According to a story from ABC News on 29 Jan 2004
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/saddam_oil_vouchers_040129.html
ABCNEWS has obtained an extraordinary list that contains the names
of prominent people around the world who supported Saddam
Hussein's regime and were given oil contracts as a result.
... none of the people involved would have actually taken
possession of oil, but rather just the right to buy the oil at a
discounted price, which could be resold to a legitimate broker or
oil company, at an average profit of about 50 cents a barrel.
...
Among those named: Indonesia President Megawati Sukarnoputri, an
outspoken opponent of U.S.-Iraq policy, who received a contract
for 10 million barrels of oil -- about a $5 million profit.
...
According to the document, France was the second-largest
beneficiary, with tens of millions of barrels awarded to Patrick
Maugein, a close political associate and financial backer of
French President Jacques Chirac.
...
The single biggest set of contracts were given to the Russian
government and Russian political figures, more than 1.3 billion
barrels in all -- including 92 million barrels to individual
officials in the office of President Vladimir Putin.
[Incidentally, there is no mention of anyone in Germany in the story.]
Eugene Volokh
http://volokh.com/
notes that
... The Framers [of the United States Constitution] ... were
apparently quite aware of the risk that bribes can undermine
institutional decisionmaking, and saw the need to craft
institutions in part to minimize the risk of such bribery. See,
e.g., Federalist Nos. 22, 43, 57, 62, 66, 68, and 83. ...
(The Federalist Papers may be obtained from Project Gutenberg:
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext98/feder10a.txt
1152 KB
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext98/feder10a.zip
389 KB
)
It may be that no one was bribed to persuade his country to oppose the
US invasion of Iraq; however, institutions must not only be impervious
to the bribery of their members, they must also be seen as being
impervious.
So where are the suggestions for the design of an international
institution that is less susceptible to bribery than the current UN?
These suggestions may come from either those in favor of increasing
international law, or those who want more "nation-state's rights",
from Democrats, Republicans, or people who are neither and who live
outside the US.
[In another message,
International Organizational Constitution?
I suggest a few features for a new international institution.]
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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