Surprise, Surprise—Is Anyone Really Surprised?

The Duelfer Report has been summarized in the major media largely in terms of the conclusion that Saddam had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction—as of the invasion. However, another conclusion from that same report has not been emphasized. According to a news report, the Iraq Survey Report

named hundreds of entities who allegedly benefited from contracts to sell Iraqi oil. Among them was “one UK citizen”. Although the list included many legitimate oil traders, it also contained the names of politicians, political parties and other groups with little obvious connection to the oil industry.
Among those named were Benon Sevan, the former head of the UN’s humanitarian programme; President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia; the former French interior minister Charles Pasqua; and Vladimir Zhirinovsk, the founder of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party.

The French are upset that that the report named names. The Russians haven’t chimed in yet as far as I know.

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