Transcripts from the "661 Committee" (the UN Panel that oversaw the 'oil-for-food' program) have been turned over to US congressional committees. Those minutes confirm that Saddam was demanding kickbacks from both the oil and the food traders and that the UN knew about it. They also show some interesting dynamics throughout the investigation:

Transcripts of secret U.N. Security Council sessions show that U.S. and British diplomats were constantly thwarted by their French, Russian and Chinese counterparts while investigating Saddam Hussein's dirty deals under the oil-for-food program.

The article later reveals that some of the culprits were simply deadwood but one was working directly against the investigation:

"The Russians and Chinese made clear their position was that they were against sanctions on Iraq and didn't like this program, so they were not going to help in any way," the investigator said.

"The French were two-faced about it. They would respond to American and British requests to halt contracts by saying there was not enough evidence, or more information was needed. In the end, the Americans and British were often forced to back down on these inquiries."

But why would the French oppose the corruption inquiry?

France and Russia were two of the biggest opponents of the U.S. war effort to oust Saddam, and Russian and French politicians and businessmen were the most numerous names published in the Baghdad newspaper al-Mada earlier this year of recipients of sweetheart oil deals from Saddam's regime.

There have been several proposed motives for the US led war in Iraq, some noble and some not. As the evidence mounts, there is only one plausible motive for the French opposition to the same event.