Hussein Gave Oil to French and British Officials, Senate Panel Says

[Colorado Blue]

By JUDITH MILLER
Published: May 12, 2005

A Senate committee has disclosed evidence it says shows that senior Iraqi officials under Saddam Hussein awarded the right to buy millions of barrels of Iraqi oil to Charles Pasqua, the former French interior minister, and to George Galloway, a recently re-elected member of the British Parliament. The evidence is in a 96-page report, with previously undisclosed Iraqi documents and excerpts from interviews with former Iraqi officials, which was issued yesterday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The report concludes that the rights were given to Mr. Pasqua and Mr. Galloway because of their support for Mr. Hussein, but contains no copies of bank statements or other evidence indicating that either man directly solicited Iraqi oil or benefited financially from the rights. "This report exposes how Saddam Hussein turned the oil-for-food program on its head and used the program to reward his political allies like Pasqua and Galloway," said Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, the chairman of the subcommittee.

The report and its findings, prepared and endorsed by the panel's majority and minority members, contain Iraqi material backing the panel's contention that Iraqi officials thought they were rewarding the two men for their support. Mr. Galloway and Mr. Pasqua denied any wrongdoing. A spokeswoman for Mr. Pasqua said he "continues to deny that he has made any money whatsoever in the oil-for-food program."

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Iraqi Oil Ministry records and letters from senior Iraqi officials indicate, for instance, that Mr. Pasqua, who was France's interior minister from 1993 to 1995 and is a member of the French Parliament, was granted rights to buy 11 million barrels of oil from June 1999 through December 2000, the report says. And a June 1999 letter from the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization to Iraq's oil minister says Mr. Hussein personally approved the right for Mr. Pasqua to buy three million barrels.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/politics/12food.html