A Rich Scandal

Now we learn that a federal grand jury is investigating whether Marc Rich, pardoned by Bill Clinton on his last day in office, helped Saddam Hussein cheat American taxpayers -- and Iraqi children -- through the oil-for-food scandal. Rich was sixth on the Justice Department's outstanding fugitives list at the time of his pardon; he fled the U.S. for Switzerland in 1983.

Worse, since Saddam paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers for their efforts to kill Jews, Rich might have helped this blood money find its mark. Today's Washington Times reports:

"Can we legitimately speculate that some of the blood money Saddam paid to kill people in Israel may have originated or at least been touched by Marc Rich through the United Nations' dreadful oil-for-food program?" said a source close to the probe. "We know Saddam Hussein was getting a rake off from the U.N. program and Rich was in the middle of that."

Only a few news outlets have updated stories on Rich: the above-cited Washington Times, Men's News Daily, and ABC News. The New York Post has played a large role in breaking the news, and others have followed.

So now comes the question of Bill Clinton's knowledge of Rich's involvement in the Iraq scam. There has never been a satisfactory explanation for the presidential pardon, and Clinton's record of corruption hardly allays questions of whether or not he personally benefited from Rich's actions.

For answers, I'll be looking to the Post (the one in New York), the Times (the one in Washington), and other right-of-center outlets.