The Treasury Department provided assurances that the United States would not obstruct two companies' plans to import millions of barrels of oil from Iraq in March 2003 in violation of U.N. sanctions, according to an e-mail from one of the companies.Okay...there is new stuff and some old stuff here.
Diplomats and oil brokers have recently said that the United States had long turned a blind eye to illicit shipments of Iraqi oil by its allies Jordan and Turkey. The United States acknowledged this week that it had acquiesced in the trade to ensure that crucial allies would not suffer economic hardships.
But the e-mail, along with others released this week by Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs panel's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, provides evidence that the Bush administration directly abetted Jordan's efforts to build up its strategic reserves with smuggled Iraqi oil in the weeks before the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003.
The illicit oil exports took place outside the Iraq oil-for-food program, which the United Nations administered from 1996 to 2003. While allegations of corruption and mismanagement in that program are under investigation by five congressional committees, the Justice Department and a U.N.-appointed panel, the illicit oil exports outside the program have received less scrutiny. According to investigators, Iraq received more revenue from those exports than from the alleged oil-for-food kickbacks.
Let's start with the old stuff...we all know the Clinton administration turned a blind eye towards Jordan and Turkey...and it appears that the Bush administration did the same thing in the run up to the war. We've covered that material before and what it all means.
The new stuff: Apparently, there was a transaction in which the Treasury Department allowed a shipment involving two companies, one is Jordanian the other is American, to move some oil in violation of sanctions. The American company, from Connecticut, was hired by the Jordanian company to move the oil by tanker.
Let's jump in to the way back machine for a minute. This event takes place in March of 2003 before the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003. An email places this transaction as getting approval from an official in the Treasury Department prior to March 3, 2003. It appears the author tried to contact this official, but declined to name her.
Paul O'Neil, who later wrote a lame book trashing the Bush administration (much to the delight of liberals everywhere) had just left in January of 2003. John Snow was nominated in mid-January, confirmed on the 30th of that month and was sworn in to office on February 3, 2003. It isn't likely that Snow knew anything about this. But we're left with what did the liberal lover, Paul O'Neil know and when did he know it? And who is this official that okayed the transfer?
It appears, in the second to last paragraph, that Jordan was under the impression that the had a "blanket cover" from the UN to make these deals anyway. Why would they think that?
More questions...fewer answers...the investigation continues. Notice there is little to no mention of the UN or its officials through much of this article.
Mark's Remarks
There are indeed more questions than answers. I tend to think that this was another case of officials taking matters into their own hands. Just as Richard Clarke unilaterally decided on his own to ship out bin Laden's family, only to later blame it on Bush (despite documents showing it went no further than Clarke), this could very well be a case where O'Neill and others were acting on their own.
However, the jury remains out.
I think it is an attempt to take heat off of Koffi and the boys at the UN. However, unlike the UN, I am sure that there will be a proper investigation and appropriate actions taken, which will be more than just a memo.
