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"By 2000-2001, Saddam had managed to mitigate many of the effects of sanctions and undermine their international support," Mr. Duelfer writes. "Iraq was within striking distance of a de facto end to the sanctions regime."

Duelfer estimates Saddam raked in $11 billion in illicit earnings while under U.N. sanctions from the early '90s to 2003. Direct Oil-for-Food kickbacks alone pulled in $2 billion. The program's head � Benon Sevan, a lifelong U.N. staffer � was himself on the take, Duelfer reports, paid via companies that he recommended, such as the Panama-registered African Middle East Petroleum Company.

Oil-for-Food helped Saddam create his own coalition to buy influence in the Security Council, blocking any U.S. attempt to enforce the U.N. resolutions. For all the French talk of Jacques Chirac's principled objections to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Saddam realized that the way to France's vote was through its pocketbook. Lucrative contracts for French companies, as well as firms from China and Russia, were part of Saddam's bid for diplomatic protection. A French legislator told Iraqi intelligence in May 2002 that France would veto any U.N. resolution authorizing war against Saddam. That promise proved more trustworthy than what the French were telling the Americans until January 2003.