Bush knew

From the Financial Times:

For months, the U.S. Congress has been investigating activities that violated the United Nations oil-for-food program and helped Saddam Hussein build secret funds to acquire arms and buy influence. President George W. Bush has linked future US funding of the international body to a clear account of what went on under the multi-billion dollar program. But a joint investigation by the Financial Times and Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, shows that the single largest and boldest smuggling operation in the oil-for-food programme was conducted with the knowledge of the US government. “Although the financial beneficiaries were Iraqis and Jordanians, the fact remains that the U.S. government participated in a major conspiracy that violated sanctions and enriched Saddam's cronies,” a former UN official said. “That is exactly what many in the US are now accusing other countries of having done. I think it's pretty ironic.”

No comment necessary. (Via Americablog)
Update: The Bush administration, which earlier backed Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, demanded he be held accountable for mismanagement in the program.