U.S. Man Charged in Oil-For-Food Probe

[freeandfun1]

U.S. Man Charged in Oil-For-Food Probe

NEW YORK - An Iraqi-American conspired to act as an agent for Saddam Hussein by accepting millions of dollars in compensation and negotiating with United Nations officials to let Iraq sell oil, authorities said Tuesday.

The charges were the first to be publicly revealed in the probe of allegations that administrators in the United Nations oil-for-food program took bribes and let Hussein skim money from the program.

Samir A. Vincent was charged in a criminal investigation in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where a grand jury has been looking into the United Nations program.

The $60 billion oil-for-food effort was created as a humanitarian exemption to sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which preceded the 1991 Gulf War. Beginning in 1996, it let Hussein's government sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other items.

According to court papers against Vincent that were signed by U.S. Attorney David N. Kelley, the Iraqi government from at least 2000 and until March 2003 conditioned the distribution of allocations of oil under the oil-for-food program on the recipients' willingness to pay a secret surcharge to the government of Iraq.

Under the program, the government of Iraq alone had the power to select the companies and individuals who received the rights to purchase Iraqi oil, the court papers said.

Officials at the highest levels of the Iraqi government selected a group of companies and individuals to receive the rights to buy Iraqi oil.

 

[musicman]

I wonder if this scandal will be investigated with the same thoroughness and "let the chips fall where they may" zeal as was Rathergate.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

 

[dmp]

I wonder if this scandal will be investigated with the same thoroughness and "let the chips fall where they may" zeal as was Rathergate.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

If the person has a relative, or even a friend who once new a guy who went to a Texas Ranger's game, when GWB owned the team, don't be surprised if the MSM reports "WHITEHOUSE Tie to Oil for Food SCANDAL!"

 

[musicman]

If the person has a relative, or even a friend who once new a guy who went to a Texas Ranger's game, when GWB owned the team, don't be surprised if the MSM reports "WHITEHOUSE Tie to Oil for Food SCANDAL!"

LOL! And conversely (not to mention "perversely"), if Kofi Annan's bloody fingerprints are found on a smoking gun, don't be surprised if it's called tainted evidence, planted by non-nuanced cowboys.