According to Fox News, these two countries are the big winners… so far… in the great Oil-for-Food rake off (one of the recipients is a Saudi Mercedes dealership – talk about your clichés.)
The list of the foreign companies approved by Saddam, obtained exclusively by FOX News, spells out that Russian and Saudi Arabian companies were the big winners in the scheme, which was beset by bribes and kickbacks.
As of now the French are not heavily in evidence. But it may be too early to break out the Bordeaux. This is a first pass and many of these companies are evidently fronts. Maybe the Los Angeles Times can start to make amends for their biased coverage of Bremer’s departure speech by putting some of its investigative reporters on the Oil-for-Food Scandal to figure this out. Or is that just not important enough?
UPDATE: Something just occurred to me. If a fair number of those Saudi companies were under Wahhabi management, that means the UN Oil-for-Food Program could have been financing Al Qaeda in large numbers. Now that’s a scary thought.
According to the July 6 http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/26818.htm NYPost, “Transcripts of secret U.N. Security Council sessions show that U.S. and British diplomats were constantly thwarted by their French, Russian and Chinese counterparts while investigating Saddam Hussein’s dirty deals under the oil-for-food program. . . and, at times, Syria”
If it weren’t for Claudia Rosett, Fox, the NYPost and you, Roger, this story would never even see the light of day.
MK is experiencing cognitive dissonance. Kerry’s selection of John Edwards is an indication of his intention of abandoning the GWOT and with it Iraq and Afghanistan in favor a French-like appeasement/buy off strategy for dealing with Islamic fundamentalists. Kaus is rationalizing his support for the creation of a Eurosocialist society by proclaiming that its time for a pause. What he is really expression is his desire to call the GWOT a success and get us back to the process of being good socialists. In his heart he knows this is a lie but cannot bring himself to vote for a Republican. MK is exhibiting the common infantile traits that make one a progressive. He is wishing something to be true so he can resume the life he wants.
oops…still adjusting to the new system…I posted to the wrong thread…
Wow. Your “Wahhabi Connection” idea is very interesting indeed. Good eye, Roger.
I hate this new A with diacritical hate coming before my ©
I had some interesting comments on Afghanistan, the Embassy, the US itself (?) jettisoning Fox from the satellite in favor of Al Jazeera, Euronews, BBC World (“we hate America 24/7)
When posting it said I wasn’t signed in. But I was!
So lost commentary, but you get the general drift.
3:30 AM and the blast of call for prayers is about to shatter the peace–alarming the millions of dogs in Kabul to begin barking til 7 AM.
Sorry for taking up bandwidth. Just seeing how painless the new system is. Actually, perhaps I do have an OT comment/question/request for Roger. Numbered comments are really nice for the back and forth. Thanks
Jerry,
It was a good post even if it was the wrong thread. Logins apparently time out (not a feature beloved by long-winded and dull-witted commenters like, well, some people.
I’ll echo the others above, Roger. Thanks for staying on top of this. It really is a sign of of the disgrace the MSM has become. Re: the possibility Saudi/Wahabbi connection funding AQ – as we baseball fans are apt to say “Nice pick!”
Just discovered something while composing an essay for my site: The “Big Dig”, a Boston federally funded nightmare, is a bigger scandal than oil for food by 12bil to 10bil. Same dynamics: no media coverage; in fact PBS did a one hour puff peace lavishing praise on the environmental wonder. Involved are all the usual Left icons: Democrats, unions, and local race politics. When big Federal Projects begin fuhgedaboudit.