U.S. judge allows Saddam link in Wyatt oil trial

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge ruled on Thursday that prosecutors can introduce evidence in the trial of Oscar Wyatt that suggests the Texas oil tycoon tipped off Iraq about the impending 2003 U.S. invasion.

On the eve of Wyatt's trial in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin also allowed evidence that defense lawyers said unfairly suggested payments made by Wyatt to Iraq's state oil marketing organization were bribes passed on to Saddam Hussein.

Wyatt goes on trial September 5 at federal court in Manhattan, accused of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Iraq to win oil contracts and corrupting the oil-for-food program.

Wyatt, 83, has pleaded innocent to all charges.

The U.N. oil-for-food program was set up in the 1990s to let Iraq sell oil to buy civilian goods for its people living under U.N. sanctions imposed over the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

It administered some $67 billion worth of oil, and U.S. and U.N. investigations have found that lobbyists, U.N. and Iraqi officials enriched themselves through kickbacks and bribery.

Wyatt's former company, the Coastal Corporation, dealt in Iraqi oil and Wyatt had traveled a number of times to Iraq, meeting senior officials including Saddam.

Wyatt's defense also objected to evidence showing portions of a diary of a former Iraqi state oil agency employee. It includes suggestions Wyatt provided the Iraq government with information about when the United States would invade and bomb Iraq and how many troops would be sent.