[Mb-civic] FW: IMPORTANT: Report on Saddam's Bribery of UN, France, Russia

[Golsorkhi]

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From: Shahla Samii <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 02:13:42 -0400
Subject: IMPORTANT:  Report on Saddam's Bribery of UN, France, Russia


This account is very important in understanding the behavior of France,
Russia, and the UN itself in regard to the war on Iraq:

Sunday Times UK
  October 03, 2004

  Saddam Œbought UN allies¹ with oil
Robert Winnett


A LEAKED report has exposed the extent of alleged corruption in the
United Nations¹ oil-for-food scheme in Iraq, identifying up to 200
individuals and companies that made profits running into hundreds of
millions of pounds from it.

  The report largely implicates France and Russia, whom Saddam Hussein
targeted as he sought support on the UN Security Council before the
Iraq war. Both countries were influential voices against UN-backed
action.

  A senior UN official responsible for the scheme is identified as a
major beneficiary. The report, marked ³highly confidential², also finds
that the private office of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president,
profited from the cheap oil. Saddam¹s regime awarded this oil during
the run-up to the war when military action was being discussed at the
UN.

  The report was drawn up on behalf of the interim Iraqi government in
preparation for a possible legal action against those who may have
illicitly profited under Saddam. The Iraqis hired the London-based
accountants KPMG and lawyers Freshfields to advise on future action.

  It details a catalogue of alleged bribery and corruption perpetrated
by Saddam under the UN programme, revealing how the regime lined its
pockets and those of influential politicians, journalists and UN
officials.

  The UN oil-for-food scheme was set up in 1995 to allow Iraq to sell
controlled amounts of oil to raise money for humanitarian supplies.
However, the leaked report reveals Saddam systematically abused the
scheme, using it to buy ³political influence² throughout the world.

  The former Iraqi regime was in effect free to ³allocate² oil to whom
it wished. Dozens of private individuals were given oil at knockdown
prices. They were able to nominate recognised traders to buy the cheap
oil from the Iraqi state oil firm and sell it for a personal profit.

  The report says oil was given to key countries: ³The regime gave
priority to Russia, China and France. This was because they were
permanent members of, and hence had the ability to influence decisions
made by, the UN Security Council. The regime . . . allocated Œprivate
oil¹ to individuals or political parties that sympathised in some way
with the regime.²

  The report also details how the regime benefited by arranging illegal
³kickbacks² from oil sales.

  From September 2000, it is said Saddam made $228m (£127m) from
kickbacks deposited in accounts across the Middle East. The analysis
details only the export of oil ‹ not the import of humanitarian
supplies, also alleged to have been riddled with corruption.

  The report is an interim analysis and therefore studies only a sample
of oil contracts.

  The other main allegations included in the report are that:
  Benon Sevan, director of the UN oil-for-food programme, received 9.3m
barrels of oil from the regime which he is estimated to have sold for a
profit of £670,000. Sevan has always denied any improper conduct.

A former senior aide to Putin allegedly organised the sale of almost 4m
barrels of oil at a profit of more than £330,000. At the time the oil
was sold, Russia was blocking the UN from supporting America¹s demands
to attack Iraq. According to the report, the aide, who worked in the
presidential office, received 3.9m barrels of oil between May and
December 2002.

In the two months during the run-up to the war, the Iraqi regime
illegally sold about £30m of oil to a Jordanian-based company with the
money deposited in a Jordanian bank account established by the regime.
This is suspected to have been an attempt to secure safe passage for
Saddam¹s family in the event of war.

A French oil company teamed up with the regime to bribe a UN-appointed
inspector monitoring exports of Iraqi oil. The inspector, a Portuguese
national working for Saybolt, a Dutch firm, was paid a total of £58,000
in cash to forge export documents.

  The French firm is linked to a close associate of Jacques Chirac, the
country¹s president. A spokesman for Saybolt said it would be
investigating the allegations.
Saddam imposed a surcharge of between 10 cents and 50 cents (5p to 27p)
for every barrel of oil allocated by his regime between September 2000
and the end of 2002.

  The money raised from this illegal surcharge was deposited in bank
accounts in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. Iraqi
embassies, including those in Moscow, Athens, Cairo, Rome, Vienna and
Geneva, collected the money.

  In total, 175 firms and individuals allegedly paid bribes to secure
oil from the regime. According to the report: ³The only way of
enforcing the surcharge was through verbal personal guarantees and
promises due to the sensitivity of the surcharge and the secrecy
surrounding its imposition. However, after extensive efforts in
collecting these amounts, a total of $228m (£127m) out of $263m (£146m)
was eventually collected (87% of the total imposed).

  ³Some companies were afraid to pay the amounts through the banking
system, in order not to be exposed or face possible legal sanctions
overseas, and therefore preferred to pay in cash.²

  The report claims that Russians had a prominent role. They received
³unprecedented priority² and were allocated a third of all Iraqi oil ‹
most of which was resold to other nations. Besides Putin¹s private
office, those named as having received oil include political parties,
Russian oil firms and the foreign ministry.

  A section of the report on Russian involvement says Saddam and his
henchmen furthered ³their political and propagandist cause through
companies, individuals and political parties that have no relation to
the oil industry. Through their activities, they have gained the
indebtedness of the Russian Federation and with that, its weight and
leadership on the world stage as well as its permanent membership of
the UN Security Council².

  Last week Claude Hankes-Drielsma, an Iraqi government adviser who
worked on the investigation, confirmed the report as genuine. ³The
records demonstrate that the UN oil-for-food programme provided Saddam
with a vehicle to buy support internationally by bribing political
parties, companies, journalists and other individuals,² he said. ³This
shows the need for a complete review of the UN.²

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Copyright 2004  Times Newspapers Ltd.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1291280_1,00.html

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