US Knew Saddam was Cheating OFF Program
By Victor Comras
The Oil for Food Scandal has been an open secret at least since early 2000. The latest revelations that the Bush Administration knew all along that Saddam was circumventing the oil for food program by shipping oil outside OFF controls to Jordan and through Syria and Turkey, should come as no surprise to anyone. This practice was well documented in numerous reports dating back to the last days of the Clinton Administration. Both Administrations had chosen to show a blind eye to oil shipments to Jordan for local consumption as a local economic necessity and the price to pay for Jordanian cooperation in controlling imports to Iraq. The Bush Adminstration also chose to acquiesce to the illicit oil trade run by the Kurds to Turkey. This also was ostensibly for local consumption. But, it is harder to understand why the Administration failed to stop Iraq from openly exporting oil outside the Oil for Food system via the Syria Kirkuk-Banias pipeline. That 552 mile long pipeline opened in November 2000, and reports began to surface of 140,000 to 150,000 bbl per day moving through the pipeline. There were some initial attempts to get Syria to place this pipeline under Oil for Food control, but they were largely abandoned in the summer of 2001 -- well before the 9/11 attacks. As for the Oil For Food scandal itself, the report put out in September 2002 by the Coalition for International Justice on the on the Sources of Revenue of Saddam and Sons remains very valuable reading. See also my own Editorial Shoving Saddam Back into his Box in the December 30,2001 edition of The Washington Post
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