Those who helped Saddam rob Iraq
It appears nobody at the UN noticed that Iraq went for the lowest instead of the highest bidders in its oil for food programme. Why do that? Because then there is more room to add kickbacks of 10% of more on top of oil deals, money that came back to Saddam's government as unaccounted for cash.
The new Iraqi independents have been reporting about the massive fraud scheme for some time now, and many bloggers have been writing about it, but now the New York Times publishes Susan Sachs' great and detailed article on the Oil for Palaces programme, having investigated the documents available through Iraq's oil ministry.
From this article it appears that not only some, but most (if not all) companies involved in contracts with Iraq through the UN programme paid kickbacks to Saddam. And the UN body set up to monitor the deal claims ignorance to this day, as billions were flowing into Iraq to Saddam, his sons and associates.
Not only were they paying huge sums to Saddam's corrupt regime, in many cases the products sold to Iraq were pure shams: like useless, outdated medical equipment and non-essential medicines. Thus the businesses contributed not only to Saddam's corruption, they added to the suffering of the Iraqi people.
Even more serious, perhaps, was the way all this money was used by Saddam Hussein to buy favourable articles by journalists and support by politicians around the world.
In the high-flying days after Iraq was allowed to sell its oil after 10 years of United Nations sanctions, the lobby of the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad was the place to be to get a piece of the action.
That was where the oil traders would gather whenever a journalist, actor or political figure would arrive in Iraq and openly praise Mr. Hussein. Experience taught them that the visitor usually returned to the hotel with a gift voucher, courtesy of the Iraqi president or one of his aides, representing the right to buy one million barrels or more of Iraqi crude.
The vouchers had considerable value. With the major oil companies monopolizing most Persian Gulf oil, there was fierce competition among smaller traders for the chance to buy Iraqi oil. And as long as Iraq kept its oil prices low enough, traders could make a tidy profit, even after buying the voucher and paying the surcharge.
"We used to joke that if you get one million barrels, you could make $200,000," Mr. Faraj, of SOMO, added, referring to a period when the vouchers sold for about 20 cents per barrel. "And yet the ones who got it were those people who used to come here and praise Saddam for his stand against imperialism."
Names! We want names.
If you can't wait for the NYT to give them, check out this MEMRI analysis based on articles in Iraqi newspapers like Al-Mada. Is anybody surprised that the Russians, both private companies and the state itself, were among the biggest players in this game? Or that we find British MP and traitor George Galloway on the list?
Obviously, it was those who supported the war to remove Saddam Hussein that could justifiably have used the slogan "no blood for oil" against the opponents.
Via InstaPundit, who has been following this story for some time.
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