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to drew and all others with the same pathetic naive pro sadam opinion, i do not know whehter many of you are plain ignorant or you simply have not read the latest reports published in new york, they found that saddam hussain has indeed gained billions of dollars by the oil for food programme. what makes saddam wealthy are a number of factors, one of which is this!!! we are not assuming that saddam is making money, it is a fact that saddam and his baathist party are benefiting daily by selling the food in the black market in asia, s.e asia etc etc. now i am sure that those of us who actually doo want to help the cause of iraq will agree that and evil amn of his power, who has and remains to kill his own people, will do anything and everything in his power to gain all the funds he can for meeting his needs. so please next time a statement is made, i suggest it is thought about first... a very angry AB!! On Wed, 24 Nov 1999, Hamre, Drew wrote: > People sometimes assume that, because of Saddam Hussein's great wealth, he > *must* be diverting oil-for-food monies or otherwise bleeding humanitarian > resources from Iraq. In countering, it should be stressed that Saddam has > absolutely no access to OFF funds. Instead, as noted yesterday, Saddam can > resort to other sources of income including the oil futures market. > Ironically, nine years of sanctions have vested in Saddam a unique degree of > individual leverage over oil market prices, as evidenced by this past week's > fluctuations stemming from the Iraqi OFF announcement. > > This scenario is discussed in the following: > > a) http://www.ndu.edu/ndu/inss/books/sanctions/chapter1.html > Institute for National Strategic Studies "ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST > IRAQ (1990- )" > "Some oil traders (claimed) that Saddam and his entourage had also enriched > themselves by speculating in oil futures, manipulating the market to their > advantage by periodically sending false signals that they were about to > comply with Resolution 986. The prospect of a substantial increase in world > supply resulting from the sale of Iraqi oil would trigger a price drop in > oil futures, only for the price to soar up again, each time Saddam derailed > implementation of the oil-for-food program with another incident. > Reportedly, since the end of the Gulf War, Saddam had used $2 billion of his > covert income to build huge palaces for himself and his supporters." > > <Note: This article also cites Thomas L. Friedman, "Follow the Money," The > New York Times, 13 October 1996, E-13> > > b) http://www.slate.com/Gist/97-11-15/Gist.asp > Iraq Since the Gulf War by Franklin Foer > > c) "Unvanquished" by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Random House, 1999 > Page 209: "Some speculated that Saddam was playing this game (negotiating > oil-for-food) as a way to manipulate the world oil market. This was not > implausible. Whenver the oil-for-food talks were reported to go well, the > world market price of oil fell in anticipation of Iraqi oil coming onto the > market; when Saddam Hussein broke off talks, the price of oil rose ... I > did not, however, accept this theory. Saddam Hussein thinks of himself as a > romantic hero confronting the forces of evil. He is totally isolated and > shielded from hard information about world affairs." > > More generally, here's a great quote from BB-G concerning the Iraq sanctions > (also page 209): "Again we are confronted the fundamentally contradictory > character of sanctions: the innocent population suffers greatly but the > oppressive regime feels little or nothing, while the process only deepens > its control over the people." > > Regarding the reasons for the 2-week OFF turn down, a very believable (and > exasperated) explanation comes from Iraq's Ambassador Hasan in the report at > http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991123/bce.html : "What can you export in two > weeks? What kind of a distribution plan can you submit? What kind of > commodities can you bring to the country in two weeks? It's ridiculous to > extend it for two weeks this program with all of its complexities," Hasan > said. > > Regards, > Drew Hamre > Golden Valley, MN USA > > -- > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. > To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT > the whole list. Please do not send emails with attached files to the list > *** Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html *** > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Please do not send emails with attached files to the list *** Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html ***