"What does appear clear is that the major source of external financial resources to the Iraqi Regime resulted from sanctions violations outside the Programme's framework. These illicit sales, usually referred to as 'smuggling,' began years before the Program started. Exports of Iraqi oil to both Jordan and Turkey and imports form those countries generally took place within the terms of trade agreements ('protocols') negotiated with Iraq. The existence, but not necessarily the amounts, of sales and purchases under these protocols was brought to the attention of the 661 Committee and at least in the case of Jordan, it was 'noted.' United States law requires that assistance programs to countries in violation of United Nations sanctions be ended unless continuation is determined to be in the national interest. Such determinations were provided by successive United States administrations for both Jordan and Turkey. In the later stages of the Programme, substantial Iraqi sales of oil were made to Syria and small sales to Egypt under similar 'protocols.'"
-Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker
"It is clear that the whole world, including the United States, knew about Iraq's oil sales to Turkey, Jordan and Syria. In the case of the United States, we not only knew about the oil sales, we actively stopped the United Nations Iraq Sanctions Committee, known as the 661 Committee, from acting to stop those sales…Hundreds of millions of dollars went into the pockets of Saddam Hussein as a result."
-Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) during a February 15, 2005 Hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into Oil-for-Food Program allegations.
Furthermore, the responsibility for preventing illegal oil trades did not belong to the UN. The UN Office of the Iraq Program, which administered OFFP, had neither the authority nor the resources to prevent smuggling. Patrick Kennedy, Ambassador to the UN for Management and Reform at the U.S. Mission to the UN, testified to this recently, stating that "Oil flowing out of Iraq through other means - smuggling, trade protocols and the voucher system - was outside the mandate of the UN Secretariat." During the same hearing, in response to questioning by Senator Levin, Kennedy also testified that the U.S. was aware of the oil sales with Jordan and Turkey ("…the sales - the trade - was going on and we were aware of it.").
The task of policing oil smuggling fell to the Multinational Interception Force (MIF), led by the Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy. The coalition making up MIF was initiated following the inception of the sanctions in 1990. The objective remained the same throughout its existence - to halt violations of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 661 and 665.
