U.S. says Hussein plundered U.N. oil-for-food program (bought weapons)

U.S. says Hussein plundered U.N. oil-for-food program
Records indicate ex-dictator bought weapons with funds

Susan Schmidt, Washington Post Sunday, December 21, 2003


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U.S. authorities have identified more than $1 billion in Iraqi assets in banks in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan and are pursuing hundreds of leads in the United States concerning possible illicit financial transactions with the former Iraqi government.

Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have spent nine months poring over financial records recovered from the vault of the Central Bank of Iraq, including records they say show how Saddam Hussein's government diverted at least $1.8 billion from the United Nations' humanitarian oil-for-food program and moved some of that money to foreign banks or used it to buy weapons components.

Officials are pressing the hunt for many billions more Hussein is believed to have moved out of Iraq, worried that those funds are going to terrorist groups or are financing his loyalists' attacks on U.S. troops. "There was a staggering amount of plunder as a result of the oil-for-food program and other schemes," said the Treasury Department's recently departed general counsel, David Aufhauser, who until this month helped direct the search. "While some was spent on ostentatious palaces, most is unaccounted for. " Investigators said they have identified $3.3 billion Hussein generated since June 2000 in violation of U.N. sanctions.

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The result is that investigators have launched about 40 probes of U.S. entities or individuals suspected of exporting weapons components or dual-use technology, as U.S. News reported Thursday, in violation of export laws and U. N. sanctions. In the first criminal case to result, two U.S. men were charged in October with brokering the manufacture of six armored patrol boats for the Iraqi military -- a transaction detailed in a contract ICE agents recovered at the central bank.

A special Iraqi ICE task force in Washington is pursuing hundreds of other leads generated in Baghdad about possible illegal business transactions by U.S. individuals and entities.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/21/MNGE83RT201.DTL

Once again it was the U.S. that was involved in the arms deals with Iraq. No wonder they know exactly where the WMD's are.

I can't seem to get the link to work, so if somebody else can figure out what I typed wrong, please post an accurate one. Thanks

Unless they are hoping to spook some of their dumber quarry,
it's hard to see what real purpose this might serve other than
"perception management".

It says that weapons deals must be declared if they were made after a certain date, I think it was '98. Did these U.S. individuals do these deals without the government knowledge, maybe. How did the "entities" do this without knowledge by the government. Does this explain why the WH wanted a copy of the Iraq declaration to look at before the U.N. got it? This just gives me more questions than answers about Iraq.

I have come to the sick conclussion that Rumsfeld, Rice and Hussein were having threesomes every other saturday. Hussein caught herpes and gave it to Rice, now they are haveing a lovers spat. Husseins payback for the never ending herpes was having war declared on him. I explains a lot of things, including their attitude.

Hussein abused/circumvented the oil/food program all the time. Syria created an entire oil refining industry to process bootleg Iraqi oil.

I dont know what Hussein spent the money on but it was not the people of Iraq.

compared to what W is plundering from the US government for his endless war. Heck at least Saddam built a bunch a pretty palaces with the money. They make great headquarters for US troops and probably cost about a tenth of what Halliburton would have charged.

Really? He was purchasing weapons from the US...from US companies
that continue to violate the arms embargoe on Iran for example.
What's the big deal? This is how American corporations make money.

Oh...and lest we forget that one of our "close allies", i.e., Israel
continues to seel high-tech "defense" radars and missile technology
to China... :eyes: Just remember that when the Chinese start
their little "pre-emptive" attack on Taiwan...

either? Oh, I remember - everything they report is propaganda

prove he needed them? It's the reason he was bluffing all those years. What country would announce that they're completely defenseless?

Susan Schmidt was quite handy to Ken Starr during the witch hunt - happily reporting every leak he gave her...

Epitome of a media whore...

Saddam was a dictator and a mad man, but we are making out to be worse than he really was. Many crimes carried out by his regime were not even known to him. Bush simply is trying to tie all evil in the world to Saddam so that Bush can claim victory over evil and terrorism and media is helping him do it! Notice that Osama has not even been made out to be as evil as Saddam. And now Mummar and Libya are our pals.