Secondly, Iraq's purchases of WMD has been limited by the food for oil
program and by economic sanctions...
...Again, it costs big money.......where is he getting it from?
Iraq has sold a lot of oil outside that program, or in other words oil that it was not allowed to sell by the sanctions. The border with Jordan is porous, and oil has been sent across other borders as well. It has also gotten some of its customers for its legal sales to pay an extra amount in to secret accounts. Of course instead of using this money to feed the Iraqi people Saddam has used it to build dozens of "Presidential palaces" and put it in to his WMD program.
fas.org
"Yet, Iraq's efforts to sell oil on the black market may increase.
Even when oil prices were low, Iraq found many international
traders willing to run afoul of U.N. sanctions to buy cheaper oil.
The U.S. interception of a Russian tanker carrying illegal Iraqi
oil earlier this year illustrates the problem. Iraq is highly
motivated to rely on black-market sales because income from
these sales is directly deposited in Iraqi government coffers.
Revenue from legal sales, in contrast, is controlled by the
United Nations, with a percentage of it going to compensate
victims of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Higher oil prices
will strengthen the incentives of both the Iraqi government and
international traders to bypass U.N. resolutions."
brook.edu
Illegal oil lines Saddam’s pockets
msnbc.com
Turkey: Iraqi Diesel Trade Seen As Too Valuable To Stop
By Charles Recknagel
Turkey is set to allow diesel smuggling from Iraq to fully resume soon, reversing an earlier decision to reduce it. As RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel reports in the first of a two-part series on the diesel smuggling, Ankara considers the trade too valuable to its border region to suppress for long.
Ankara, 4 August 2000 (RFE/RL) -- Turkish newspapers are reporting that Turkey's diesel trade with Iraq, which violates UN sanctions, will fully resume soon.
rferl.org
SADDAM AND THE ECONOMIC LEVER: WHITHER SANCTIONS?
iraqwatch.org
Analysts Note Sharp Increase in Iraqi Oil Revenue, in Violation of Sanctions
By Alan Sipress, The Washington Post
The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein has dramatically boosted the amount of oil revenue it obtains outside U.N. sanctions over the last three months, primarily by pumping up to $3 million worth of petroleum a day through a newly reopened Syrian pipeline, oil industry analysts said.
s-t.com
Tim |
