- Saddam Hussein siphoned off $10.1 billion from Iraq's
oil-for-food program through illegal oil contracts and kickback deals with
private suppliers of food and medicine, a congressional agency said Wednesday.
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- John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,
told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Bush administration
can identify the private business firms that cut kickback deals with Saddam
Hussein, but intends to keep the names secret.
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- Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Joseph Biden, D-Del.,
urged Negroponte to make the names public so that the United States can
prevent shakedowns by the new Iraqi government scheduled to assume power
on June 30.
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- "This corruption was not solely a product of Saddam
Hussein's machinations," Lugar said. "He required members of
the U.N. Security Council who were willing to be complicit in his actions,
and he required U.N. officials and contractors who were dishonest, inattentive,
or willing to make damaging compromises in pursuit of a compassionate mission."
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- Patrick Kennedy, a U.S. official working on United Nations
management reform, said Saddam's regime "was very clever at adding
tiny amounts to contracts to provide kickbacks and additional revenue.
They added a little bit to a lot and made it up in volume."
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- Negroponte said efforts by the United States to halt
the kickback schemes were blocked by Russia, France and China. He said
it has been difficult to document the corruption because much of the paperwork
was destroyed during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year and its aftermath.
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- Biden warned that corrupt Iraqi politicians could steal
large sums from the billions of dollars President Bush wants to spend on
the reconstruction and establishment of democracy in Iraq.
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- Robin Raphel, coordinator of the U.S. office of Iraq
reconstruction at the State Department, said the United States has reason
to be concerned that the next Iraqi government will engage in the same
corrupt practices as Saddam Hussein. She said U.S. officials will try to
block the kickbacks while serving as technical advisers to the new Iraqi
government agencies.
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- "There is no doubt that billions of dollars that
should have been spent on humanitarian needs in Iraq were siphoned off
by Saddam Hussein's regime through a system of surcharges, bribes, and
kickbacks," Lugar said.
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- Lugar said a "portion of those illicit funds"
might be supporting the Iraqis fighting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
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- Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said that 72 percent
of the $63 billion revenue from legal sales of Iraqi oil was spent on food
and medicine that "saved the Iraqi people from a human tragedy."
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- U.S. officials said that $7 billion was taken from the
oil fund to pay for Iraq's postwar reconstruction.
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- In a new report, the congressional General Accounting
Office estimated that Saddam's regime from 1997 through 2002 acquired $10.1
billion illegally through the sale of $5.7 billion in oil smuggled to Syria,
Turkey and Jordan, and $4.4 billion through kickbacks paid by firms selling
food, medicine and other goods to Iraq.
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- The GAO's estimate of $10.1 billion was $3.5 billion
higher than its estimate in 2002 as the Bush administration accused Iraq
of violating United Nations sanctions imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded
Kuwait.
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- Joseph Christoff, the GAO director for international
affairs and trade, said the pattern of corruption "raises concerns
about the Iraqi government's ability to manage the oil-for-food commodities
and about $32 billion in expected donor reconstruction funds."
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- © Copyright 2004 Capitol Hill Blue
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- http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4366.shtml
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