FPF: US, Britain and the Dutch share blame for oil smuggling

Annan: U.S., Britain share blame for Saddam Hussein's illicit oil funds

Annan's comments were part of a vigorous defense
of the United Nations against recent media attacks.

by Henk Ruyssenaars

FPF - the Netherlands - May 5th 2005 - According to a story today by the american newspeak service Associated Press ''U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said [today] Thursday that the United States and Britain are partly to blame for Iraq making billions of dollars in illicit money from smuggling oil.

Annan said the Americans and the British could have stopped the smuggling but did not, and most of the money Saddam Hussein made illegally when his
country was under U.N. sanctions in the 1990s was from smuggling oil, not from kickbacks under the U.N. oil-for-food program.

"They were the ones who had interdiction, possibly they were also the ones who knew exactly what was going on, and the countries themselves decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan because they were allies," Annan said."

The UN Secretary General is is not only right in his observations: he's also wanted "Dead or Alive" by many in the US neocon establishment, especially since he openly in a BBC interview said that ''the war in Iraq is illegal''. [http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v] - Annan's endangered position - where his nephew is accused and as such used by Bolton-like 'psyop spooks' to get at him - is similar to the position of the head of the UN's nuclear
control department IAEA and all flak aimed at him and his inspectors.

BOLTON THE BULLDOZER

The by the US strongly criticized ElBaradei is being forced out by any method thinkable of. He doesn't want to tag along US/Israeli war mongers lines and confirm that the by the IAEA daily inspected Iran plans some nuclear bombs. That's why he's got to go, and Bolton will be Bush's bulldozer, shoveling all forms of decent humanity out of the UN's windows.

It is an in the Netherlands well known fact that the dutch armed forces, especially the navy, since many years daily assists the US/Israeli intelligence services of all armed branches. Including NSA, SSB and CIA. The dutch ministry of defense squanders hundreds of millions of the unknowing dutch taxpayers money on assisting the illegal US occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Dutch special Forces with 'licenses to kill' take part in in what a dutch MP (Koenders) in a rare moment of honesty called: ''those american 'Kill and Destroy' actions''.

Dutch submarines like the Walrus [http://tinyurl.com/bv8q4 - the 'Dommelsch beer' commercial is OK] have been gathering intelligence in the Arabian Sea (a.k.a. Persian Gulf) for decades, and dutch P-3C Orion 'spy planes' have been in action in the area as long as one remembers. As well as other dutch submarines and many surface ships taking part in the illegal* war, gathering intelligence for the US. An unwanted service, paid for by the dutch taxpayers who suffer from the inaction of cowardly journalists and their media managers.

The Dutch ministry of war describes* the (illegal) taking part in the US war and surveillance by one of the dutch surface ships as follows: 06-08-2005 - HNLMS Van Galen resumes Enduring Freedom patrols - ''After a short visit to Muskat, Oman, the navy frigate HNLMS Van Galen has resumed its patrols in the waters around the Arabian peninsula. The frigate has been patrolling in
the area since 1 June as part of the fight against international terrorism (Operation Enduring Freedom). For the crew, returning to patrol after a few days of rest and relaxation means a period of renewed vigilance with examinations and boardings of suspicious ships. In the previous patrol period, 12-30 July, the Van Galen came into action regularly. On 22 July, the boarding party boarded three ships within 24 hours.''

Every ship in the area could be boarded, and mostly they were investigated. Maybe tankers are too small to be seen? Or maybe the dutch were just guarding Royal Dutch SHELL's interests in the area? Implying that the dutch armed forces, navy, air force etc. use tax millions to safeguard SHELL's, and other oil companies profits?

All information concerning the dutch navy and air force activities in the area confirms what the UN's Secretary General is saying: all parties involved in the area knew, and the whole is supported by satellite pictures, films and other methods of investigation, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and that's been going on for decades too.*

So: everybody involved knew what Saddam was doing, and the UN's Annan - with many others - is right in putting the bloody blame on the United States, Britain, and as is shown on the (Royal SHELL) Dutch military too.

AP: "A spokeswoman at the British mission refused to comment on Annan's statement. The U.S. Mission spokesman could not immediately be reached.

The United States had ships in the Persian Gulf to intercept smugglers, and allegations have swirled for years that Washington looked the other way while some of Iraq's neighbors made substantial profits from oil smuggled out of Iraq.

Annan partly excused the smuggling to Turkey and Jordan, saying the U.N. Charter requires states affected by sanctions on another country to be compensated.

"We didn't have billions to compensate these countries, and some felt the oil going in was a way of compensation to them, and so it was all generally
accepted," Annan said.

The secretary-general was speaking at a reunion of current and past U.N. spokesmen, and his comments were part of a vigorous defense of the United Nations against recent media attacks.

The U.N. oil-for-food program, which was endorsed by the United States and begun in 1996, permitted Iraq to sell oil despite a stiff U.N. economic embargo against Saddam's regime, provided the proceeds were used to buy food and medicine for Iraqi people suffering under the sanctions.

Beginning at least by 2000, Saddam's government, which had the power to choose who would have the right to purchase oil, demanded that those it dealt with be willing to pay kickbacks.

Estimates of how much illicit money Saddam's regime may have made from smuggling and corruption in the oil-for-food program range from $9 billion to $21 billion.

But former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who is conducting an independent investigation, said Saddam gained far more money from smuggling than through oil-for-food deals.

Annan himself has come under fire recently over the handling of the oil-for-food program. Volcker criticized Annan for not pressing to learn details of his son Kojo's employment by a Swiss company that won a contract
under the program.

Annan said the scandal around the United Nations was largely "an American story," while people in the rest of the world "still have quite a lot of respect and enthusiasm for the U.N. and appreciate what the U.N. does."

"We are outgunned. We are outmanned," Annan said of critics of the United Nations. "And they have resources that we don't have, and they are relentless and they are organized."

Annan said he expected Volcker's report would reveal that at the end of the oil-for-food program in 2003, the United Nations gave $8 billion- $9 billion to the Coalition Provisional Authority, and the money has not been accounted for.

"When you put things in the right perspective, one should certainly realize where the bulk of the problem came out," Annan said. "But would it influence this group? I am not sure."

[end item]

USA Today - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7dggs - 2005 The Associated Press

Six Top Spy Satellites permanently focussing Saddam : Where's the Beef ? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/22sj9

* Some Dutch forces clearly act illegal according to international law Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9whd9

* U.S. Eyes in the Iraqi sky - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8fcev:

* The U.S. tore out 8000 pages : http://www.sundayherald.com/30195

* Blix queries US 'evidence' on Iraq :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,895722,00.html

* Satellites, and why war is good for some...

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=2851

BBC: US threatens world peace, says Nelson Mandela :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/africa/2251067.stm

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/4bm9d
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

*The Dutch author this far has worked abroad 4 decades for international media as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism !

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s office is suppressing data, showing that the number of major terrorist attacks worldwide exploded from 175 in 2003
to 625 in 2004, the highest number since the Cold War began to wane in 1985. - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/c8fwd

* HR At present 'Persona non Grata' in Holland :-) - because:

He who travels far will often see things

Far removed from what he believed was the Truth.

When he talks about it in the fields at home,

He is often accused of lying,

For the obdurate people will not believe

Inexperience, I believe,

Will give little credence to my song.

'Journey to the East' - Hermann Hesse

*'The war in Iraq is illegal' says United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan in a BBC interview: txt+video - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

*England's legal advise by the Foreign Office: the Iraq war is a 'crime of aggression' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/44nhn

*A 55' seconds 'sound bite' concerning the US-Israeli 'Dogs of War' - 'bringing democracy' everywhere. Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5u98v

* How to make a 'Citizen's Arrest' to stop Bush, Wolfowitz, Negroponte, Kissinger and all of the other war criminals of any nationality, any offender
who violates international law during these times of war - Citizens Arrests: Url.: http://www.constitution.org/grossack/arrest.htm

* Colin Powell: ''It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel' - Said as 'US Secretary of State' in a speech at the 'Conference on Anti-Semitism of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe' German Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Berlin - April 28th - 2004 - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/22p6c

* Former PM Wim Kok and other Dutch Govt's War criminals in Court:Url.: http://tinyurl.com/662pp

* TIME magazine: The Netherlands and the massacre in Srebrenica: 8000 murdered - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/apm34

* Sued: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies: Url. http://tinyurl.com/3tgo3

* It can and must be done !

* Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

Best News Web Sites, updated daily or hourly
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/ for Iraq and more
http://www.legitgov.org/ for US/UK politics and voter frauds
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ for censored stories
http://english.aljazeera.net/ for mainstream arab opinion
http://www.freearabvoice.org/index.htm for resistance reports

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http://globalresearch.ca for global power politics
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/ for US sleaze
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http://scoop.co.nz/ for general news

HR
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