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sbenois
Citizen
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 13100
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, February 3, 2005 - 7:19 pm: | 
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Can't wait until we get the full report in September.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/03/oil.forfood/index.html |
themp
Citizen
Username: Themp
Post Number: 1402
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, February 3, 2005 - 10:08 pm: |
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I think that no one will come out of this smelling like roses, but it will fall far short of the great hopes of many. There seem to be three things:
1. Annon's son, which is grubby, but not terribly significant in dollar terms given the scope of the program.
2. Benon Sevan - which is again a shabby grubby matter, but "Volcker stressed that his team had not found systematic misuse of funds by those who administered the program. He said there was careful budgeting, and "the accounting trail is adequate."
3. A lot of diliberate looking the other way by many including the US when it suited their purposes. Per the LA Tmes:
"In the end, national interests trumped vigilance, even for the U.S. and Britain. In one of the biggest and most blatant cases of oil smuggling, 14 tankers hired by a Jordanian company illegally lifted at least 7 million barrels of oil from an Iraqi port not approved or monitored by the U.N. in February 2003, one month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
....Oil traders were told informally that the U.S. let the tanks go because Amman needed oil to build up its strategic reserves before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, according to a joint report by the Financial Times and the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore that was confirmed by U.N. officials. But Jordan sold most of the oil to Yemen, China and Malaysia.
The U.S. and Britain also looked the other way when their citizens and businesses traded favors for oil and brought it into the country in ways that skirted legality, say U.N. officials who oversaw oil contracts."
I think if that many big, influential institutions benefitted, something tells me you aren't going to see anyone's hand caught in the cookie jar on this. In fact, I bet many items - like names of companies - won't make the light of day.
I haven't heard about a lot of zeal (and i could be wrong) from the Bush administration to get to the bottom of this, despite their general desire to weaken the UN. Annon's son will be tarred as a Neil Bush type, Sevon might get in trouble and go to jail, everyone will cluck their tongue, and wingnuts will scream about a coverup.
Implicit in the oil-for-food was the idea that if someone was going to starve the Iraqi people, it couldn't be us. We knew they'd cheat, yet we had to have some type of program to at least theoretically bring money in, didn't we? |
themp
Citizen
Username: Themp
Post Number: 1403
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, February 3, 2005 - 10:09 pm: |
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In other words, tune into the Boeing scandal if you want fireworks. |
mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 4596
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, February 3, 2005 - 10:14 pm: |
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Boeing = UN?
Here we go again. |
Dr. Winston O'Boogie
Citizen
Username: Casey
Post Number: 1029
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 3, 2005 - 10:19 pm: |
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from everything I've read, it's apparently pretty easy to lose track of several billion dollars in Iraq. happens all the time. |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 1405
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Friday, February 4, 2005 - 9:16 am: |
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I think safire told a lot of conservatives they'd get a pony for their birthday,so there will be a lot of tantrums when it's only a bike. |
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