Oil for Food Scams: Chalabi's version?
Josh Marshall posts at some length on this, yet again.
There has been a series of charges that senior UN officials, erstwhile allies of the U.S., and above all the perfidious French, profited from the oil-for-food program which was supposed to mitigate the effects of the sanctions in pre-invasion Iraq. The idea is that people who claim to be lecturing G.W. Bush about international law were previously stealing food from starving Iraqi children in order to keep living high at the Ritz or some such place.
Marshall reminds us that we really seem to be hearing only the Ahmed Chalabi version of this story. Chalabi, as far as we know, has refused to share what he says are the key documents with anyone in authority, and he has refused to cooperate with the UN investigation led by Paul Volcker. Yet we keep hearing the Chalabi version with no debate or qualifications--even though Chalabi is a proven liar and fraud.
Republicans in Congress seem to be repeating Chalabi news releases with absolutely no scepticism. Same with Instapundit. This has all come up now as a "new" but backward-looking justification for invading Iraq in March 2003. Good heavens: Saddam was practicing corruption; some of the western allies who are supposed to be Boy Scouts were not; so Uncle "Dudley Do-Right" Sam had to step in. This has to come to the forefront now, of course, because there were, er, no weapons, and no link to Al Qaeda.
Marshall, to his credit, pretty much sticks to raising good questions.
There's a separate question about why U.S. firms on the list aren't being identified, only foreigners. But, setting that aside, has any independent body yet reviewed those documents? And if not, why are they being given such credence considering Chalabi's record as a convicted criminal, forger of documents, producer of phony intelligence and, in all likelihood, someone who passed on American intelligence to Iran?
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