Oil-for-Food Program Hearings
The Oil-for-Food Program Hearings were held by the U.S Senate
In December 2004, the subcommittee's chairman Senator
In May 2005, the subcommittee held the hearings on their investigation of abuses of the program, including oil smuggling, illegal kickbacks and use of surcharges, and
U.S. oil company Bayoil was among the corporations investigated by the committee,
Alleged US corporate complicity
It has also been alleged that the American government was aware of the scandal and chose to not prevent the smuggling because their allies Turkey and Jordan benefited from the majority of the smuggled oil. US Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) is quoted in an interview for the New York Times as saying, "There is no question that the bulk of the illicit oil revenues came from the open sale of Iraqi oil to Jordan and to Turkey, and that that was a way of going around the Oil-for-Food Programme [and that] we were fully aware of the bypass and looked the other way."[3]
Galloway testimony
"We have your name on Iraqi documents, some prepared before the fall of Saddam, some after, that identify you as one of the allocation holders," Senator Coleman accused MP Galloway in May 2005. "I am not now nor have I ever been an oil trader" retorted Galloway, stating that the charges were false and part of a diversionary "mother of all smoke screens" by pro-Iraq-War U.S. politicians to deflect attention from the "theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth... on your watch" that had occurred not during the Oil-for-Food program but under the post-invasion Coalition Provisional Authority by "Halliburton and other American corporations... with the connivance of your own government." Galloway claimed that the subcommittee's dossier was full of distortions and rudimentary mistakes, citing, for example, the charge that he had met with Saddam Hussein "many times" when the number was two.[4] This unusual appearance of a British MP before a US Senate committee drew much media attention in both America and Britain.[5]
The Majority Staff of the subcommittee prepared a subsequent report pertaining to Galloway, which was released in October, 2005. It elaborated on allegations and evidence of the committee and included disputed None saw fit to pursue charges.
Australian Wheat Board Involvement
The subcommittee considered and may have done some preliminary work to investigate
Indictments and conviction
On January 6, 2006,
On January 16, 2007, former UN official
See also
- Australia's Cole Inquiry
References
- ^ "10-28-2005 - Levin to Release Report on Bayoil Diversions of Iraqi Oil and U.S. And U.N. Oversight Failures : Senator Carl Levin: News Release". Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved September 9, 2010. Levin to Release Report on Bayoil Diversions
- ^ Texas Oil Executive and Two Corporations Sentenced
- ^ U.S. pegged for leaky Iraq oil sanctions | The San Diego Union-Tribune
- ^ Galloway tongue-lashes Coleman; committee documents show Bush political friends and family paid Oil-for-Food kickbacks to Saddam Hussein — Online Journal 5/21/05
- ^ Media react to blistering hearing — BBC News 5/17/05
- ^ Aziz denies naming British MP in oil probe — ABC News Online 10/30/05
- ^ Report Concerning the Testimony of George Galloway Before the Permanent Cubcommittee on Investigations — Majority Staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 10/25/05 Archived March 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ UN team links more oil cash to Galloway wife's bank account — Times Online 10/28/05
- ^ Department of Justice to investigate George Galloway 10/30/05
- ^ Galloway hit by US criminal investigation — news.scotsman.com 10/29/05
- ^ Inquiry into certain Australian companies in relation to the UN Oil-For-Food Programme — Australian Attorney General's Department 11/10/05 Archived June 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Revealed: ambassador tried to kill US hunt for AWB bribes. Sydney Morning Herald. 1 February, 2006.
- ^ Coleman criticized for wheat-scandal silence. Blog reprint of Star Tribune article. 7 June, 2006. Archived July 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Bush: Aziz 'still doesn't know how to tell the truth'". pub. 2003-05-03. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
Howard backed Bush in the Iraq war despite sharp opposition at home, and the president was paying off the IOU by playing host on his Texas ranch."
- ^ "Korean arrested on oil-for-food scandal charges". NBC News. January 6, 2006.
- ^ "Korean businessman guilty in oil-for-food case". NBC News. The Associated Press. July 13, 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- ^ Lynch, Colum (February 23, 2007). "Park Sentenced to 5 Years in U.N. Oil-for-Food Bribery Scandal". The Washington Post. No. 80. pp. A–11.
- ^ Colum Lynch (January 17, 2007). "Former U.N. Oil-for-Food Chief Indicted". The Washington Post.