Saddam invested $1 million in Paul Martins company

[Montgomery Burns]

Time to impeach?

The Canadian company that Saddam Hussein invested a million dollars in belonged to the Prime Minister of Canada, canadafreepress.com has discovered.

Cordex Petroleum Inc., launched with Saddam’s million by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s mentor Maurice Strong’s son Fred Strong, is listed among Martin’s assets to the Federal Ethics committee on November 4, 2003.

Strong admitted that Tongsun Park, the Korean man accused by U.S. federal authorities of illegally acting as an Iraqi agent, invested in Cordex, the company he owned with his son, in 1997.

Not only are Volcker and Strong hooked with the ties that bind to Power Corporation Inc., a company under investigation in the oil-for-food scandal, Prime Minister Paul Martin was launched into the business world with Canadian Steamship Lines by Paul Desmarais’s Power Corporation Inc. and his predecessor Jean Chretien’s daughter, France is married to Paul Desmarais’ son, Andre Desmarais.

Power Corporation Inc is the largest shareholder in France's TotalFinaElf oil company, a company that was in bed with Saddam.

And there's more from the Wall Street Journal:

Life-long Liberal-appointed state employee, Louise Frechette, mentioned in $100 billion Oil for Food scandal

Yes, Paul Volcker's report makes clear that the real figure was in excess of $100 billion.

Maurice Strong took $1 million tainted personal cheque, inquiry finds

What a thoroughly corrupt govt. Sometimes I am embarrassed to be Canadian, when I see polls (even though polls aren't always accurate) showing the country still supports the Liberal Party more than any other party.

[August1991]

From the G&M article cited above:

Prominent Canadian businessman Maurice Strong accepted a personal cheque for nearly $1-million (U.S.) that was drawn on a Jordanian bank and came from a controversial international businessman who was working closely with the Iraqi regime, an inquiry into the UN's scandal-ridden oil-for-food program has found.

The committee concluded there was no "direct evidence" that Mr. Strong knew that the money, provided for a business investment in July, 1997, had come from Iraq or that the man, Korean-born Tongsun Park, was attempting to buy his influence. Mr. Park has since been indicted by U.S. authorities for allegedly working as an illegal Iraqi agent.

To understand these two paragraphs, it obviously helps to know who Maurice Strong is. You can check on the Internet to find Strong's public reputation for financial savvy. For over thirty years, Strong has presented himself as a visionary guy who knows how to count.

Strong has cultivated a public image of a wide-thinker who is a hard-nosed financial analyst. He sees the small people and their problems but Strong knows where the money comes from. IOW, he's a good manager.

So, according to Strong's PR image, the idea that Strong accepted a cheque for $1 million but didn't know about such a detail as the cheque's origin is comical.

Go figure.

BTW, Paul Martin is a Maurice Strong clone. I think the G&M reporters are cynically laughing at this point. I am surprised the G&M published the article but I guess they had no choice. Canada is yet not Belarus. We are a federal state.

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MB, thanks for starting this thread.