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The real oil-for-food scandal: The humanitarian cover for the brutal embargo of Iraq

by Open-Publishing - Friday 8 April 2005
5 comments

Edito Humanitary Wars and conflicts International Energy

by ANTHONY ARNOVE

ANTHONY ARNOVE edited the book Iraq Under Siege and is coauthor, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of a People’s History of the United States. Here, he examines the controversy over the United Nations (UN) oil-for-food program in Iraq, following the release of the findings of a corruption investigation.

A COMMISSION investigating allegations of corruption in a UN humanitarian assistance program in Iraq during the 1990s cleared Secretary General Kofi Annan of wrongdoing.
Annan had been accused of steering a contract to his son, Kojo, through the oil-for-food program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil on the world market and use money approved by a UN committee for food and other humanitarian goods. But the real scandal never had anything to do with Kojo Annan or kickbacks from certain contracts.

Outrage over the oil-for-food program was concocted as a means of diverting attention from the crisis of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The U.S. government for years allowed Iraq’s illegal oil exports to Jordan, for example, because Washington felt it was important to support a key ally in the Middle East that had been hurt by the financial impact of the 1991 Gulf War.

Meanwhile, $8 billion in money supposedly intended for humanitarian reconstruction projects in Iraq after the 2003 invasion has disappeared. And, according to an investigation by the Financial Times, Iraqi Kurds are now trying to launder 14 tons of cash they received through the oil-for-food program.

“The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) had shipped the money to the Kurds in three helicopters filled with shrink-wrapped blocks of 100-dollar notes,” the paper reported. “The money, which was outside the regular budget, would have weighed 14 tons and represented the equivalent of around six months regular financing for the Kurdish regional government.”

Yet even these scandals, which the media has largely ignored, pale when set against the real crimes of the oil-for-food program, which provided a humanitarian cover for the brutal embargo of Iraq.

Under the oil-for-food program, U.S. and British officials routinely blocked humanitarian supplies to Iraq, claiming they were “dual-use” items, with potential military applications. The UN sanctions committee blocked vaccines, water purification equipment and much more—even pencils.

Meanwhile, as health experts warned, the sanctions led to a sharp increase in infant mortality and deaths from easily preventable water-borne disease. One UNICEF study suggested that the number of extra deaths of Iraqi children under five years of age because of the sanctions was more than 500,000.

That’s why two heads of the oil-for-food program—Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck—resigned in protest. Halliday called the sanctions a form of genocide when he stepped down to dedicate himself to ending the embargo.

Unfortunately, the embargo only ended with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which has led to perhaps 100,000 more extra deaths, according to a study published in the British medical journal Lancet. But don’t expect any independent commission to investigate these real crimes of the UN—or of the U.S. occupation.

http://www.socialistworker.org/2005...

Forum posts

  • The American Hitlers should be brought to justice. Expell America, Britain and Israel from U.N..
    In order to obtain peace, countries around the world should raise a blockade against this countries (no
    flights, no ships, etc..). Sooner or later the American devil will use nuclear force again.

  • Just went through your artice, Mr. Anthony Arnove. What is the blindness we see over and over again? The oil for food scandal is a disgrace. The shame of the UN. But you would rather stick to the favorite topic. Blaming and hating America. What lemmings you all are. The fact that Mr. Saddam Hussein could have bribed the UN and, therefore, thought the US would not go into Iraq means nothing to you. The fact that if the UN had stood together, if allies had stood together, Iraq might never have happened again means nothing to you. Those allies believed the WMD threat, but were they making too much money to part with?

    The fact is, there is something very wrong at the UN and it needs reforming. By the way, why are you also so blind at the suffering Iraq would have had to further endure had the US not gone into that tragic country? Did they have any hope at all under Saddam Hussein? Do the thugs, your "hero" insurgents offer any hope to them? For too long the world just stood by and ignored the torture, murder, mass graves filled by Mr. Saddam Hussein. We all are guilty in that. I don’t like to "name call," but the word hyprocrite does come to mind...

    Carollane
    USA

    • Carolline, get up to speed, an oil man from Texas has been INDITED for his part in and profiting off of the oil for food scandal, and then yesterday it was revealed that (the U.S. has admitted) the U.S. allowed this to go on and Britain was also involved because their people were the ones doing it, so leave the U.N. out of this you lying sack of shit. You just can’t stand the truth and will continue to spread lies as long as it makes the real criminals that control the government look sano. But in the end it will all come out and you will see it is just more Republican lies that the Fox news channels in this country keep pumping out for stupid people like you.

    • This is truly appalling, how can any human especially one that claims to believe in God not feel horrified that little children have been starved to death for the oil money of the oil Barons? What is wrong with Christianity that their believers can turn a blind eye to these horrors? Have they all reverted to praying to the devil (Bush). Do they truly have no sympathy in their hearts that they can see these malnurished and sick children and do nothing except spread lies. Are their churches teachings so bankrupt that they no longer see right from wrong or care? Can there be anything more tragic than self rightous sanctimonious people who claim to believe in God having no guilt that the government that they support is involved in torturing innocent children by starving them to death. Look at that Terry Schiavo thing, all of the phony religious people being outraged that a brain dead woman’s feeding tube was removed think nothing of their government starving thousands and thousands of little children to death, where is their shame?

  • The oil-for-food scammers—the people who stole money that was supposed to pay for food for starving Iraqis—will be prosecuted if they are subject to US jurisdiction. The foul-mouthed poster above disproves his own point by drawing attention to this fact. Anyone who’s tracked the oil-for-food scandal knows some Americans were involved, but that there were many more Euros, including a longtime friend and financier of Chirac. But will the sanctimonious angels in Europe prosecute these criminals? In the words of Annan (whose son profited personally to the tune of thousands of dollars per month), I make the following prediction: "Hell no."

    "Bellaciao: Blood of Saddam’s Victims for Cheap Oil! I mean, No Blood For Oil!"