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The USA's Role in the Oil-for-Food Program
From Harpers Magazine, an article by Joy Gordon, a professor of philosophy at Fairfield University who is completing a book about sanctions on Iraq. ..... The Oil for Food Programme was not some concoction of Kofi Annan's. It was created by a vote of the members of the Security Council. And every aspect of how the program ran -— what goods were allowed, the monitoring procedures, the transfer of funds, everything -- was explicitly established by the members of the Security Council. Kofi Annan did not have a vote; but the United States and Britain did, and they approved of every resolution and decision that determined how the Oil for Food Programme worked. Whatever critics may say, "the U.N. bureaucracy" did not design a program that handed over cash to Saddam Hussein. The fifteen members of the Security Council -- of which the United States was by far the most influential -- determined how income from oil proceeds would be handled, and what the funds could be used for. The U.N.'s personnel operating the Oil for Food Programme did not set these policies. They simply executed the program that was designed by the members of the Security Council. .... Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2005-01-03 |
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