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| International-UN-NGOs |
| Whither the $19.2 billion paid out for Iraqi war reparations (Gulf War I)? |
| 2005-07-07 |
| Here’s the $19.2 billion question: Among the investigators now dredging the depths of the United Nations Oil-for-Food program in Iraq, is anyone focused on the biggest riptide of cash that flowed from Saddam Hussein via one of the U.N.’s most obscure channels? That would be the $19.2 billion in Iraqi oil money disbursed by the U.N. over the past 12 years, not in the name of Iraqi relief, but as reparations for Saddam’s 1990-1991 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. This money was parceled out by a U.N. outfit based in Geneva, Switzerland, the U.N. Compensation Commission (UNCC), which has so far escaped the spotlights that have begun to expose the web of graft, kickbacks, and front companies that infested almost every other aspect of Oil-for-Food. All told, the U.N.’s Iraq program involved roughly $65 billion in U.N.-monitored oil sales, of which some $46 billion were designated for relief and oil equipment, with most of the remainder funneled through the UNCC. And it gets worse. Read the whole thing -- Claudia Rosett is a true journalist, not like the many poseurs that infest so much of the news media. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Un-freakin'-believable! It just gets worse and worse. This makes Enron, WorldCom and the others look like candystore thieves. |
| Posted by: BA 2005-07-07 10:17 |
| #1 Here's one juicy tidbit: The UNCC awards have been allocated in largely secret proceedings, overseen by a total of 58 commissioners over the years, working in groups of threes. And though the names of some of the recipients and partial breakdowns of the sums paid out are available on the UNCC website, the information is both confusing and incomplete. We are told, for example, that thousands of Palestinians received compensation awards, but the names of individuals are withheld, and the money is disbursed via the governments of the claimants — in this case, the Palestinian Authority. For what - their checks from Saddam got interrupted???? Thieving, lying NGOs and tranzis. |
| Posted by: anon 2005-07-07 09:50 |