Making Saddam's list
Washington Times:
"To the outsider, it is hard to see what could link former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovksy and Benon Sevan, the U.N. official in charge of the Iraqi oil-for-food program.
"According to testimony presented to the House Committee on Government Reform this week, there is at least one link: They appear on a list of 270 individuals and entities named in Iraqi oil ministry files as receiving vouchers allowing them to buy millions of barrels of oil.
"According to Iraqi officials, two groups of people were allocated Iraqi oil for export ? legitimate end users, usually defined as oil firms with their own refineries, and 'non end users.'
...
"The list is an extraordinary collection of names, stretching from Paris to Moscow, from the Vatican to the Far East.
"In France, those named include friends of President Jacques Chirac, among them Mr. Pasqua and Patrick Maugein, the head of the French oil firm Soco International. Mr. Pasqua has denied illicit oil trading.
...
"A former French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Bernard Merimee, is listed as receiving vouchers totaling 11 million barrels. Also on the list is a vocal friend of Iraq, Gilles Munier of the Franco-Iraqi Friendship Association."
Washington Times:
"To the outsider, it is hard to see what could link former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovksy and Benon Sevan, the U.N. official in charge of the Iraqi oil-for-food program.
"According to testimony presented to the House Committee on Government Reform this week, there is at least one link: They appear on a list of 270 individuals and entities named in Iraqi oil ministry files as receiving vouchers allowing them to buy millions of barrels of oil.
"According to Iraqi officials, two groups of people were allocated Iraqi oil for export ? legitimate end users, usually defined as oil firms with their own refineries, and 'non end users.'
...
"The list is an extraordinary collection of names, stretching from Paris to Moscow, from the Vatican to the Far East.
"In France, those named include friends of President Jacques Chirac, among them Mr. Pasqua and Patrick Maugein, the head of the French oil firm Soco International. Mr. Pasqua has denied illicit oil trading.
...
"A former French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Bernard Merimee, is listed as receiving vouchers totaling 11 million barrels. Also on the list is a vocal friend of Iraq, Gilles Munier of the Franco-Iraqi Friendship Association."
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