Bleak but Hope-Streaked Weekly Roundup

The Iraq oil-for-food program is coming home to roost. On Friday a US Attorney and the FBI in New York arrested Houston oil executive Oscar Wyatt on a solid indictment of illegal kickbacks to Saddam during 2000-2002. The indictment and arrest of Wyatt, along with indictments of two others in Switzerland, follows upon a trifecta of related indictments in April involving the same company, Bayoil, and two other foreign associates. In the earlier case, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigatioons followed up the case and found Chalmers and Bayoil to be deeply involved in illegal payments to Saddam, as reported in this Houston Chronicle piece. The next day (May 17, 2005) the Washington Post delved further into the Senate Committee's investigation findings, which sheds negative light on the early Bush Treasury, whose Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was responsible for monitoring the oil imports. (The OFAC is the chief govt. office responsible for overseeing and implementing trade sanctions " based on US foreign policy and national security goals.") The Senate report also blasted the State Department and the navy for apparently aiding and abetting the smuggling of millions worth of oil in seven supertankers into Jordan just prior to the war. The State Dept. and the Pentagon refused to answer Senate queries or turn over any documents to the committee. The Post article goes on to relate how in July 2001 the UN asked the US to look into Bayoil's possible abuses, since Bayoil had refused to respond to UN queries. The State Dept. took a month before contacting the Treasury's OFAC, asking them to urge the company to respond to the UN. The OFAC in turn stalled and delayed for a full eight months--that would be until around April 2002--before contacting Bayoil, and then they never shared Bayoil's response with the UN. (The Post article does not mention what the substance of their response might of have been.)

Robert Werner became OFAC director on Oct. 1, 2004, an appointee of Treasury Secretary John Snow. Werner testified before the Senate Committee on May 17, 2005 (the day of the Post article just discussed). His testimony is here. Werner replaced Richard Newcomb, who had headed OFAC for 17 years. By virtue of his office Werner has become a key federal agent in the war on terror. (See for e.g. the Oct. 3 announcement of OFAC's action against 7 alleged Egyptian Jihadists.)

Long-time OFAC director Richard Newcomb was sued in his official capacity, along with the Office itself and John Snow, on September 27,2004, by a group of American publishers, in allegations that the OFAC was violating First Amendment rights in forbidding publication of books by authors in Cuba, Sudan, and Iran.

More specifically, the plaintiffs charged, the OFAC was in direct violation of the Berman Amendment and the Free Trade in Ideas Amendment, which "exempt information and publications from U.S. economic sanctions programs," that the OFAC has "eviscerated" these exemptions by applying new rules that forbid American publishers to make book deals with authors in these countries, block after-publication activities like translations and editions, and forbidding any marketing of such books.

(In Dec. 2004 the Treasury revised its regulations, effectively reversing its attempts at new control, in response to the pressure of the lawsuit.)

There is another interesting suit filed in August 2004 against OFAC and Newcomb, concerning their alleged overstepping of authority and improper handling of fines and charges relating to the Iraqi sanctions program. Ryan Clancy, the plaintiff, was a record-store owner in Wisconsin who went to Iraq in February 2003 as part of the Voices in the Wildnerness Human Shield effort.

The plaintiff's lawyers conclude, after a 13 page discussion of the case that "The United States Constitution protects Mr. Clancy’s travel to Iraq to express concern for innocent victims of armed conflict and voice his objection to the impending war. The OFAC regulations impermissibly restrict his constitutional rights to speech, information, and travel. They also exceed the authority Congress conferred in the Iraqi Sanctions Act and violate international law. OFAC’s implementation of its Regulations, moreover, violates Mr. Clancy’s privilege not to incriminate himself and his right to due process of law before a deprivation of his property."

So it would seem that when Newcomb resigned, he was coming under fire for improprieties in its zealous execution of the war on terror. In particular, it looks like his office was vindictively punishing citizens for voicing opposition to the war that would soon erupt in Iraq.

It seems that the OFAC was too busy with the Administration's greatest priority of squashing dissent and manufacturing patriotic consent to do its real job of pursuing and punishing the real violators of sanctions, the oil companies that were kicking back millions to Saddam in order to play in the game of Oil-for-Food.


So the oil-for-food indictments now trickling in are a positive sign that the slow, rusty wheels of justice are at least still turning. And make no mistake about it, as the above dossier of events and characters at the OFAC establish, the oil-for-food corruption relates directly to the Bush Administration and its placing of greater priority on monitoring and punishing domestic dissent than in carrying out international sanctions against a corrupt and abusive regime and its oil industry cronies that did business with that regime.

2) The critiques of and intimations of crime by the Administration are picking up the pace this week, from the prewar planning and selling to the post-invasion handling. To wit. Colin Powell's chief of staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson called Cheney and Rumsfeld the heads in a "cabal" that "hijacked" American foreign policy. (see also here and here)Brent Scowcroft is now blasting the Bush Administration for ideology-driven folly in the Iraq War. (see also here) Scowcroft has called VP Cheney "a real anomaly." "I consider Cheney a good friend," he says, "but Dick Cheney I don't know anymore."

Robin Raphael, the coordinator for Iraq assistance at the State Dept., said that the war's timing was driven by "clear political pressure," and that after the invasion US attempts to run the country were an "amateur hour."

So things are not looking good for the Right Establishment right now. And none of this is even coming from opposition voices.

3) Finally, just thought I should take note of other GOP indictment situations going down right now. Former Republican Governor of Illinois George Ryan, indicted by none other than Patrick Fitzgerald's office in Dec. 2003 and whose trial on 18 (or 22, reports differ) counts of corruption and fraud was announced in mid-September), is now standing trial. Ryan was the 66th person to be swept up into a massive Justice Dept. probe into political corruption under the Republican Governor from 1998-2002. (see the DOJ's release on the indictment from Dec. 2003).

If the Ryan trial is any indication for the Plame affair, Fitzgerald is a prosecuting tiger and the Plame outers have very good reason to be fearful--and we, in turn, every reason to be hopeful.

Kentucky’s Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher is also becoming increasingly embroiled in a very real and serious investigation into hiring practices during his tenure. (see here for the latest this week in a long ongoing drama).
And Ralph Reed, Christian Coalition architect and wannabe lieutenant governor in Georgia, is also coming under scrutiny, in the press at least, for his intimately close ties to now-blackened uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

So it is looking like a very bad week for the GOP across the board--and I haven't even mentioned Harriet Miers!
Finally, Frank Rich in the New York Times today has published a bold, sure-to-be-reviled-at-the-White-House piece on the lies and whys for war in Iraq. He puts together a compelling case with timeline for Rovian domestic political agenda combined with Libbyan neocon ideology/oil agenda being the real backstage story to the front-page wag of WMD and Iraqi-al Qaeda links. Worth the read.