U.N. Probe Points to Iraq's Oil-Smuggling

UNITED NATIONS -- Paul Volcker, who is heading an investigation of alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program, said in an interview that most of the money illegally obtained by Saddam Hussein was from smuggling, which was known by the U.N. Security Council but not stopped.

In the interview set for broadcast Tuesday with Alhurra, the U.S. government-backed television station tailored for Arab audiences, Volcker questioned the reliability of reports that Saddam diverted amounts ranging from $1.7 billion to $21 billion from the $60 billion oil-for-food program.

The former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman said there was a lot of confusion between money from smuggling and money obtained illegally under the oil-for-food program, and he refused to give any estimates.

"The big figures that you see in the press, which are sometimes labeled oil-for-food -- the big figures are smuggling, which took place before the oil-for-food program started and it continued while the oil-for-food program was in place," he said, according to a transcript obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-oil-for-food-investigation,0,141990.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

Of course, the US administration is bent on destroying Annan and the U.N., and will do anything to twist the story.

WHO SAID he has the ONLY PROOF to a "UN oil for food scandal"???

CHALABI.

WHO REFUSES to show ANYONE his ONLY PROOF of a "UN oil for food scandal"???

CHALABI.

WHO is a WANTED FUGITIVE, a PROVEN LIAR, an IRANIAN SPY???

CHALABI.

Josh at TPM has a great collection of articles on the subject;

"Cronyism is the Problem in Iraq"

The heart of matter, again, is that Saddam Hussein allegedly used the program to engineer pay-offs to a long list political leaders and journalists around the world. The problem is that none of the documents which are said to support this claim have been seen, let alone authenticated by any neutral observers.

The documents are in the charge of the Finance Committee of the IGC. And the Finance Committee is controlled by Ahmed Chalabi.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_05_02.php#002904

"The Dog Ate My Homework"

Last night, it emerged that on the same day as the raid, computer files belonging to the British consultant investigating the oil-for-food scandal were destroyed by hackers and a back-up databank in his Baghdad office wiped out.

Claude Hankes Drielsma, a British businessman and long-time acquaintance of Mr Chalabi, accused America and Britain of mounting a "dirty tricks" campaign to obstruct his inquiry.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_06_06.php#003045

The evidence for these particular charges stemmed entirely from a collection of documents allegedly in the possession of Mr. Ahmed Chalabi, documents Chalabi apparently deemed too important to let anyone outside his circle see.

There were two Iraqi investigations into this alleged wrongdoing.

-First, there was one run by Chalabi crony Claude Hankes Drielsma at Chalabi's direction, with assistance from KPMG (one imagines because Arthur Andersen was no longer available). As for Claude Hankes Drielsma and his inquiry, the last we heard from him, early in June, he was claiming that all the computer files of his investigation had been destroyed by shadowy hackers on the same day Chalabi's HQ was raided in Baghdad. In a particular coup, the hackers managed to simultaneously destroy his back-ups kept on various hard-drives.

KPMG has stopped working on the investigation because they're owed hundreds of thousands of dollars which have gone unpaid.

-Another inquiry was established at the behest of Paul Bremer and run by the head of the Iraq's independent Board of Supreme Audit, Ihsan Karim, with assistance from Ernst and Young.

Karim was killed when a bomb was placed under one of the cars in his convoy.

So, with all these tumults and jagged occurrences, let's not forget to ask. Has anyone outside the Chalabi crew yet seen those documents? Given that we know Chalabi actually ran his own forgery shop in Iraqi Kurdistan in the mid-1990s, and his general lack of 100% reliability, it's hardly an idle question.

The person who really needs to see them, of course, is Volcker, who is not only (sad to say it, but true) the only investigator left standing, but the one heading up the only investigation that actually has real credibility.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_07_04.php#003120

It is 2nd only to the Osama tapes in news stories I am currently ignoring.

I suppose if Osama comes out with a sex tape it might pique my interest momentarily, but otherwise I am beginning to think he is on the white house payroll.