Saddam oil-food gains doubled

The Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein skimmed $21.3 billion from the United Nations oil-for-food program, nearly twice the amount of previous U.S. estimates, according to a Senate investigation.

“The magnitude of fraud perpetrated by Saddam Hussein in contravention of U.N. sanctions and the oil-for-food program is staggering,” said Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican and chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations.

Mr. Coleman disclosed the new figure of $21.3 billion over 11 years obtained from the U.N. humanitarian program at a subcommittee hearing yesterday. He said the conclusion was based on documents and on interviews conducted by the subcommittee’s Republican staff.

The subcommittee investigators found that Saddam used the cash to pay off foreign politicians, businessmen, journalists and possibly even terrorist organizations through an elaborate scheme that allowed friends of the Iraqi dictator to sell oil at inflated prices and pocket large commissions.

Mr. Coleman said the question still being investigated by the panel is “how high up does the corruption go” within the United Nations.

“The extent to which U.N. officials personally benefited from Saddam’s influence peddling has not been fully explored,” Mr. Coleman said. “We need substantially greater cooperation from the United Nations to answer these and other questions.”

The world body so far has refused requests from the subcommittee to provide witnesses and detailed information on U.N. audits that could shed light on the corruption.

The CIA-led Iraqi Survey Group, in a report made public last month, said Saddam obtained $10.9 billion from the program and used some of that revenue to buy weapons.

The subcommittee probe found that most of the $21.3 billion was obtained through $13.6 billion in oil smuggling, $241 million in surcharges on oil purchases; $4.4 billion from kickbacks on purchases of humanitarian goods, and $2.21 billion from skimming profits on purchases of substandard humanitarian goods that were bought abroad at inflated prices.

Mr. Coleman said Saddam’s use of oil vouchers — permits that allowed people and companies to buy Iraqi oil — rescued his regime from collapse.

The Iraqis also used the cash from the program to buy missiles, dual-use military goods and munitions, Mr. Coleman said.

Charles A. Duelfer, the director of the CIA survey group, told the subcommittee that Saddam used money from the oil-for-food program to buy influence at the United Nations, seeking to end sanctions that had been imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

“The infusion of funding allowed Iraq to begin efforts to refurbish conventional military capabilities, among other things, such as palace construction,” Mr. Duelfer said. “In 2000, we found Saddam made a decision to invigorate his long-range ballistic-missile programs. This was directly keyed to the availability of resources and material and expertise, in spite of sanctions.”

The three major beneficiaries of the oil-for-food voucher scheme were Russia, China and France, which received 30 percent, 15 percent and 10 percent of the vouchers, respectively, Mr. Duelfer said.

Mark L. Greenblatt, a counsel for the Senate panel, testified that the money obtained from the program funded terrorists.

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