Probe: Oil funds paid for bombers

[CADsortaGUY]

Probe: Oil funds paid for bombers

By Desmond Butler
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, November 17, 2004


NEW YORK -- Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel, say congressional investigators who uncovered evidence of the money trail.
The former Iraqi president tapped secret bank accounts in Jordan -- where he collected bribes from foreign companies and individuals doing illicit business under the humanitarian program -- to reward the families up to $25,000 each, investigators told The Associated Press.

Documents prepared for a hearing today by the House International Relations Committee outline the new findings.

Today's hearing, however, will focus on a French bank that handled most of the money for the program. An audit by a U.S. regulatory agency of a small sample of transactions out of the $60 billion U.N. escrow account managed by BNP-Paribas has raised serious questions concerning the bank's compliance with American money-laundering laws, investigators said.

"There are indications that the bank may have been noncompliant in administering the oil-for-food program,"

committee chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said. "If true, these possible banking lapses may have facilitated Saddam Hussein's manipulation and corruption of the program."

While acknowledging that U.S. regulators have raised routine issues with BNP on compliance with banking laws, a lawyer for BNP said Hyde's statement was unfair.

"No departure from any standard caused or contributed in any way to the abuse at the oil-for-food program," the bank's lead counsel, Robert S. Bennett, said. "There are simply no connections."

The humanitarian program let Iraq trade oil for food, medicine and other items. But investigators say Saddam made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue under the program.

No, I didn't post this because the hearing was about the French Bank😉

CsG

 

[NeoV]

Um.....Cad.....no one has ever questioned the fact that Saddam paid PALESTINIAN suicide bombers. Ever. Goodnight.

 

[jtusa]

Originally posted by: NeoV
Um.....Cad.....no one has ever questioned the fact that Saddam paid PALESTINIAN suicide bombers. Ever. Goodnight.

What's it matter if they're Palestinian or not? A terrorist is a terrorist and Israel is our ally.

 

[NeoV]

Ok then jtusa4 - you've now justified the Iraq war..happy?

 

[jtusa]

Originally posted by: NeoV
Ok then jtusa4 - you've now justified the Iraq war..happy?

If only everyone were so easy to straighten out. 😉

 

[Bowfinger]

Originally posted by: NeoV
Um.....Cad.....no one has ever questioned the fact that Saddam paid PALESTINIAN suicide bombers. Ever. Goodnight.

Actually, I question it. He paid their families, a sort of survivors' benefit. It's still wrong, but it's not quite the same as saying Hussein paid terrorists.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Bowfinger

Originally posted by: NeoV
Um.....Cad.....no one has ever questioned the fact that Saddam paid PALESTINIAN suicide bombers. Ever. Goodnight.

Actually, I question it. He paid their families, a sort of survivors' benefit. It's still wrong, but it's not quite the same as saying Hussein paid terrorists.

Exactly! And to even begin using it as justification for invading Iraq is completely ridiculous. Esp. considering the proven link between Iran and the Khobar Towers attack.

 

[jtusa]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Bowfinger

Originally posted by: NeoV
Um.....Cad.....no one has ever questioned the fact that Saddam paid PALESTINIAN suicide bombers. Ever. Goodnight.

Actually, I question it. He paid their families, a sort of survivors' benefit. It's still wrong, but it's not quite the same as saying Hussein paid terrorists.

Exactly! And to even begin using it as justification for invading Iraq is completely ridiculous. Esp. considering the proven link between Iran and the Khobar Towers attack.

Many Palestinian families are dirt poor. $25000 would go a LONG way to take care of a family. Now if you're family has little food and shotty, if any, shelter, you hate Israel, and you'll go to heaven if you kill yourself in the process of killing Israelis, what would you do?

Saddam didn't say "go blow them up", but he gave them a VERY strong incentive to do so.

 

[conjur]

Wow...that's the biggest STREEEEETTTTCCHHH I've seen in ages!

 

[jtusa]

Originally posted by: conjur
Wow...that's the biggest STREEEEETTTTCCHHH I've seen in ages!

Not a stretch at all, it's perfectly logical or else he wouldn't have been funding them.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: Bowfinger

Originally posted by: NeoV
Um.....Cad.....no one has ever questioned the fact that Saddam paid PALESTINIAN suicide bombers. Ever. Goodnight.

Actually, I question it. He paid their families, a sort of survivors' benefit. It's still wrong, but it's not quite the same as saying Hussein paid terrorists.

A "survivors' benefit" ? That's what apologists are calling it these days? 😕

CsG

 

[Bowfinger]

Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY

Originally posted by: Bowfinger

Originally posted by: NeoV
Um.....Cad.....no one has ever questioned the fact that Saddam paid PALESTINIAN suicide bombers. Ever. Goodnight.

Actually, I question it. He paid their families, a sort of survivors' benefit. It's still wrong, but it's not quite the same as saying Hussein paid terrorists.

A "survivors' benefit" ? That's what apologists are calling it these days? 😕

CsG

 

[Aimster]

Noobdy cares for Palestine. Saddam did it because he was trying to gather Arab support in the region by saying he supports Palestine (thus supporting Arabs). Arabs didn't really take him sending money to the families as big as a deal as Saddam had hoped.

I doubt Iraq actually really truely hated Israel. Saddam was not a religious man at all. I think it was all political. Saddam wanted to be the strongest in the M.E and Israel was not allowing him to get strong. He wanted to get Arab support and he only managed to get Syria.

By the way that's my opinion I could be wrong 🙂

 

[ForThePeople]

You people need to see the bigger picture.

Saddam paid them because he knew that an inflamed Israeli-Palestinian conflict kept pressure off of him. It kept domestic pressure off of his regime by letting his people vent their anger at something over which they had no control and it kept international pressure off of him by virtue of prolonging a bigger international problem. Saddam believe that the longer and more inflamed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the more secure he was in his dictatorship.

Any talk about caring for the Palestinians or supporting terrorism merely to support terrorism is non-sense. He was a rational actor working towards his own self-interest.

It should occur to you that this is the reason why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is such a major issue in the Arabic world. By distracting their people with a conflict over which the people have no control - and keeping them boiling about it with their media - they make sure that their people don't focus on the corruption and lack of freedom under which they live.

You never have to go to further than self-interest.

Oh, and by the way, it was self-interest (on many, many levels) that led Bush to start his trumped up war. What I don't understand is the masses of people who are acting against their own self-interest by supporting him.