UN Oil-For-Terrorism Program

NY Post

American officials believe that millions of dollars Saddam Hussein skimmed from the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food program are now being used to help fund the bloody rebel campaign against U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government, The Post has learned.
U.S. intelligence officials and congressional investigators said last night that the “oil-for-insurgency link” has been recently unearthed in the numerous probes now under way into the giant U.N. humanitarian program, in which Saddam is believed to have pocketed $10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers.
[…]
Investigators have traced some of these accounts to banks in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Belarus, where money was either laundered or converted into gold and routed back to Iraq or into other accounts.
The network of bankers, front companies, couriers and money-launderers involved in handling Saddam’s oil-for-food kickback schemes still appears to be active, investigators say.
U.S. intelligence officials believe a portion of the funds in these hidden accounts � possibly millions� is now being used to fund the Ba’athist guerrillas responsible for much of the postwar violence against coalition troops, sources said.

Yet another justification to charge Kofi Annan with war crimes.
hat tip – James Joyner

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