Corruption Runs Rampant

Well, it appears (surprise, surprise) that corruption is not confined to the French elite. ABC News (among others) reports that documentation has been found linking "some 270 prominent individuals, political parties or corporations in 47 countries" to an incredible ring of bribery and deception.

ABCNEWS has obtained an extraordinary list that contains the names of prominent people around the world who supported Saddam Hussein's regime and were given oil contracts as a result.

All of the contracts were awarded from late 1997 until the U.S.-led war in March 2003. They were conducted under the aegis of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, which was designed to allow Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods.

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Today, the U.S.Treasury Department said that any American citizens found to be illegally involved could face prosecution.

"You are looking at a political slush fund that was buying political support for the regime of Saddam Hussein for the last six or seven years," said financial investigator John Fawcett.

Saddam bought supporters (quite a few of them politicians) in Russia, France, Syria, Turkey, Indonesia, Spain, Yugoslavia, Canada, Italy, the UK, South Africa, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Qatar, Lybia, Chad, Brazil, the Ukraine, and the United States, among others.

Well, I suppose the anti-war folks had it right. This was about oil.
-- posted by Austin @ 7:56 PM (PermaLink/Comment) ¶