BPSCG
28th April 2005, 10:19 AM
German companies are also involved in the kickback scandal looming over the oil for food program. United Nations investigators recently requested exports files on 50 German firms from the Foreign Ministry.
Between 1996 and the invasion of the American troops in spring 2003, Iraq was allowed to sell oil worth $64 billion. The money went into a UN trust account, and it was supposed to be used to pay for vital goods -- like food and medicines -- and old debt from the first Gulf war. Still, Iraq's ruling clique managed to skim approximately $20 billion off the top of that money -- filtering it into secret safes located in Iraq and abroad.
The numerous American, British, and French companies under investigation in the scandal are old news. The latest development, however, is that German industry has also come under the scrutiny of UN investigators. As far back as October, some of Volcker's staffers contacted Germany's Foreign Ministry in Berlin and submitted a list containing 50 German companies. According to government sources, that list "also included some very well-known companies."
Link (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,353585,00.html)
Twenty billion dollars skimmed off the top and sent into foreign bank accounts. Let's hear once more how Iraqi children were dying because the bad old U.S. was starving them and preventing them from getting medical care.
Between 1996 and the invasion of the American troops in spring 2003, Iraq was allowed to sell oil worth $64 billion. The money went into a UN trust account, and it was supposed to be used to pay for vital goods -- like food and medicines -- and old debt from the first Gulf war. Still, Iraq's ruling clique managed to skim approximately $20 billion off the top of that money -- filtering it into secret safes located in Iraq and abroad.
The numerous American, British, and French companies under investigation in the scandal are old news. The latest development, however, is that German industry has also come under the scrutiny of UN investigators. As far back as October, some of Volcker's staffers contacted Germany's Foreign Ministry in Berlin and submitted a list containing 50 German companies. According to government sources, that list "also included some very well-known companies."
Link (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,353585,00.html)
Twenty billion dollars skimmed off the top and sent into foreign bank accounts. Let's hear once more how Iraqi children were dying because the bad old U.S. was starving them and preventing them from getting medical care.