Washington Post:
Isn't this just typical for Democrats? At a time when the focus should be on those who actually profitted from this scam and actively sought to thwart US policies, Democrats want to blame America.
The U.S. Treasury Department failed to adequately monitor U.S. companies that violated U.N. sanctions against Iraq, permitting a Houston-based oil company to avoid scrutiny as it paid Saddam Hussein's government more than $37 million in illegal kickbacks, according to a report released yesterday by Democrats investigating abuses in the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Bayoil, a Texas firm indicted by a federal grand jury last month for paying millions of dollars in illegal fees to Iraq, received "minimal attention" from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as it managed the import of more than 200 million barrels of Iraqi crude into the United States between 2000 and 2002, according to the report released by Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The report's release follows allegations in recent days by the subcommittee's chairman, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), that the former Iraqi government used its oil wealth to curry favor with senior government officials, politicians and businessmen in Russia, France and Britain. A member of the British Parliament, George Galloway, is scheduled to answer allegations at a hearing of Coleman's subcommittee today that he supported Hussein's government in exchange for lucrative oil deals.
Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said that "OFAC took very seriously its responsibility to effectively and accurately administer and enforce the sanctions against Iraq." The agency has conducted "over 300 investigations and audits" of individuals and corporations that violated sanctions against Iraq, she said.
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