US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'

[bemildred]

The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new Senate investigation.

A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.

The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua.

In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.

Guardian UK

[Larkspur]

1. I hope Galloway makes a BIG deal about US illegal oil purchases and

Bush Admin not doing anything to stop them.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. I'm sure he'll give it a mention

I'd be very surprised if he didn't.

In any case, even assuming Galloway is guilty as charged (and I doubt he is), the US government doesn't have a lot of room to condemn him when US transnational corporations were allowed to bust sanctions right under the noses of two administrations.

[knowbody0]

2. soon they will be exposing halliburton

it is inevitable

[MaineDem]

3. Are we sure today isn't Friday?

This sounds like Friday news.

It's excellent timing though with Galloway's testimony tomorrow. I think Normie Coleman has stepped in it big time.

[bemildred]

4. I suspect it is no accident that it came out now.

I hope Normy has a change of clean drawers.

[rodeodance]

5. meanwhile Fox is laughing it up on story that Russia and France

were in on the oil deals. No mention of US as party to the deal.

[rodeodance]

6. I am going to send Fox this story and tell them they missed it. te he

[rodeodance]

7. FOX News Live, [e-mail] --an email address

[leftchick]

9. Depends For Repukes!

We need to keep the Senate chambers clean.



:popcorn:

[killbotfactory]

8. That's an odd way to make sure sanctions are being violated

Wonder who will be held accountable for this...

:rofl:

[Darranar]

10. So much for blaming everybody else. n/t

[UCLA Dem]

11. No shocker here.

[bemildred]

23. This whole issue is complete horseshit.

I remember it well.

It was common knowledge before the Bushites invaded that:

a.) Saddam was cheating.
b.) US oil companies were neck deep in the cheating and the US was
sucking up large quantities of Iraqi oil both on top of and under
the table.

We had all kinds of hyperventilating stories about it here, and
they were all completely ignored. We used to rag on the Bushites
after the fall of Baghdad because they NEVER got Iraq up to the
productions levels they had before the war under the table, and they
still are only around half what was being pumped before the war.

[wiggs]

24. Plus, US officials sat on UN oversight committee

How the administration has been able to spin the oil for food scandal into something in the public conscience is amazing and illustrative of media and congress complicity.

They just make stuff up and there's no one with a MSM voice to dispute it. Seen it time and time again.

[lovuian]

12. This just shows what a HYPOCRITE Bush is!!! Its Greed!!!

they wanted ALL the OIL!!!

[modrepub]

13. If it's 52%

Do they really need to tell me that it's more than the rest of the world put together?

[Solly Mack]

14. a blast from the past....

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,882512,00.html

[dweller]

19. how wrong could the *misadministration be?

from that link:
While the State Department is mindful of cynical world opinion about US war aims, officials do not always stick to the script. Grant Aldonas, Under Secretary at the US Department of Commerce, said war 'would open up this spigot on Iraqi oil which certainly would have a profound effect in terms of the performance of the world economy for those countries that are manufacturers and oil consumers'.

The US economy will announce zero growth this week, prolonging three years of sluggish performance. Cheap oil would boost an economy importing half of its daily consumption of 20m barrels.

But a cheaper oil price could have been reached more easily by lifting sanctions and giving the US oil majors access to Iraq's untapped reserves.

Instead, war stands to give control over the oil price to 'new Iraq' and its sponsors, with Saudi Arabia losing its capacity to control prices by altering productive capacity.


just par for the course.
dp

[Solly Mack]

41. Has it ever been right?

[wallwriter]

15. I'm shocked. Shocked.

[ovidsen]

17. US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals' (Guardian)

It appears that cheating by US corporations during the UN's oil for food program for Iraq was massive and widespread. Read it and weep...


Report claims blind eye was turned to sanctions busting by American firms

Julian Borger and Jamie Wilson in Washington
Tuesday May 17, 2005
The Guardian

The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new Senate investigation.

A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.

The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1485649,00.html


According to the Guardian, the Senate report concludes that US oil purchases accounted for more than half of all the oil for food kickback money to Saddam Hussein.

Oops.

edited to correct headline.

[rodeodance]

18. This ought to shame the Republicans in Congress!!

.......A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.

[ovidsen]

20. It should REALLY shame some Texas Republicans

"(The) report... found the US treasury failed to take action against a Texas oil company, Bayoil, which facilitated payment of "at least $37m in illegal surcharges to the Hussein regime" ".

Now, I haven't done any serious digging, but I'm willing to bet $5... no make that $10!... that Bayoil has some interesting political connections.

edit: spelling

[cap]

21. i wonder what got bought during Bush I administration

and how much got bought by oil companies with Republicans in key places.

[tinymontgomery]

32. Why should this shame them

nothing else they've done has!

[Roland99]

22. A blind eye and a deaf ear

[oxbow]

25. Is this in any US newspapers?

Why the Guardian if it's a Senate investigation?

[rodeodance]

36. it is Democratic investigation (does not count per US press)!!!

[ngGale]

26. This whole story has always been a bunch of...

bullcrap. Never could figure why the US wanted to call attention to themselves. Guess they thought nobody would tell, huh?! Annan called it to our attention about 40 times and we wouldn't do anything. I've spent a lot time researching this dumb story. Bad point is the Repubs never buy into the truth of the story. I'm sure our media is all over our 52% of the corruption.:sarcasm:

[Renew Deal]

27. The new about the UN scam

because they were running it. Nice

[robbo2356]

28. Galloway in Washington

What they are saying at the London Times today


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1615553,00.html

[magellan]

29. Hang 'em high, Repukes

A (Senate) committee spokesman noted pointedly that the penalty for lying to Congress is five years’ imprisonment.

Let's see now...Georgie, Dicky, Rummy, Con-dee....

We really don't need to reach across the pond for some action, do we?

[leftchick]

30. omg.. the Repuke Bullys are threatening him with jail....

they know they don't stand a chance with him, so they are trying to scare him?? LOL!

~snip~

When he arrived in Washington, he added: “I have no expectation of justice from a group of Christian fundamentalist and Zionist activists under the chairmanship of a neocon George Bush who is pro-war. I come not as the accused but as the accuser.”

Asked whether he had prepared a statement to present at the hearing, the MP said he had formulated some thoughts but would not reveal them.

The senators are in no mood to be lectured by a man they consider a friend of Saddam. All experienced television performers themselves, they have been briefed on his often belligerent style. At the weekend, they formally notified him that he would be required to testify under oath. A committee spokesman noted pointedly that the penalty for lying to Congress is five years’ imprisonment.

:popcorn:

[rodeodance]

35. Sen Dodd (maybe it was Biden) said Bolten lied to the Committee--just

last week!!

[karynnj]

37. Several, if not all, of the Democrats said he lied

In their statements last week, I think they all mentioned lying to the committtee. The Democrats broke up the different reasons why he was unacceptable. Kerry focused on his lying to the committee and outlined Bolton's statements that he didn't try to punish Westerman or Mr. "Smith" and the then the statements from others that he tried hard for months afterwards to damage them. (It seemed that they all listed in limited detail all the reasons, but then expanded on different ones)

[0007]

38. Is c-span going to televise the Galloway hearing today?

BTW North & Negroponte both lied to congress and didn't go to prison.

[leftchick]

39. Good question

I checked the c-span site and found nothing. Right now they are repeating WJ. :(

[0007]

40. I'm going bananas trying to find out. I want to watch this procedure.

This is very important to the American people in IMO.

[fujiyama]

31. HAHAHA

So ultimately all that wrangling by Fox News and the rest of RW media about the oil for food scandal showed that it came to point to the US.

Is this a surprise? The nation that accounts for some 5% of the world population consuming over a quarter of its resources, is responsible for bribing a brutal dictator for cheap oil?

Amusing, nevertheless.

[Massachusetts]

33. "US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'"

[rodeodance]

34. US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals' (52% of kickbacks)

The article goes on to say that this report may "ease pressure from conservative Republicans on Kofi Annan to resign from his post as UN secretary general."---umm.. I wonder!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1485649,00.html

> US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'
>
> Report claims blind eye was turned to sanctions busting by American firms
>
> Julian Borger and Jamie Wilson in Washington
> Tuesday May 17, 2005
> The Guardian
>
> The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new Senate investigation.
>
> A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.
>
........
>
> In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.
>
> "The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions," the report said. "On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales.
>

[Toots]

42. You better take that back or YOU will make the US look bad to the world

Them Democrats sure do know how to make America look bad. :crazy:

[chlamor]

43. There sure is an Oil-for-Food Scandal: Let's Investigate

With fresh indictments last week, the UN oil-for-food scandal took an unexpected turn into the Labyrinth -- the tangled skein of war profiteering and state terrorism that has seen the Bush Family's lust for blood money emerge in three of the darkest criminal episodes in modern American history: Iran-Contra, Iraqgate and the BCCI affair.

Texas oil baron David Chalmers of Bayoil and his partners were hit with criminal charges for allegedly cutting deals with Saddam Hussein in the notorious skim operation that outflanked UN sanctions and diverted funds intended for humanitarian relief. Prosecutors were shocked -- shocked! -- to find such collusion and corruption in the oil business.

Of course, the fact that three U.S. presidents -- the two George Bushes and their new best pal, Bill Clinton -- actually brokered massive backroom oil deals for Saddam that dwarfed Bayoil's petty chiseling, plus the fact that Saddam's nation-strangling thievery has since been eclipsed by the epic rapine of Bush II's Babylonian Conquest, in no way mitigates the seriousness of the Chalmers indictment. But somehow we doubt you'll be seeing those august statesmen sharing leg irons with old Davy anytime soon.

Chalmers is a longtime denizen of the Labyrinth. In the mid-1980s, he joined up with Chilean gun-runner Carlos Cardoen, the Financial Times reported. Cardoen was a CIA frontman used by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bush I to funnel cluster bombs and other weapons secretly to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. At Reagan's direct order, Saddam received U.S. military intelligence, billions of dollars in credits and a steady supply of covert "third-country" arms to sustain his war effort, even though the White House was fully aware of Saddam's "almost daily use" of illegal chemical weapons, The Washington Post reported. Later, Bush I, as president, would also mandate the sale of WMD material to Saddam, including anthrax -- long after Saddam notoriously "gassed his own people" at Halabja.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8614.htm

[chlamor]

44. US and UK controlled the flow

Through various control mechanisms, the United States and Great Britain were able to turn on and off the flow of oil as they saw best. In this way, the Americans were able to authorise a $1bn exemption concerning the export of Iraqi oil for Jordan, as well as legitimise the billion-dollar illegal oil smuggling trade over the Turkish border, which benefited Nato ally Turkey as well as fellow regime-change plotters in Kurdistan. At the same time as US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was negotiating with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov concerning a Russian-brokered deal to end a stand-off between Iraq and the UN weapons inspectors in October-November 1997, the United States turned a blind eye to the establishment of a Russian oil company set up on Cyprus.

This oil company, run by Primakov's sister, bought oil from Iraq under "oil for food" at a heavy discount, and then sold it at full market value to primarily US companies, splitting the difference evenly with Primakov and the Iraqis. This US-sponsored deal resulted in profits of hundreds of million of dollars for both the Russians and Iraqis, outside the control of "oil for food". It has been estimated that 80 per cent of the oil illegally smuggled out of Iraq under "oil for food" ended up in the United States.

<snip>

The corruption evident in the oil-for-food programme was real, but did not originate from within the United Nations, as Norm Coleman and others are charging. Its origins are in a morally corrupt policy of economic strangulation of Iraq implemented by the United States as part of an overall strategy of regime change. Since 1991, the United States had made it clear - through successive statements by James Baker, George W Bush and Madeleine Albright - that economic sanctions, linked to Iraq's disarmament obligation, would never be lifted even if Iraq fully complied and disarmed, until Saddam Hussein was removed from power. This policy remained unchanged for over a decade, during which time hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died as a result of these sanctions.

While money derived from the off-the-book sale of oil did indeed go into the purchase of conventional weapons and the construction of presidential palaces, the vast majority of these funds were poured into economic recovery programmes that saw Iraq emerge from near total economic ruin in 1996. By 2002, on the eve of the US-led invasion, Baghdad was full of booming businesses, restaurants were full, and families walked freely along well-lit parks. Compare and contrast that image with the reality of Baghdad today, and the ultimate corruption that was the oil-for-food programme becomes self-evident.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RIT412A.html

[KittyWampus]

45. RJReynolds Was Laundering Illegal Funds!!!!! RJReynolds People

[JRob]

46. US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'

Report claims blind eye was turned to sanctions busting by American firms

Julian Borger and Jamie Wilson in Washington
Tuesday May 17, 2005
The Guardian

-snip-

"The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions," the report said. "On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales."