“Saddam Bribery System”
Posted by Richard on May 12, 2005
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has released a report, and Scott Johnson at Powerline posted both the press release and some juicy details from the report itself. From the press release (emphasis added):
Today Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Carl Levin (D-MI), Chairman and Ranking Member respectively of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), issued a joint staff report disclosing evidence that the former French Minister of Interior Charles Pasqua and recently reelected member of the British Parliament George Galloway were granted lucrative oil allocations under the United Nations Oil for Food Program (OFF).
…
"While, according to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, U.N. sanctions on Iraq successfully prevented Iraq from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, the sanctions program had some weaknesses as well," said Levin. "The Pasqua and Galloway oil allocations show how Saddam Hussein misused the Oil for Food program to reward people he hoped would work against U.N. sanctions. The United States and other U.N. Security Council members made a fundamental mistake in allowing Saddam Hussein to award Oil for Food contracts and issue oil allocations."
From Scott’s reading of the report (Scott neglected to add the emphasis, so I’ve done it for him):
The report diplomatically buries one of its most interesting revelations in footnote 5. According to footnote 5, "Terrorist individuals and entities who received [OFF] allocations include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Abbas and the Mujahedeen-e Khalq" (emphasis added). It will be interesting to see if Thursday’s news stories pick up this particular item on the friends of Saddam Hussein.
The report notes that the arm of the Iraqi goverment that managed the sale of Iraqi crude oil under the OFF program was the State Oil Marketing Organization, commonly called SOMA. An anonymous Husssein regime official is cited in the report as observing that inside SOMA, the OFF program was nicknamed the "Saddam Bribery System."
Remember when the critics rechristened the "Coalition of the Willing" the "Coalition of the Bribed"? Turns out that the real "Coalition of the Bribed" was the guys whose "global test" John Kerry wanted us to pass.
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