Nick Smith, July 4, 2004

Recently, both my Agriculture and International Relations Committees held hearings on the United Nation’s Oil-for-Food (OFF) program scandal. That program taught us a lot about the United Nations’ (UN) weaknesses and explain the actions of countries like France and Russia when they worked against us last year.

The UN placed trade sanctions on Iraq after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991. By 1995, the sanctions were widely blamed for a developing humanitarian crisis in Iraq. The U.S. and Britain realized that Iraq, which has the second largest oil reserves in the world, could trade oil for food and medicine. We pushed for UN Security Council Resolution 986, and the OFF program was created. If effective, it would have reduced the humanitarian impact of the sanctions while preventing Hussein from buying weapons.

Unfortunately, Hussein cheated OFF and the UN didn’t stop it. He managed to get his hands on at least $10 billion of OFF money. Other countries were complicit in helping him cheat. France and Russia demanded that we let Hussein design OFF. It allowed Hussein to pick the price for his oil, to pick his customers, and to control the people who audited him. Within a few years, the flawed program allowed Hussein to sell at low prices in exchange for kickbacks that were funneled into Swiss bank accounts. This was suspected at the time, but it was impossible to fix it. Fixing it would have required unanimous support of the Permanent Members of the Security Council, including France and Russia. At the time, these countries said that they wanted to end the sanctions completely. France, Russia, and China all had oil contracts with Iraq that would have been activated, resulting in huge benefits for these countries had the sanctions been removed.

At the same time, UN bureaucrats in Iraq were slow to file reports and bring irregularities to the attention of the Security Council and its oversight committee. Furthermore, Iraq paid its UN auditors. The more trading they allowed, the more money the UN got. These arrangements have only come to light since Saddam Hussein’s fall. There are reports that even the UN’s head of the Oil for Food program, Benon Sevan, was on the take from Hussein.

The U.S. and Britain have pushed for an audit to find out what happened. Paul Volcker, a former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is heading a UN investigation. However, the UN is stonewalling. Sevan sent letters ordering UN offices to refuse to cooperate. Russia has asserted that it will not release any documents. And other UN bureaucrats have refused to share papers. I have sponsored legislation that would cut U.S. support for the UN if it doesn’t cooperate.

The real story here is that many countries make decisions based solely on what is good for their country, with no regard for the goals and ideals of the UN Charter. Certainly, this calls the Security Council’s moral authority into question and degrades its capacity to respond appropriately to events. Is it any wonder that, under pressure from these countries, UN could not agree to support us in Iraq? And is it any wonder that at the first threat of danger, the UN pulled out? We need to carry out a full and thorough investigation and make changes if the U.S. is to continue with some degree of confidence.

Congressman Nick Smith, a Republican, represents Michigan's 7th Congressional District, which includes Battle Creek and the counties of Branch, Eaton, Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee, Calhoun, and Washtenaw in south-central Michigan.