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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Watkins who wrote (13645)	11/11/2004 11:23:54 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

"There you go again, spouting off what you believe is the gospel truth, when in fact its far from it." There you go again, spouting off things I didn't say. In addition to the Oil-for-Food scandal, I said those countries also illegally sold weapons & had obscenely lucrative contracts with Saddam - all of them bribes for protection. And yes, it amounted to billions. "FACT: Germany is not once cited in the CIA report as being linked to the Oil For Food program or accused in any way shape or form. Germany is mentioned six or seven times in passing with regards to materials shipped to Iraq over a 25 year time span." Fact: I didn't cite the Iraq Survey Group as my sole source in that post. In fact I didn't list any sources. And one reason Saddam didn't target Germany as much as France Russia & China was because Saddam wanted members with a veto on the Security Council to receive more attention for better protection. But Germany was not a complete innocent by any means...... AP EXCLUSIVE: Iraqis reveal in secret interviews how Saddam manipulated oil-for-food program ....The Iraqi officials also helped investigators identify Iraqi front companies, which operated abroad to solicit and process alleged BRIBES from foreign companies and to help facilitate imports for the Iraqi government, including dual-use military goods such as vehicles..... ....Duelfer's report alleged that Saddam's government had used the oil vouchers to both solicit kickbacks and to reward countries and individuals willing to cooperate with Iraq's political goals. Companies and individuals from Russia, France and China dominated the list.... ....A handful of obscure companies from Western countries including GERMANY, Belgium, Cyprus, Italy and Switzerland appear on the list..... dev.siliconinvestor.com France, Russia, Germany & China may have billions of reasons to worry.......... Rebuilding Iraq With Clean Hands By Claudia Rosett New York Times There's been little in the last year to suggest that Russia, France and Germany share any of these goals. There is plenty of evidence, however, that they constitute an Axis of Avarice. Remember, plenty of money flowed through Saddam Hussein's Iraq, starting with the big debts the dictator ran up in the 1980's before the Persian Gulf war and the subsequent United Nations sanctions. Many countries took part in that frenzy of lending, including Japan as the No. 1 sovereign lender. Then came Russia, France, Germany and, yes, the United States as No. 5. However, in the 1990's, as the Iraqi dictator's depravities became increasingly evident to the rest of the world, that list narrowed. Under the United Nations oil-for-food program, the despot got to tap his preferred business partners. And over the course of the seven-year program - involving the sale of $65 billion worth of oil and purchase of more than $39 billion worth of supplies and services - he turned to contractors in the countries that ultimately proved most energetic in protesting his ouster: Russia, France and, to a lesser extent, Germany and China. What began as a relief program for Iraqis suffering under sanctions turned into a multibillion-dollar contracting business flowing through the shrouded books of the United Nations. By the end, the Russians were selling the Baathist elite luxury cars, the French were providing broadcasting equipment for the Information Ministry and the Germans and Chinese worked on the phone system.... dev.siliconinvestor.com "FACT: The vast majority of vouchers - legit or not - went to Russian or Arab countries or individuals. The CIA blanked out the name of US individuals and organizations." Fact: Iraq & other sources made those lists available. Claudia Rosett (NYT, WSJ, etc) did yoeman's work exposing the perps, ET AL. "FACT: The CIA was unable to actually determine "who paid surcharges (kickbacks) and for what amounts for each oil transaction"." Fact: Claudia Rosett & others did a good job exposing all of that. And the kickbacks lined Saddam's pockets. It was one of the ways he had funds to make illegal weapons purchases from France, Russia, China & Germany, ET AL. "To claim that anyone* specific individual or group made "billions" is ludicrous and not supported by any provided evidence. It is a case still unravelling."* Apparently you haven't paid attention then. The Iraq Survey Group continues to provide more details about the scandal. So do the various entities that are investigating the Oil-for- Food scandal as have officials from Iraq. The evidence released thus far clearly establishes that their were widespread bribes by Saddam for protection (cash & oil vouchers). He also gave out obscenely lucrative contracts as additional bribes & he made illegal weapons purchases at very favorable terms from the sellers again to insure protection. One would have to have an agenda not to see how vast & deep the corruption of France, Russia, China & Germany, ET AL, became at the hands of Saddam. I take it that you agree that other than your nit pick items, you too believe Saddam deserved to be removed? ____________________________________________________________ Paris and Moscow, for their part, were bitterly opposed to the sanctions and had no interest in pushing investigations that could reveal deep involvement by their companies in the crooked deals. dev.siliconinvestor.com CLAUDIA'S GOT THE NAMES dev.siliconinvestor.com But now that we have evidence that France and Russia were whoring out their foreign policy for a dallop of oil in the commodities market, the silence from the orthodox left is deafening..... dev.siliconinvestor.com More Oil for Food details leak out. When will the U.N. come clean? dev.siliconinvestor.com Iraq war opponents fill oil-for-food 'vouchers' list dev.siliconinvestor.com UN's 'shameful silence' over the evils of Saddam dev.siliconinvestor.com French Perfidy Watch dev.siliconinvestor.com The Great Cash Cow dev.siliconinvestor.com AXIS OF EVIL: dev.siliconinvestor.com Jacques Chirac places left wing politics & his pocketbook ahead of winning the WOT dev.siliconinvestor.com France: Blood for Oil dev.siliconinvestor.com Oil-for-Food Winners -- Russians and Saudis dev.siliconinvestor.com Iraq oil cash funded MPs' campaigns dev.siliconinvestor.com "Iraq is the strategic failure of Europe" dev.siliconinvestor.com SADDAM WAS $10B BANDIT dev.siliconinvestor.com Oil-for-graft at the UN dev.siliconinvestor.com Saddam's U.N. Financiers dev.siliconinvestor.com The French Betrayal of America by Kenneth Timmerman dev.siliconinvestor.com Monumental Rip-Off? Allegations of Widespread Corruption Involve Saddam Hussein, U.N. Senior Officials dev.siliconinvestor.com Foreign firms paid Saddam commission in oil-for-food deals dev.siliconinvestor.com HOW TO BUY A FRENCH VETO dev.siliconinvestor.com Oil-for-Terror? dev.siliconinvestor.com The difficulty for Blix, however, is that his own statements in 2003 justified the war to liberate Iraq dev.siliconinvestor.com