The Guardian's Tuesday edition is topped by a report, apparently leaked by Democratic Senate staffers, that shows the Bush administration turned a blind eye to much more oil-for-food mad money for Saddam than anything the Norm Coleman brigate has alleged against French, British and Russian politicians and Kofi Annan's family members.
A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.
The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua.
In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.
"The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions
and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions," the report said. "On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales.
(Not surprisingly, a Texas firm is right in the middle of this one, indictments and all). Shall we hold our breath awaiting the reaction of the right wing blogosphere? And I'll wager the only cable news show that even touches this story tomorrow will be Olbermann's... |
