Saddam's regime scored $21.3bn

[Tab]

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime made more than $21.3bn in illegal revenue by subverting the UN oil-for-food program - more than double previous estimates, according to congressional investigators.

"This is like an onion - we just keep uncovering more layers and more layers," said Norm Coleman, whose senate committee on government affairs received the new information at a hearing on Monday.

The new figures on Iraq's alleged surcharges, kickbacks and oil-smuggling are based on troves of new documents obtained by the committee's investigative panel, Coleman told reporters before the hearing.

More> http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1621508,00.html

[Pig_Latin_Lover]

1. That's worth 1,200 lives, right?

Norm Coleman is a Bush stooge.

[bowens43]

8. More like over 100,000 lives......

[dweller]

2. and the *moron regime total?

oil companies profits
Carlyle group
military industrial complex et al...

add 'em up.


dp

[Robbien]

3. Bremer's CPA scored $20B from the Iraqi Oil Trust

Six of one, a half dozen of the other.

[MisterP]

4. Norm Coleman, Ahmed Chalabi, and the NY Post

pardon me if I'm a little--ah--doubtful

[daleo]

5. So now government corruption is a valid cause for aggressive war

Get ready for World War III, IV, V, VI, ....

Maybe it is time to attack Texas over Enron.

[snippy]

6. Spend $200 billion and thousands of deaths to stop a theft of $20 billion.

How very republican.

[TahitiNut]

7. Did Saddam not give Carlyle and Halliburton their 'fair' share?

This sounds to me more like a feud between organized crime families than anything else. :shrug:

[htuttle]

9. I heard he kept all that money next to his WMDs

Anyone remember those truckloads of gold bars they reported finding in the early days of the invasion?

Whatever happened to those?

[sixfive]

10. there is a big push on this story

in the making. Coleman and friends (Novak, Fox etc.) are pushing this like crazy, with the clear intent to undermine Annan and the UN.

Don't get me wrong, if the Senate is going to investigate the systematic abuses of the oil for food program, i say go for it. The problem is, they are already building up the spin so this thing is twirling like crazy out the gate. The claim is that France, Russia et al overlloked the rules and turned a blind eye to corruption in the program because of kickbacks to companies based there.

The only problem with this is that one of our very own (hint- it smells like sh*t and sounds like http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/01/MN275790.DTL">halliburton) was in on the action, circumventing sanctions and abusing oil for food.

let the sun shine in.

[sixfive]

11. please kick this

:kick:

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. You noticed this too.

This flap serves a couple of purposes. It distracts attention away from the on going civil unrest and general failure of the US Iraq policy, and it discredits the UN generally.