United Nations ? A yearlong investigation of the U.N. oil-for-food program issued a strong indictment of the United Nations and its top leadership Wednesday, concluding they tolerated corruption and allowed Saddam Hussein’s government to pocket $10.2 billion.

One of the largest humanitarian programs in history, oil-for-food, was established to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait – and it was a lifeline for 90 percent of the country’s population of 26 million.

Lax oversight allowed Saddam’s regime to pocket $1.8 billion in kickbacks in the awarding of contracts during the program’s operation from 1997-2003, the report said.

The smuggling of Iraqi oil outside the oil-for-food program in violation of U.N. sanctions poured much more money – $8.4 billion – into Saddam’s coffers during the same period, it said.