Bedfellows

A grand jury investigating pardoned (by Bill Clinton) financier Marc Rich’s role in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal is trying to determine whether money funneled by Rich and other oil traders to Saddam Hussein was used to pay the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, according to the Washington Times. Actually, it’s probably not very relevant whether Rich’s money was used to finance terrorism in Israel, build torture chambers in Iraq, or free up other funds for use in committing these and other crimes against humanity. Rich’s illicit dealings with Saddam were equally deplorable regardless of how the actual money was spent. And, according to a report by the House Government Reform Committee, these dealings were well-known to the U.S. intelligence community at the time Bill Clinton pardoned Rich. That makes Clinton’s pardon all the more deplorable. So I will shed no tears if the use to which Rich’s money was put (the money he paid Saddam, not Clinton) revives the pardon story to Clinton’s detriment.