Sharing Saddam’s wealth

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

A U.S. Senate report released this week accused several Russian and European politicians of accepting millions of dollars under the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq, in exchange for supporting Saddam Hussein. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a Russian lawmaker named in the report, said he “did not receive a single cent from Iraq, not a kopeck.” A British lawmaker who opposed the Iraq invasion, George Galloway, voluntarily testified before a Senate subcommittee, denying allegations that he, too, had taken kickbacks. Galloway said he opposed the Hussein regime back when the U.S. and Britain “were selling him guns and gas.”