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Iraq has list of Saddam cash bribes: Talabani

UNITED NATIONS: An Iraqi official said on Friday there was a list of cash bribes made by Saddam Hussein’s government to journalists, politicians and groups in connection with the $67 billion UN-run oil-for-food program.

Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said Iraqi officials combing Saddam’s files had not decided whether to release the list as part of a burgeoning scandal over the defunct program. “We have a list of cash paid to journalists, personalities, groups and parties,” Talabani told a news conference after conferring with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan over an Iraqi interim government. A separate, previously released list contains the names of more than 250 individuals, business, politicians and other groups alleged to have received vouchers for oil they could sell.

Talabani said he hoped a UN-appointed independent inquiry, headed by Paul Volcker, the former head of the US Federal Reserve, would “let the chips fall where they may.”

The oil-for-food program, which began in late 1996 and closed last year, was an exception to 1991 Gulf War sanctions. It allowed Iraq to sell oil and buy civilian goods to ease the impact of the embargoes on ordinary people. —Reuters

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