Saddam diverted oil for food money to suicide bomber families

NEW YORK -- Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel, say congressional investigators who uncovered evidence of the money trail.\nThe former Iraqi president tapped secret bank accounts in Jordan -- where he collected bribes from foreign companies and individuals doing illicit business under the humanitarian program -- to reward the families up to $25,000 each, investigators told The Associated Press.\nDocuments prepared for a Wednesday hearing by the House Committee on International Relations outline the new findings about how Saddam funneled money to the Palestinian families.\nInvestigators examining the oil-for-food program felt it was "important for us to determine whether the profits from his corruption were put toward terrorist purposes," said committee chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., of Saddam's well-known financial support of suicide bombers.\nWednesday's hearing, however, will focus on a French bank that handled most of the money for the program. An audit by a U.S. regulatory agency of a small sample of transactions out of the $60 billion U.N. escrow account managed by BNP Paribas has raised serious questions concerning the bank's compliance with U.S. money laundering laws, the investigators said.\n"There are indications that the bank may have been noncompliant in administering the oil-for-food program," Hyde said in his statement to The Associated Press. "If true, these possible banking lapses may have facilitated Saddam Hussein's manipulation and corruption of the program."\nWhile acknowledging that U.S. regulators have raised routine issues with BNP on compliance with banking laws, a lawyer for BNP said Hyde's statement was unfair to the bank.\n"No departure from any standard caused or contributed in any way to the abuse at the oil-for-food program," said the bank's lead council Robert S. Bennett. "There are simply no connections."\nThe humanitarian program that let Iraq trade oil for goods was set up in 1996 to help Iraqis get food, medicine and other items that had been scarce under strict U.N. economic sanctions imposed after the Gulf War. But investigators say Saddam made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue under the program as well as by evading the sanctions for more than a decade.\nIraq had thousands of secret bank accounts throughout the world, including over 1,500 in Jordan. Money from kickbacks on oil-for-food deals, illegal oil payments from the Jordanian government and other illicit funds were paid into accounts held by a Jordanian branch of the Iraqi government owned Rafidain Bank, investigators said.\nAccording to employees of the Iraqi Central Bank and the Rafidain Bank, the former Iraqi ambassador to Jordan, Sabah Yassen, personally withdrew money from the accounts to make payments ranging from $15,000 to $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, Hyde said.\nPalestinians had perceived Saddam as one of their staunchest supporters. Palestinians have said before that Saddam gave payments of more than $35 million to families of Palestinians killed or wounded in the conflict with Israel that began in September 2000. During the four-year conflict, Palestinians have carried out 117 suicide bombings, killing 494 Israelis and others.\nAt Wednesday's hearing, Hyde's panel will question two BNP executives. The panel also plans to transfer documents for a possible investigation to the House Committee on Financial Services.\nBNP held the sole escrow account through which all of the more than $60 billion of Iraqi oil revenues generated through the program flowed while the program was in place from 1996 to 2003.