Hussein Gave Oil to French and British Officials, Senate Panel Says

[Colorado Blue]

By JUDITH MILLER
Published: May 12, 2005

A Senate committee has disclosed evidence it says shows that senior Iraqi officials under Saddam Hussein awarded the right to buy millions of barrels of Iraqi oil to Charles Pasqua, the former French interior minister, and to George Galloway, a recently re-elected member of the British Parliament. The evidence is in a 96-page report, with previously undisclosed Iraqi documents and excerpts from interviews with former Iraqi officials, which was issued yesterday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The report concludes that the rights were given to Mr. Pasqua and Mr. Galloway because of their support for Mr. Hussein, but contains no copies of bank statements or other evidence indicating that either man directly solicited Iraqi oil or benefited financially from the rights. "This report exposes how Saddam Hussein turned the oil-for-food program on its head and used the program to reward his political allies like Pasqua and Galloway," said Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, the chairman of the subcommittee.

The report and its findings, prepared and endorsed by the panel's majority and minority members, contain Iraqi material backing the panel's contention that Iraqi officials thought they were rewarding the two men for their support. Mr. Galloway and Mr. Pasqua denied any wrongdoing. A spokeswoman for Mr. Pasqua said he "continues to deny that he has made any money whatsoever in the oil-for-food program."

snip

Iraqi Oil Ministry records and letters from senior Iraqi officials indicate, for instance, that Mr. Pasqua, who was France's interior minister from 1993 to 1995 and is a member of the French Parliament, was granted rights to buy 11 million barrels of oil from June 1999 through December 2000, the report says. And a June 1999 letter from the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization to Iraq's oil minister says Mr. Hussein personally approved the right for Mr. Pasqua to buy three million barrels.

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/politics/12food.html

[KoKo]

1. When is she going to go to jail. I hope they confiscate her laptop.

Sounds like the Bushies are preparing for full onslaught against Blair's enemy Galloway and the French again. Sigh....

And, once again Miller is their spokeperson.

[Zodiak]

2. Judith Miller trying to cover * and his cronies again, typical

Judith Miller with her selective memory and her deep love for everything *.

When Dick Cheney was CEO of the oilfield supply firm Halliburton, the company did $23.8 million in business with Saddam Hussein, the evildoer "prepared to share his weapons of mass destruction with terrorists."

So if Saddam is "the world's worst leader," how come Cheney sold him the equipment to get his dilapidated oil fields up and running so he could afford to build weapons of mass destruction?

In 1998, the United Nations passed a resolution allowing Iraq to buy spare parts for its oilfields, but other sanctions remained in place, and the United States has consistently pressured the United Nations to stop exports of medicine and other needed supplies on the grounds they could have "dual use."

As defense secretary under Bush the Elder, Cheney was in a particularly vulnerable position on the hypocrisy of doing business with Iraq. (Although in 1991, after the Persian Gulf War, Cheney told a group of oil industry executives he was emphatically against trying to topple Saddam.)

Using two subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser, Halliburton helped rebuild Saddam's war-damaged oil fields. The combined value of these contracts for parts and equipment was greater than that of any other American company doing business with Iraq - companies including Schlumberger, Flowserve, Fisher-Rosemount and General Electric. They acted through foreign subsidiaries or associated companies in France, Belgium, Germany, India, Switzerland, Bahrain, Egypt and the Netherlands.

In several cases, it is clear the European companies did no more than loan their names to American firms for the purpose of dealing with Hussein. Iraq then became America's second-largest Middle Eastern oil supplier.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/columnists/molly_ivins/4005941.htm

No mention of the US doing the same thing? Typical Judith Miller crap...perhaps if she wasn't Chalabi's stooge, she would write something resembling news.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

3. There is no proof that Galloway or Pasqua gained anything from the O.F.F.

program.

I think this is merely a distraction from what the Republicans are up to in other areas.

[bushisanidiot]

4. Hussein also did business with Dick Cheney and Halliburton

during the same friggin' time period!

[daleo]

5. Miller should investigate the billions now missing in Iraq.

Billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are unaccounted for, that were supposed to be used for reconstruction. Billions. How about Judith Miller looking into that one.

[Rose Siding]

6. Was norm especially impressed by

the NO evidence that "either man directly solicited Iraqi oil or benefited financially from the rights"?

Do you think there was ever a time that if the US actually HAD something on a member of a foreign govt, they handled it diplomatically? (dip·lo·mat·i·cal·ly /-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb)

[Spazito]

7. The woman has no credibility and anything she writes has

no credibility, imo. She carries the neocon's water, period.

[zbdent]

8. and Cheney and Halliburton

why do you think those "activist judges" decided not to shine light on Cheney's "energy meetings"???

[LynnTheDem]

9. Judy Judy Judy still pushing that bullshit?

Time to go visit her lover-boy, "thanks, suckers!" Chalabi.

[librechik]

10. wait, isn't she leaving some people out?

American Oil bigots?

never trust this woman's words. Never.

[LynnTheDem]

11. WHO was in charge of overseeing the OFF program, you ask? The U. S. A.

Notice that isn't pointed out very much by our "MSM"?

[Zorra]

12. Was Galloway maybe responsible for leaking the UK War Memo?

Just wondering, maybe the republicans are making shit up to punish him.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. There's no way he would have had access to it

Galloway was expelled from the Labour party around the time of the Iraq invasion, and he's never been a government minister. Blair would trust the entire British press corps before he trusted Galloway - and all the Conservative MPs as well. And it's been that way for several years.

[bennywhale]

13. Just heard on the news Galloway is to

appear bfore the senate to give evidence. This will be brilliant, he's going to use it as a platform to hammer US administartion about the war, he's an excellent orator i can't wait

[AllegroRondo]

14. Heard on NPR news this morning,

Galloway said that he did this at the request of the Bush admin.

[RuleofLaw]

15. I am a bit confused

Is the senate saying that Saddam Hussein allowed for Charles Pasqua and George Galloway to personally buy oil?

If so, what the hell would they do with it?

And where would they get the money from?

Simple math: 11 million barrels x $30 = $330 million (Just a guess as to the price, but in between I think)(Charles Pasqua)

And it says nothing about what Golloway was offered.

This is utterly bullshit.

[bennywhale]

17. They're accusing them of being

sought of middle men, in securing deals for saddam ithink. So just proffiting by getting a cut of the oil vouchers and turning them into cashh, again i think.

[Justitia]

18. Judith Miller, Bush Propoganda Whore???? LIAR. Bird-cage lining. -eom