Saddam Hussein profited roughly 1B by taking funds from UN program
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
WASHINGTON — Investigators said that Saddam Hussein diverted money from the Oil-for-Food Program to pay millions of dollars to families of suicide bombers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who carried out attacks on Israeli civilians.
Paul Volcker, a former American official investigating the diverted funds scandal, has taken some heat from advocates demanding that he haul United Nations personnel before the US Congress. His reason for not subjecting them to this degree of open scrutiny is that it would have the perverse effect of pushing them into refusing to cooperate with the investigation at all. He plans to release documentary evidence early next year, when his investigation is complete.
Sources
- Ken Guggenheim for Associated Press. "House Panel Questions Role of French Bank" — redOrbit, November 18, 2004