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| International-UN-NGOs |
| Kofi Chutzpah: US and UK to blame for oil-for-food scandal |
| 2005-04-14 |
| U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday the United States and Britain bore part of the blame in the Iraq oil-for-food debacle by allowing unsupervised oil exports that Saddam Hussein exploited. Annan, addressing a seminar on the United Nations and the media, said most of the money Saddam earned was by oil sold to Jordan and Turkey outside of the $67 billion (35.66 billion pounds) U.N. program to Jordan and Turkey. Only countries like the United States and Britain had interdiction forces that could have stopped it. But he said they "decided to close their eyes to Turkey and Jordan because they are allies." Annan said he understood the reason for it: no one had the money to compensate neighbours of Iraq for their losses under U.N. sanctions, imposed in mid-1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Under the oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996 and ended in 2003, Saddam Hussein was allowed to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of 1990 sanctions on ordinary Iraqis. CIA weapons inspector Charles Duelfer found that corruption within the U.N. oil-for-food program, such as inflated prices for goods shipped to Iraq, amounted to $1.7 billion. But he said Iraq made most of his money, another $8 billion through kickbacks on oil exports outside of the program. "The bulk of the money Saddam made came after smuggling outside the oil for food program," Annan said. "It was on the American and British watch." So, I guess he means that we should have arrested all those corrupt UN employees? |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #5 he's not an idiot, BAR, he's an accomplice |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-14 10:39:16 PM |
| #4 Only countries like the United States and Britain had interdiction forces that could have stopped it. Hey Stupid, the oil that went to Jordan and Turkey that wasn't supposed to go to them most likely went through a pipeline that carried legit oil. How are we to tell the difference when contraband oil is running through it??? Furthermore, since Oil-For-Pala^H^H^H^HFood was a UN-run program, it was up to YOUR GUYS to tell our "interdiction forces" when something was going astray, you damned IDIOT. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-14 9:50:47 PM |
| #3 ...the United States and Britain bore part of the blame in the Iraq oil-for-food debacle And you bear the rest, Coffee. Now will you please get the fuck out of my country, you lying, corrupt scumbag? |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-04-14 8:31:59 PM |
| #2 We should deduct 10% of our dues for each stupid statement from Turtle Bay. Call it stimulus/response therapy. |
| Posted by: SR-71 2005-04-14 6:57:28 PM |
| #1 Bite me,Kofi. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-04-14 6:53:34 PM |