posted June 14, 2005 12:52 AM            

quote:

---

The U.S., through its Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council, had a representative on the 661 Committee during the entire duration of the Oil-for-Food Program. ]http://www.oilforfoodfacts.org/faq.aspx

---

So what Petron? Having a member on the 661 committee does not in any way give the United States control over the oil for food program or assign US responsibility for the program.

BTW, I never said the war resolution said WMD was the smallest part of the reasons to remove Saddam Hussein. There were many reasons stated, WMD was one.

posted June 14, 2005 01:02 AM            

The UN Oil-for-Food program was designed with the intention of ensuring that the humanitarian needs of the people of Iraq were met while the United Nations maintained economic sanctions against Iraq for its failure to comply with relevant UN Security Council resolutions. While the program provided significant relief to the Iraqi people, it also opened up opportunities for Saddam to skim billions of dollars for his own purposes. The situation occurred because support for the sanctions and their rigorous enforcement eroded among many UN member nations for financial, philosophical and other reasons. Also, the single-minded focus of the United States was on preventing Saddam from obtaining WMD, with the result that we were willing to overlook indications of certain sanctions irregularities as long as, at the end of the day, the sanctions survived.

History

The UN’s Oil-for-Food program (OFF) was first offered by the Security Council to Saddam immediately after the first Gulf War as a method by which Iraqi oil could be sold to the world and humanitarian goods purchased with the proceeds, all while UN sanctions on Iraq remained. Hoping to manipulate the world’s media and galvanize public opinion against the sanctions, Saddam refused the offer. For the next five years he willingly let his people starve while he and his cronies continued to live lavishly. Throughout, he claimed that Iraqi children were dying as a result of the US-driven UN sanctions.

The international community had united to condemn the invasion of Kuwait and to punish Iraq with sanctions in 1990. But, once Saddam was driven from Kuwait, many nations’ willingness to uphold sanctions began to slip – especially among Iraq’s neighbors Turkey, Jordan and Syria, who suffered substantial trade losses from the sanctions. Equally reluctant were China, France and Russia to whom Saddam had granted huge oil concessions that could not be pursued with sanctions in place. (In his testimony before the SFRC, US Ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, in response to a question, said that China, France and Russia had indeed impeded US/UK attempts to tighten the sanctions.) Thus many of the most important players in maintaining UN sanctions – three of the five permanent members of the Security Council and three of Iraq’s six neighbors – were working to lift sanctions virtually from the moment the fighting stopped. Equally significant was Saddam’s ability to play to the G-77 audience by claiming that Iraq, as a sovereign and unoccupied country, was being victimized by the West.

Unfortunately, the West did little to counter Saddam’s propaganda and by the mid-1990’s was having a hard time holding together almost any support for continued sanctions against Iraq. And so, in 1995, the US, through the UN, again offered to let Saddam sell oil and purchase humanitarian goods with the proceeds; again, Saddam rejected the offer. Finally, in May 1996, Saddam agreed to allow the UN to establish OFF, though Iraqi oil did not actually begin to flow through legitimate channels until the end of the year. In order to prevent abuses, the volume of oil exported was monitored at the point the oil was “lifted” into either oil tankers or trucks, and goods brought into Iraq purchased with OFF proceeds were checked for quantity and type at the border.

When the OFF program began, Iraq’s purchases of goods were limited to medicine, health supplies, foodstuffs, and materials and supplies for essential civilian needs. Over the life of the program, however, the Security Council took subsequent decisions to allow Iraq to purchase additional categories of goods. These expanded categories of goods included equipment to store, process, and transport food and medicine, and spare parts for Iraq’s oil industry. These changes were made in response to charges pressed by Iraq and by its supporters on the Security Council that the OFF program was not doing enough to alleviate adverse consequences of the sanctions regime on the Iraqi civilian population. Such an expansion in the scope of allowed imports was justified on the grounds that there was no point in importing food or medicine that would only spoil due to improper handling. Moreover, it was argued, Iraq needed to invest in its oil sector if its people were to be fed.

Throughout this period, and continuing through 2003, Saddam smuggled oil to Jordan, Turkey, and Syria, evading the controls of the OFF program. According to the GAO, these illicit sales generated for Saddam as much as $5.6 billion.

How OFF Worked

The OFF program had procedures for reviewing contracts for the sale of oil and for the purchase of goods. Oil sales contracts were reviewed first by a group known as the Oil Overseers, former oil company executives with market experience.1 Their task was to ensure that Iraq’s asking price was not at variance with world market prices. All contracts both for the sale of oil and for the purchase of goods were reviewed by the UN’s Office of the Iraq Program (OIP), which examined them for compliance with OFF program procedures.

Following this initial review of the contracts, each contract was reviewed by a committee created by the Security Council – known as the “661 Committee” named after the UN Security Council Resolution that established the Iraqi sanctions in 1990. All Security Council member states were represented on the “661 Committee,” and any state could prevent approval of a contract it believed did not comply with the sanctions regime. The United States along with the United Kingdom delayed or prevented the approval of many contracts, and did so mostly in connection with contracts that included items that might have military applications. Iraq portrayed such U.S. contract holds as intended to cause suffering to the Iraqi people by denying them necessary humanitarian supplies, and the United States came under pressure to minimize its use of such holds. It is unclear whether the United States ever used its hold to deny a contract for reasons of price, quality or quantity.

Saddam exploited weaknesses in the OFF program to skim money both from contracts for the sale of oil and from contracts for the purchase of goods.

With respect to oil sales contracts, Saddam did so by manipulating the price at which oil was sold, in an effort to impose a surcharge on purchasers. Initially, Saddam rarely tried to over- or under-sell oil beyond a $0.20 per barrel figure. This eventually changed and he began to try to set the monthly price for oil at the beginning of the month (and hope the actual monthly average was lower), a tactic blocked by US and UK representatives in the “661 Committee.” The “661 Committee” had the final say once OIP and the Overseers had vetted the contracts. The US/UK were successful in imposing “retroactive pricing” to counter Saddam’s attempts to either demand a surcharge or under-sell oil and demand the difference as a kick-back.

With respect to contracts for the purchase of goods, Saddam demanded kickbacks from companies that supplied goods in exchange for granting them the opportunity to receive contracts from Iraq under the OFF program. Such kickbacks were paid outside OFF program controls, thus giving money to Saddam directly.

According to the GAO, Saddam generated as much as $4.1 billion from such abuses of the OFF program.

What Saddam did with this money is still in question. Clearly, some went to build palaces, some to purchase weapons on the black market, and some he used to bribe willing commercial partners and, possibly, UN officials and member nation officials and politicians. A similar attempt to buy influence using “oil vouchers,” which would then be redeemed for cash, has been alleged and at least one of those who is suspected of receiving such vouchers is the former head of the UN’s OIP.

The Paul Volcker Investigation

Following Senator Lugar’s strong insistence and U.S. Ambassador Negroponte’s advice, the UN Secretary General announced an official, independent investigation into the scandal. Subsequently, Senator Lugar encouraged Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, to accept the leadership of the investigatory commission. Yesterday, Senator Lugar and Mr. Volcker lunched together in DC to discuss plans for the investigation. Mr. Volcker hopes to have a full staff of 25-30 and has received an initial budget of four million dollars. Kofi Annan has instructed UN staff that all OFF documents are to be turned over to the Volcker Commission, and he has announced his intention that any UN official found to have profited illegally from OFF will have their immunity stripped for purposes of prosecution. The Commission hopes to issue interim reports during the process of its investigation, but, to date, the timing of those reports has not been officially determined. The investigation is expected to take at least one full year.

posted June 14, 2005 01:10 AM            

quote:

---

By the late 1990’s, only France and Russia remained. China, which felt it had been denied a slot in breach of a previous understanding, refused to allow the US to replace its representative. This tension reflected underlying disagreements that grew worse over time and illustrates the difficulties of operating the program.

---

posted June 14, 2005 01:10 AM            

quote:

---

When is that bolt of lightning going to strike you Acoustic...and wake you up to the fact you are making nonsense arguments?

---

Ummmm...as soon as you come up with a way to prove me wrong, and your source is fact-checked. I think that's only fair.

quote:

---

Having a member on the 661 committee does not in any way give the United States control over the oil for food program or assign US responsibility for the program.

---

posted June 14, 2005 01:15 AM              

if youve read whats been posted youd see the u.s. did hold up many contracts for materials, which is what helped keep iraq from developing any wmd....but the u.s. nor u.k. held up a single oil contract.....even when presented with evidence by the u.n. for kickback pricing.....all they had to do was say no......

besides as you can see...saddam made far more money for his palaces and weapons from smuggling oil to our allies turkey and jordan ...your outrage is selective again...

posted June 14, 2005 01:18 AM              

quote:

---

I did post the entire war resolution on page 3 of this thread...and posted the link to the source so you could see...and perhaps read it in it's entirety.-jwhop

---

... you posted it after i posted it(with a link) and highlited all the paragraphs regarding wmd vs. repression....LOL

quote:

---

Do you know what the war resolution passed by Congress actually said, that WMD was the smallest part of the joint resolution of Congress to authorize the President to use military force?--jwhop

---

and im still waiting for you to tell me where else you post......

posted June 14, 2005 02:15 AM            

quote:

---

Hoping to manipulate the world’s media and galvanize public opinion against the sanctions, Saddam refused the offer. For the next five years he willingly let his people starve while he and his cronies continued to live lavishly. Throughout, he claimed that Iraqi children were dying as a result of the US-driven UN sanctions.

---

quote:

---

All Security Council member states were represented on the “661 Committee,” and any state could prevent approval of a contract it believed did not comply with the sanctions regime.

---

quote:

---

The United States along with the United Kingdom delayed or prevented the approval of many contracts, and did so mostly in connection with contracts that included items that might have military applications.

---

Third, the US did not block the sale of oil but rather blocked Saddam from buying products with military applications.

quote:

---

Also, the single-minded focus of the United States was on preventing Saddam from obtaining WMD, with the result that we were willing to overlook indications of certain sanctions irregularities as long as, at the end of the day, the sanctions survived.

---

Fourth, if anything the US was overly liberal in permitting the sale of Iraq's oil under the program...not restrictive. Again, you falsely accused the US of repressing Iraqi citizens through the oil for food program.

quote:

---

so that the people whom America repressed may again be healthy and stop dying at the hands of the sanctions we imposed through the United Nations...Acoustic

---

You falsely accused the US of repressing Iraqi citizens when the 661 committee was composed of 15 members and not under the control of the US, when the US permitted without complaint the sale of Iraqi oil under the program...even when it was overpriced by up to 20 cents above market prices, when by the late 1990's the US didn't even have a representative on the Oil Overseers panel.

Your argument is specious Acoustic. It's simply a lie the US ever repressed Iraqi citizens. Saddam did that. Your argument has a hole in it, like all your other arguments.

posted June 14, 2005 04:17 AM            

quote:

---

First, this report makes clear that it was Saddam who let his people starve by refusing to sign on to the oil for food program...for 5 years. You falsely accused the US of repressing Iraqi citizens through the oil for food program.

---

Yes, first he let them starve, and then he signed on to Oil For Food. Read in context it's quite clear the chain of events. Trying to pull one part out while dismissing other parts doesn't make a good argument.

quote:

---

Second, the US did not control the 661 committee...all 15 members of the UN Security Council had a representative on that committee.

---

This is true, however, it's made quite clear that the US and UK made the most use of their ability to, "prevent approval of a contract it believed did not comply with the sanctions regime."

quote:

---

Third, the US did not block the sale of oil but rather blocked Saddam from buying products with military applications.

---

Technically the US did regulate some of the sale of oil, and nearly bankrupting the system in doing so.

Further, yes, we all know that the US was trying to block Saddam from buying products with military applications, and it's also true that as a result chemicals needed for water purification often didn't make it there.

quote:

---

Fourth, if anything the US was overly liberal in permitting the sale of Iraq's oil under the program...not restrictive. Again, you falsely accused the US of repressing Iraqi citizens through the oil for food program.

---

It is true that they were liberal in allowing the sale of oil particularly to Turkey and Jordan, but that's a separate issue from receiving the supplies that were needed for humanitarian relief.

quote:

---

You falsely accused the US of repressing Iraqi citizens when the 661 committee was composed of 15 members and not under the control of the US, when the US permitted without complaint the sale of Iraqi oil under the program...even when it was overpriced by up to 20 cents above market prices, when by the late 1990's the US didn't even have a representative on the Oil Overseers panel.

---

These are two different issues:

1. Yes, the US did turn a blind eye on some of the oil sales. Then they went the opposite direction determining oil pricing after the contract for it's sale was already in place as mentioned in Joy Gordon's article Petron posted.

2. As a member of the 661 committee each member had veto power over any of the contracts, and the US and UK excerised that right more than any other members of the committee. There's no indication that there was any vote or any concensus needed to delay or prevent approval of any of the contracts. The amount of members in the committee become irrelevant when they all have the same power.

quote:

---

Your argument has a hole in it, like all your other arguments.

---

posted June 15, 2005 01:46 AM            

What is also true is that sanctions were put on Iraq for invading Kuwait and the oil for food program was proposed and instituted to feed and alleviate the suffering of Iraqi citizens. What is also true is that Saddam took the money, built palaces, bought weapons from suppliers in violation of sanctions, sanctions imposed on Iraq and also on weapons suppliers.

What's also true is that any US ships in the Gulf were not there to monitor oil shipments but to enforce the weapons embargo as well as insure items prohibited under the sanctions were not entering Iraq through shipping channels.

It's also true the US was lax in permitting more oil to be sold under the program and at higher than market prices...within limits. Such sales were supposed to benefit Iraqi citizens..but Saddam misused the money, cut deals for substandard foods and medicines and pocketed kickbacks from suppliers without passing the oil money through to citizens in the form of food and other essential supplies.

The US had absolutely no function in restricting oil sales outside the oil for food program. With sanctions in place, that job fell to the United Nations..which looked the other way. If anything, the extra oil sale should have benefited Iraqi citizens, but didn't.

You aren't getting it both ways with me...talking out of both sides of your mouth at the same time. The US had a liberal policy in regard to oil sales, believing it benefited Iraqi citizens, so the US was not repressing Iraqi citizens. Further, it was Saddam Hussein and Saddam Hussein alone who repressed Iraqi citizens.

The sale of certain types of materials to Iraq was prohibited. When the US or Britain or both put a hold on contracts, it was to insure those materials were not going to be shipped to Iraq, and that included some dual use chemicals, chemicals which are the precursors for chemical weapons. That was one of the purposes of sanctions against Iraq as put forth by the UN Security Council in the first place. No weapons to Iraq and nothing that could make weapons, including spare parts for military equipment and technology transfers.

Now to the crux of the matter.

You have made the most extreme and lying allegations against the United States. Allegations that could have come straight from the mouth of Saddam Hussien...and did. What you've said about the US is found on every radical leftist website on the Internet but are out of touch with reality.

I had you pegged exactly in the right pew.

When Iraq is discussed, it's the US you accuse as the repressor, not Saddam, the butcher of Baghdad.
When idealism is discussed you champion communism and communists.

If there was ever a nation on Earth with the highest ideals, it's the United States. We set standards nearly impossible to achieve and it's still a work in process but we make steady progress.

Ideologically, you are not an American. You're one of the accidental Americans I mentioned before. You do not share a belief in American ideals and from what I've seen of your comments, you accuse America of being the problem in the world.
Your attack on America has been relentless and everything you've said is the far radical leftist viewpoint.

You certainly are no liberal. When reading the words of a true liberal, you dismiss him as a conservative. That's how far to the radical left you really are. There is nothing mainstream Americana in anything you've said. I know and admire true liberals. We share common interests, we love America and America's ideals. Where we differ is how to get there, policy wise. I see none of that in you. In fact, everything you've said is a direct attack on America.

For me, I don't give a damn where you are politically. There are a lot of viewpoints among Americans. I do however respond strongly to those who attack America and more so to those who live here, make their living here and side with those attempting to tear America down. That's you Acoustic and those who are ideologically something other than Americans and can't find one good thing to say about their country. I know a lot of people Acoustic, conservatives, liberals and independents and what you've said here would make them want to throw up. I don't know anyone who wouldn't bid you a farewell and good riddance if you decided to leave our fair shores.

posted June 15, 2005 02:01 PM            

Bush sucks
Cheney sucks
Rice sucks
Rumsfeld sucks
Ashcroft sucks
America sucks
jwhop sucks

There, isn't that better?

posted June 15, 2005 02:25 PM              

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed

-Martin Luther King

quote:

---

JWHOP: IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO KILL PEOPLE LIKE HIM.......ALL BECAUSE HE JUST WANTED SOME PEACE. YEAH AND I'M SURE ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO MARCHED ALONG WITH HIM DURING THE PROTEST SUPPORTED SADDAM.

---

posted June 15, 2005 03:04 PM            

You seem to be in a state of persistent fog. I could introduce you to a Florida judge who has a permanent cure for that...only takes about 15 days.

King was not marching for peace, he was marching for racial equality in America.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

So, who was it that put King's ideas into actual practice; who was it who appointed more minorities to high positions in government than any President in American history; and who was it that filibustered those nominations; who was it who called Rice an Aunt Jemima , called Clarence Thomas and Colin Powell Uncle Toms?

The man who upheld the dreams of Martin Luther King is George W Bush, who made all those nominations. It was your racist leftist friends who opposed them every step of the way.

posted June 15, 2005 03:18 PM              

racist leftist friends

And how many times do I have to tell you....it's not about being a leftist, liberal, democrat, republican or any of that crap.

You just support someone because they are republican. You could care less what they do for there people.

posted June 15, 2005 03:51 PM            

If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people—a black people—who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization."
From an address given in Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 31, 1955

The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be.
From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
From Strength to Love, 1963

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
From the "I Have a Dream" speech, Aug. 28, 1963

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.
From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.
From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
From Strength to Love, 1963

I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow, but to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
From "Rediscovering Lost Values," Feb. 28, 1954

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
From a speech given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Aug. 16, 1967

posted June 15, 2005 04:02 PM              

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In 1950's America, the equality of man envisioned by the Declaration of Independence was far from a reality. People of color, blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, were discriminated against in many ways, both overt and covert. The 1950's were a turbulent time in America, when racial barriers began to come down due to Supreme Court decisions, like Brown v. Board of Education; and due to an increase in the activism of blacks, fighting for equal rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, was a driving force in the push for racial equality in the 1950's and the 1960's. In 1963, King and his staff focused on Birmingham, Alabama. They marched and protested non-violently, raising the ire of local officials who sicced water cannon and police dogs on the marchers, whose ranks included teenagers and children. The bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of Birmingham to concede to some anti-segregation demands.

Thrust into the national spotlight in Birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, King organized a massive march on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The following is the exact text of the spoken speech, transcribed from recordings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

posted June 15, 2005 04:03 PM              

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

posted June 15, 2005 04:04 PM              

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Negro and the Constitution (in The Cornellian, May 1944)
We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flaunt the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule.
The spirit of Lincoln still lives; that spirit born of the teachings of the Nazarene, who promised mercy to the merciful, who lifted the lowly, strengthened the weak, ate with publicans, and made the captives free. In the light of this divine example, the doctrines of demagogues shiver in their chaff.
America experiences a new birth of freedom in her sons and daughters; she incarnates the spirit of her martyred chief. Their loyalty is repledged; their devotion renewed to the work He left unfinished. My heart throbs anew in the hope that inspired by the example of Lincoln, imbued with the spirit of Christ, they will cast down the last barrier to perfect freedom. And I with my brother of blackest hue possessing at last my rightful heritage and holding my head erect, may stand beside the Saxon--a Negro--and yet a man!

An Autobiography of Religious Development (Nov. 1950 essay)
It is quite easy for me to think of a God of love mainly because I grew up in a family where love was central and where lovely relationships were ever present.
My parents would always tell me that I should not hate the white man, but that it was my duty as a Christian to love him.
Even though I have never had an abrupt conversion experience, religion has been real to me and closely knitted to life. In fact the two cannot be separated; religion for me is life.

Letter from Birmingham Jail (April 1963)
I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights.
A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman empire.
I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle.

Was not Jesus an extremist for love -- "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice -- "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ -- "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist -- "Here I stand; I can do none other so help me God." Was not John Bunyan an extremist -- "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist -- "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." So the question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be.

Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice--or will we be extremists for the cause of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill, three men were crucified. We must not forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thusly fell below their environment.

The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.
There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.

Whenever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream and the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, and thusly, carrying our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Address at March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Aug 1963)
Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (Dec 1964)
I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

Most of these people will never make the headlines and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live -- men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization -- because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.

posted June 15, 2005 04:05 PM              

A lie cannot live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A right delayed is a right denied.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring. But not only that: Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people - a black people - who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhwre. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, "Here is an opportunity for me to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion gives man wisdom which is control.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Seeing is not always believing.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Negro's great stumbling block in the drive toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The time is always right to do what is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must use time creatively.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html

posted June 15, 2005 04:24 PM            

Known then...as now as a civil rights leader.

posted June 15, 2005 04:40 PM              

Stupid old man.

You will always be stuck in the 40s. only you would be that dumb enough to support a government that could care less about even the life of a child. Not to mention a president whos fmaily has a history of supporting nazis.

That just proves what type of person you are.

posted June 15, 2005 06:47 PM            

quote:

---

What is true about the oil for food program Acoustic is that Saddam manipulated the price of his oil sales, demanded kickbacks from supplies, refused to enter the program for more than 5 years, starved his own citizens, bribed UN officials, other government officials and business leaders to get the sanctions lifted.

---

No one ever disputed that. (How do you try to argue with something no one said?)

quote:

---

What is also true is that sanctions were put on Iraq for invading Kuwait and the oil for food program was proposed and instituted to feed and alleviate the suffering of Iraqi citizens. What is also true is that Saddam took the money, built palaces, bought weapons from suppliers in violation of sanctions, sanctions imposed on Iraq and also on weapons suppliers.

---

You are once again lumping things together that are separate issues.

The first line is correct.

In the second line it's important to note that the money came from oil sales, and not from the humanitarian aid given through the Oil for Food program. Also, I don't remember seeing anything where it said Saddam was definitively able to buy weapons. If you want to put forth a claim, please back it up.

quote:

---

What's also true is that any US ships in the Gulf were not there to monitor oil shipments but to enforce the weapons embargo as well as insure items prohibited under the sanctions were not entering Iraq through shipping channels.

The US had absolutely no function in restricting oil sales outside the oil for food program. With sanctions in place, that job fell to the United Nations..which looked the other way. If anything, the extra oil sale should have benefited Iraqi citizens, but didn't.

---

From Joy Gordon's article:

"Saddam Hussein smuggled $6 billion worth of oil out of Iraq, according to the General Accounting Office, much of it via tanker in the Persian Gulf. But the U.N. Multinational Interception Force (MIF)—charged with interdicting smuggling—turns out not to be a U.N. operation at all. The MIF came about when the Security Council passed a resolution in 1991 inviting any U.N. member country to interdict Iraqi oil smuggling in the Gulf, if the occasion arose. The result was the creation of a loose-knit collection of ships from various nations—all under the command of a United States officer from the Fifth Fleet. The commanders of the “U.N.” interception force have consisted entirely of a series of United States rear admirals or vice-admirals. And the ships taking part were almost all U.S. Navy vessels. Although twenty or so other countries participated, their contributions were minuscule compared with the U.S. role. In 2001, for example, Denmark contributed one ship for three months; U.S. participation that year involved ninety ships. In 2002, Poland contributed one ship for four months; U.S. participation involved ninety-nine ships. A few Arab countries participated in other ways. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait agreed to handle and dispose of ships that had been seized by the MIF. Britain’s role was a bit larger than most other countries’; Britons always served as deputy commanders. But even Britain’s role was dwarfed by that of the United States. In 2001 four British ships were involved, compared to the United States’ ninety."

"The interception force was by all accounts quite active. It boarded hundreds of ships each year through 2001. In 2002, during the Bush Administration’s lead-up to the war, the MIF boarded over 3,000 ships, then did the same in 2003. The U.S. commander made annual reports to the 661 Committee. But that was the only involvement with the U.N., and the only U.N. body involved—not the secretary general, not “the U.N. bureaucracy,” just a committee of the fifteen nations that sat on the Security Council. If Hussein did indeed smuggle $6 billion worth of oil in “the richest rip-off in world history,” he didn’t do it with the complicity of the U.N. He did it on the watch of the U.S. Navy."