Christopher Shays: “From its inception in 1996, the United Nations Oil-for-Food program was susceptible to political manipulation and…”

“From its inception in 1996, the United Nations Oil-for-Food program was susceptible to political manipulation and financial corruption. Trusting Saddam Hussein to exercise sovereign control over billions of dollars of oil sales and commodity purchases invited illicit premiums and kickback schemes now coming to light. But there is still much that is not known about the details for the Oil-for-Food transactions and that is why our committee and other committees of Congress are investigating. This much we know, something went wrong. Saddam Hussein's regime reaped an estimated $10.1 billion from this program, $5.7 in smuggling oil and $4.4 in oil surcharges and kickbacks on humanitarian purchases through the Oil-for-Food program. There was just simply no innocent explanation for this. We want the State Department and the intelligence community and the U.N. to know there has to be a full accounting of all Oil-for-Food transactions even if that unaccustomed degree of transparency embarrasses some members of the Security Council.”