Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Saddam Connection 2

                     *Associated Press/AP Online
MOSCOW - A scathing report on corruption in the U.N.
oil-for-food program for Saddam Hussein's Iraq drew widespread
denials, terse dismissals and protestations of innocence Friday, but
also pledges to investigate from some of the 2,200 companies cited
and countries with citizens named.
Russian officials angrily alleged that documents accusing
companies and officials in that country were fake, and the head of
the nation's electricity monopoly called for the report's writers to
be punished. But in a rare partial admission, Sweden's Volvo AB
acknowledged making payments through an agent to Iraqi authorities
but said it did not consider that bribery.
The U.N. report issued Thursday rattled reputations around
the world with charges of kickbacks in lucrative contracts in the
1996-2003 program, under which Iraq was allowed to sell oil provided
the proceeds went to buying humanitarian goods to help offset U.N.
sanctions.
Saddam, who could choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the
sellers of humanitarian goods, corrupted the program by awarding
contracts to - and getting kickbacks from - favored buyers,
according to the report by the Independent Inquiry Committee led by
former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.
Countries like Russia that opposed sanctions got
preferential treatment from Saddam's regime, the report said.
Among those implicated was former Kremlin chief of staff
Alexander Voloshin, now board chairman of the state electricity grid
UES. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in remarks reported by
domestic news agencies, claimed some of the documents cited by the
commission used forged signatures. And UES chief executive Anatoly
Chubais said the commission knew Voloshin's signature was faked on
oil contracts, adding: "I hope that those responsible for the
mistake will be punished."
Volcker's team was extremely cautious on the claim against
Voloshin. It noted that Iraqi Oil Ministry records reported about
4.3 million barrels were allocated in his name through a Russian
company called Impexoil.
Yet it also acknowledged Russian claims that his signature
was forged and said samples of his signatures were "not
substantially similar" to the signature that appeared on a
letter purportedly written by him. It said it could not find
evidence linking Voloshin with Impexoil.
In Sweden, vehicle-maker Volvo AB, whose Brussels-based
construction division was among the companies named in the report,
acknowledged the company made payments through an agent to Iraqi
authorities.
"We did business with an authority in Iraq. The same
authority tells our agent that you have to pay a fee to do any
business at all," chief executive Leif Johansson was quoted as
telling the Swedish news agency TT.
"When authorities said that, we drew the conclusion
that this was the way to do business in Iraq," he said.
"No one linked that to bribes."
Volvo AB no longer owns carmaker Volvo, which was sold in
1999 to the Ford Motor Company.
Switzerland said it has launched a criminal investigation
focusing on four people connected to the oil-for-food program. Swiss
authorities already have fined a Geneva-based oil-trading company
$40,000 for paying kickbacks under the program, but have not
identified the company.
France will study the report and "wants full light to
be shed on the embezzlement that took place in the framework of the
oil-for-food program," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste
Mattei said. French judges are investigating 10 French officials and
business leaders on suspicion they received oil allocations as
kickbacks.
Among them is former U.N. ambassador Jean-Bernard Merimee,
who held the post from 1991-95, and according to the report received
more than $165,000 in commissions from oil allocations awarded to
him by the Iraqi regime.
The report also said former French Interior Minister Charles
Pasqua, now a senator, was awarded 11 million barrels of oil, an
allegation he denied Friday in an interview with The Associated
Press.
"I never received anything," Pasqua said, adding
that he believed somebody used his name without his knowledge.
"It is obvious to me that the Americans want to implicate
France."
In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard said he doubted the
Australian Wheat Board, which was the single largest supplier of
humanitarian goods under the program, would have knowingly made
improper payments. The report said the board, which sold $2.3
billion of wheat to Iraq, made "side payments" for
transportation of the grain to a Jordanian company that was owned in
part by Saddam's government.
Andrew Lindberg, managing director of the wheat board's
successor AWB, said "we didn't know that the money, that we
believed we were paying for transport, was being diverted to the
regime."
An Italian politician named in the scandal, Roberto
Formigoni, said he received "neither a drop of oil, nor a
single cent." Fiery British lawmaker George Galloway, who
founded a charity aimed at fighting the U.N. sanctions against Iraq,
told the AP "there is a witchhunt going on" and accused
U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, of falsifying
evidence against him.
Germany's Siemens AG said it found no evidence of kickbacks
allegedly paid by its French, Turkish and Middle East subsidiaries.
A DaimlerChrysler statement said the company was aware of the
report, but declined to comment further. Anglo-Swedish
pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca also denied alleged wrongdoing.
Texas oilman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., the former chairman of
Coastal Corp. who was described in the report as a favorite customer
of Iraq, pleaded not guilty Thursday in New York to charges that he
conspired to pay several million dollars in illegal kickbacks to
Saddam's regime to win oil-for-food contracts. Volcker said Wyatt,
81, was the lone exception to an Iraqi ban on selling oil to
American companies.
The report also implicated Lukoil Asia Pacific, a company
the report called a subsidiary of Russia's No. 1 producer, Lukoil.
Lukoil's spokesman, Dmitry Dolgov, said he had never heard
of the company, adding that investigators had worked with Iraqi
documents, which could have been forged.
Dolgov noted that investigator Robert Parton resigned from
Volcker's committee in April, reportedly because he believed it
ignored evidence critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"This creates the impression that this report is aimed at
distracting attention from the oversights of U.N. officials and
laying the blame with certain companies," Dolgov said.

 evidence against him.
Non solo:  Pare che gli avvocati di Tariq Aziz, sulle cui supposte
confessionie' basato questo rapporto, ha negato tutto.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2165152005
Francamente, un rapporto basato sulle confessioni di prigionieri USA,
che possono essere torturati, detenuti indefinitvamente senza processo
ecc., vale meno di zero, come valgono meno di zero i documenti
"trovati" negli archivi di Baghdad dai fantocci del governo USA.
Specialmente quando tende ad additare proprio le persone piu'
convenienti per gli USA e l'UK.
Per quanto riguarda lo scandalo oil-for-food, quello vero, vedi
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/28/1435255
http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2006/index.htm#6
GT

Sotto c'e una lista di tutti i vice, n. 2 e "stretti collaboratori" di
Al Zarqawi arrestati fino ad ora.  A quando il prossimo?
http://blogenlust.typepad.com/blogenlust/2005/09/kiss_of_death.html
Abu Azzam (9/27/05)
    * "The No. 2 official in the al-Qaida in Iraq organization.'
    * "The top deputy to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
Mohammed Salah Sutton, aka Abu Zubair (8/14/05)
    * "A lieutenant of al-Qaida terror boss Abu Musab al Zarqawi."
Abu Abd al-Aziz (7/13/05)
    * "Zarqawi's 'main leader in Baghdad'"
Khalid Suleiman Darwish, aka Abu Alghadiya (6/26/05)
    * A Syrian dentist...was described by Arab media as the 'number
two' in Iraq's al Qaeda network and tipped to succeed its leader Abu
Musab Al Zarqawi."
Mohammed Khalaf Shakar, aka Abu Talha (6/17/05)
    * "A top lieutenant of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
Mullah Mahdi, aka Abu Abdul Rahman (6/4/05)
    * "Suspected deputy of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi"
Abu Karrar (5/27/05)
    * "The Washington Post quoted a Zarqawi lieutenant by the
nom-de-guerre of Abu Karrar as saying the Jordanian militant was shot
and wounded in fighting with US forces near the western city of
Ramadi."
Mullah Kamel al-Assawadi (5/25/05)
    * "Described as one of al-Zarqawi's top lieutenants."
Agha Umar (5/25/05)
    * "A top aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi"
Amar Adnan Muhammad Hamzah al-Zubaydi, aka Abu al-Abbas (5/9/05)
    * "A high-ranking aide to terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
Ghassan Muhammed Amin Husayn al-Rawi (4/26/05)
    * "A key associate of Iraq's most wanted militant, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi."
Hamza Ali Ahmed al-Wdimizyar, aka Abu Majid (beginning of April-05)
    * "Zarqawi associate"
Salman Aref Abulkadir Khwamurad al-Zardowe, aka Abu Sharif (beginning
of April-05)
    * "Zarqawi associate"
Taifor Abulsattar Malallah (3/8/05)
    * "One of the 'princes' of Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group."
Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, aka Abu Qutaybah (2/25/05)
    * "Iraqi forces have captured a man described as a trusted aide to
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
Mohammed Najm Ibrahim, aka Mohammed Najm (2/25/05)
    * "Zarqawi lieutenant"
Adel Mujtaba, aka Abu Rim (2/20/05)
    * "A propaganda chief of al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi"
Anat Mohammed Hamat al-Kays, aka Abu Alid (1/28/05)
    * "High-level Zarqawi lieutenant"
Sami Mohammed Ali Said Jaaf, aka Abu Omar Kurdi (1/25/05)
    * "A senior aide to Abu Musab al Zarqawi"
    * "The 'most lethal' top lieutenant of Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq."
Ismael Jeddan (1/23/05)
    * "The raids also netted a man identified as Ismael Jeddan, an
alleged associate of al-Zarqawi."
Ali Hamad Ardani Yasin Isawi (1/20/05)
    * "top lieutenant"
Inad Mohammed Qais (1/20/05)
    * "The deputy prime minister for national security affairs, Barham
Salih, later told a news conference that authorities have arrested a
third Zarqawi lieutenant."
Salah Salman Idaaj Matar Luhaybi, aka Abu Sayf (12/31/04)
    * "Zarqawi's chief of operations in Baghdad"
Fadil Hussain Ahmed al-Kurdi, aka Abu Ubaydah al-Kurdi, aka Ridha
(12/30/04)
    * "A senior member of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network."
Abdul Aziz Sa'dun Ahmed Hamduni, aka Abu Ahmed (12/22/04)
    * "Zarqawi-linked leader"
Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zyda (12/14/04)
    * "An aide to Iraq's most-wanted man, Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi"
Abu Saeed (11/26/04)
    * "A lieutenant of Iraq's most feared terrorist leader Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi"
Nameless (10/23/04)
    * The US military has arrested a 'senior leader' in the network run
by Jordanian mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
Omar Yusef Juma'a, aka Abu Anas al-Shami (9/25/04)
    * "A senior aide of the Jordanian al Qaeda mastermind, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi"
Umar Baziyani (6/4/04)
    * "A top aide of al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi"
    * "His capture removes one of Zarqawi's most valuable officers from
his network."
Abu Mohammed Hamza (2/24/04)
    * "A key lieutenant to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
Hassan Ghul (2/23/04)
    * "The letter was found on al-Zarqawi lieutenant Hassan Ghul, a
Pakistani captured in Iraq."
    * The letter in reference was a "17-page letter to senior al Qaeda
leaders written by terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who asked
for help starting a Muslim civil war between Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites."
Nameless (4/30/03)
    * "An associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in the
Baghdad area."

Magari domani c'e lo speciale di rete4 con Berlusconi che parla davanti
a un corteo di bamdiere della pace :-}
----------------------
"I have never been convinced that war was the best system to make a
country democratic and help it escape dictatorship, even a bloody
one," Berlusconi was quoted as saying by La7.
 Berlusconi says warned Bush against Iraq war
By Phil Stewart
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on the eve
of a trip to Washington, said he repeatedly tried to persuade U.S.
President George W. Bush against invading     Iraq.
The Italian leader voiced his unease with the military operation to
topple     Saddam Hussein during a television interview to be
broadcast on Monday -- the same day he meets Bush.
Berlusconi is one of Washington's strongest allies but he did not send
troops to join the invasion, preferring to dispatch troops only after
the fall of Baghdad.
"I tried many times to convince the American president not to go to
war," Berlusconi was quoted as saying by La7 television network, which
recorded the interview.
"I tried to find other avenues and other solutions, even through an
activity with the African leader (Libya's Col. Muammar) Gaddafi. But
we didn't succeed and there was the military operation."
One of Berlusconi's staff said he knew Berlusconi had given La7
television an interview, but could not confirm the comments.
Berlusconi is scheduled to leave for Washington on Sunday.
Berlusconi pulled about 300 soldiers from Iraq earlier this year as
part of a phased withdrawal, leaving about 2,900 troops there. He is
trailing in opinion polls ahead of April elections to center-left
rival, Romano Prodi, who promises to withdraw all Italian forces from
Iraq if he is voted into office.
NIGER URANIUM?
The context of Berlusconi's answers in the interview were unclear
since La7 only provided small excerpts.
The Italian leader has been defending himself against accusations in
Italy that the country's intelligence agency, possibly after
government pressure, passed-off fake documents to Washington used to
bolster claims of Iraq's nuclear ambitions.
The documents purported that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from
Niger.
His office has sent out two statements in the past week categorically
denying the accusations, made by left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper.
Sismi intelligence agency chief Nicolo Pollari is due to address a
closed-door parliamentary panel over the matter on November 3.
Bush cited intelligence that Iraq sought uranium from Africa in his
State of the Union address in 2003 before the Iraq war.
The claim fueled criticism from the husband of covert     CIA
operative Susan Plame, whose identity was later leaked, sparking a
scandal that led to the indictment on Friday of Vice President
Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby.
"I have never been convinced that war was the best system to make a
country democratic and help it escape dictatorship, even a bloody
one," Berlusconi was quoted as saying by La7.

 one," Berlusconi was quoted as saying by La7.
Quando la  nave affonda i topi scappano. Lo si metta in scialuppa 
assieme a De Cesari...
Am.

Baghdad dai fantocci del governo USA.
Se lo dici tu...
-Stefano

 * "An associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in the
        =========
Insomma di "numeri 2" il caro fessacchiotto di un Torrieri ne ha trovato
solo *UNO*! :)
-Stefano

in scialuppa assieme 
...al *COGLIONE MONONEURONE* Amalric Bond
-Stefano