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US firms profited from Iraq oil under Saddam: report
Sat Oct 9,
NEW YORK (AFP) - US companies and individuals received from Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s government vouchers, which let them buy Iraqi crude under the UN oil-for-food program.
A report released Wednesday by the chief US weapons inspector in Iraq (news - web sites) listed beneficiaries of the program from other nations, but not Americans, due to US privacy laws, the The New York Times said. The report was prepared by the Iraq Survey Group.
However, the US names were listed in copies of the report that were given to Congress and the White House, and which were shown to the Times, the newspaper said.
The report said US companies Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and Bay Oil, as well as three US individuals, including Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., were together allotted 111 million barrels of oil, according to the Times.
Spokesmen for the companies and for Wyatt said the transactions were legal, but confirmed they had received subpoenas from a federal grand jury that is investigating the transactions, the report said.
The US Treasury Department (news - web sites) is also investigating whether the companies and individuals properly sought authorization from the US government to bid on contracts under the oil-for-food program.
While the Iraqi intelligence service tried to bribe many foreign nationals, it paid particular attention to influential personalities in France and Russia because the two countries hold permanent seats on the UN Security Council, according to the report prepared by chief US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, who has perused tonnes of secret Iraqi documents seized in the wake of the US-led invasion of the country.
The French targets, according to his report made public Wednesday, included government ministers, politicians, journalists and business persons.
Among the recipients named in the Iraqi documents is former French interior minister Charles Pasqua, who received export vouchers for almost 11 million barrels of crude that could be easily converted into cash, the report states.
Saddam's regime also tried to find a way to influence President Jacques Chirac by making payments to businessman Patrick Maugein, whom the Iraqis believed had access to the French leader.
Duelfer's report said the deals had been made under the UN-run, 60-billion-dollar oil-for-food program, which was launched in 1996 in order to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people under a UN oil embargo imposed in the wake of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The program allowed limited, supervised sales of Iraqi oil under the condition that the proceeds buy food and medicine for impoverished Iraqis. |
