United Nations: Oil for Food--and for Guns and for Leverage

Oil for Food--and for Guns and for Leverage

Who stands to profit most from the expansion of the Oil for Food program the U.N. put into place just before KOFI ANNAN went to Baghdad? The new plan will allow Iraq to increase its sales to roughly half the amount of oil it was pumping before the Gulf War. As it turns out, France and Russia pushed the program much harder than Iraq, which initially feared this option would reduce pressure to get sanctions lifted. But SADDAM HUSSEIN realized that the more cash he could earn to buy food to keep Iraqis from starving, the more hard currency reserves, into...

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