The December 6, 04 Nation magazine has an interesting article by Joe Gordon on the UN Oil for Food Scandal.  I tried finding an online link, but the Nation's website has not been updated to this issue. 

More or less the article states that under almost every area where Iraq was able to worm around sanctions and processes that held them in check, one country and its adminstrators was more responsible in failing to keep an eye on Iraq than any other - guess which country that was?  Yep, the good ole US of A. 

It had military people, state department people, financial people all turn a blind eye for a variety of reasons.