Oil for food: US knew.

According to the result of a joint investiagtion of the Financial Times and some Italian Newspaper. US officials knew of the smuggling and closed their eyes.


US ignored warning on Iraqi oil smuggling
A joint investigation by the FT and Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, shows that the single largest and boldest smuggling operation in the oil-for-food programme was conducted with the knowledge of the US government.

Source : news.ft.com...

Now I love this. Here we go again.

Take a scandal like the Oil for Food program where certain UN officials and Saddam stole billions of dollars from the Iraqi people and some how somebody figures a way to knock the US. Man, EVERYTHING isn’t the US’s fault you know!! I’m so sick of the US bashing its crazy.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty to criticize, but jeeze give it a rest!!!

Here is a scandal that had nothing to do with the US and somebody tries to link it back.


BAH!!!


I really have to laugh when I read the "US caused the tsunami?" stuff.

Is not really bashing skippytjc, but here in ATS we follow up the story and early when US was accusing the UN of the scandal, the European countries involved released a paper incriminating American companies in it also.

It was not a lie, US took the names of the companies out and put them under a privacy act order in wish American companies involved were under American protection laws.

So as you can see US base American companies in the oil business were involved.

Its a lot of things our country does that is not very legal, is not the first time and will not be the last.

It has to do with the power behind the money.

Sure they knew and they knew they would use the info to make the UN look bad
if it tried to declare the war illegal.

How much was the bribe? I can not say this is true or false? Seams like everyone of so called world government are mud slinging.....lol
It is hard to accept this due to I watch a french news after the presidential election and the anchor with a guest were discussing the outcome of the race. Boy talk about the impression I got of how they feel about us, what make me want read a newspaper that has the scoop of US knew. Media is a communication network that misleads many. May be their is some truth, but could it be twisted to favor who wrote it?

So...

what if they did know... who cares, big deal....

I don't care if we knew it or not... Iraq is a better place and will get better because of the U.S..... there care about that...

Sandge posted this on the 13th
www.abovetopsecret.com...

In that thread, I posted links to US GAO and CBO government reports from 2002 that even show how much oil was going to each country.

It was no secret.

GAO.gov May 2002 Report

Although the oil for food program controls most of Iraq’s oil revenues in an escrow account (more than $51 billion since the program was established), we conservatively estimate that Iraq has illegally earned at least $6.6 billion since 1997—$4.3 billion from smuggling and $2.3 billion in illegal surcharges on oil and commissions from its commodity contracts.
For example, in 2001, we estimate that Iraq earned $1.5 billion by smuggling oil through Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf. U.S. government and oil industry sources indicate that the quantity of oil being smuggled varies by destination over time. Oil industry experts estimate that Iraq smuggled out as much as 480,000 barrels of oil per day in March 2002. (See table 1.)

Table 1: Estimates of Smuggled Oil, March 2002
Source: Middle East Economic Survey.

Exit route Barrels per day
Jordan 75,000 to 110,000
Syria 180,000 to 250,000
Turkey 40,000 to 80,000
Persian Gulf 30,000 to 40,000
Total 325,000 to 480,000

CBO.gov Sept 2002
Currently, about 80 percent of Iraq’s oil production is being used to purchase imports under the United Nations Oil for Food Program or for domestic consumption. And, in the near term, Iraqi oil exports cannot be expanded without large-scale investment and development of infrastructure. Thus, the primary source of additional funds for reconstructing Iraq would be the proceeds from the legitimate sale of the approximately 400,000 BPD that are currently smuggled out of the country to pay for the importation of items that violate United Nations sanctions.
Assuming that a postconflict Iraq complied with all U.N. resolutions and removed the basis for the current economic sanctions, and assuming also that its oil production infrastructure was undamaged, Iraq could pay for reconstruction costs by using funds generated from that 400,000 BPD of oil and still have enough to pay for its country’s current level of imports.
At today’s oil prices, production at that level would amount to approximately $3 billion a year.

Originally posted by AceOfBase
Sandge posted this on the 13th
www.abovetopsecret.com...

In that thread, I posted links to US GAO and CBO government reports from 2002 that even show how much oil was going to each country.

It was no secret.

Hey, I totally forgot about this. Glad you brought this up
Damn, it seams like they would believe why did a fly land, because his feet got tired............lol

Our government gained nothing from any of this, Big Business did, and that is life folks. Just like war is hell, and there is nothing to do about it.