I'm too busy to comment on this at any length, but I did take some time to scan through Volcker's final report on the Oil for Food Programme, released today. It's full of very detailed descriptions of the illicit activities of a wide range of companies and individuals, especially Russian and French. But what caught my attention was what was missing when I went looking for it: the Arab media. With the exception of the Syrian journalist Hamida Nahnah, who was fingered long ago, I couldn't find a single Arab journalist or politician named.
Is that because there was not, in fact, a vast retinue of Arab journalists on Saddam's payroll? Is it because the Volcker commission didn't find this an interesting question? Is it because they got paid through other channels? For the record, I'm quite sure that there was a lot of Iraqi money slushing through the Arab media - along with Saudi money, Kuwaiti money, Lebanese money, and every other national money you might want to name. But this seems like a striking absence from a 600+ page report dedicated to naming names. So what gives?
Comments