UN Oil for Food Scandal

[Aristotle]

Over the next year, the evidence is going to really start piling up implicating the UN, France, Germany, and others in this outrageous scandal.

Basically, UN, French, German, and Russian officials were taking bribes from Saddam Hussein via money bilked from the Oil for Food program.

Here is one of the latest findings:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...portaltop.html

UN inspector 'took £60,000 Iraq bribes

An inquiry by officials in the State Oil Marketing Organisation - a body which, under Saddam, was a key player in schemes that allegedly diverted billions in oil revenues from the UN-run programme - accused an inspector contracted through the Dutch company Saybolt of falsifying documents in return for bribes, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Saybolt was one of two Western companies hired by the UN to provide inspectors to help monitor the oil-for-food programme. A second company, Cotecna Inspection Services of Switzerland, has come under fire from Congressional Republicans, after it emerged that it employed Kojo Annan, the son of the UN secretary-general, as a consultant, after being awarded an oil-for-food contract. A UN review of Mr Annan's employment found no conflict of interest. [note: the UN found no conflict of interest. LOL. Yeah, right after they get awarded a multi-billion dollar contract from the UN, Kofi Annan gets a "consulting" job with them.]


Senior executives from Cotecna and Saybolt were yesterday summoned before the United States Congress to help to explain how Saddam managed to divert money from the oil-for-food programme. The witnesses also included a senior manager from BNP Paribas, the French bank that controlled the escrow accounts into which oil revenues were paid.

...

US congressional investigators at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have estimated that Saddam diverted at least $10 billion, or £5.6 billion, from the oil-for-food programme. It has been alleged that political figures around the world were invited to profit from the illicit oil trading.

The GAO found that the UN-administered scheme failed to prevent Saddam siphoning off money by demanding illegal "commissions" from oil buyers, and demanding a flat 10 per cent "kickback" on the value of all humanitarian imports. Under that system, a company selling Iraq £10 million of baby milk powder, for example, only delivered £9 million worth, and sent the last million as cash.

[tharun]

In a non-partisan manner, I bet you, over the next year, this is a total non-issue. This is too boring for most of the media to care about. Whether its a totally 100% true story or not, it won't make even the slightests impact. People like weapons of mass distruction and illicit sex. This kinda corruption is too boring =( Whether it happens to be totally be backed up with an everest of evidence or not.. I bet it makes 0 impact.

-tharun

[Aristotle]

I disagree.

This is going to be a HUGE scandal. In fact, this could be the scandal that ends the UN as we know it.

The UN should do humanitarian aid and it should facilitate communication between nations. That's it. That is all it is good at. At everything else it is an abysmal failure and no better than the stillborn League of Nations.

[Pyrosama]

The news will change my mind in how I listen to my own leaders in the future. When we have an international joined body that shows corruption...I don't want any part of it. I hope that the US will form more loyal allies and give up these smoke screen allies of the past. I just don't trust these people anymore.

[tharun]

Originally posted by Aristotle
I disagree.

This is going to be a HUGE scandal. In fact, this could be the scandal that ends the UN as we know it.

The UN should do humanitarian aid and it should facilitate communication between nations. That's it. That is all it is good at. At everything else it is an abysmal failure and no better than the stillborn League of Nations.

I'll give ya $10 that in 6 months this will in no way be huge. Not huge when compared to, say, Bill Clinton and Monica was or the lack of WMD discovered in Iraq was/is, or even the OJ Simpson trial was. I'm not saying that it SHOULDN'T be a major issue, I'm just saying it WON'T be. I'm all for corruption getting exposed, but its normally too complex and/or boring to be an important issue.

On a side note, I doubt the UN will go the way of the League for at least another 20 years. It has a much stronger base, and many more interested parties than the League ever did. It will be a good long while before it dissolves or fades away.

-tharun

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by tharun
I'll give ya $10 that in 6 months this will in no way be huge. Not huge when compared to, say, Bill Clinton and Monica was or the lack of WMD discovered in Iraq was/is, or even the OJ Simpson trial was.

Holy shit dude. Monica and OJ are probably 2 of the top 20 or so biggest news stories of the last 20 years.

As for lack of WMD discovered in Iraq:

1) Ricin and Anthrax have both been found, as well as facilities for making all sorts of WMDs. The real story is how that is continually ignored.

2) Most people who supported the idea of invading Iraq don't care that no huge stockpiles are found. Most people who supported the invasion cared more about the removal of a murderous dictator than which of 1000000000 good reasons ended up not being completely accurate.

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by tharun
I'll give ya $10 that in 6 months this will in no way be huge.

Second UN official 'linked to Saddam pay-off'

Attention has previously focused on how, from 1998, Iraq skimmed off proceeds from the programme and issued vouchers for oil sales to its foreign supporters. In his testimony, however, Vincent, 64, detailed links with the Iraqi regime dating back to 1992.

He made the claim that a UN official, who has not yet been named publicly, received cash payments from iraq in 1996 in his statement submitted as a "co-operating witness" to the United States federal court in Manhattan. A copy of the papers has been obtained by The Telegraph.

The oil-for-food scandal has prompted fierce criticism of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, who oversaw the initial negotiations with Iraq over the programme and later appointed Mr Sevan. It has also emerged that Mr Annan's son, Kojo, worked for the Swiss company, Cotecna, that was awarded the contract in 1998 to inspect shipments to Iraq under the programme.

The story continues to grow.

This may very well bring down the entire UN.

Pay up, Tharun.

[Aristotle]

Ouch.

Jimmy Carter linked to oil-for-food scam

"One of two things happened," suggests Morgan. "Either President Carter was totally duped, and allowed himself to be conned into working as an indirect agent of Saddam Hussein, or President Carter knowingly associated himself with a foreign agent who was seeking to undermine American foreign policy."

...

The first documented contact between Former President Carter and Samir Vincent was in September 1999. Vincent had organized a tour of Iraqi religious leaders to meet with individuals in the United States who might be persuaded to speak out against the sanctions against Iraq. The trip also included discussions of ways to oppose U.S. and U.K. air strikes against Iraqi missile batteries in southern Iraq, which had fired on American and British aircraft engaged in enforcing the southern "No Fly Zone."

The meeting with Carter was one of the highlights of the trip. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, welcomed the Vincent-organized delegation into their home in Plains, Georgia.

The weekly Iraqi newspaper, al-Raee, reported that Carter expressed his sympathies with the Iraqi people and railed against the "stringent" sanctions imposed against Iraq as a result of the nation's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The report claimed that Carter had promised to send his wife and son to Iraq. Along with the story was a photograph of Carter with the three religious dignitaries who were part of Vincent's anti-sanctions lobbying tour.

[Xar]

Originally posted by Aristotle


The story continues to grow.

This may very well bring down the entire UN.

Pay up, Tharun.

wtfpwndbbq

[Aristotle]

Some more info about this scandal that won't go away and just gets worse and worse:

http://boortz.com/nuze/200503/03302005.html

HELL NO KOFI WON'T GO

The Volcker report [pdf] investigating the Iraqi Oil-For-Food program came out yesterday, and things aren't looking too good for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Chief among the report's findings:

* It criticized Kofi for not determining the exact nature of his son's relationship with a company that won a major oil-for food contract
* It blames Annan for not effectively investigating the connections between his son and the company when he learned about them in January 1999
* The report accuses Kojo Annan and his company of trying to hide their relationship from the U.N.

Kofi held a press conference pretending that the report exonerated him of any wrongdoing. When asked if he would be stepping down, he said "Hell no." As the noose tightens and there are more investigations and more reports, how long before Kofi throws in the towel?

The Oil-For-Food program run by the United Nations is one of the biggest corrupt slush funds in the history of the world. We haven't even scratched the surface of who was paying who and nobody even knows where all the money went. That Kofi Annan could stand up there and pretend to not know what was going on is an insult to every nation that pays dues into that worthless organization.

Time for Kofi (and the entire UN) to go.