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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials
AMAT 268.75-0.3%1:25 PM EST
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To: Fred Levine who wrote (70095)4/28/2003 7:45:36 PM
From: runes  Read Replies (1) of 70976
 
<<CNN, in a report on Saddam's billions, claimed that every barrel of oil exported was required to bribe Saddam 60-80 cents. He contracts were with TotalElfFina, a french company>>

Fred, you are letting your predjudgice lead you to bad conclusions. To begin with the Elf contracts were not in effect during the embargo nor during the oil for food program.

The only thing I found on CNN referenced the Coalition for International Justice. On their web site I found the following report - "Sources of Revenue for Saddam & Sons" dated Sept 2002.
cij.org
...It is rather extensive (I stopped after the first 10 pages) Among the points of interest -

1) Saddam was getting about $2 bil/year outside of the oil for food program. 90% of that came from illegal smuggling. The remaining 10% came from jimmying the oil for food program with surcharges and kickbacks.

2) The majority of the oil from the oil for food program went through Russian enterprises (not French). They, of course, passed thekickback costs on to the end user. The biggest end user was the US - we consumed over 75% of the Iraqi oil from the oil for food program.

3) The US companies had strict policies that they would not pay kickbacks nor would they buy from a company that paid kickbacks. So instead the bough from companies that bought from companies that paid kickbacks. (Almost sounds like a money laundering scheme!)

So - again - why bash the French when it was the Russians who enabled Saddam's oil scheme? When the Russians also opposed the second UN resolution? When the Russians are outright oipposed to easing UN sanctions (while the French support an immediate suspension)?
...Oh - yes - the Russians were the biggest stumbling block in the UN security council regarding the many Serbian misadventures including Kosovo. And the first nuclear reactor in Iraq was - Russian! And that was the one that Saddam tried to use to produce plutonium in 1990 (a whopping 3 grams worth).

So have you switched to Freedom Gin yet? Or how about a nice Patriotic Bourbin?
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