There's NO Oil For Food scandal; are Americans mixing up illicit oil sales

[LynnTheDem]

with the OFF program???

Finally dawned on me that US companies, France etc busting sanctions by making illicit oil deals with Iraq is being taken as part of the Oil For Food program, and labelled an "Oil For Food scandal".

The independant investigation of the OFF has already stated they found nothing that would equate to any "scandal'.

Call me slow...but are Americans thinking the OFF and the illicit oil sales sanctions busting are one & the same??? And how do we get that misinformation cleared up?

Edited to be a bit more clear; the investigation shows no UN scandals; there were sanctions busting going on, 52% of which was from the USA.

But it seems the rightwingnuttery are still attacking the UN for "OFF scandal"???

[stillcool]

1. i think its the UN in general....

there going after. They tried to smear Kofi Annan and "OFF" is the vehicle they are using. Our government needs the UN under its thumb to complete its' power grab, with a minimum of 'noise'...hence Bolton.

[LynnTheDem]

2. Ahhh I see.

But the UN was already cleared of any "scandal" to do with the OFF and the US was the majority doing the illicit deals and WTF am I on about citing FACTS when we're talking bushCartel! :banghead:

[stillcool]

3. The bushes disagree with that assessment....

i thing Paul Volker (sp?) was in charge of that independent investigation.... and a couple of US members resigned from the commission because the report wasn't going there way. Its like
making a story they like, out of one they don't like by hijacking parts of the original story into a different setting and amplifying the shit out of it.

[LynnTheDem]

4. Hmmm...there's a shock!

:eyes:

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. There were problems in the oil-for-food program, but smuggling was bigger

The UN investigation found some:

The United Nations suffered grave damage to its international reputation yesterday after it emerged that the official who headed the oil-for-food programme for Iraq sought and obtained bribes from Saddam Hussein's regime.

In a highly critical report, Benon Sevan was rebuked for actions which were "ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the UN".

"This is a painful episode for everyone in the UN," said the head of the investigation, former US Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker.

He went on to accuse Mr Sevan of offering to use his influence at the UN in return for the granting of vouchers to purchase Iraqi oil at favourable prices on behalf of a small Panamanian-registered firm. "Mr Sevan created a grave and continuing conflict of interest," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1405833,00.html

Out of a total of $21.3bn, $17.3bn came from abuses during the oil-for-food programme. Within this:
$9.7bn from oil smuggling
$4.4bn in kickbacks from contracts for humanitarian goods
$2.1bn from substituting low-quality goods for high-quality ones
$403m from overseas investment of illicitly earned funds
$241m from surcharges on oil sales

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4015907.stm

Note that even inside the oil-for-food program, the biggest problem wasn't the surcharges for oil sales, which is what the officials are accused of benefiting from - it was kickbacks in the 'food' side.