I am out of town right now using remote access, so I will only give a limited reply - yes. This was first established by the big Security Council Resolution at the end of the war. The readiness of the French et. el. to withdraw the embargo and turn the UN role to the U.S. was a major and unacknowledged (in the US press) concession (or cave-in, if one is less generous). The second shoe dropped when the US announced the import role of the UN program (the program actually covered food and all other imports)would actually be taken over by JP Morgan and a consortia of Banks from (mostly) the other coalition countries (I believe I posted the announcement).
Nomi Prims has pointed out that each of these banks has specialized in exotic ways to turn assets (read petroleum reserves and future income streams) into current debts. It is not expected that this phase will be discussed before the non-US donors are pressed to announce pledges from their development funds at the upcoming Madrid Donors Conference next week. Paul Original Message: On his radio show yesterday, satirist Harry Shearer said that the British GUARDIAN reported that the US was going to end the UN food program in Iraq in January. Is there any truth to this? Jim -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
