[Mb-civic] The Oil-For-Food 'Scandal' is a Cynical Smokescreen

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1212-23.htm

Published on Sunday, December 12, 2004 by the Independent / UK  
The Oil-For-Food 'Scandal' is a Cynical 
Smokescreen  
by Scott Ritter 
  
United States Senators, led by the Republican Norm Coleman, have 
launched a crusade of sorts, seeking to "expose" the oil-for-food 
programme implemented by the United Nations from 1996 until 
2003 as the "greatest scandal in the history of the UN". But this 
posturing is nothing more than a hypocritical charade, designed to 
shift attention away from the debacle of George Bush's self-made 
quagmire in Iraq, and legitimise the invasion of Iraq by using Iraqi 
corruption, and not the now-missing weapons of mass destruction, 
as the excuse.

The oil-for-food programme was derived from the US-sponsored 
Security Council resolution, passed in April 1995 but not 
implemented until December 1996. During this time, the CIA 
sponsored two coup attempts against Saddam, the second, most 
famously, a joint effort with the British that imploded in June 1996, at 
the height of the "oil for food" implementation negotiations. The oil-
for-food programme was never a sincere humanitarian relief effort, 
but rather a politically motivated device designed to implement the 
true policy of the United States - regime change.

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.

Likewise, using its veto-wielding powers on the 661 Committee, set 
up in 1990 to oversee economic sanctions against Iraq, the United 
States was able to block billions of dollars of humanitarian goods 
legitimately bought by Iraq under the provisions of the oil-for-food 
agreement. And when Saddam proved too adept at making money 
from kickbacks, the US and Britain devised a new scheme of oil 
sales which forced potential buyers to commit to oil contracts where 
the price would be set after the oil was sold, an insane process 
which quickly brought oil sales to a halt, starving the oil-for-food 
programme of money to the point that billions of dollars of 
humanitarian contracts could not be paid for by the United Nations.

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.

Scott Ritter is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq (1991-1998) 
and the author of 'Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction.

© 2004 Independent Newspapers, Ltd.
 

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