Senior Fellow George Lopez joined an American Enterprise Institute panel in Washington, D.C., to discuss the United Nations “Oil-for-Food Scandal,” during which he emphasized the value of the Oil-for-Food program.

Lopez, along with Kroc Research Fellow David Cortright, studies the use of economic sanctions to reduce weapons of mass destruction. He has special expertise on Iraq. He was one of four panelists. Joining him were Wall Street Journal columnist Claudia Rosett, AEI vice president Danielle Pletka, and Edward Mortimer of the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General.

Because U.N. sanctions against Iraq were causing hardship in the 1990s, Saddam Hussein was allowed to sell oil in order to purchase food for the Iraqi people. Congressional investigators allege that Hussein’s government illegally siphoned $21.3 billion from the program. Hussein reportedly used the funds to purchase weapons, pay off foreign businessmen and politicians, and reward terrorist sympathizers. Officials from the United Nations and from foreign governments and businesses have been implicated in the fraud.

Lopez believes the Oil-for-Food scandal has been overstated and that the public should not lose sight of the fact that the program fulfilled its mission to reverse the humanitarian crisis brought about by sanctions. Most notably, under the program child malnutrition rates were halved in most of the country in four years.

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Home > Publications > Peace Colloquy> Issue 7, Spring 2005