Anti-war nations 'took bribes' before war began
Investigation launched into claims that Saddam Hussein used oil to win support around the world
By Anne Penketh
28 January 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=485407
Claims that dozens of politicians, including some from prominent anti-war countries such as France, had taken bribes to support Saddam Hussein are to be investigated by the Iraqi authorities. The US-backed Iraqi Governing Council decided to check after an independent Baghdad newspaper, al-Mada, published a list which it said was based on oil ministry documents.
The 46 individuals, companies and organisations inside and outside Iraq were given millions of barrels of oil, the documents show. Thousands of papers were looted from the State Oil Marketing Organisation after Baghdad fell to US forces on 9 April.
"I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a Governing Council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted." Rumours had circulated for months that documents implicating senior French individuals were about to surface. Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac staked out the moral high ground in opposing the invasion.
A senior Bush administration official said Washington was aware of the reports but refused further comment. Another US source said that incriminating oil ministry documents allegedly implicating France concerned the two-year period before the war, when the UN sanctions were in danger of collapse.
French diplomats have dismissed any suggestion that their foreign policy was influenced by payments from Saddam. The French have always insisted their anti-war stance did not mean support for Saddam. But British diplomats suspected France's steadfast opposition to the war was driven by something other than the reasons stated by President Chirac. "Oil runs thicker than blood," is how one former ambassador put his suspicions about the French motives for opposing action against Saddam.
The list quoted by al-Mada included members of Arab ruling families, religious organisations, politicians and political parties from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria, France and other countries. But no names were available last night.
Organisations named include the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Communist Party, India's Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. The United States and Britain launched the war on Iraq on 19 March, 2003 without UN approval after tense negotiations in the Security Council collapsed in the face of a veto threat from France. France's relations with Britain and the US deteriorated to their worst point in decades over the Iraq rift, and have yet to heal.
China, another Security Council permanent member with veto power which is named by al-Mada, was also opposed to the Iraq invasion. Arab countries, in addition to France, had warned of the risk of instability spreading throughout the Middle East as a result of the war. Turkey, a Nato member, was a crucial player because of the opposition to the war among its Muslim majority population. There is the possibility that the documents in al-Mada are forgeries. At present there is almost a war of documents under way as Iraqis come to the realisation that they could be used as blackmail or as a settling of scores. And the leak of the documents could be a manipulation by the US-backed authorities in Iraq to discredit France.
The Iraqi authorities will be keen to interview prominent Iraqi officials held by the Coalition Provisional Authority who could shed light on illegal payments. Those officials include the former oil minister, Amer Mohammed Rashid. Assem Jihad, an oil ministry spokesman, said the documents stolen from his ministry may prove Saddam used bribery to gain support. "Anyone stealing Iraqi wealth will be prosecuted," he said.
Although under sanctions from the 1990 invasion of Kuwait until after the second Gulf War, the Iraqi government could sell oil under a UN agreement that proceeds from the oil sales be used to buy food, medicine and basic supplies.
Some international companies selling goods to Iraq may have paid commissions to Iraqi officials that were deposited in Arab banks in exchange for contracts under the oil for food deal. A paper trail should exist.
Saddam smuggled out billions of dollars worth of oil through Turkey, a Syrian pipeline and Iranian coastal waters. The Americans turned a blind eye to the smuggling via Turkey, because they needed to keep their Nato ally on board.

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Iraqi govt. papers: Saddam bribed Chirac
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040128-094014-7323r.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Documents from Saddam Hussein's oil ministry reveal he used oil to bribe top French officials into opposing the imminent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The oil ministry papers, described by the independent Baghdad newspaper al-Mada, are apparently authentic and will become the basis of an official investigation by the new Iraqi Governing Council, the Independent reported Wednesday.
"I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a governing council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted."
Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac sought to couch his opposition to the invasion on a moral high ground.
A senior Bush administration official said Washington was aware of the reports but refused further comment.
French diplomats have dismissed any suggestion their foreign policy was influenced by payments from Saddam, but some European diplomats have long suspected France's steadfast opposition to the war was less moral than monetary.
"Oil runs thicker than blood," is how one former ambassador put his suspicions about the French motives for opposing action against Saddam.
Al-Mada's list cites a total of 46 individuals, companies and organizations inside and outside Iraq as receiving Saddam's oil bribes, including officials in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria and France, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Communist Party, India's Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization.


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William Safire: Follow the money
By William Safire
Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times
Why do you suppose France and Russia -- nations that for years urged the lifting of sanctions on oil production of Saddam's Iraq -- are now preventing an end to those U.N. sanctions on free Iraq?
Answer: the Chirac-Putin bedfellowship wants to maintain control of the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, under which Iraq was permitted to sell oil and ostensibly use the proceeds to buy food and medicine for its people. (In reality, Saddam skimmed a huge bundle and socked it away in Swiss, French and Asian banks.)
Iraqis now desperately need all that the country's oil production can buy. But Jacques Chirac cares little about reconstruction of basic services; he is more concerned about maintaining U.N. control -- that is, French veto control -- of Iraq's oil.
"Sophisticated international blackmail" is what Senator Arlen Specter called it yesterday. Blackmail is the apt word: unless the U.S. and Britain turn over primary control of Iraq to the U.N. -- none of this secondary "vital role" stuff -- Chiracism threatens to hobble oil sales and prevent recovery.
This extortion is greeted with hosannas by the thousand or more U.N. employees and contractors involved in the present oil-for-food setup, many beholden to France for their jobs. And so long as the U.N. bureaucracy handles the accounting, it is as if Arthur Andersen were back in business -- no questions are asked about who profits from the sanctions management.
My Kurdish friends, for example, who are entitled by U.N. resolution to 13 percent of the oil-for-food revenues, believe their four million people are owed billions in food and hospital supplies. I wonder: in what French banks is the money collected from past oil sales deposited? Is a competitive rate of interest being paid? Is that interest being siphoned off in "overhead" to pay other U.N. bills?
Colin Powell apparently believes that Chirac's new fondness for sanctions could tie up Iraqi oil production with litigation for years. His advice to President Bush is to pay the ransom but nibble away at the sanctions with limited resolutions. I think we should confront the extortion scheme head on and let Chirac use his veto to isolate France further.
What other money trails need to be followed? Few doubt that vast Iraqi assets have been secretly transferred out of the country for years, and especially in the prewar months. This is done through cut-outs, phony foundations, numbered accounts, intelligence proprietaries, leveraged currency speculation through proxies in unregulated hedge funds and a hundred other financial devices. Taken together, Saddam's huge haul is now terrorism's central bank account.
This kind of money moves not in satchels but over wires. Needed to root it out is a financial Javert. Bush and Tony Blair should create a task force of the best computer sleuths at Treasury, the exchequer, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Fed, Interpol and the Bank of England to ferret out the hidden billions that belong to the Iraqi people. (Here is how Admiral Poindexter can find gainful employment.)
Start with the 200,000 barrels a day of Kirkuk oil that Iraq smuggled to Syria, an illegal pipeline flow ignored by the U.N. but stopped recently by Secretary Rumsfeld.
Then follow the money: We know that President Bashar Assad turned an ophthalmologist's blind eye to Saddam's use of the Syrian port of Tartus to import missile fuel components from China and night-vision goggles from Russia. In return, Saddam sold Syria oil at a bargain price -- say, as little as $5 a barrel. That adds up to more than a billion bucks over a few years in Saddam's personal pocket, placed -- where?
Money recaptured from the Thief of Baghdad should be used to build new villages for those Arabs he transferred north in his campaign to ethnically cleanse Kirkuk of troublesome Kurds. That would allow a peaceful return of Kurds to their ancestral homes without displacing Arab or Turkmen families.
And here's the way the government of New Iraq can save some of the money it now loses by Russia's eager participation in blackmail in the Security Council: Declare that the $10 billion owed by Iraq under Saddam to Russia for unused tanks and planes will be repaid on the day Vladimir Putin repays the debt incurred by Russia under the czars.
William Safire is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/21/nyt.safire
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Oil For Food -- and Boats, Sport Supplies, Detergent
Daily Policy Digest
Terrorism Issues
Friday, April 18, 2003
The call by U. N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to extend the oil-for-food program after economic sanctions are lifted against Iraq is controversial. Sanctions expire May 12, but there are questions about resuming the relief effort because of the secrecy surrounding administration of the program and its $12 billion bank account.
The U.N. program collects 2.2 percent on every barrel of Iraqi oil to cover administrative costs -- more than $1 billion since the program's inception in 1996. It employs 4,000. Despite its humanitarian mission, however, there are serious questions about U.N. oversight:
All contracts should be approved by the Security Council, but have tilted heavily toward Saddam Hussein's favored trading partners -- Russia, France and Syria.
Shipments under Annan's direct authority have included "boats and accessories" from France, "sport supplies" from Lebanon and "detergent" from Libya, Syria, Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen and Sudan.
Annan directly approved a request for broadcasting equipment from Russia, Jordan and France.
Secrecy surrounding the shipment of "relief" goods and the financial administration of the program has spawned suspicions of kickbacks, political back-scratching and smuggling.
Annan's office shares detailed records with Security Council members, but none of the countries make them public.
There is no independent, external audit of the program; financial oversight revolves among three member nations -- South Africa, the Philippines and France.
Kurdish leaders are entitled to 13 percent of program revenues, but cannot find out how much they are owed because U.N. officials won't give them access to program records.
Gen. Tommy Franks has derisively referred to the oil-for-food program as the "oil-for-palace" program. Lifting economic sanctions will strip the U.N. of its leverage in Iraq, but before extending the oil-for-food program, a lot of questions must be answered.
Source: Claudia Rosett, "Oil, Food and a Whole Lot of Questions," New York Times, April 18, 2003.
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Saddam Hussein r?compensait ses "amis" en barils de p?trole
LE MONDE | 27.01.04 | 14h51
Le journal irakien "Al-Mada" a publi? une liste des personnes b?n?ficiaires des largesses du ra?s. Onze Fran?ais sont cit?s, dont Charles Pasqua. Un responsable du minist?re du p?trole affirme que des "poursuites en justice" seront engag?es pour r?cup?rer "l'argent du peuple irakien".
Bagdad de notre envoy? sp?cial
Saddam Hussein r?compensait ses amis ?trangers, notamment tous ceux qui ?taient les z?lateurs de son r?gime et s'en faisaient les ambassadeurs. Cela ?tait connu. Plus de dix mois apr?s la chute de la dictature irakienne, des ?l?ments de preuve ont ?t? publi?s pour la premi?re fois, dimanche 25 janvier, par un journal ind?pendant Al-Mada (L'Horizon).
Sur une pleine page, ce nouveau quotidien ?tale dans son 45e num?ro, la liste de plus de 270 personnalit?s connues ou inconnues, de soci?t?s, de parlementaires, d'associations, des journalistes, des partis politiques qui ont profit? des largesses du ra?s d?chu. Fac-simil? ? l'appui, ce journal d?nonce "la plus grande op?ration de corruption" de l'ancien r?gime. Et il affirme que "des millions de barils de p?trole ont ?t? offerts ? des individus qui n'ont rien ? voir avec les activit?s p?troli?res". Au total, 16 pays arabes, 17 europ?ens, 9 asiatiques et 4 d'Afrique et d'Am?rique du Sud et du Nord sont concern?s par cette op?ration de r?compense.
Abdel Saheb Salmane Qotob, sous-secr?taire au minist?re du p?trole, nous a confirm? ces informations pr?cisant que parmi les personnalit?s impliqu?es figurent deux premiers ministres, deux ministres des affaires ?trang?res ainsi que des fils de ministres et de chefs d'Etat. "Le minist?re va d?voiler tous les noms et les poursuivre en justice pour r?cup?rer l'argent du peuple irakien", a-t-il indiqu?, ajoutant que "les informations n?cessaires ?taient recueillies pour les soumettre ? Interpol et les poursuivre car Saddam Hussein a achet? les consciences et dilapid? la richesse p?troli?re de l'Irak".
Pour la France, pas moins de onze noms sont publi?s avec la quantit? de barils de p?trole qui leur a ?t? allou?e. Parmi eux, ?crits avec une orthographe parfois approximative et comprenant quelques incertitudes sur les pr?noms ou intitul?s de soci?t?s et associations, figurent la soci?t? Adax, Patrick Maugein de Traficor ou Travicor, Michel Grimard, l'association d'amiti? arabo-fran?aise, Charles Pasqua, Elias El-Ferzeli ou Ghazarli d'origine libanaise, Claude Kaspereit, Bernard M?rim?e (ancien ambassadeur de France ? Rome et ? l'ONU), Bernard Desmaret et De Souza.
12 millions de barils auraient notamment ?t? allou?s ? Charles Pasqua, quatre autres M. Kaspereit et trois ? M. M?rim?e tandis que Patrick Maugein aurait b?n?fici? de 25 millions de barils. Aucune autre pr?cision n'est donn?e. Les documents proviennent de la SOMO (State Oil Marketing Organisation), soci?t? de commercialisation du p?trole rattach?e au minist?re du p?trole.
UNE LETTRE DE LA SOMO
Georges Gallaway, ancien d?put? travailliste aux Communes, figure en bonne place dans la liste. Son nom est mentionn? dans six contrats et le journal publie une lettre de la SOMO en date du 31 d?cembre 1999, sign?e par Saddam Zbin, cousin de Saddam Hussein qui g?rait cette soci?t? et dans laquelle il demande au minist?re du p?trole de lui accorder des contrats. Apparemment, ce parlementaire britannique a ?t? particuli?rement bien trait?. Mais il n'est pas le seul.
Dans cette tr?s longue liste figure aussi Khaled, le fils du pr?sident ?gyptien Nasser, le fils du ministre syrien de la d?fense, le fils du pr?sident du Liban, Emile Lahoud, la fille du pr?sident indon?sien Sukarno, Megawati, aujourd'hui premier ministre, l'?glise orthodoxe russe et le Parti communiste russe.
L'ultranationaliste russe Vladimir Jirinovski, lui aussi, est particuli?rement bien loti (79,2 millions de barils). Des soci?t?s suisses, des ressortissants italiens, des d?put?s jordaniens, des hommes politiques ?gyptiens, le Front populaire de lib?ration de la Palestine (FPLP), l'organisation de lib?ration de la Palestine (OLP) sont cit?s. La liste n'est pas exhaustive.
Parmi les pays cit?s figurent entre autres : l'Afrique du Sud, l'Alg?rie, l'Arabie saoudite, l'Australie, Bahre?n, la Bi?lorussie, le Br?sil, la Bulgarie, le Canada, la Chine, Chypre, l'Espagne, la Libye, la Malaisie, le Maroc, le Nigeria, Oman, le Panama, les Philippines, le Qatar, la Roumanie, la Turquie, l'Ukraine, le Y?men et la Yougoslavie.
Ces divulgations ont provoqu? dans les pays voisins, soit des r?actions indign?es, les uns invoquant la diffamation ou le complot politique, soit des justifications selon lesquelles il s'agissait d'affaires l?gales r?alis?es en bonne et due forme. Autant que l'on puisse le savoir, les personnes choisies recevaient des attributions pour un certain volume de barils qui ?taient ensuite revendus ? des soci?t?s. Les int?ress?s touchaient au passage une commission dont le pourcentage n'est pas connu.
QUE L'ANN?E 1999
Au si?ge du journal, Abdul Zahra Zeki, directeur adjoint de la r?daction, confirme l'authenticit? des documents et affirme que ceux-ci ne concernent que l'ann?e 1999 et que d'autres existent pour les ann?es ult?rieures. Comment sont-ils arriv?s en possession du journal ? Pas de r?ponse.
Ce qui est s?r est que le si?ge de la SOMO, ? l'inverse du minist?re du p?trole, avait ?t? pill? apr?s la chute de Bagdad et que d'?normes quantit?s de dossiers avaient ?t? vol?es. Toute la question est d?sormais de savoir si les ?normes profits qu'a engendr? le programme P?trole contre nourriture, sous l'?gide des Nations unies, va d?sormais sortir au grand jour.
Les quotas de p?trole n'ont ?t? allou?s ? des particuliers qu'? partir de la troisi?me phase. Les deux premi?res ?taient r?serv?es exclusivement aux soci?t?s faisant officiellement commerce du p?trole.
Ce fut la porte ouverte aux abus. "Saddam Hussein a transform? notre pays en une copieuse table ouverte sur laquelle se servaient tous les valets ob?issants et serviles", ?crit Al-Mada.
Michel B?le-Richard
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Patrick Maugein : "C'est d?lirant !"
Patrick Maugein, homme d'affaires fran?ais ? la t?te de la firme p?troli?re Soco International, r?put? proche de Jacques Chirac, d?ment cat?goriquement les informations irakiennes. "Je n'ai jamais re?u 25 millions de barils de p?trole offerts par les Irakiens, c'est d?lirant et absolument impossible, explique-t-il au Monde. En 1999, les ventes de p?trole ?taient monitor?es par l'ONU. A l'embarquement des navires, il y avait des inspecteurs. Pas une raffinerie au monde n'aurait accept? une cargaison clandestine. A l'?poque, j'avais simplement une participation dans une raffinerie italienne, qui avait achet?, l?galement, des cargaisons de p?trole."
M. Maugein affirme en outre n'avoir jamais rencontr? Saddam Hussein : "J'avais simplement des relations avec Tarek Aziz, le vice-premier ministre, que je voyais souvent ? Paris, et les ministres successifs du p?trole. Je connais bien l'Irak, j'ai toujours ?t? dans le p?trole l?-bas. Et ce n'est pas dans leurs habitudes d'offrir des cargaisons. Les Irakiens, contrairement aux Africains, ne laissaient aucune marge sur la table."
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Charles Pasqua : "On essaye de m'?clabousser"
Interrog? par Le Monde, mardi 27 janvier, Charles Pasqua a d?clar? n'avoir "jamais rien re?u de Saddam Hussein, ni p?trole ni argent". "Je ne suis pas, et n'ai jamais ?t?, un ami de Saddam Hussein", a ajout? le d?put? europ?en (RPF), rappelant qu'"? l'?poque de la guerre du Golfe, en 1991, le groupe RPR que je pr?sidais avait pris position pour l'intervention contre le r?gime irakien". "Je m'?tonne qu'une nouvelle fois, ? un moment o? je me relance politiquement, on essaye de m'?clabousser", a pr?cis? M. Pasqua.
Selon l'ancien ministre de l'int?rieur, il est cependant "tout ? fait possible que des gens, notamment des politiques, aient touch? des fonds du r?gime baassiste. Mais ne regardez pas dans ma direction, voyez plut?t du c?t? de ceux qui furent catalogu?s, il y a longtemps, comme des soutiens ? Saddam Hussein", a ajout? M. Pasqua. Evoquant une "?ventuelle manipulation des services am?ricains", M. Pasqua a conclu : "Si j'avais touch? de l'argent de Saddam, avec toutes les investigations qui ont ?t? men?es par des juges d'instruction fran?ais, cela se saurait !".

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Une liste, d?j?, dans l'affaire Elf
Les r?v?lations du journal Al-Mada rappellent un pr?c?dent, apparu dans l'affaire Elf. Une liste de 44 salari?s - dont certains apparaissaient sous des noms de code - d'Elf Aquitaine international (EAI), la filiale helv?tique du groupe p?trolier, avait ?t? adress?e anonymement ? la justice fran?aise, fin 1997. Outre la ma?tresse de Roland Dumas, Christine Deviers-Joncour, des personnalit?s politiques, proches de Charles Pasqua et de Fran?ois Mitterrand, y ?taient suspect?es d'avoir b?n?fici? d'emplois fictifs, qui auraient ?t? dispens?s par Alfred Sirven, directeur des "affaires g?n?rales" du groupe. La liste des "mandataires" d'EAI incluait des soci?t?s et des d?cideurs ?trangers - notamment un d?put? conservateur anglais. Les juges durent faire tri entre les collaborateurs qui fournirent ? Elf de v?ritables prestations, ceux qui ?uvr?rent au service personnel de M. Sirven et ceux qui n'exerc?rent aucune activit?.
* ARTICLE PARU DANS L'EDITION DU 28.01.04