Thursday, February 20, 2003
[posted by jaed at 7:35 PM]Blood for oil?
According to the CIA World Factbook entry on Iraq:
[...] implementation of the UN's oil-for-food program in December 1996 [...] Oil exports are now more than three-quarters prewar level. However, 28% of Iraq's export revenues under the program are deducted to meet UN Compensation Fund and UN administrative expenses.
The UN takes 28% of Iraq's oil revenues?
A little later on, that page says:
Exports: $15.8 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)
Exports - commodities: crude oil
28% of $15.8 billion is over four billion dollars. That's more than the current UN budget. All of it.
Did everyone else know this already, and have I just been sleeping through it? Does it seem to anyone else that this might raise just a little bit of a question about the UN's impartiality in the matter of Iraq, given that they stand to lose this much money from any change to the status quo?
