How Saddam Hussein Abused the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program

Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

Monday, November 15, 2004
12:00 PM

[view archive webcast]

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' first hearing on the Oil-for-Food Program (“OFF Program”) will lay the foundation for future hearings on how the OFF Program was exploited by Saddam Hussein. The Subcommittee is scheduled to hear from Charles A. Duelfer, author of The Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD. Mr. Duelfer will testify as to how Saddam Hussein manipulated the OFF Program to erode United Nations sanctions, generate billions of dollars of illicit funds, and procure conventional weapons. Also scheduled to testify is Juan Carlos Zarate, the Assistant Secretary of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the Department of the Treasury. Mr. Zarate will discuss, among other things, the extent to which funds illicitly procured under the OFF Program may have been used by Saddam Hussein for illicit purposes, including whether monies pilfered from the OFF Program are being used to fund the Iraqi insurgency or terrorist groups. The Subcommittee will also examine specific transactions in which the former Iraqi regime procured illicit funds and peddled influence by granting vouchers for oil deals, demanding kickbacks on contracts for humanitarian goods and exacting surcharges on oil sales.

Witnesses

Panel 1

• Charles A. Duelfer [view testimony]
  Special Advisor to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency for Strategy Regarding Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction Program
  Central Intelligence Agency

Panel 2

• Mark L. Greenblatt [view testimony]
  Counsel
  U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
• Steven A. Groves [view testimony]
  Counsel
  U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

Panel 3

• Juan Carlos Zarate [view testimony]
  Assistant Secretary
  U. S. Department of the Treasury