It Wasn't Theft, Just "Uplifting"

Ah Clintonism is spreading fast. Sandy Berger inadvertantly and innocently stuffed classified documents into his pants and socks, and now we learn that money wasn't stolen from the Oil For Food program, it was "uplifted."

[The Weir Group]said that as part of 15 contracts in Iraq for three different Iraq-based customers, it had in 2000 received - from the UN - £4.2m ($7.7m, €6.3m) in payments that were "uplifted" for work that had not been done. These payments went to an unnamed agent acting for Weir. The company's work in Iraq was organised by Wesco Dubai, a Weir subsidiary based in the Middle East. Weir made the statement in response to newspaper allegations in May. At the time Weir denied the claim.

Mark Selway, chief executive of Weir, said he could not rule out the possibility that the funds had been returned to Mr Hussein's regime. "We may never know where the money ended up," said Mr Selway, adding that he did not want to disclose the name of the agent for security reasons.