Red Hering UN Prober Volcker’s Dubious Dodge
The United Nations recruited former U.S. Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker to investigate the Oil-for-Food scandal in April. But Volcker has apparently tired of determining just how Saddam transformed that humanitarian program ” set up so that Iraq could export oil to earn money to feed starving Iraqis ” into a global money-laundering scheme.
In an interview broadcast this week on a U.S.-backed TV station aimed at Mideast audiences, Volcker unilaterally demoted the status of his probe: He said that Saddam made most of his money outside of the U.N. program ” by smuggling oil to neighbors like Jordan and Syria within full view of the United States.
“The big figures you see in the press ” which are sometimes labeled Oil-for-Food ” the big figures are [oil-] smuggling, which took place before the Oil-for-Food program started and continued while the program was in place,” Volcker said. He added that he would investigate why the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council ” America, Britain, France, Russia and China ” didn’t stop this smuggling.
But this digression distracts from Volcker’s original mandate. Volcker is supposed to be using his fiscal and monetary expertise to tackle one specific task: Learn how Saddam subverted the U.N. food program to gain unrestricted financial access to the rest of the world while supposedly languishing under the watchful eye of his U.N. babysitters.
That’s enough work to keep Volcker busy for months ” if not years.
It’s no secret that Saddam did smuggle oil. This is a fact and something that two members of the UN Security Council put an end to (the US and Britain) – - so for Volcker to want to spend his time on an issue that is known is definitely not doing the job he was hired to do. It’s as though he is wanting to give the United Nations a pass while trying to place the responsibility elsewhere.
To underestimate the importance of the oil for food scandal and the role the United Nations played in it along with Saddam Hussein is irresponsible. The funds taken from this program not only turned Saddam’s regime around, but it also financed weapons and corruption on levels that need to be known – - Hence the need for the investigation.
Volcker needs to do his job.
All Volckmer is doing is ponting out where Republicans are (again) misrepresenting the facts. By insinuating that Saddam siponed $20 billion or more, when most of that was through oil smuggling with the full knowledge (and apparent consent) of the US and Britan as well as the rest of the UN Security Council.
The Repubs are just deflecting attention from the $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil money Bush cannot account for. Former Coalition Provisional Administrator Paul Bremer has refused to comment on where the money went.
Da union Goon, you want some more broken bones? The New York Times started the story on the Oil for Food scam and how much Saddam skimmed off for himself, his kids, the French, Germans, Russians, and one particular socialist Engish legislator.
Show me the Republicans at the NYT, booby.
it was only a matter of time before the lefty psychos blamed this on Bush.
what’s next? The Tsunami?
Yes, didn’t you know Bush’s nuclear testing undersea caused the tsunamis?
Not.
I’m waiting for Da union Goon to blame the Bush family for killing Jimmy Hoffa.
yep. WHat do you expect from the diabolical W….rape the environemt…hell, legalize rape (thanks ms. Diaz), dirty the air and water, start a war exclusively to enrich Dick Cheney…you go W!!! woo hooo!!!
It is only a matter of time till the American people,,,, if not the govt, kicks the UN out of the US.
Out of six posts to me personally, not one addresses the issue. Pay attention, children — these are serious issues and you are ignoring the facts.
Can’t you say anything to explain why the Bush administration cannot account for $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil money? Why aren’t you outraged by that? You’d be all over Kerry or Clinton’s ass. That’s more than the $2 billion Saddam siphoned off the oil for food program.
And don’t forget that the Duelfer report says “[t]he names of American companies and individuals who may have been involved in oil deals weren’t released because of U.S. privacy laws” — except for one Texas oil man.
“The Coastal Corporation, which was founded by the Texas entrepreneur and oilman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., is detailed in a formal Iraqi government tally of secret payments made from September 2000 to December 2003, when steps were taken by American and British officials to stop the surcharges.”
US firms were using third party subsidiaries from France and Russia:
“Another line of inquiry for Congress concerns American firms that used overseas subsidiaries, including in France, to do oil-for-food business to the tune of at least half a billion dollars. They included Halliburton, Ingersoll-Rand and General Electric. The U.S. government reportedly never objected. ”
One of you should try to make a reasonable response to this. Let’s see. . .
Yes dg, Bush was siphoning money from the Oil program…. Your a fuckin joke dg!:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
obvious attempt to divert the investigation from the world communist, the UN. It won’t work!:lol:
So is the village idiot saying that the US took the money?
RE: #9
$8.8 billion worth, Warmonger!
“. . . government agencies and private contractors had to be paid in cash because Iraq’s banking system was decimated.
“A lot of money did get to the Iraqi people at the grass-roots level, and a lot of it got into the wrong hands,” he says.
In one photograph, Willis and colleagues showed off a $2 million payment to a security contractor.
“It was time for payment,” he remembers. “We told them to come in and bring in a bag. It reminded me of the Wild West.
In one example of insufficient controls, the United States stored hundreds of millions of oil dollars in a vault in a Baghdad palace. Government auditors found that the key to the vault was kept “unsecured”" in a U.S. official’s backpack.”
All I ever hear from you dg is wahh, wahh, bitch, bitch,,, your such a pussy.:lol: I have a challenge to you, and one that I will hold to every post that you bless Right Voices with. Offer a solution. If you cannot do that, join Sandy in Canada, but have the common decency to keep to Canadian politics.
For months we have talked and you never, never give any solutions. All you can do is spout sentence fragments that you copy from Democratic Underground (bunch of loonies) and the Union party line. Pathetic!:lol::lol:
fuck him peejz, he is a traitor and I hope he meets a traitors death….
Theres talk that the UN wants to slap us with higher taxes for a new HQ well instead why dont the whole bunch just pack and move away to a place like MOSCOW or BEJING or HAVANNA or some palce outside the USA its time to oust these tyrants from our shore or to state it better its time for the eagle to kick the UN vulture out of his(the eagles)nest
the UN needs an good ol’e American pimp slapping.
Hey Warmonger — you remind me of that angry-ass wacko, Mike Kilo.
Like him, you obviously don’t have the intellect to air even your simplest views on a subject without getting all pissed off, calling names or making idle threats like some schoolyard bully on the playground.
Try responding to this:
“The tale told about the alleged UN oil-for-food scandal gets taller with each telling. The U.S. General Accounting Office estimated that Saddam Hussein skimmed $10.1 billion under UN noses, but it was soon discovered that this included $5.7 billion in oil smuggling by Saddam for which the UN had no responsibility.
That didn’t stop UN bashers from latching on to the higher number – until they found an even more staggering $21 billion cited in a U.S. Senate subcommittee report. But that included all of Saddam’s illegal oil revenues going back to 1991 – five years before the oil-for-food program was ever conceived.
Charles Duelfer, the CIA’s Iraq weapons inspector, put Saddam’s total illicit income related to oil-for-food at $1.74 billion. But don’t expect to find that figure cited in the press and Congressional attacks.”
Bush has siphoned $8.8 billion out of Iraqi oil money. That’s FOUR (4) times as much as Saddam siphoned out of the OFFP.
C’mon, now. Get pissed and throw your little pissy-fit.
Here’s the first solution:
Stop misrepresenting the facts and spewing the unending lies bellowed out of the Bush administration.
Try thinking for yourselves. Do you think big profits were being made from the OFFP and US companies weren’t getting in on it?
Now that’s naive.
“Bush has siphoned $8.8 billion out of Iraqi oil money. That’s FOUR (4) times as much as Saddam siphoned out of the OFFP.”
You openly accuse the President of fraud. Where is your proof. You like the name Warmonger. You named me, I took it up you fool.
RE: #19
Read the article, dumbass:
“After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the United States took control of all of the Iraqi government’s bank accounts, including the income from oil sales. The United Nations approved the financial takeover, and President Bush vowed to spend Iraq’s money wisely. . .
“. . . a draft government audit faults the United States for “inadequate stewardship”of up to $8.8 billion in oil money, handed over to Iraq’s ministries but never fully accounted for.”
psst, dg, Haliburton has it…
:lol::lol::lol: fool!
I think Da union Goon is nothing more than a bot created by AFSME on stolen government time. It should be banished to the same place as Jimmy Hoffa.
Goon, the money was stolen by the Teamsters. Bush didn’t want to embarass YOU!
DG just posts here when she isn’t in front of the camera in front of Kerry’s house.
PCP
Put down the crack pipe and pay attention, dimwitt.
Bush promised to keep track of it (the $8.8 billion) and now he can’t account for it.
How do you explain that your Man-God Bush can’t account for $8.8 billion of the Iraqi’s money?
PCD, da union goon, the fool, was actually accusing Bush of theivery… “Bush has siphoned $8.8 billion out of Iraqi oil money. That’s FOUR (4) times as much as Saddam siphoned out of the OFFP.”
dg=joke of the day
:lol::lol:
union Goon, I told you your precious Teamsters stole it to refill their pension fund looted by the Teamster officials and their Mob friends.
Oh, bozo, Zelda is the one with the crack pipe.
Also, union goon, I ever find you, you are getting a John Deere UAW local union re-education, you hear!
day of rope
Ya know, Warmonger, DG is just angry because with Ted Kennedy drunk, disorderly, and horny standing next to DG, that DG still can’t get any.:lol:
Not one time have any of you illiterate repugnants, gave any reasonable defense as to what may have happened to the $8.8 billion of Iraqi money President Bush vowed to spend wisely.
So where is it?
All you have done is made angry threats rather than face the facts. Bush would be ashamed of you for not doing a better job of defending him. Granted, it is a hard job.
So c’mon. Let’s hear some more of your vile remarks that elude intelligent debate.
“Not one time have any of you illiterate repugnants, gave”
Nice sentence structure!:roll:
dg, shiloh and sandyb: I want to personally extend sincere wishes to each of you for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2005.
Is that all you got, peejz?
Happy New Year to all of you as well.
Let’s have peace on earth and goodwill towards eachother.
Happy New Year’s to all!
Oh, I wish I had my camera.
Actually, I wish I had a camera…:neutral:
thanks Sasha…as peejz says…we’re here for fun.
but seriously, back at ya.
peace to people of goodwill everywhere.
for the all the others – well, you don’t have peace, anyway, but today’s a new day.
Peace and goodwill to all. And I pray my brothers deal back tenfold what the terrorist in Iraq do.
37: Not a problem. Thanks!
The issue here is how Saddam used the oil for food program administered by the UN to fund bribes that gave him influence in the UN and in countries that supported him in the UN. How can the U.S. be expected to support other UN programs when it looks like decisions made by the UN can be bought by the highest bidder?
At the same time iraqs were dying due to lack of medical care and some were decrying the economic sanctions as the cause of that, Saddam was raking in illegal proceeds from oil and spending it on weapons and palaces.
If the oil for food program was administered properly by the UN this would not have occured.
Sorry for the repost I want to make my point tis clearer:
The NY Post article highlights the idea that the oil for food scandle is not really a big deal because much more money was obtained by Saddam by simply smuggling oil rather than through kick backs from oil contracts awarded through the oil for food scandle.
This is a misdirection which distracts from the real issue.
It’s not about money, it’s about influence peddling.
The real issue with the Iraqi oil for food scandal who he awarded oil contracts to under the oil for food program. The real concern is that by giving contracts to influential people in the UN and in countires on the UN security conuncil he obtained influence over the decisions made by the UN.
This influence might have affected the types of goods that were allowed to be imported under the oil for food program as well as the text of and voting on security council resolutions.
While Iraquis were dying from lack of medical supplies, Saddam Hussein was importing weapons and furnishing palaces. During this time the economic sanctions were blamed for the lack of medical care and some politicians, possibly influenced by oil contract awards wanted sanctions revoked.
If the UN oil for food program had been adminisered honestly, instead of weapons and palaces the money would have been spent on food and medicine and many Iraquis would not have died needless deaths. These deaths due to lack of medical care were part of a calculated plan to sway public opinion in other countries against sanctions. They should be considered part of the legacy of mass murder of Saddam Hussein, to which it seems the UN and some security council members are complicit.
The fact that Paul Volcker seems to be willing to sweep this under the rug is probably because President Bush has decided that it is more important to have cordial working relations with our ex-allies in old Europe. I hope congress fulfills it’s pledge in the new year to make a full investigation.
oil for food is not the worst scandal ever. in that it potentially involves us as well, the fixation on it might backfire more the strident.
where was the indignation for Iran-Contra? of course if you support certain policies, the law becomes an inconvenience, not the Holy Grail.
partisanship colours objectivity, ethics, even morality.
Iran Contra, wasn’t that like 20 years ago?
my point is in the last sentence.
good afternoon.
House Republican leaders last night abandoned a proposal to loosen rules governing members’ ethical conduct, as they yielded to pressure from rank-and-file lawmakers concerned that the party was sending the wrong message.
The proposal would have made it more difficult for lawmakers to discipline a colleague for unethical behavior and would have allowed Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) to keep his post if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury that is looking into his campaign finance practices
I’m glad to see that the party of “morals” is actually showing some.
It was in the Washington Post this morning.
I don’t think Spam Karma is working – check out the comments box…
Yeah, it’s driving me nuts. I don’t know where to go!!! No comments from the peanut gallery
Wait, coffee cup’s empty; I DO know where to go!