A lengthy investigative story in today's New York Times about the U.N.-run Iraqi "oil for food" program is only the beginning of understanding the full scope of the corruption that embodied Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Ground zero was the U.N. headquarters, and it reached capitals and halls of commerce throughout the world. Excerpts:
In its final years in power, Saddam Hussein's government systematically extracted billions of dollars in kickbacks from companies doing business with Iraq, funneling most of the illicit funds through a network of foreign bank accounts in violation of United Nations sanctions.Millions of Iraqis were struggling to survive on rations of food and medicine. Yet the government's hidden slush funds were being fed by suppliers and oil traders from around the world who sometimes lugged suitcases full of cash to ministry offices, said Iraqi officials who supervised the skimming operation.
Iraq's suppliers included Russian factories, Arab trade brokers, European manufacturers and state-owned companies from China and the Middle East. Iraq generally refused to buy directly from American companies, which in any case needed special licenses to trade legally with Iraq.
"You had cartels that were willing to pay kickbacks but would also bid up the price of goods," said Ali Allawi, a former World Bank official who is now interim Iraqi trade minister. "You had rings involved in supplying shoddy goods. You had a system of payoffs to the bourgeoisie and royalty of nearby countries.
"Everybody was feeding off the carcass of what was Iraq."
Roger Simon has the best response so far:
Since this may be among the Biggest Heists of All Time, if not the biggest, we need to know as many facts as possible.Posted by Alan at February 29, 2004 09:42 AMThe UN supervisors of this mega-crime claim not to have known what was going on. Whether they are lying or were unconscionably stupid or stupefyingly lazy (or a combination of the three) we do not know yet, but one thing is clear. For the preservation of the United Nations, the books of all transactions under all United Nations programs henceforward must be open—that is, immediately and entirely open and available to all on the Internet. That cartels of Russian Mafiosi, Syrian fascist thugs, Iraqi ruling gangsters, Swiss bankers and who knows who else were able to profiteer to the tune of billions off money that was supposedly meant for medicine for Iraqi children is beyond disgusting. Anyone who thinks that the overthrow of Saddam was not a good thing for this reason alone ought to examine his or her morals.
Tip via the omniscient InstaPundit