcting the corruption and bureaucratic mistakes with that UN Food for Oil Program.

They were mandated to do so along with the rest of the 661 Committee. The UN itself was never more than an administrator of the program.

Myth: The consensus decision making rule in the 661 Committee prevented the U.S. from addressing the problems of smuggling and kickbacks.

Fact: According to the guidelines for the conduct of work of the 661 Committee, decisions were to be reached by consensus. However, this rule meant that in the absence of consensus, the default position was denial of import or oil sales, not approval. In 1999, then Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering made this clear to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations: "Because the Committee operates by consensus, [the U.S.] can hold back or block any contract that is inappropriate or ill advised." By this rule, the United States could have exercised its veto power over contracts once allegations of kickbacks on humanitarian goods surfaced in 2000. However, while the U.S. frequently held up contracts citing "dual-use" concerns, i.e. goods that could be used for military purposes, it never once denied a contract on the basis of pricing-irregularities. In fact, while the U.S. and the UK held up 5,000 contracts over "dual-use," no contract that the OIP experts flagged for potential pricing irregularities was blocked by the 661 Committee. This, despite at least 70 cases were reported to the 661 Committee about potential overpricing between 2000-2001.

In a statement submitted to the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, Jean-David Levitte, who was the French Ambassador to the UN during OFFP, said, "the rule of unanimity, sharply criticized by some as an obstacle to the adoption of US proposals also served the US, for example for delaying contracts and imposing the mechanism of retroactive oil pricing."

Myth: Oil smuggling was just one of many problems under the OFFP that the UN failed to prevent.

Fact: The UN had neither the authority nor the resources to prevent smuggling. The UN Security Council oversaw the OFFP, and the UN Secretariat's Office of the Iraq Program (OIP) implemented the Council's work on the ground in Iraq. Specifically, it was the role of the Security Council's 661 Committee to monitor all contracts awarded under the OFFP (all members of the UN Security Council, including the U.S., were members of the 661 Committee). The task of policing oil smuggling fell to the Multinational Interception Force (MIF) - which was led by and predominantly made up of the Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy.

The MIF was created following the imposition of sanctions in 1990 and was responsible for preventing smuggling from and into Iraq via the Gulf region. Copies of waivers issued by both the current Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration show that the U.S. was aware that Iraq was trading oil with its neighbors, in violation of the UN sanctions, as far back as 1991. Many observers believe successive U.S. administrations allowed the illegal oil trades to continue because stopping them could endanger the support of Iraq's neighbors for UN sanctions.

Myth: The UN never did anything to raise concerns about potential kickbacks and surcharges in the OFFP.

Fact: In many instances, officials from the Office of the Iraq Program (OIP) made the UN Security Council's 661 Committee aware of potential irregularities in contracts. The 661 Committee was composed of all members of the UN Security Council and had sole discretion over approving the OFFP contracts.

Below are a few examples:

* UN oil overseers first alerted the Security Council's 661 Committee on November 17, 2000 that the oil pricing formulas proposed by Iraq for the month of December did not represent "fair market value," because the oil appeared to be considerably under-priced. As a result of the alert provided by UN officials, on December 15, the 661 Committee directed oil overseers to advise buyers of Iraqi oil that they should pay no surcharges on oil sales since this would be considered illegal. According to various accounts including the report of the Iraq Survey Group led by Charles Duelfer, this action sparked by diligence on the part of OIP effectively ended Saddam's practice of using oil surcharges to acquire illicit revenue.
* In early March, 2001, the issue of oil surcharges was further reported by the Secretary-General in his report to the Security Council.
* Regarding oil surcharges, the 661 Committee did not reach consensus as to how to address the problem until October, 2001, when the Committee decided to introduce a "retroactive pricing mechanism" for Iraqi oil in an attempt to eliminate the surcharges on oil.
* Throughout 2001 and 2002, hundreds of contracts for humanitarian goods to be sold to Iraq were queried by UN experts for potential over-pricing. At least 70 cases were reported to the 661 Committee and not a single case was placed on hold for pricing issues. Most of these contracts were ultimately approved. Though the U.S. and the UK held up 5,000 contracts over concerns that Iraq was attempting to purchase "dual-use" goods that could be used to build weaponry, no contract that the OIP experts flagged for potential pricing irregularities was blocked by the 661 Committee. (View examples of contracts flagged by OIP over pricing concerns.)

As Fairfield University professor, Joy Gordon, wrote in the December, 2004 issue of Harper's Magazine,

"The Oil-for-Food Program was not some concoction of Kofi Annan's. It was created by a vote of the members of the Security Council. And every aspect of how the program ran - what goods were allowed, the monitoring procedures, the transfer of funds, everything - was explicitly established by the members of the Security Council. Kofi Annan did not have a vote; but the United States and Britain did, and they approved of every resolution and decision that determined how the Oil-for-Food Program worked. Whatever critics may say, 'the UN bureaucracy' did not design a program that handed over cash to Saddam Hussein."

Oil for Food Facts

 

[jimmoyer]

Yep, you're having it both ways.

On the one hand the Americans can investigate and audit and on the other hand such inquiries are robustly resisted.

The only reason is that the UN allowed Volcker to chair an investigation is that everyone had to wait for enough critical mass to support it.

Quote all the rules and regs you want, REV.

And continue to have it both ways.

 

[Reverend Blair]

RE: The UN Oil for Palace

What I qouted were facts, Jimmy. I did so to counteract the lies you insist on perpetuating. The US and other members of the 661 Committee didn't do their job, then the US blamed it all on the one agency that had tried to do something, but had no power to act.

The timing of that is really funny too. The US loved Oil for Food so much that after the illegal invasion they asked that it be kept in place. They had nothing bad to say about it. Then one day Kofi Annan was giving an interview to a BBC reporter. The reporter asked if the invasion was illegal. Annan tried to be diplomatic, but the reporter kept pressing him. Annan finally admitted that the invasion was in fact illegal according to international law. Suddenly the right wing press in the US was screaming that Oil for Food was a scandal and Annan should be tossed in prison.

Funny how that worked, isn't it?

Talk about trying to have it both ways...

 

[jimmoyer]

You want to continue to push the fiction that the UN actually would have NOT resisted an inquiry into the UN Food for Oil Progam without trying to paint Americans and Brits as the heartless ?

Nobody was fooling anybody and nobody was fooled.

There had to come that moment when resistance to investigation would break down. You're not seeing the forest for the tree blotting out your view.

Descend into the bs that all the politicians are claiming.

The fact remains is that the UN was not going to willingly acquiese to having its favorite program questioned or voted down.

 

[Reverend Blair]

RE: The UN Oil for Palace

They were pointing out the corruption, fer Chrissakes, Jimmy. That's been documented ten ways from sundown.

Annan has been pushing for UN reform since before he was Secretary General and the US has been the single biggest obstacle to that.

Annan and the UN never resisted the investigation.

Myth: The UN is not cooperating with investigations in Congress concerning the OFFP.

Fact: The UN organized and funded an independent inquiry led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker when allegations arose in early 2004. Chairman Volcker has pledged to share all documents with other investigations once the inquiry has determined that the release of information will not jeopardize his investigation's integrity.

This process ensures that all relevant documents and persons are investigated thoroughly and fairly, without the influence of political agendas. True to its word, the IIC released all internal UN audit reports on OFFP on January 9, 2005. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Chief of Staff, Mark Malloch Brown, met with Congressional representatives and other officials in Washington, telling them that the UN is willing to work with Congress wherever possible. Once the work of the IIC is completed, the UN will be available to answer any questions that remain. The UN is also making the chief auditor of the Oil-for-Food Program available to U.S. Congressional to answer their questions on the issue of audits.

The fact is that the program was successful.

Myth: The OFFP did not achieve its humanitarian goals.

Fact: In fact, the OFFP enabled the importation of enough food to feed all 27 million Iraqis. During its existence, the average daily caloric intake of the people of Iraq increased 83 percent, from 1,200 kilocalories to 2,200 kilocalories per person per day. In addition, malnutrition rates in 2002 in the central and southern part of the country were half those in 1996 among children under the age of five; in the three northern governorates, chronic malnutrition decreased 56 percent.

According to an article in the November 21, 2004 edition of The Washington Post:

"International aid efforts and the U.N. oil-for-food program helped reduce the ruinous impact of sanctions, and the rate of acute malnutrition among the youngest Iraqis gradually dropped from a peak of 11 percent in 1996 to 4 percent in 2002."

This same article documented that malnutrition rates in Iraq have increased substantially since the end of the Oil-for-Food Program, from 4% to 7.7%.

Between 1997 and 2002, the capacity to undertake major surgeries increased by 40% and laboratory investigations increased by 25% in the center and south of Iraq. Communicable diseases, including cholera, malaria, measles, mumps, meningitis and tuberculosis were reduced in the center/south of Iraq during this period. As of May 29, 2003, there had been no cases of polio in Iraq for more than three years. In the three northern governorates, cholera was eradicated and the incidence of malaria reduced to the 1991 level. Vaccinations reduced measles morbidity considerably.

Preliminary findings indicate that between 1996 and 2002 there was a reduction in the number of underweight children from 23% to 10%; chronic malnutrition decreased from 32% to 24%; and acute malnutrition dropped from 11% to 5.4%. There were also significant improvements made to transportation, water and sanitation treatment facilities, agriculture, telecommunications and education among other infrastructure benefits.

I have to ask, Jimmy...Do they pay you to spin, or are you a volunteer?

 

[jimmoyer]

The same question could be aimed at you, Rev.

Sorry, it is realistic to say that the UN resists change and audits. Partisans on both sides of the UN see that.

 

[jjw1965]

Oil for Food My Foot

Few of us give a whit about the so-called Oil for Food scandal. It’s little more than a pet project for neocon Republicans, so-called “conservatives” in Washington, and like-minded folks at the United Nations and in the British Commons.

The so-called Oil for Food scandal obfuscates the real issue—the sanctions imposed against Iraq by a maidservant United Nations (and enforced by US and British warplanes) were responsible for killing more than a million people, half of them defenseless children. More...