Oil-For-Food Scandal

RUSH: Let’s go back to the oil-for-food scandal report: “Western industrial titan Siemens AG and Daimler-Chrysler were among thousands of companies that helped Iraq’s Saddam Hussein exploit a UN humanitarian program to collect nearly $2 billion in illegal surcharges and kickbacks, according to the Volcker Report. That final report headed by former US federal chairman Paul Volcker, detailing the case and the ease with which Hussein managed to bend the UN’s oil-for-food program to his own purposes, with the help of western companies willing to pay illegal kickbacks. UN officials willing to look the other way and an array of politicians in such countries as Russia and France who were willing to support the Hussein regime in exchange for lucrative oil allegations.” Now, is it any wonder why the French and the Russians opposed us going into Iraq at the Security Council? It’s not. They had kickback deals going on with Saddam Hussein. It was known long before this report came out. I just find it interesting that France and Russia along with Germany are the countries that the Democrats want to us really work closely with here. They are our true allies! We must bring them in, said John Kerry, on every decision that we make. There’s going to be a global test.
“The biggest recipients of Iraqi oil were Russia and France, the countries that Saddam Hussein saw as most sympathetic to his long-standing campaign to end the UN sanctions against his country. The report linked politicians in both countries, including former French interior minister Charles Pasqua, to oil allocation from Mr. Hussein. It says Mr. Pasqua was offered an allocation of 11 million barrels, though Mr. Pasqua denies any knowledge of the charge. Also Marc Rich, the fugitive commodities tycoon named in the Volcker report as having made millions in a corrupt oil-for-food kickback deal with Saddam Hussein,” and we know that Mrs. Rich contributed $450,000 to the Clinton Presidential Library and the Double-Wide Massage Parlor, and that is suspiciously timed with Marc Rich’s pardon, by Bill Clinton, and we also know that — well, it is said in the report that — the British Labor Party member, George Galloway, a hero to the American left, was also enriched mightily to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the kickback scheme. He has testified before a Senate committee on this, chaired by Norm Coleman of Minnesota, and Coleman says he’s committed perjury. Coleman says he lied about it according to the report, and they will want to talk to him further about this.
END TRANSCRIPT