There are a great many Republicans out there who are incensed that we aren't talking more about Saddam Hussein's corruption of the Oil for Food program, since his circumvention of oil sanctions was yet another of the ostensible reasons we had to launch a preemptive war. So, fine, let's discuss. From the Houston Chronicle:
Panel says BayOil key in Saddam scheme
By David Ivanovich
WASHINGTON - Houston's BayOil (USA) was the "puppeteer" in a scheme to help Russian politicians profit illegally from the United Nations' oil-for-food program and pay kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime, Senate investigators say.
The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations contends the trading firm, led by Houston's David Chalmers Jr., played a key role in helping Saddam curry favor with Russian leaders. At the time, Saddam was trying to win friends on the U.N. Security Council.
"They are involved in Iraqi oil from soup to nuts," a Senate investigator said. [...]
BayOil, hoping to get some Iraqi oil, contacted several Russian companies, Senate investigators say. Bulgarian-born Dionissiev, the investigators said, was "well-known to the Russian oil industry."
In December 1998, BayOil signed an agreement to purchase Zhirinovsky's crude, the subcommittee said. Zhirinovsky informed Aziz of the deal, and he objected. The Iraqis were not doing business with American firms.
So BayOil found a Russian agent, called Nafta Moscow or Nafta Moskva.
To facilitate a transaction, Chalmers coached Zhirinovsky on the language he should use in a letter to BayOil, according to one of the panel's reports.
Dionissiev, meanwhile, advised Nafta Moskva how to negotiate with the Iraqis.
"BayOil is orchestrating this whole thing," one investigator said. Another dubbed the company "the puppeteer."
This has been your Iraq Oil-For-Food fact for the day.
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