BAGHDAD, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Claims that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein bought foreign political support with bribes of oil will be investigated by the country's Governing Council.
The probe was launched based on allegations in the Iraqi press that scores of senior officials and organizations from around the world had received crude oil in return for political support for Hussein's regime, London's Financial Times reported Wednesday.
"Presidents, politicians, journalists and parties accepted millions of barrels of oil from Saddam," read the headline of al Mada, a Baghdad newspaper on Jan. 27. Beneath were the names of 270 foreigners, alleged to have received crude oil payments.
The council asked the oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, for an official report on the subject.
Some of the alleged corruption is said to have occurred under the auspices of the U.N.'s oil-for food program, but the agency has consistently dismissed allegations of corruption. Last week, a spokeswoman said the oil-for-food program had been "satisfactorily audited many times, both internally and externally."
