UN chief hits at oil-for-food claims

[bodypilot90 0]

Quote

UN chief hits at oil-for-food claims
By Mark Turner at the United Nations
Published: April 29 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: April 29 2004 5:00

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, took the offensive yesterday against continuing allegations of corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food programme, saying the UN was being blamed for areas over which it had no control and that national governments shared responsibility for any lack of oversight.


"Some of the comments that I have read have been rather outrageous and exaggerated," he said.

"When you read the reports, it looks as if the Saddam regime had nothing to do with it: [that] it was all the UN." But Mr Annan said there was "no way" the UN could have stopped illegal oil smuggling, which accounted for $5.7bn (€4.8bn, £3.2bn) of an estimated $10.1bn in illegal revenues acquired by the Iraq regime.

National governments, through a committee of UN Security Council officials, had had a significant role in approving contracts, through which Iraq diverted an estimated $4.1bn in illegal surcharges and kickbacks.

"We had no mandate to stop oil smuggling," Mr Annan said. "There was a maritime taskforce that was supposed to do that. They were driving the trucks through northern Iraq to Turkey. The US and the British had planes in the air. We were not there. Why is all this being dumped on the UN?"

As for the approval of contracts, "of course the member states are not coming out, saying we had a role, or we had an oversight responsibility, so all is dumped on the secretariat", he said. "Be that as it may, these allegations are doing damage and we need to face it sternly."

Some of the accusations have hit close to home, focusing on the relationship between Kojo, Mr Annan's son, and Cotecna, the company that monitored imports. Yesterday Mr Annan explicitly denied any familial wrongdoing.

"There is nothing in the accusations about my son. He joined the company, even before I became secretary-general, as a 22-year-old, as a trainee in Geneva. He was assigned to work for them in west Africa, mainly in Nigeria and Ghana," he said.

"Neither he nor I had anything to with the [Iraq] contract for Cotecna. That was done in strict accordance with UN rules."

But UN officials remain concerned at the possibility that some staff were on the take. "If at the end any UN staff members are found guilty of wrongdoing we will deal with them," Mr Annan said.

"In some situations we may even want to lift immunity, so that we do not impede the judicial process."

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1083180157002

[Gawain 0]

Kofi can kiss my @ss. The GAO has figures ranging of $10B to possibly as high as $40B being skimmed during this program.

Is anyone really surprised that Saddam was jerking the chain? That behavior was to be expected and noone is surprised that Saddam was undermining the whole thing. Yes, he had a role to play. But the almighty-wonderful-utopialike-UN-do-no-wrong-all-is-well-BS? They played a role too. Now he's mad that we're going to make them sleep in the shitty mess they made.

As for his quote on "there were maritime measures, why weren't shipments stopped there" BS, the point is the oil was supposed to be leaving the country!! WTF?! That's what the program was about! Gaaawwwwwwwddddddddd!!!! arrrrggghhh!!

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[nacmacfeegle 0]

"Recent media reports have accused individuals and companies from more than 40 countries, including a senior UN official, of being involved in corruption and bribery in connection with the oil sales.
Mr Annan has approved an independent investigation into the allegations.
It is also being investigated by the General Accounting Office, an arm of the US Congress."
From the Beeb.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3668927.stm

I'm going to wait and see how this one pans out, rather than jump to any sort or premature conclusion.
Look at the whole George Galloway/forged documents debacle for example.

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He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[storm1977 0]

HAHAHAHA... The UN Investigating itself......

No... there isn't any conflict of interest there!!!!

-----------------------------------------------------
Sometimes it is more important to protect LIFE than Liberty

[juanesky 0]

Why don't you wait and see how the Iraq war also pans out? Maybe you shouldn't rush to anti bush statements until something is actually proven. IMO

"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

[nacmacfeegle 0]

What part of "independent" don't you understand?

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He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[TheAnvil 0]

ooooooh the leftists will just HATE this.....

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[nacmacfeegle 0]

I have had issues with your Mr Bush's foreign policies long before the war started.

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He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[juanesky 0]

Don't forget our buddies the Euros....

"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

[nacmacfeegle 0]

"Recent media reports have accused individuals and companies from more than 40 countries, including a senior UN official, of being involved in corruption and bribery in connection with the oil sales."

Yes, it should indeed make interesting reading, Vinny.

If your GAO is investigating, that might imply, to one who might be tempted to jump to conclusions, that American companies or individuals have been involved in sanction busting....

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He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[bodypilot90 0]

more good reading


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/4/29/03332.shtml

Quote

Thursday, April 29, 2004 12:29 a.m. EDT
Marc Rich Tied to U.N. Oil-for-Food Scandal

Clinton-pardoned fugitive billionaire Marc Rich has turned up in the middle of the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal, with his name on a roster of companies authorized to participate in the corruption-plagued arrangement.

"One of Marc Rich's companies was on the United Nations list that was approved to trade and transport Iraqi oil," Fox News Channel's Eric Shawn reported Tuesday.

"And it appears that Mr. Rich's firm, Marc Rich & Co. Investments AG, may well have been given that approval by the U.N. before the presidential pardon," Shawn added.

That means the U.N. was ready to do business with America's most-wanted white collar criminal, while other program participants were busily stuffing their pockets with Saddam Hussein's kickbacks.

Thomas Frutig, CEO of Marc Rich Holdings, denied the allegation, telling Fox, "We were not involved in the Oil-for-Food program."

But in the next breath he added, "Every oil company which wasn't trading applied for an authorization to trade, but I can't tell you how much we did, or whether we did anything."

Rich had previously gotten into trouble over allegations that he traded oil with Iran at a time when Tehran was on the U.S. embargo list as a state sponsor of terrorism

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Like I said Bill, there's still a whole lot to come out of this yet.

"allegations that he traded oil with Iran at a time when Tehran was on the U.S. embargo list "

Yep the whole thing stinks, I was going to mention that this looked awfully similar to the Iran-Contra stuff, but was waiting to see what panned out.
With 40 countries involved, I reckon there will be some worried execs out there in corporation land.

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He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[bodypilot90 0]

UN is not being very open are they?

http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040429-120918-1334r.htm

Quote

GAO denied access to oil-for-food audits


By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Dozens of internal United Nations audits of the troubled oil-for-food program in Iraq were routinely shown only to the U.N. official now at the center of an international scandal over kickbacks from the regime of Saddam Hussein, a congressional investigator said yesterday.
Joseph A. Christoff, director of international affairs and trade at the General Accounting Office, told a House hearing that U.N. auditors had refused to release the internal audits to GAO investigators probing the scandal that poured an estimated $10.1 billion from secret oil sales and inflated contracts into Saddam's coffers under the U.N. program.

[storm1977 0]

YEAH ---- it will be idependant I am sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And the 9/11 commity is non-partisain LOL

-----------------------------------------------------
Sometimes it is more important to protect LIFE than Liberty

[billvon 3,131]

>UN is not being very open are they?

Oh, give em time. They will pull a Bush-Rice flipflop in no time.

[billvon 3,131]

>No... there isn't any conflict of interest there!!!!

Right! However, if the administration hands out million-dollar contracts to Halliburton, who illegally bought Iraqi oil - well, that's fine. That's a good conflict of interest, whereas the UN's is simply bad.

[panzwami 0]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20040427-092431-3575r.htm

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Cause for replacement
By Arnold Beichman

If the United Nations were a public corporation, which, unfortunately it is not, the chief executive officer would resign in advance of being forced out by a responsible board of directors, which is what the U.N. Security Council is or should be. But members of the U.N. "Board of Directors" are themselves involved up to their ears in the UN's "oil-for-food" scandal. Were the U.N. a corporation, New York State Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer would have the whole lot of U.N. executives from Kofi Annan down under indictment.
In light of Kofi Annan's failure to stop U.N. corruption in the supposedly humanitarian oil-for-food program, how can the Bush administration even think of entrusting a future democratic Iraq to U.N. supervision? And how can Mr. Annan even want to stay on as U.N. secretary-general of this corrupted organization? Claudia Rossett's spectacular expose in the current Commentary Magazine headlines the scandal:

"The oil-for-food scam: What did Kofi Annan know, and when did he know it?"
As Miss Rossett writes:
"Annan's studied bewilderment is itself an indictment not only of his person but of the system he heads."
To forestall congressional investigations into a multibillion-dollar U.N. scandal, Mr. Annan has just approved appointment of a three-man outside commission, headed by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, to look into the oil-for-food operation which, according to Miss Rossett, involved "bribes, kickbacks, fraud, smuggling."
I can tell you the commission's findings in advance: First, they will agree that there were, indeed, crooks at the United Nations. Second, the commission will with a muted tut-tut absolve Mr. Annan of responsibility for the crimes committed under his nose.
Not under investigation is Mr. Annan's appointment of Lakhdar Brahimi, former Algerian foreign minister, as the U.N. special envoy to Iraq. Mr. Brahimi began his assignment with a French radio interview in which he said "the biggest poison in the region is the policy of Israeli power and the suffering of the Palestinians." Mr. Annan's reaction? Recall Mr. Brahimi? Nah. Mild rebuke by Mr. Annan's spokesman who said senior U.N. officials shouldn't talk that way about a member nation.
Perhaps Congress ought to ask the State Department if Mr. Brahimi is still the department's candidate for overseeing a future Iraqi government.
If anything supports the view it's time for Mr. Annan to retire, it is the highway robbery in the 1996-2003 oil-for-food program run by the United Nations to help Iraq's 26 million people. This was a program in which, Miss Rossett writes, "Annan had a direct hand from the beginning."
And the U.N. Secretariat controlled the bank accounts arising from the sale of Iraqi oil and had the sole power to release Saddam's earnings to pay for Iraqi imports.
Here's how the scam worked:
(1) Saddam sold oil at below-market prices to his chosen customers.
(2) They in turn sold the oil to third parties at a fat profit. Part of the profit was kicked back to Saddam and paid into bank accounts outside the U.N. program and in violation of U.N. sanctions.
(3) Saddam began smuggling out oil through Turkey, Jordan and Syria making a mockery of Oil-for-Food that was supposed to help the Iraqi people. This was reported in the press but ignored by the U.N.
All this was known to Mr. Annan who brazenly in 2002 signed a letter to the Security Council authorizing use of $20 million from the Oil-for-Food funds to pay for an "Olympic sport city" in Iraq and $50 million to equip Saddam's "Ministry of Information."
And what was Mr. Annan's answer to all this corruption, larceny, graft that was so injurious to the Iraqi people? At first, this artfully worded statement: "As far as I know, nobody in the Secretariat has committed any wrongdoing."
Last March Mr. Annan grudgingly conceded, "It is highly possible there has been quite a lot of wrongdoing." That wrongdoing consisted in the U.N. Secretariat being "officially on Saddam's payroll" and collaborating with Saddam instead of, as was their duty, supervising him. Writes Miss Rosett:
"It was the U.N. secretary-general who compliantly condoned Saddam's ever-escalating schemes and conditions, and who lobbied to the last to preserve Saddam's totalitarian regime while the U.N. Secretariat was swimming in his cash.
"We are left to contemplate a U.N. system that has engendered a secretary-general either so dishonest that he should be dismissed or so incompetent that he is truly dangerous and should be dismissed."

I think my favorite part about all this is that according to documents found inside Saddam's Oil Ministry in Baghdad, tens of billions of dollars from this program went to - wait for it - France and Russia.

[panzwami 0]

I'm not exactly sure I know to what you're referring here. Halliburton has been fined tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years for various reasons, fines which it is paying.

[billvon 3,131]

>Halliburton has been fined tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars
>in recent years for various reasons, fines which it is paying.

Agreed. They were fined that money in part for illegally buying oil from a corrupt regime and thus supporting it, and their CEO is now the vice president of the US. There's that old saying that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[Gawain 0]

Quote

Mr Annan has approved an independent investigation into the allegations.
It is also being investigated by the General Accounting Office, an arm of the US Congress."
From the Beeb.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3668927.stm

I'm going to wait and see how this one pans out, rather than jump to any sort or premature conclusion.
Look at the whole George Galloway/forged documents debacle for example.

The "independent" investigator has no subpoena powers and the GAO can only look at the numbers. The GAO has always been fairly objective.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!