[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24287]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, the amount of money Saddam Hussein socked 
away by subverting the U.N. Oil-for-Food program was $21.3 billion. 
Much of it is being used by terrorists in Iraq to this very day. After 
the Gulf War, the international community set about to make sure that 
the international community did not add to the suffering of the Iraqi 
people who already endured under Hussein. Unfortunately, officials at 
the U.N. and corporate executives conspired with the Iraqi dictator to 
create a complex web of patronage and bribery.
  Mr. Speaker, we all know that Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator who 
encouraged terror and violence. However, the U.N.'s inability to 
enforce its own sanctions, 17 of them since 1991, has today been 
highlighted by its complicity in the suffering of the Iraqi people. 
There is no excuse. The U.N. must be reformed. Those responsible must 
be punished. The Oil-for-Food program is a symptom of a much larger 
problem, a lack of accountability and an absence of resolve.

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