ANALYSIS: Iraqi daily identifies groups Hussein allegedly bribed with oil (02/08/04)

ANALYSIS

Iraqi daily identifies groups Hussein allegedly bribed with oil

by Roman Kupchinsky
RFE/RL Organized Crime and Terrorism Watch

The Iraqi daily newspaper Al-Mada in its January 25 edition published a sensational list of companies, organizations and individuals who allegedly were allocated crude oil in return for political support for the regime of Saddam Hussein. Organizations and individuals named in the article are from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries.

In Russia, among others, the following are listed: Zarubezhneft (174.5 million) barrels), Rosneft (66.9 million) (the article claims that the oil was destined for the Russian president's office and 1 million for Vladimir Titorenko, the Russian ambassador in Iraq), the Russian Orthodox Church (5 million barrels), the head of the Russian presidential administration (5 million), the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (79.8 million), the Russian Communist Party (1 million), and Yukos (2 million).

In Ukraine the alleged recipients included the Social Democratic Party (1 million), the Communist Party (6 million), Naftohaz Ukrayiny (8 million) and the Socialist Party of Ukraine (1 million).

In Belarus, the presidential administration and the Liberal Party allegedly received 1 million barrels each.

Former British Labor member of Parliament and longtime Hussein supporter George Galloway is mentioned in the article a number of times as an alleged recipient of some 17 million barrels of oil, according to Al-Mada, funneled to him through a number of different companies. Mr. Galloway had been accused of receiving money from Hussein in 2002 by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph and at the time vigorously denied the charges.

Other individuals named by Al-Mada include the son of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, former Jordanian parliamentarian Tujan al-Faysal, the current president of Indonesia, the son of the president of Lebanon, and the son of Syria's defense minister.

Iraqi Oil Ministry Undersecretary Abdul Sahib Salman Qotob told the AFP news agency on January 27 that documents belonging to the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) "reveal how Saddam jeopardized the oil wealth of Iraq on personalities who had supported him and turned a blind eye on the mass graves and injustice he inflicted on the sons of the Iraqi people." According to AFP, the ministry is working with Interpol to recover the money "allegedly made by figures cashing in millions of barrels of crude oil they had received for free."

Spokesmen for both the Russian Orthodox Church and Vladimir Zhirinovskii's Liberal Democratic Party of Russia denied the charges, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta of January 29. The paper noted that the Russian Orthodox Church had been involved in oil trading since 1990, when it became the co-owner of the International Economic Cooperation society and partook in government projects designed to help fund federal programs in Russia. A delegation from the Church visited Iraq prior to the war, where the head of the delegation handed Hussein a letter of support from Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksei II.

The secretary of the Russian Communist Party, Oleg Kulikov, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the article is "black PR" and that everything that has occurred in Iraq "was under the control of American special services."

Neither the Ukrainian nor the Belarusian press had reported the charges as of midday January 29.

Roman Kupchinsky is the editor of RFE/RL Organized Crime and Terrorism Watch.

| Home Page |