Posted: 06/28/08 09:36
by Dave Mindeman
Here is another in the series of things that get glossed over when discussing Norm Coleman's record.
On Norm's campaign website he claims:
Through his role as former Chairman and current Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), Senator Coleman has demonstrated his commitment to government oversight, aggressively cracking down on government waste, fraud, and abuse, protecting consumers, and strengthening our homeland security.
When he was chairman of that committee prior to the Democratic takeover starting in 2007, his most public investigation was the Oil for Food (OFF) scandal. He investigated the United Nations (and mostly Member of the British Parliament, George Galloway) and called for the resignation of Kofi Annan.
Yet, he ignored an even larger problem that was going on here in the United States.
From the UK Guardian, May 17, 2005:
In fact, the Senate (Democratic Minority) report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.
"The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions," the report said. "On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales.
While Norm used the Galloway hearings as a public charade against the United Nations...he never called a single hearing about the US companies that accounted for more than half of the illegal money going to Saddam Hussein.
Another problem from the same report and the same issue:
In its second main finding, the report said the US military and the state department gave a tacit green light for shipments of nearly 8m barrels of oil bought by Jordan, a vital American ally, entirely outside the UN-monitored Oil For Food system. Jordan was permitted to buy some oil directly under strict conditions but these purchases appeared to be under the counter.
The US simply looked the other way while Jordan purchased oil from Hussein's Iraq, despite the embargo. Senator Coleman had an opportunity to look into that also, but did not.
Why isn't Norm Coleman held accountable for that?
There are, as many liberal blogs have pointed out, countless other items of waste, fraud, and abuse of power that were interwoven within the Bush administration. But none of that ever drew the attention of the PCI Chair, Norm Coleman.
What kind of government oversight is that?
