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 A document obtained by ABCNEWS provides insight into how Saddam Hussein did business with friends and supporters. ABCNEWS.com |
Saddam’s Gifts
Document: Saddam Supporters Received Lucrative
Oil Contracts
By Brian Ross
ABCNEWS.com
Jan.
29— ABCNEWS
has obtained an extraordinary list that contains the names of prominent
people around the world who supported Saddam Hussein's regime and were
given oil contracts as a result.
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| All of the contracts were awarded
from late 1997 until the U.S.-led war in March 2003. They were conducted
under the aegis of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, which was
designed to allow Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods.
The document was discovered several weeks ago in the files of the Iraqi Oil Ministry in Baghdad. According to a copy obtained by ABCNEWS, some 270 prominent individuals, political parties or corporations in 47 countries were on a list of those given Iraq oil contracts instantly worth millions of dollars. Today, the U.S.Treasury Department said that any American citizens found to be illegally involved could face prosecution. "You are looking at a political slush fund that was buying political support for the regime of Saddam Hussein for the last six or seven years," said financial investigator John Fawcett. Investigators say none of the people involved would have actually taken possession of oil, but rather just the right to buy the oil at a discounted price, which could be resold to a legitimate broker or oil company, at an average profit of about 50 cents a barrel. Among those named: Indonesia President Megawati Sukarnoputri, an outspoken opponent of U.S.-Iraq policy, who received a contract for 10 million barrels of oil — about a $5 million profit. The son of the Syrian defense minister received 6 million barrels, according to the document, worth about $3 million. George Galloway, a British member of Parliament, was also on the list to receive 19 million barrels of oil, a $90.5 million profit. A vocal critic of the Iraq war, Galloway denied any involvement to ABCNEWS earlier this year. "I've never seen a bottle of oil, owned one or bought one," Galloway said in a previous interview with ABCNEWS. According to the document, France was the second-largest beneficiary, with tens of millions of barrels awarded to Patrick Maugein, a close political associate and financial backer of French President Jacques Chirac. Maugein, individually and through companies connected to him, received contracts for some 36 million barrels. Chirac's office said it was unaware of Maugein's deals, which Maugein told ABCNEWS are perfectly legal. The single biggest set of contracts were given to the Russian government and Russian political figures, more than 1.3 billion barrels in all — including 92 million barrels to individual officials in the office of President Vladimir Putin. Another 1 million barrels were contracted to the Russian ambassador to Baghdad, 137 million barrels of oil were given to the Russian Communist Party, and 5 million barrels were contracted to the Russian Orthodox Church. Also on the list are the names of prominent journalists, two Iraqi-Americans, and a French priest who organized a meeting between the pope and Tariq Aziz, Saddam's deputy prime minister. The following are the names of some of those who, according to the document, received Iraqi oil contracts (amounts are in millions of barrels of oil): Russia France Syria Turkey Indonesia Spain Yugoslavia Canada Italy United States United Kingdom South Africa Jordan Lebanon Egypt Palestinian Territories Qatar Libya Chad Brazil Myanmar (Burma) Ukraine |
