Doug Ose: “I do not know of anything in my few years here that even begins to rival the complexity or the obvious opportunities…”

“I do not know of anything in my few years here that even begins to rival the complexity or the obvious opportunities that existed in this so-called Oil-for-Food Program set up by the United Nations. I want to go back and just kind of visit as to the genesis of the Oil-for-Food Program. If my colleagues recall, after the Gulf War, we imposed sanctions on Iraq hoping that those sanctions, in fact, would bring the Hussein regime down. Over time, the caloric intake for the people of Iraq, men, women and children, still stuck there under the regime of Hussein was reduced to about 1,200 or 1,300 calories a day. The United Nations, in its wisdom, after significant input from any number of the member states, decided to undertake a program, the objective of which would be to raise the average daily caloric intake for the folks who lived in Iraq under the same regime. Interestingly enough, the first time the U.N. proposed this, Iraq declined the opportunity. It was only after the second time that the U.N. proposed this that Iraq undertook to participate in this; and it was, frankly, a pretty clever scheme.”