Compassion for oily things

The single largest oil consignment smuggled out of Iraq by Saddam Hussein under the U.N. oil-for-food program took place with U.S. approval just weeks before the April 2003 invasion, according to a report published on Wednesday.

After a year-long investigation of the oil-for-food program, the Independent Inquiry Committee blamed U.N. officials and the Security Council for mismanagement that allowed Saddam to divert more than $10 billion from kickbacks and smuggling.

But it also faulted the United States and other Security Council members for ignoring violations of U.N. sanctions that were supposed to ensure all oil sales went through the U.N. program and the money was used to buy humanitarian goods for Iraqis.

The now-defunct oil-for-food program operated from late 1996 to 2003 to alleviate the impact on ordinary Iraqis of the sanctions, imposed in mid-1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait.

While U.S. Navy ships were patrolling the Gulf in February 2003, making a show of boarding and searching leaky dhows and small ships, they turned a blind eye to tankers carrying some $54 million of Iraqi oil on Jordan's behalf, the report said.

A total of 7.7 million barrels of oil was smuggled through the Khor al-Amaya oil terminal in at least seven shipments in February and March 2003, it said.