Tuesday, May 17, 2005 PHOTOS VIDEO STORIES BACKGROUND WASHINGTON  Saddam Hussein ( search ) and his government bribed Russian officials, paying them millions of dollars in Iraqi oil allocations, as part of the Oil-for-Food program, a congressional investigation concluded. The payments were made so that Iraq could buy support for lifting sanctions against Iraq in the U.N. Security Council, former Saddam officials told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (search) investigations subcommittee. Saddam's vice president, Taha Yasin Ramadan (search), told investigators that the allocations were "compensation for support," according to one of two reports released Monday. Click here to read the report about Iraqi oil allocations to the Russian presidential council (pdf). The Senate subcommittee holds a hearing Tuesday into the allegations that Saddam spread billions in bribes and kickbacks to buy support in Russia and other governments around the globe. The hearing will examine Saddam's use of oil vouchers, which allowed the bearer to buy Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices and could be sold for a profit. Saddam also demanded kickbacks from the oil transactions. ADVERTISEMENTS "This is the way Saddam used oil-for-food to line his own pocket and to curry political favor," said subcommittee chairman Norm Coleman, R-Minn. Russia's foreign ministry declined comment on the reports. It said it would be "unethical to make any statements" until a U.N.-appointed commission investigating the Oil-for-Food (search) program releases its third and likely final report this summer. The Senate investigators said their interviews and documents from the former Iraqi government add to evidence in previous probes linking Russian officials to abuses in the $64 billion U.N. program. It was designed to permit Saddam to sell some oil and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian items. Among the officials implicated are Alexander Voloshin, former chief of staff to President Vladimir Putin, and ultranationalist Russian lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Zhirinovsky denied wrongdoing. He told Ekho Moskvy radio that he never received money from Iraq or from companies that bought oil from Saddam Hussein's government. Click here to read the report about Iraqi oil allocations to Vladimir Zhirinovsky (pdf). Mikhail Troyansky, deputy chief of Foreign Ministry's information department, said Russia has cooperated with the U.N. commission's investigation, which is led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Documents released by Coleman's subcommittee last week claimed former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and British politician George Galloway also accepted allocations, charges both men deny. Galloway has said he will appear at Tuesday's hearing to defend himself. He was flying to Washington on Monday. In Paris, Pasqua said he was caught up in the crossfire of what he described as an American campaign against France. "I have never been to Iraq, I have never met Saddam Hussein. I have never received anything from the Iraqis, in any domain," he said at a news conference. He said he is ready "when the time comes" to talk to the U.S. Senate committee. Coleman said he has not reached any conclusion about whether U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan should have been aware of the abuses of vouchers, but the senator renewed his call for Annan to resign. "It's a matter of accountability," he said. The latest report by the subcommittee deals with allocations given to Zhirinovsky, Voloshin and Sergey Issakov, an aide to Voloshin. Investigators said they interviewed 16 former Iraqi officials, but they identified only Ramadan and Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister. The report said the Russian Presidential Council, led by Voloshin, received allocations worth more than $16 million, according to Iraq's oil ministry. The subcommittee said Zhirinovsky got allocations worth $8.7 million. On six occasions, investigators said, he sold allotments to the Texas oil company Bayoil, whose owner, David B. Chalmers, has been indicted on charges related to the oil-for-food scandal. The panel's report said about 30 percent of the oil sold in the oil-for-food program was allocated to Russia, even though Russia is an oil-exporting country. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Following accusations issued by the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), British Member of Parliament George Galloway and Senator Charles Pasqua of France  have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

'''George Galloway''' declared:

''I've now had a chance to read the report which was compiled without this Senate committee asking me a single question about these absurd allegations. I repeat once more. I have never traded or benefited from any oil deals with Iraq.''

''One of the companies named, with ostensible links to me-- Aredio Petroleum-- I have never heard of until today and I have certainly had no dealings with. The other company, Middle East Advanced Semiconductors, was owned by Fawaz Zureikat, who was the chairman of the Mariam Appeal. It is well-known that Mr Zureikat traded with Iraq but he did not do so on my behalf. I have not received a penny piece or any oil voucher from Iraq, directly or indirectly.''

''You would have thought that natural justice would have demanded that these allegations would have-- must have been!-- put to me, but they haven't been. Senator Joseph McCarthy would have been proud of this committee.''


On May 17, Galloway appeared before the U.S. senatorial panel and vehemently denied any wrongdoing in a tone seldom used in a senatorial hearing. He accused the U.S. administration of creating a "smoke screen" to divert attention away from the situation in Iraq. He also declared, "The biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own government." 

Galloway denied receiving any money out of the scheme.  Galloway demanded, "What counts is, where's the money, senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars? The answer to that is nobody," while glaring toward U.S. senator Norm Coleman (Republican from Minnesota), according to a New York Times report.

Galloway also accused the US senators, especially senator Coleman, of shoddy standards of justice.  He claimed they have already ruled him guilty, and that they rely on dubious evidence and wrongful or coerced testimonies. 

Galloway declared:
''You have my name on lists provided to you... by the convicted bank robber and fraudster and con man Ahmed Chalabi, who many people, to their credit, in your country now realize played a decisive role in leading your country into the disaster in Iraq.''
''In these circumstances, knowing what the world knows about how you treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison1, in Bagram Air Base Afghanistan, in Guantanamo Bay -- including, if I may say, British citizens being held in those places -- I'm not sure how much credibility anyone would put on anything you manage to get from a prisoner in those circumstances.''
1. Alluding to the acknowledged Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse.

'''Charles Pasqua''' also denies any personal wrongdoing in the case.  Pasqua indicated that he was "serene" and that he hoped the investigations by the U.S. Senate would probe the matter to the bottom. 

Pasqua judged the situation detrimental to relationships between the United States and France.  For this reason, Pasqua declared that he had asked the president of the French Senate for the creation of an investigation commission, wishing that the French and U.S. senatorial commissions should collaborate.

Pasqua declared himself convinced that misconduct took place in the oil-for-food program, and that it was probable that some French people were involved.  He then wished that they should be sought and prosecuted. "If one wants to find the origin of the financial streams, one can do so."  Pasqua mentioned the Swiss company Genmar, which the U.S. report claims to have served as Pasqua's intermediary.

Pasqua denied information presented as facts in the report.  For instance, he denied having met Tariq Aziz, former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq.

Pasqua pointed out that nothing in the senatorial evidence indicates that he had benefited from vouchers, only that one of his former advisers, Bernard Guillet, had received oil allocations in his name. From December 2000 onwards, allocations meant for Pasqua ceased and were replaced by allocations to Bernard Guillet.  

Guillet was arrested by French authorities in April in connection with abuses under the oil-for-food program. Mr Guillet has been put under formal investigation for allegedly participating in a system of occult kickbacks and fees between 1996 and 2001 involving major French companies, including Total. He is suspected of having received amounts of money without good explanation from an intermediary specialized in the resale of Iraqi oil.