From the New York Post:
American officials believe that millions of dollars Saddam Hussein skimmed from the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food program are now being used to help fund the bloody rebel campaign against U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government, The Post has learned.
U.S. intelligence officials and congressional investigators said last night that the "oil-for-insurgency link" has been recently unearthed in the numerous probes now under way into the giant U.N. humanitarian program, in which Saddam is believed to have pocketed $10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers.
Congressional investigators have uncovered hundreds of documents in recent weeks that detail how top officials in Saddam's regime directed companies bidding on contracts for oil or humanitarian goods to pay "after-sales fees" — or kickbacks — of up to 10 percent of each contract.
The documents, which come from Iraqi government files and were handed over to the congressional committees in recent weeks, reveal that the companies were ordered to wire the kickback money into secret bank accounts the regime operated outside Iraq — separate from the legitimate bank accounts being used by the oil-for-food program.
Investigators have traced some of these accounts to banks in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Belarus, where money was either laundered or converted into gold and routed back to Iraq or into other accounts.
The network of bankers, front companies, couriers and money-launderers involved in handling Saddam's oil-for-food kickback schemes still appears to be active, investigators say.
Matt's Chat
Just remember folks, John Kerry wanted the UN to run Iraq. He wants the US armed forces deployed throughout the world at the discretion of this pathetic organization.And we are still paying for Oil-for-Food with our nation's finest...
