CIA REPORT: Saddam paid French leaders $1.8 billion!

[Guest JMT]

By Bill Gertz

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Saddam Hussein used a U.N. humanitarian program to pay $1.78 billion to French government officials, businessmen and journalists in a bid to have sanctions removed and U.S. policies opposed, according to a CIA report made public yesterday.

The cash was part of $10.9 billion secretly skimmed from the U.N. oil-for-food program, which was used by Iraq to buy military goods, according to a 1,000-page report by the CIA-led Iraqi Survey Group.

According to a section of the report on Iraqi weapons procurement, the survey group identified long-standing ties between Saddam and the French government. One 1992 Iraqi intelligence service report revealed that Iraq's ambassador to France paid $1 million to the French Socialist Party in 1988.

The CIA report stated that the Iraqi ambassador was instructed to "utilize [the $1 million] to remind French Defense Minister Pierre Joxe indirectly about Iraq's previous positions toward France, in general, and the French Socialist party, in particular."

In the late 1990s, Iraq also used an oil-purchasing voucher system through the U.N. oil-for-food program, which began in 1996 and ended in 2003, to influence the French to oppose U.S. initiatives at the United Nations and to work to lift sanctions, the report stated.

The Iraqi Intelligence Service paid off French nationals by dispensing vouchers that allowed the holders to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions by selling them to oil buyers.

The payoffs help explain why the French government, along with Russia and China, opposed U.S. efforts in the United Nations in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion, U.S. officials said.

Iraqi intelligence agents also targeted French President Jacques Chirac, by giving gifts to a spokesman, two of his aides and two French businessmen, the report said.

One Iraqi intelligence report stated that a French politician assured Saddam in a letter that France would use its veto in the U.N. Security Council against any U.S. effort to attack Iraq.

Iraqi intelligence documents recovered in Iraq showed that the French citizens linked to the influence operation were "ministers and politicians, journalists and business people."

[Guest JMT]

"These influential individuals often had little prior connection to the oil industry and generally engaged European oil companies to lift the oil, but were still in a position to extract a substantial profit for themselves," the report said.

Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told the Survey Group that he personally awarded several Frenchmen "substantial" oil allotments.

"According to Aziz, both parties understood that resale of the oil was to be reciprocated through efforts to lift U.N. sanctions or through opposition to American initiatives within the Security Council," the report said.

The report named former French Interior Minister Charles Pascua as getting a voucher for 11 million barrels of oil, and Patrick Maugein, who received a voucher for 13 million barrels of oil. The report said Mr. Maugein, the chief executive officer of the SOCO oil company, was a "conduit" to Mr. Chirac.

Michel Grimard, the founder of the French-Iraqi Export Club, received a voucher for 5.5 million barrels, and the Iraqi-French Friendship Society received vouchers for more than 10 million barrels.

French oil companies Total and SOCAP were granted vouchers for 105 million and 93 million barrels of oil, respectively.

The report stated that Iraq covertly purchased missiles and other military goods from Russia, Belarus, China, North Korea and South Korea.

According to the report, illegal goods used in making weapons of mass destruction were sold to Iraq by companies in Jordan, India, France, Italy, Romania and Turkey.

Conventional arms also were sold to Iraq by China, Jordan, India, South Korea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Cyprus, Egypt, Lebanon, Georgia, France, Poland, Syria, Belarus, North Korea, Yugoslavia, Yemen, Russia, Romania and the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The report said Saddam's regime obtained $1.5 billion from U.N. humanitarian contract kickbacks and $228.5 million in surcharges on U.N.-approved oil sales.

Other oil smuggling provided the regime with $8 billion in cash outside of U.N.-approved oil sales, the CIA report reveals.

Charles Duelfer, the director of the CIA survey group, told a congressional hearing yesterday that a "sizable portion" of Saddam's cash obtained from the oil-for-food program were diverted to the military, specifically the government-run Military Industrial Commission.

"The funding for this organization, which had responsibility

for many of the past [weapons of mass destruction] programs, went from approximately $7.8 million in 1998 to $350 million in 2001," Mr. Duelfer told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Mr. Duelfer said that during the period from 1998 to 2001, "many military programs were carried out — including many involving the willing export to Iraq of military items prohibited by the Security Council."

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041007-123838-3146r.htm

[Guest web_norah]

Haliburton made me go >

[Guest LeVeL]

Soo Saddam gave some money to Bcn's buddies huh???

[Guest endymion]

Okay it's official, the war was justified. Iraq has strong ties to France. Kill 'em all.

[Guest JMT]

Okay it's official, the war was justified. Iraq has strong ties to France. Kill 'em all.

TRANSLATION: i am unable to comment rationally or intelligently on something that doesnt reinforce my opinions.

[tgibson]

all while the noble UN sat and played grab-ass.

Hahahaha. Love it.

;D ;D ;D

[Guest web_norah]

wasnt the CIA the same organization that said Al Qaida and Sadam were linked? :

[Guest endymion]

TRANSLATION: i am unable to comment rationally or intelligently on something that doesnt reinforce my opinions.

No, the "Bush is the weak one" thread is my repsonse to this new justification for the war in Iraq.

[Guest slamminshaun]

wasnt the CIA the same organization that said Al Qaida and Sadam were linked? :

Let's see if we can play a little CIA trivia. Which U.S. President was credited with the largest dismantling and restructuring of the CIA in history? (hint: It wasn't dubya).

[Guest endymion]

Here's the relevance:

Justifications for unilaterally invading Iraq

1) WMD

2) Al Qaeda

3) Financial gain

4) (addendum) Saddam was cheating the UN food-for-oil program in an underhanded attempt to get the crippling sanctions against his country lifted.

That list is really weak. Even mentioning justification number four is a sign that Bush just can't really explain himself. Yet he continues to insist that he has no regrets and that we should 'stay the course' behind his firm and resolute leadership, as his administration falls apart around him.

[V. Barbarino]

Soo Saddam gave some money to Bcn's buddies huh???

where is that focker? I want a grill cheese and some home made sun tea...

bcn, pm me when it's ready..

[Guest web_norah]

Soo Saddam gave some money to Bcn's buddies huh???

where is that focker? I want a grill cheese and some home made sun tea...

bcn, pm me when it's ready..

werent you kissing some French ass lately? saying how much you love Bob Sinclair and how he should come play Miami, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla....

[Guest slamminshaun]

No more Grey Goose....looks like its Skol from now on. <puke!!>

[Guest web_norah]

oh please, that's the silliest thing i've read since someone here mentioned that they will not support Louis Vuitton and 1000 other French named brands. :

[Guest slamminshaun]

Yeah, its Friday and I'm being a silly goose. If Castro's crap doesn't stop me from puffing his Cohiba's, then Chirac's won't stop me from guzzling his Goose. (I actually said I'd switch to Skol?)

[Guest web_norah]

Cohibas and Havana Club are two of the easiest things to score in South Fl.

good stuff if you ask me.

i dont even know what Skol is....is that a vodka?

[Guest slamminshaun]

Officially, its considered a vodka. If you ask me, its one-fifth gasoline watered down with corn syrup and artifical flavoring. I'd rather tackle a cactus then drink it.

[Guest JMT]

screw France, i drink kettle one.

[ryan2772]

screw France, i drink kettle one.

the KO, baby 8)

[Guest bcnjunkie]

what have I been saying YOU CAN'T TRUST THE FRENCH or George Bush

[Guest endymion]

no one said this was a reason for war.

Starting on Thursday, Bush has mentioned this as a justification for war in every stump speech, and he mentioned it as a justification for war during the second presidential debate.