And yet as Americans sit down to their annual Thanksgiving feast, the offical figures for the month of October come in. Nine thousand Iraqis are dead from the effects of the sanctions in that month alone.

But President Clinton in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now makes a great point of saying that Iraq now has an income of $19 billion annually from the sale of oil under the Oil for Food program of the United Nations, more income than they had in the year 1989 (Which Clinton claims was $16 billion), and that if the people are starving it is solely the responsiblity of Saddam Hussein. Maybe this statement comes from disinformation. I assume that Bill Clinton gets the Wshington Post, whose advertising pitch says, "If you don't get it (The Washington Post, that is), you just don't get it."

My counter advertising pitch would run as follows: "If you get it, (The Washington Post, that is), you'll never get it." (any idea of what is really going on, that is).

However, I am assumng that as President of the United States Bill Clinton does indeed know what is going on and that his remarks were, at best, disingenuous.

There are a couple of things that must be made clear.

One is that Iraq has started pumping more oil under the recently changed and less stringent demands of the Oil for Food program and is now selling 2-3 million barrels a day. Were things as they are presented, they would indeed be able to make $19 billion this year (2000) due to the increased price of oil, which their entry on the market would depress quickly. By focusing on this year's sales alone, Clinton gives the false impression that Iraq has been making money hand over fist while ignoring the complete destruction of their economy and infrastructure in the Gulf War and the ensuing ten years of sanctions. It would take more than one good year to rebuild the country.

However that is only part of the story. Baghdad does not get the Oil for Food money. Thirty per cent (32%) off the top goes to pay exhorbitant war reparations to Kuwait primarily, adding up to $320 billion at this point, and to cover the administrative costs of the U.N. overseeing the program. This would presumably leave 68% per cent of the oil sales proceeds for food and medicines. But that is not what happens. The bucks don't ever get to Baghdad. As a matter of fact, they wind up in New York, where they are held in a New York branch of a French bank, the Banque Nationale du Paris. It is here that the UN 661 Sanctions Committee exercises control over the money. Iraq which has no representation on the committee must submit contracts for what it needs and over which the US representative can place veto. According to The Guardian of Great Britain 98% of the vetos and holds placed on contracts come from the US representative. At this writing $2 billion are being held up. Although since 1997, Iraq has sold $37 million of oil, only $9 million have actually made it to Iraq. That adds up to $3 billion a year in income since 1997, not nearly enough to rebuild the infrastructure of both the oil industry and the water system, both of which are in major disrepair.

Another aspect of the OIl for Food program is that it forces Iraq to purchase all of its good outside Iraq rather than allowing it to rebuld its infrastrcture so that the country can again become self-sufficient. The reason for this is the extremely tight control on imports placed on Iraq by the Sanctions committee. Hundreds of items are considered 'dual use', that is of having a possible military use, such as chlorine and lead. The result of this is that nothing that could faintly be interpreted as being put to use in a military application can be imported. This also has the effect of preventing the import of items necessary to the reconstruction of the society. Oil for Food may be keeping some from stavation, but with a disfunctional water sanitation system, massive unemployment and poverty, the situation persists.

Rather than Iraq now having an income of $19 billion to provide for its populations' needs they continue to suffer under the effects of sanctions. That is what the situation is. And not as Clinton description would have you believe.