December 01, 2004

UNSCAM UPDATE: LAST YEAR I WAS SKEPTICAL of claims that fugitive financier (and Clinton pardon-recipent) Marc Rich was involved in the oil-for-food scandal. But now ABC News is reporting that Rich was involved after all:

Former American fugitive Marc Rich was a middleman for several of Iraq's suspect oil deals in February 2001, just one month after his pardon from President Clinton, according to oil industry shipping records obtained by ABC News.

And a U.S. criminal investigation is looking into whether Rich, as well as several other prominent oil traders, made illegal payments to Iraq in order to obtain the lucrative oil contracts.

Sounds like there's something to it after all -- and this is bound to be a bit embarrassing for the Clintons.

UPDATE: Reader Pete Brittain emails:

I'll bet you dinner at your favorite Knoxville chow hall that the connection between Rich and the scandal dies a slow death...it'll get buried somewhere and forgotten. Heck, I'll even fork over dinner at any good restaurant of your choice
in the continental US if I lose. Deal?

Do I look like a sucker?