Gość: kuk
IP: 207.7.200.*
19.01.05, 03:59
Zobaczta ludziki jakie te agenty som czasem szybkie.Zlapali zloczynce
Vincenta. Jednak nie tak dawno, inny zloczynca Mark Ritz (Rich), ktory robil
dokladnie to, co Vincent uciek do erecu i nawet dostal pardon od billa luinskiego.
Man Faces Charges in Oil-For-Food Probe
By CURT ANDERSON
WASHINGTON (AP) - An Iraqi-American businessman, accused of pocketing millions
of dollars through the U.N. oil-for-food program with Iraq, pleaded guilty
Tuesday to acting as an illegal agent of Saddam Hussein's government.
Samir A. Vincent, 64, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Annandale, Va., is the
first person to be charged in the Justice Department's investigation of the
program, which U.N. audits have shown was badly mismanaged.
The United Nations operated the program from 1996 to 2003 as a way for Iraq's
oil riches to benefit its people, who were suffering from years of deprivation
brought on by economic sanctions imposed on Saddam's regime following its 1990
invasion of Kuwait.
Under the program, proceeds from the sale of oil from Iraq was placed into an
account overseen by the United Nations. Money was to be withdrawn by Iraq only
to purchase food, medicine and other humanitarian necessities.
The program produced an estimated $67 billion for humanitarian needs in Iraq
but was used by Saddam to generate illegal kickbacks that totaled another $1.7
billion, according to a CIA report by special weapons inspector Charles Duelfer.
Vincent was among dozens of people and companies in the United States and
elsewhere to receive vouchers from Saddam's government for allocations of
Iraqi oil as well as the right to keep profits they made selling or trading
the oil.
Vincent received the rights to some 9 million barrels of oil and cash payments
from Saddam's government in return for lobbying U.S. and U.N. officials on
issues such as weakening of economic sanctions, the admission of arms
inspectors and the oil-for-food program itself, prosecutors said.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said Vincent was one of Saddam's
``accomplices'' in a broad effort by Iraq to turn the oil-for-food program
into a vehicle for Iraq to sell influence and fatten its treasury.
``We know that from the moment the oil-for-food program was introduced, Saddam
Hussein and his agents attempted to subvert it, working the system so that
profits were diverted to fund a brutal regime rather than to feed the people
of Iraq,'' Ashcroft said.
President Bush's choice to be the next secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice,
told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearing
Tuesday that the oil-for-food program became a ``scandal'' that allowed Saddam
access to huge sums of money.
``He was playing the international community like a violin,'' Rice said. ``And
we can't let that happen again, should we ever get into position where we have
to do something in terms of sanctions. It's just outrageous.''
The scandal surrounding the oil-for-food program has shaken the United
Nations. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed a three-person commission
headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to investigate.
In a statement in federal court in New York on Tuesday, Vincent said that in
1996 during negotiations on the oil-for-food program some Iraqi government
cash was given to a person ``whom I understood was a United Nations official.''
Court documents say only that this unspecified payment went to ``another
individual'' to satisfy an agreement regarding the pro-Iraqi effort to
influence the U.N. resolution creating the program.
The lead federal prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney David Kelley of New
York, said his office has an ``ongoing dialogue'' with that commission. In a
statement Tuesday, the commission said it hopes the guilty plea will make it
possible for Vincent to provide information in that probe.
Congress also is investigating, with part of that probe involving Annan's son,
Kojo Annan, who worked in Africa for a Swiss company that had a contract under
the oil-for-food program. Kojo Annan has denounced the probe as a political
witch hunt.
Vincent, who operated a company called Phoenix International LLC, profited
under the scheme by up to $5 million, Kelley said. A decathlete on Iraq's 1964
Olympics team, Vincent had worked for years to improve U.S.-Iraqi relations,
including helping organize an invitation for a 1999 U.S. tour by Iraqi clerics
with evangelist Billy Graham.
But according to the court papers, between 1992 and 2003 Vincent operated on
direct instructions from Saddam's government, including carrying a message
from the Iraqi intelligence service in November 2001 to a former U.S. official
regarding Iraq's position on readmission of weapons inspectors and on
weakening the sanctions.
Vincent acknowledged in his statement violating the law but said he was
motivated by concern about the impact of the sanctions on the Iraqi people.
``I hope that my guilty plea and my agreement to assist the Department of
Justice in investigating these matters will help not only the United States
but also the Iraqi people as they struggle to rebuild their nation,'' he said.
Vincent faces up to 28 years in prison on charges that include conspiracy to
act as an unregistered Iraqi agent, actually acting as such an agent,
violation of Iraqi economic sanctions and related violations of U.S. tax laws.
Cooperation could reduce his sentence, however.
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