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| Iraq-Jordan |
| IRAQ'S OIL FOR TERROR |
| 2004-10-17 |
| October 17th, New York Post, 2004 -- Saddam Hussein secretly bankrolled a notorious Palestinian terrorist group with $72 million worth of vouchers from the U.N.'s corrupt oil-for-food program, according to a bombshell new report. The former dictator funded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine through a Syrian business front, the Scotsman newspaper reported, citing records uncovered by investigators in Iraq. It could be one of the strongest links yet of Saddam's ties to known terrorists. Thousands of documents handed over to authorities by a former Iraqi oil minister, include a paper trail showing that the scheme to give money from oil vouchers to the PFLP was carried out in full. U.S. officials have long accused Saddam of financial dealings with the PFLP, but up until now they were unable to prove it. Saddam used a Syrian company, Awad Ammora & Partners, as a conduit to give vouchers for two million barrels of oil — about $72 million worth — to the PFLP, the newspaper said. The PLFP first made its mark during the 1970 "Black September" hijackings. Its members commandeered, evacuated, then blew up four planes bound for New York — three in Jordan and one in Cairo. Two years later the PFLP hijacked a plane in Israel in a terror bid that left 24 people dead. More recently, the shadowy group launched a rocket attack on an Israeli kibbutz and set off several car bombings aimed at Israeli officials. The United Nations oil-for-food program, which ran from December 1996 until last November, allowed Saddam Hussein's regime to ease the burden of international sanctions by selling oil to buy humanitarian supplies. The program is now being probed by a number of agencies, including Congress, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, and a special U.N. investigative team headed by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. The scandal-scarred head of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, is among the names that turned up on lists of officials who received the vouchers, according to published reports. He has denied any wrongdoing. Saddam is also suspected of bribing politicians and officials in France and Russia, two key opponents of the war in Iraq. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |