Explain the Oil for Food Scandal to Me

[durutti]

I haven't been following this thing. How much of it is true and how much is right-wing propaganda? Could someone give me some background or post some relevant links?

[bobbyboucher]

1. I'll do it in a single word:

DISTRACTION

[John BigBootay]

3. Will Kofi Annan resign over this distraction?

[bobbyboucher]

6. No, he won't.

Do you think he should? Which Senator was it that called for his resignation? Are you in their camp?

[John BigBootay]

7. Back off Bobby, I don't have an opinion--

I'm just asking a question.

And I do think it's a DISTINCT possibility.

[Catherine Vincent]

2. That's exactly what it is....right wing propaganda

[Stephanie]

4. I have avoided this story too b/c it's being hawked by W. Safire

Can anybody sum it up? Is there any there there?

[HamdenRice]

5. The real story behind the oil for food scandal ...

is that from the time bush decided to invade Iraq, Kofi Annan has not been sufficiently supportive of the Iraq war and the slime machine then kicked into gear. First information was "leaked" to William Safire, the most dishonest columnist ever to pick up a pen -- information that was obvious and in the public domain -- and he began to publicize it as a scandal.

In a nutshell, every single regime that has had sanctions imposed on it has tried to get around those sanctions. Iraq is no exception. It was supposed to only be able to sell oil for humanitarian assistance -- food -- but like South Africa, South West Africa, Rhodesia, Burma, Iran, Libya and every other regime that has faced sanctions, it has gotten around them through false invoicing. Eg, it claims to be buying food, but actually is paying for weapons or spare parts.

The neo-cons are trying to lay the blame at the feet of the UN because they technically oversaw the program, even though it was mostly contracted out.

This is just an attempt to get Annan out and some lackey in as UN Secy General and to further weaken the UN. Maybe they will be happy if Tony Blair resigns as PM of the UK and is appointed UN Secy Poodle.

[ArthurDent]

8. In a nutshell

After Gulf War I, the Iraqis were subject to a rather significant embargo. In order thatn Iraq's citizens did not starve to death, UNESCO -- the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization -- set up the Oil for Food program. Iraq would sell its oil to a number of nations; in return, it would get money with which it was to buy food and drinking water (and related supplies). UNESCO was to be the middle-man and monitor of the program, mostly to prevent the Iraqi government from siphoning off the cash.

The not-so-recent allegations are that UNESCO was either asleep at the wheel or worse, outright implicit while Saddam Hussein's government did, indeed, embezzle the vast majority of the funds. The Duefler report, for example, claimed that the OFF program was the "turning point" for the Hussein goverment, saving it from what he called "terminal decline."

Wikipedia has a long write up on it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_for_food -- even if its neutrallity is (unsurprisingly) disputed.

(edit: fixed hyperlink)

[alfredo]

9. It is also a chance for the right wing to trash the UN

what they don't tell you is that American corporations were part of the scandal.
Hussein was skimming money off the oil for food program with full knowledge of the corporations doing business with them. Halliburton was one of those companies.

Halliburton was selling equipment to Iraq so it could pump more oil than what was agreed upon. No telling what else Halliburton was selling to Iraq. Saddam made more money smuggling oil than he did by skimming 10% off the top of the oil for food program.

[samtob]

10. I'll give it a shot

First let me say, I am not sure why the call for Annan's resignation, they have not implicated him in the scandal any farther than being in charge while it was on going.

Ok, there were sanctions against Iraq, he was allowed to sell oil in order to feed the people in his country. As mentioned before, he did find a way to "cheat" the system, and make money in the process in which he stashed away/used for personal and military gain.

Part of it involved oil vouchers. He would issue vouchers to an individual or company, or organization good for "x" amount of barrels of oil in trade for food goods. Just to use a round figure, let's say the voucher was for 100,000 barrels of oil, priced at $10.00 per barrel. The oil could be sold at $25.00 per barrel, the recipient of the voucher would profit greatly with the agreement that a percentage of the profit would go back to Saddam.

There was much more than just this one example according to reports, but they are similar schemes to the one listed.

The figures keep going up on the amount Saddam personally profited. It was originally reported at around 11 billion, the latest I have heard is 22 billion.

You can find about everything you want to know by googling "oil for food scandal"

[radar]

11. MSNBC has something...

...About missing money supposedly under US control

What happened to Iraq’s oil money?
Former U.S. official says billions of dollars were ‘squandered’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6621523/

"After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the United States took control of all of the Iraqi government’s bank accounts, including the income from oil sales. The United Nations approved the financial takeover, and President Bush vowed to spend Iraq’s money wisely. But now critics are raising serious questions about how well the United States handled billions of dollars in Iraqi oil funds...."

* And my personal favorite link about the US & oil in Iraq...
Executive Order 13303
Executive Order Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has An Interest
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030522-15.html

Bush Gives Legal Immunity to Transnational Oil Corporations in Iraq
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/weekly_2003/oil_corporations_iraq_immunity.html

[Killarney]

12. the problem is the spin

The Oil for Food Scandal is real and it's a bad thing they did, but the right wing is trying to spin it in a dishonest way (shocking). FoxNews jerks off to it every day. They are trying to say that countries like France and Germany didn't join the coalition to fight in Iraq because they were getting money from oil for food. It's a ridiculous argument. The US took money from oil for food! So did someone else in the coalition... Turkey, I think? FoxNews avoids that part.

[ArthurDent]

15. What if the spin is accurate?

DUers are willing to suggest that the US-led invasion was for oil; why is it "ridiculous" to suggest that France and Germany were against the invastion for the same reason.

It's certainly possible that France and Germany were reluctant toward joining and supporting the Iraq invasion (if not outright against it) because of their involvment in the OFF program. If the program was half as corrupt as is being alleged, this should be investigated with fervor.

[wellst0nev0ter]

13. The U.N. Oil For Food "Scandal"

By Joy Gordon

<snip>
Rarely mentioned, either at the hearings or in the press coverage, was the fundamental distinction between the policies established by the Secretariat and the UN agencies and those that result from decisions of particular member states within the highly politicized Security Council. For example, the CIA report says that the bulk of the illicit transactions were "government to government agreements" between Iraq and a few other countries, for trade outside the OFF program. According to the report, they resulted in income to Iraq of $7.5 billion.

The largest of these arrangements was with Jordan--revenue from which totaled about $4.5 billion. This trade arrangement was the single largest source of Iraqi income outside the OFF program. From 1990 until the OFF program began in late 1996, "Jordan was the key to Iraq's financial survival," according to the report. Why didn't "the UN" do something about it? Because the Security Council--where the United States was by far the single most influential member--decided in May 1991 that no action would be taken to interfere in Iraq's trade with Jordan, America's closest ally in the Arab world.

Likewise, the maritime smuggling that took place under the nose of "the UN" in fact took place under the nose of something called the Multinational Interception Force, a group of member nations that responded to the general invitation of the Security Council for nations to interdict Iraqi smuggling. The "UN" Multinational Interception Force turns out to have consisted almost entirely of the US Navy. The commander of the MIF was at every point, from 1991 to 2003, a rear admiral or vice admiral from the US Fifth Fleet. The United States contributed the overwhelming majority of ships--hundreds in fact. Britain provided the deputy commander and some naval forces and other countries contributed a few ships. The UN itself provided no forces or commanders. "The UN" failure to interdict Saddam's tankers of illicit oil turns out, in nearly every regard, to have been a US naval operation.

<snip>

[Kellanved]

14. there is no real "scandal"

It was about items Iraq needed, but that were regulated. The prime example is chlorine gas for trinking water disinfection.
To claim that any government denied to join an illegal aggresive war "just because" of trade worth a few millions is simply nonsense.

[John BigBootay]

16. The latest from Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6971015

[offcenter]

17. As far as I read

the whole scandal is based on documents held by ....

Ahmed Chalabi!

And he refuses to release these documents to anybody.
The same guy who gave us the WMD "intelligence".

[Stephanie]

18. That explains why Judith Miller is complaining

She said that her involvement in the Plame investigation is impeding her ability to do her job. And that she is supposed to be reporting on the OFF scandal. If Chalabi is the source then there you have it. WHY hasn't she been fired from the NYT yet?