Oil for Food - Sen. Coleman starts digging

I had written here about how Senator Norm Coleman, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations. Now it seems that the estimated amount of money stolen from the Iraqi people by Saddam's regime may be well more than $21.3 Billion, much more than previously thought. Fox News/AP has the story: bq. Officials Double Saddam's Oil-for-Food Theft Saddam Hussein's regime made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the U.N. Oil-for-Food program and other sanctions � more than double previous estimates, according to congressional investigators. bq. "This is like an onion � we just keep uncovering more layers and more layers," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., whose Senate Committee on Government Affairs received the new information at a hearing on Monday. bq. New figures on Iraq's alleged surcharges, kickbacks � and oil-smuggling dating back to 1991 � are based on troves of new documents obtained by the committee's investigative panel, Coleman told reporters before the hearing. The documents illustrate how Iraqi officials, foreign companies and sometimes politicians allegedly contrived to allow the Iraqi government vast illicit gains. bq. The findings also reflect a growing understanding by investigators of the intricate schemes Saddam used to buy support abroad for a move to lift U.N. sanctions. bq. Coleman said the probe is just beginning and that officials aim to discover "how this massive fraud was able to thrive for so long." He said he is angry that the United Nations has not provided documents and access to officials that investigators need to move ahead. Emphasis mine - well duuhhh!!!! They are deep into the whole scandal and if they provided documentation, they would loose whatever shreds of credibility they ever had and would be revealed as the corrupt gang of tinpot fascists and kleptocrats they are. Keep digging Norm -- the Iraqi people need to know and this needs to be presented as an object lesson to other corrupt governments out there...