Tyrant's oil-for-food scam raised £11bn

THE United Nations oil-for-food programme, which Saddam Hussein used to bribe diplomats, politicians and terrorists, netted his regime twice as much money as weapons inspectors had initially feared, it has emerged.

The scam - under which Saddam would bribe officials with vouchers entitling the bearer to a certain amount of oil on the open market - had brought in the equivalent of 11 billion for his regime, the US Congress has been told.

That has been taken as further proof that the UN sanctions regime was crumbling - and that Saddam had acquired the financial muscle needed to pursue his aim of acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

George Galloway, the Glasgow Kelvin MP, was named among the recipients of the oil-for-food scheme when the list was published by the CIA six weeks ago. He has denied ever receiving any oil.

US officials working on a congressional investigation said yesterday that the full extent of the bribery network continued to unfold. "This is like an onion - we just keep uncovering more layers and more layers," said Norm Coleman, a Republican senator on the committee on government affairs.

He said the investigation was just beginning and officials aimed to discover "how this massive fraud was able to thrive for so long".

The list of allegedly bribed officials included Benon Sevan, who was running the UN oil-for-food scheme. It was originally intended to ease the pain of sanctions by letting Saddam trade oil for basic equipment, but evidence uncovered by the Iraq Survey Group shows it was being used by Saddam to bribe officials and amass a secret fund with a section set aside for weapons development.

Former Saddam aides interviewed by US investigators said Saddam personally approved the names on the oil-for-food list - and that the vouchers could be quickly sold to an energy company which had use for the oil.

Charles Duelfer, the former chief US weapons inspector in Iraq, had earlier estimated that Saddam’s government brought in the equivalent of 5.8 billion between 1990 and 2003, when sanctions were in place.

This included 220 million in interest from illicit funds in secret bank accounts which the UN had failed to detect.