The UN and Saddam, Again

In the event you're not a subscriber to Commentary, the most thorough investigation of the UN's Oil-for-Food Program, and its use to corrupt governments, UN personnel, and others is Claudia Rosett's article in the April issue. She explains, in great detail, how the UN and Saddam worked together to create an almost foolproof scheme for lining pockets. The more money from oil that Saddam could produce, the more the Secretariate received in return. Thus, under the cover of aiding Iraq's suffering citizens, Saddam and his co-conspirators in the UN and other countries were grew richer and richer.

As Rosett explains:

"Unlike most of its relief programs, in which both the cost of the relief itself and UN overhead were paid for by contributions from member states, Oil-for-Food would in every respect be funded entirely out of Saddam’s oil revenues. The UN Secretariat would collect a 2.2-percent commission on every barrel of Iraqi oil sold, plus 0.8 percent to pay for UN weapons inspections in Iraq."

"If the aim of this provision was to make Saddam bear the cost of his own obstinacy, the effect was to create a situation in which the UN Secretariat was paid handsomely, on commission, by Saddam—to supervise Saddam. And the bigger Oil-for-Food got, the bigger the fees collected by Annan’s office. Over the seven years of the program, oil sales ultimately totaled some $65 billion. On the spending side, the UN says $46 billion went for aid to Iraq, and $18.2 billion was paid out as compensation to victims of Saddam’s 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait. As for commissions to the Secretariat, these ran to about $1.9 billion, of which $1.4 billion was earmarked for administrative overhead for the humanitarian program (the UN says it turned over $300 million of this to help pay for relief, but no public accounting has ever been given) and another $500 million or so for weapons inspections in Iraq. Discrepancies in these numbers can be chalked up to interest paid on some of the funds, exchange-rate fluctuations, or simply the murk in which most of the Oil-for-Food transactions remain shrouded to this day."

As many of us have asked before, and as Rosett asks in her concluding sentence, "And is this the same United Nations that, now, we are planning to entrust with bringing democracy to Iraq?"