Oil For Food, Beirut/Montreal Connection Revisited

If you have been following my earlier posts about Oil for Food, you will remember that the name Letra SAL OSC, Beirut, Lebanon came up. Some more searching on my part has turned up the following:

VIII 801526 77/2000/1008 25-Jan-01 02/02/01 Lebanon 130/01 Lebanese General Trade Co. (Letra) SPARE PARTS $77,948.44 On Hold US: provide a complete description and technical specifications for all parts (part numbers are insufficient); provide a legible copy of photos and some correlation between the parts being ordered and the identified items. The United States M
VIII 801530 9/8/MOU 25-Jan-01 07/02/01 Italy 331 F.Lli Mazzon Prodotti Chimici Srl RESINS $293,381.26 On Hold US: Technical objection. WMD dual-use related to UNSC document S/1995/208, page 37, paragraph 2.2.4.2.; UK: Require detailed end-use/user information for the Resin in this contract.), tl. The United Kingdom; The United States H

at the website of Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace. In that page, we see Letra represents "Lebanese General Trade Co". I did have a look around the ccmep.org website trying to find a way to navigate to the page I found through Google, unsuccessfully. I recognize the data on the page - it's from the UN, oil for food program. The contract was put on hold by the US, requiring Letra to provide a complete description and technical specifications for all parts (part numbers are insufficient); provide a legible copy of photos and some correlation between the parts being ordered and the identified items.Lebanese General Trading Company (Letra) listing reveals:

LETRA - LEBANESE GENERAL TRADE CO. S.A.R.L.
VERDUN ETOILE BLDG., HABIB SROUR STREET ,
VERDUN,TURNING FACING SAYAR EL DARAK
Beyrouth ( Beirut )
P.O. Box: 11-7620

Telephone: 01807678 - 01809259
Facsimile: 01869764

E-mail: letra@t-net.com.lb

Notes:


General Activity: | IMPORT & DISTRIBUTION | MEDICAL PRODUCTS | PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS | SPORTS EQUIPMENT TRADING |

The following is taken from the Letra OSC website:

LETRA O.S.C. s.a.l. offers many services tailored to its customer's needs. To get answers to your specific needs, please contact us at one of offices below, or send us an electronic mail feedback.

Head Office:
7th Floor, New Starco Building RizKallah St. Minet El Hosn
Beirut – Lebanon
Tel: 961 1 361 868
Fax: 961 1 361 878
E-mail : letraosc@letraosc.com

Branch:
1st Floor , Verdun Etoile Building Habib Srour St. Verdun
Beirut – Lebanon
Tel : 961 1 807 678
Fax : 961 1 869 764

We can see that Letra OSC identifies a branch at the same address as Lebanon General Trading Co. While the telephone numbers are different, they do appear to share a fax number.

So what we have so far is: an American-based anti-Iraq war website has a list of on-hold contracts tucked away, which references a contract to Letra in Beirut, placed on hold by the US because only part numbers are shown in the order. We find the name of a person in Montreal identified on a Turkish website as being an executive of Letra OSC. Another website in Taiwan indentifies someone with the same name as the contact for Limpex Trading in Laval. Letra OSC declares on their website that they have an affiliate in Montreal. Letra OSC identifies a branch in another location in Lebanon which shares the same fax machine as Lebanon General Trading Co.

Some inquiries into political party donations in Canada by that named individual seem to be in order. Stay tuned.