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November 19, 2004
Was Saddam Hussein laundering oil in St. Croix?
I haven't believed anything I have read in the NY Post in a long time, but here is an interesting tid-bit:
There's a pleasantly cruel irony in the untold story of Saddam Hussein's oil billions, which were skimmed off during a supposed embargo imposed on Iraq.The oil that was sneaked out of Iraq probably came back to that country as jet fuel in U.S. fighter planes.
As you may have read, the Senate Committee on Government Affairs earlier this week alleged that the former Iraqi leader got $21.3 billion from assorted kickbacks, surcharges and oil smuggling.
A very well-placed source of mine says that during the embargo Iraqi oil was secreted and sent to a little-known Caribbean island called St. Eustatius in tankers controlled by a company located in Yemen.
I've written briefly about the smuggling through St. Eustatius before, but only now does the U.S. government seem to be learning the extent of this and other similar operations.
On St. Eustatius, nicknamed Statia, the Iraqi oil was put into huge holding tanks with crude from Mexico, Venezuela and elsewhere until "it lost its identity," according to my source.
From there much of the blended oil, including Saddam's, would be sent to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands to be refined into jet fuel, much of which went to the U.S. Air Force.
While each drop can't be tracked from there, it is highly likely that some of that fuel went into the planes that were used during the bombing of Iraq.
So, in a very real sense, Saddam profited from the bombing of his own country. Now that is what I'd call a payback. And, as they say, it's a bitch.
I was really skeptical about this story when it mentioned Statia - I was thinking how could such a tiny island have a large oil facility, but before I emailed the author to tell him he was full of it, I went poking around the web and what do you know - Statia Terminals...
Posted by afinta at November 19, 2004 02:54 PM
Comments
Your next task Anthony is to find out if Kofi Annan has a villa somewhere on the island.
Posted by: allan at November 20, 2004 12:55 PM
Hey Alan,
Do you mean St. Croix? I think that whole story is a crock. It has been widely discredited and the sole source was... you guessed it, Chalabi. This guy has been all over the story http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_03.php#003616
Posted by: Anthony at November 20, 2004 01:58 PM
Well, if it is Chalabi, I wouldn't put much credence in it. He's probably still pissed he's not a member of the Iraqui governing council.
Posted by: allan at November 20, 2004 02:06 PM
