NEWS: Probe: Saddam Made $21B From U.N. Oil For Food Program

Originally posted by edsinger
I just have one question,

Was this 20 billion in Franc's? Oh wait I mean Euro's?

No probably most in US dollars as America paid most of the money to Saddam to build his wealth. Oh and his weapons. Oh and his army. Gee they are even paying his room and food fees at the moment, they must love this guy.

Originally posted by The Teller
No probably most in US dollars as America paid most of the money to Saddam to build his wealth. Oh and his weapons. Oh and his army. Gee they are even paying his room and food fees at the moment, they must love this guy.

You are dead wrong m8, most of saddams military equipment was of Soviet / French design...

Originally posted by edsinger

Originally posted by The Teller
No probably most in US dollars as America paid most of the money to Saddam to build his wealth. Oh and his weapons. Oh and his army. Gee they are even paying his room and food fees at the moment, they must love this guy.

You are dead wrong m8, most of saddams military equipment was of Soviet / French design...

How did you know I am the only living human with a number for a surname?

Originally posted by The Teller

No probably most in US dollars as America paid most of the money to Saddam to build his wealth. Oh and his weapons. Oh and his army. Gee they are even paying his room and food fees at the moment, they must love this guy.

Would you care to back up your claims with links?

Here are some links to corroborate the contrary of what you said Teller.

Duelfer to France: J'accuse!

By WILLIAM SAFIRE (NYT) Op-Ed 703 words
Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 27 , Column 1

DISPLAYING FIRST 50 OF 703 WORDS - Powerful officials and their profiteering friends in France had a reason to try to stop the U.S. from overthrowing Saddam Hussein: they were pocketing billions in payoffs through a United Nations oil-for-food front. ... That's the import of the Duelfer report. This nonpartisan investigation team found not only documents ''giving...

Excerpted from.
query.nytimes.com... %252fColumnists%252fWilliam%2520Safire

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.

Excerpted from.
www.washtimes.com...

There are more where the above came from.

If i remember correctly in one article i posted before by the BBC, they mentioned that Saddam owed Russia about 200 million dollars in illegal weapons and banned technology in 2002, which Saddam bought through the OFF programe.

BTW which kind of weapons, tanks ect did Iraq have?....were they made in the U.S.?...or were they made in CHina, Russia, France etc?.....

No need for links. Are you arguing that the USA aided Saddam in weapons training? Are you saying they have not contributed to the great majority of his amassed wealth? Yes I know he got most of his weapons from France and Russia. But with what countries money did he make the purchases?
Actually a point on this:
While most Americans were condemning France for not accepting the war on Iraq, they failed to see, as most Americans in my experience, the irony of it. France helped America and the coalition far more than they could hope for. Because the French sold Saddam useless and outdate weapons at over inflated cost. So when the coalition went into Iraq, they found it easy sport due to the novelty weapons France had palmed them off with.

And how much money just goes "missing" out of the USA's budget each year? And who's pockets does the special interests line with wads of cash to start a war?...

But of course, it was the Americans who starved a million Iraqi children to death.

Originally posted by Majic
But of course, it was the Americans who starved a million Iraqi children to death.

Boy did you hit the nail on the head, them nasty Americans......

Originally posted by Majic
But of course, it was the Americans who starved a million Iraqi children to death.

I cannot agree with this statement. Sure America did have alot to do with the starvation of the Iraqi children through very lacklustre accountability in the monies given in the Oil for Food program. But it was still Saddam who kept that food and medicine from those children's mouths. America just helped facilitate Saddam to do this.

Wow, no need for links...yeah great work on corroborating your "opinion". Did we help Saddam in the past? sure we did....the point is that you people keep saying the U.S. is the only nation who provided any types of weapons to Saddam...which is not true, actually Russia, France, Germany and a few others have provided more weapons, and after the UN sanctions, they provided "banned weapons and technologies" To Iraq instead of manking sure the money went to the people of Iraq....

Originally posted by The Teller
America just helped facilitate Saddam to do this.

Well guess what?

He isnt doing it any longer is he?

Originally posted by edsinger

Originally posted by The Teller
America just helped facilitate Saddam to do this.

Well guess what?

He isnt doing it any longer is he?

No he is not. And as a cynic about the war on many levels, I do feel that Iraqi will be a better place for Iraqi�s due to the removal of Saddam. Let's just hope that America learns from its historical mistakes and draws a line under dealing with dictators,, despots and madmen. I only fear America even now is dealing with a Saddam of the future and will have to wage war upon him at some time.

Originally posted by The Teller
No he is not. And as a cynic about the war on many levels, I do feel that Iraqi will be a better place for Iraqi�s due to the removal of Saddam. Let's just hope that America learns from its historical mistakes and draws a line under dealing with dictators,, despots and madmen. I only fear America even now is dealing with a Saddam of the future and will have to wage war upon him at some time.

Fair enough and no offense, I hope you are wrong....

Originally posted by Thorfinn Skullsplitter
And how much money just goes "missing" out of the USA's budget each year? And who's pockets does the special interests line with wads of cash to start a war?...

What in the world does this have to do with the topic?....

Most countries in the world have money "missing" out of their budgets, socialist, communist and republics....and the money quite frequently ends up in the hand of just a few powerful people......

Originally posted by Muaddib
Wow, no need for links...yeah great work on corroborating your "opinion". Did we help Saddam in the past? sure we did....the point is that you people keep saying the U.S. is the only nation who provided any types of weapons to Saddam...which is not true, actually Russia, France, Germany and a few others have provided more weapons, and after the UN sanctions, they provided "banned weapons and technologies" To Iraq instead of manking sure the money went to the people of Iraq....

Actually there are times when it is irrelevant to post links as facts are sometimes in the public domain. If I had posted an opinion on here that was converse to what others either thought or had cited then maybe even then it would be of use. But you see you are wrong. I have agreed with what you said. I never said that America was the ONLY country to provide Saddam with weapons. Just that provide is a strange word isn't it.
If someone buys drugs, they but from a dealer, the dealer buys from a supplier. the supplier buys guns and sells them to gangs, the gangs shoot innocent people while robbing money to buy drugs. Who provided the death here?

Oh do you mean that 100,000 iraqis that died, including natural deaths, deaths by accidents, etc etc...then perhaps we should add to the number of Americans that died in 9/11 the deaths of "every person who died in the US that year from natural causes, from accidents etc etc"....that would surely raise the numbers of dead of 9/11 to the hundred of thousands also...

Um, okay?

Are you sure using CNN who gets there information directly from the U.S. Army Personal is the correct thing to do? Do you think the U.S. Army would release anything demonic to the accord of the Government?

All those deaths, 100 thousand plus, have been caused AFTER the war as a direct result of this mess we created; these deaths will pile up even more of the current administration is not changed and reformed. The U.N. cannot be chided over this 'scandal' and have EVERYTHING else it does ignored ?

The U.S. needs to reform.

Deep

I cannot agree with this statement. Sure America did have alot to do with the starvation of the Iraqi children through very lacklustre accountability in the monies given in the Oil for Food program. But it was still Saddam who kept that food and medicine from those children's mouths. America just helped facilitate Saddam to do this.

Granted; America imposed sanctions on Iraq, but, was that the correct discourse to take in the first place knowing very well of Saddams 'corrupted' person ? Why did the U.S. even, as i am quite sure, was well aware that thousands of children were dying in Iraq, not intervene?

Deep

ZeroDeep
Yeah but there are sanctions implemented to enforce change or sanctions that are set in place to remove competition

Originally posted by ZeroDeep

Um, okay?

Are you sure using CNN who gets there information directly from the U.S. Army Personal is the correct thing to do? Do you think the U.S. Army would release anything demonic to the accord of the Government?

All those deaths, 100 thousand plus, have been caused AFTER the war as a direct result of this mess we created; these deaths will pile up even more of the current administration is not changed and reformed. The U.N. cannot be chided over this 'scandal' and have EVERYTHING else it does ignored ?

The U.S. needs to reform.

Deep

Are you sure that figure which you are giving doesn't come from "insurgents and pro-terrorist news sources" who have been caught making lies and exagerating their reports?....

Do provide a link...the only one i have seen another member post said that 100,000 deaths in Iraq included natural deaths, accidents, etc etc.... as I was saying...let's add up the amount of americans killed in 9/11 by adding the total amount of people who died in the U.S. in 2001 by accidents, natural deaths etc, etc....I am sure the numbers will go to hundreds of thousands...

Here let me give you a link to a site that reports the Iraqi body count, and which


Min-14,378 Max-16,514

here is an excerpt of the objective this site tries to accomplsih.

This is a human security project to establish an independent and comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq resulting directly from military action by the USA and its allies. This database includes up to 7,350 deaths which resulted from coalition military action during the "major-combat" phase prior to May 1st 2003. In the current occupation phase the database includes all deaths which the Occupying Authority has a binding responsibility to prevent under the Geneva Conventions and Hague Regulations. This includes civilian deaths resulting from the breakdown in law and order, and deaths due to inadequate health care or sanitation. Results and totals are continually updated and made immediately available on this page and on various IBC counters which may be freely displayed on any website, where they will be automatically updated without further intervention. Casualty figures are derived solely from a comprehensive survey of online media reports. Where these sources report differing figures, the range (a minimum and a maximum) are given. All results are independently reviewed and error-checked by at least three members of the Iraq Body Count project team before publication.

www.iraqbodycount.net...



[edit on 15-11-2004 by Muaddib]