George Monbiot debunks the myths about the UN Oil-For-Food scandal:
"A report by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US federal reserve, was meant to have proved that, as a result of corruption within the UN's oil-for-food programme, Saddam Hussein was able to sustain his regime by diverting oil revenues into his own hands. But Volcker came up with something else.
'The major source of external financial resources to the Iraqi regime,' he reported, 'resulted from sanctions violations outside the [oil-for-food] programme's framework.' These violations consisted of 'illicit sales' of oil by the Iraqi regime to Turkey and Jordan. The members of the UN security council, including the United States, knew about them but did nothing. 'United States law requires that assistance programmes to countries in violation of UN sanctions be ended unless continuation is determined to be in the national interest. Such determinations were provided by successive United States administrations.' "
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