KUWAIT CITY — U.S. administrators in Iraq have frozen records of a U.N. aid program to help investigators looking into possible corruption during the regime of Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Saturday during a stopover in Kuwait.
U.S. congressional investigators have charged that Hussein's regime amassed $10 billion through oil smuggling, illegal surcharges and kickbacks from the United Nations' "oil-for-food" program between 1996 and 2002.
An Iraqi newspaper has published a list of about 270 former Cabinet officials, legislators, political activists and journalists in about 46 countries suspected of profiting from the scam.
"We are concerned, deeply concerned, that money that was supposed to be going to help the Iraqi people was diverted by Saddam Hussein, once again demonstrating the nature of that regime," Powell told reporters.
