From the New York Post, :
July 19, 2004 — WASHINGTON “” American officials believe that millions of dollars Saddam Hussein skimmed from the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food program are now being used to help fund the bloody rebel campaign against U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government, The Post has learned.
U.S. intelligence officials and congressional investigators said last night that the “oil-for-insurgency link” has been recently unearthed in the numerous probes now under way into the giant U.N. humanitarian program, in which Saddam is believed to have pocketed $10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers….
U.S. intelligence officials believe a portion of the funds in these hidden accounts “” possibly millions”” is now being used to fund the Ba’athist guerrillas responsible for much of the postwar violence against coalition troops, sources said.
“We are still in the early stages of investigating this. But from what we know so far, it’s the same financial system, and we believe there is now some connection between what was left over from the illegal profiteering under the oil-for-food program and the funding of insurgency,” said a U.S. official familiar with the recent intelligence information.
U.S. officials revealed earlier this month that a network of Saddam’s cousins led by Fatiq Suleiman al-Majid, a former henchman in Saddam’s murderous Special Security Organization, is involved in funding and arming the militants.
Investigators found a money trail connected to Saddam’s clansmen that flowed through banks in Syria. Some of these same banks, congressional investigators said, also handled the kickback depos- its during the oil-for-food program.