"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."And the NY Post has more:
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.
See also this. Quotable:
Enriched with billions of dollars raised by exploiting the United Nations' oil-for-food program, Saddam Hussein spent heavily on arms imports starting in 1999, finding six governments and private companies from a dozen other nations that were willing to ignore sanctions prohibiting arms sales, the report by the top American arms inspector for Iraq has found. The purchases .. included components of long-range missiles, spare parts for tanks and night-vision equipment .. But the relative ease with which Mr. Hussein was able to buy weapons - working directly with governments in Syria, Belarus, Yemen, North Korea, the former Yugoslavia and possibly Russia, as well as with private companies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East - is documented in extraordinary detail, including repeated visits by government officials and arms merchants to Iraq and complicated schemes to disguise illegal shipments to Iraq.