Friends of Saddam

Questions for Mr. Sevan

What is going on here?

Benon Sevan, the United Nations official in charge of the oil-for-food programme in Iraq, intervened in person to steer lucrative contracts to an oil trader, Iraqi officials have told the UN's independent inquiry.

Their testimony, consistent with documents that have emerged since the fall of Saddam Hussein, adds to questions facing Mr Sevan as investigations into alleged corruption progresses. The interim findings of the UN inquiry, led by Paul Volcker, are due to be published this week.

Documents from Iraq's state oil marketing organisation (Somo) in the possession of the Financial Times and Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, appear to link Mr Sevan to the assigning of contracts to Africa Middle East Petroleum, a Swiss-based oil trading company. Oil contracts - which could be sold to international traders at a mark-up of up to 35 cents a barrel - were awarded by the regime at the start of every six-month phase. The Somo documents show that, unusually, AMEP was added to recipients in the middle of Phase Four (May 1998-November 1998) after a visit to Baghdad by Mr Sevan.

One letter, dated August 10 1998, was from Saddam Zayn Hassan, Somo's executive manager, to Iraq's oil minister. It mentions AMEP as "the company that Mr Sevan cited to you during his last trip to Baghdad".

African Middle East Petroleum Co.

Look at Panama

Who is Mr. Sevan?

Why did Kofi go to Moscow

How does this all fit in

While Paul Volcker, who leads the Oil-For-Food probe, has been investigating Annan in the comfort of his own Turtle Bay office, ex-KGB spymeister, Primakov remains under the probe’s radar screen but Volcker, Benon Sevan, the original "senior UN official" in the Oil-For-Food program, and Primakov share something in common: all three were handpicked for their individual roles by Kofi Annan.

The mainline media has finally picked up on what Fox News calls Paul Volcker’s "potentially too-close-for-comfort ties to companies he’s supposed to be investigating."

Meanwhile, the five Capitol Hill panels conducting investigations into the Oil-For-Food program, some of whom are now admitting a concern about Volcker creating at least an appearance of impropriety as far as potential conflicts of interests are concerned, should be checking out former KGB spymeister Yevgeny Primakov.

KGB code name:Maxim

Check the names out

Hat tip to Jeff M., more on General Primakov

Cotecna pays Kojo Annan

How it worked

Robert Massey, CEO of Cotecna Inspection SA, responds to some of the serious questions that have been raised about his firm's performance in overseeing the U.N.-administered oil-for-food program in Iraq.

From 1995 to 1997, Kojo Annan, the son of embattled U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was employed at Cotecna, which had been inspecting humanitarian goods imported by Iraq with U.N.-administered proceeds from its oil sales. He served as a consultant until 1998. U.N. officials had claimed that that's when the payments from Cotecna to Kojo stopped. Then, in November, we learned that the payments had not ended in 1998 after all. In fact, Kojo Annan continued to receive up to $2,500 a month from Cotecna until February 2003 as part of a "no compete" agreement.

Very smart guy

Great business man

Kojo say's wasn't me

Kojo Annan Admits Oil Dealing

Times Online - Sunday Times

THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein.

Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme.

The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing calls for his resignation over the management of the humanitarian programme.

Mr Volcker says it's really complicated.

Now its February for more information

Internal audits released by the Volcker Commission this month reveal gross mismanagement by U.N. administrators. An interim report focusing on responsibility for administrative failures was due out this month. But after meeting the secretary-general Tuesday, Mr. Volcker said the release would be delayed until sometime in February.

In separate comments late last year, he said his investigation was proving much more difficult than he had expected. "As we get into it, everything gets more complicated rather than less,” he added.  “We turn over one page and you find several other pages that lead to investigatory questions so this is a complicated process." Mr. Volcker again Tuesday stressed that his mandate is to investigate U.N. responsibility for failures in the oil-for-food program.

Starving children sell sex to UN Peace Keepers

A Tale of Two Iraq Investigations, Fox news update

More on UN Sex Scandal

Mr. Volcker compromised?

Good stuff on the UN

Vincent will testify

Makes deal for shorter sentence?

According to the indictment, Vincent was among a group of Iraqi officials and agents who agreed on the scheme to reward those who co-operated with Saddam with the oil vouchers. For his part, Vincent was allegedly rewarded with five oil contracts which he sold for between $3 million and $5 million.Benon Sevan, the former head of the oil-for-food programme from which Saddam skimmed at least $1.7 billion, is already under investigation by federal prosecutors.

A CIA report published earlier this month claimed that Mr Sevan was allocated vouchers by Saddam to sell 7.3 million barrels of Iraqi oil through a Panamanian-registered company."Several million dollars in cash were sent by the Iraqi government to Iraqi government officials in New York pursuant to those agreements," Vincent said. "Several hundred thousand dollars of this money was given to me, in Manhattan, and the rest was given to others, one of whom I understood was a United Nations official."

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 testimony of Samir Vincent, who pleaded guilty to acting as a covert agent for Baghdad, indicates that Saddam's manipulation of the scheme began at its inception in 1996.

Possible Connection?

Vincent did business with US oil company

Vincent giving evidence while under wraps

While lobbying the U.S. government to lift economic sanctions against Iraq, Vincent received cash from Baghdad and the rights to 9 million barrels of Iraqi crude, federal prosecutors said. His firm, Phoenix International, then sold that crude to an unnamed American oil company.

A former Houston energy company executive who had worked with Vincent said he was known for being well-connected with officials in Iraq and the United States.

While Vincent clearly knew how to run a successful business using his contacts, the former executive said hedidn't believe his Iraqi oildealings were done solely for profit. "I believe he did it for real humanitarian reasons, as well," he said.

Vincent said his Phoenix International received more than 9 million barrels of oil in five allotments from Baghdad. A CIA report written by special weapons inspector Charles Duelfer indicates that Saddam's regime allocated another 4 million barrels, but Vincent's firm never lifted that crude.

Another UN Scam in the making?

The Volcker Oil-for-Food Investigation: Is There a Conflict of Interest?

Why wasn't this disclosed, why??

Paul Volcker and an Apparent Conflict of Interest

It should be an issue of concern that Mr. Volcker’s own outlook may be influenced by past associations. It is vitally important that any independent inquiry into the extremely serious allegations leveled against the United Nations—which could have far-reaching implications for the reputation of the world organization—be seen as completely independent of the U.N. It is just as important that the person charged with heading such an inquiry be seen as completely unbiased and objective in his approach toward the organization he is investigating. In the corporate world, for example, it would be inconceivable for an independent inquiry into fraud and corruption to be headed by someone with strong ties and loyalties to the corporation under investigation.

But in the case of Paul Volcker and the Independent Inquiry Committee, there is an apparent conflict of interest that brings into question whether the Committee can objectively investigate the United Nations. When Volcker was appointed to head the Oil-for-Food investigation in April 2004, it was not widely known to the general public, the world’s media, or the U.S. Congress that he was at the time a director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) and the Business Council for the United Nations. Mr. Volcker is listed as a director in the 2003-2004 UNA-USA annual report,[3] as well as the annual reports for 2001-2002 and 2000-2001.[4]The UNA-USA’s partner organization, the Business Council for the United Nations (BCUN), works to “advance the common interests of the U.N. and business in a more prosperous and peaceful world.” One of its chief underwriters was BNP Paribas, the French bank that held the escrow account for Oil-for-Food funds.[9] BNP donated more than $100,000 to UNA-USA and BCUN in 2002 to 2003.[10] BNP’s role in the Oil-for-Food scandal is currently being investigated by the House International Relations Committee,[11] as well as by the Volcker Committee.

More conflict of interest?

Smoke and mirrors?

More on BNP Paribas

Jimmy Carter and Vincent connected?

Carter has to explain his actions

Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.

Move America Forward today will call upon Carter to provide a full accounting of his meetings and conversations with Samir Vincent, who yesterday pleaded guilty to participating in numerous illegal activities as part of the U.N. scandal.Samir Vincent admitted on Tuesday to receiving allocations for more than 9 million barrels of oil between 1996 and 2003 in return for serving as an agent of Saddam Hussein's regime. Vincent worked at Hussein's direction, lobbying U.S. and U.N. officials to end sanctions and to instead implement the oil-for-food scam.

"Did President Carter know he was dealing with an agent of Saddam Hussein or was he just terribly gullible?" asked Morgan. "And if he truly was naïve as to Samir Vincent's true agenda, then now is the time for him to come forward and repudiate Mr. Vincent and his actions."

Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.

Move America Forward today will call upon Carter to provide a full accounting of his meetings and conversations with Samir Vincent, who yesterday pleaded guilty to participating in numerous illegal activities as part of the U.N. scandal.Samir Vincent admitted on Tuesday to receiving allocations for more than 9 million barrels of oil between 1996 and 2003 in return for serving as an agent of Saddam Hussein's regime. Vincent worked at Hussein's direction, lobbying U.S. and U.N. officials to end sanctions and to instead implement the oil-for-food scam.

"Did President Carter know he was dealing with an agent of Saddam Hussein or was he just terribly gullible?" asked Morgan. "And if he truly was naïve as to Samir Vincent's true agenda, then now is the time for him to come forward and repudiate Mr. Vincent and his actions."

Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.

Move America Forward today will call upon Carter to provide a full accounting of his meetings and conversations with Samir Vincent, who yesterday pleaded guilty to participating in numerous illegal activities as part of the U.N. scandal.Samir Vincent admitted on Tuesday to receiving allocations for more than 9 million barrels of oil between 1996 and 2003 in return for serving as an agent of Saddam Hussein's regime. Vincent worked at Hussein's direction, lobbying U.S. and U.N. officials to end sanctions and to instead implement the oil-for-food scam.

"Did President Carter know he was dealing with an agent of Saddam Hussein or was he just terribly gullible?" asked Morgan. "And if he truly was naïve as to Samir Vincent's true agenda, then now is the time for him to come forward and repudiate Mr. Vincent and his actions."

More on Vincent and prison sentence

Samir A. Vincent and Benon V. Sevan also linked on Iraqi Secret Police files

Vincent bribes UN officials

Kemp quizzed

Federal Indictment of Samir Vincent

Marc Rich hiding out?

Vincent could get 28 years in jail

Plea bargain will get more perps for Ashcroft and crew.

An Iraqi-American businessman, accused of pocketing millions of dollars through the U.N. oil-for-food program with Iraq, pleaded guilty Tuesday to acting as an illegal agent of Saddam Hussein's government.

Samir A. Vincent, 64, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Annandale, Va., is the first person to be charged in the Justice Department's investigation of the program, which U.N. audits have shown was badly mismanaged. Iraqi government cash was given to a person "whom I understood was a United Nations official," says Vincent.

Update on Vincent story

UN gives terrorists money, from Powerline and WSJ

New Sec. of State says sock it to them.

Rice vows to pursue oil-for-food scandal

The U.N. oil-for-food program for Saddam Hussein's Iraq was scandalously mismanaged and will be reviewed as an important item in President Bush's second term, Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.

Taking a tough line, but without referring to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan by name, Rice said, "Those who were responsible should be held accountable."

Iraqi-American Pleads Guilty in Oil-for-Food

First one of many

 An Iraqi-born American citizen pleaded guilty Tuesday to several crimes as part of the federal investigation into the U.N. Oil-for-Food (search) program, becoming the first person to enter a guilty plea in connection with the growing scandal.

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the agreement with Samir Vincent (search), one of the men suspected of getting kickbacks as part of the multi-billion dollar program.

Vincent pleaded guilty to making false statements on income tax returns, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (search). He could spend as much as 28 years in prison.

Oil-for-Food Audits Reveal Sevan as Mysterious Manager

Much left out of audits about Sevan

Oil-for-Food Audits Reveal Sevan as a Mysterious Manager One audit report that has so far received little attention describes at length the spectacular failures of Oil-for-Food’s executive director, Benon Sevan , to adequately run even his own office and budget, let alone monitor what the program was doing in Iraq. Sevan is the one U.N. official who has been publicly accused of taking bribes in the form of oil vouchers from the Saddam Hussein regime, though Sevan denies this.

But that in turn raises the biggest question of all: how did Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) fail to notice that Sevan’s office, entrusted with the biggest relief program in U.N. history, had become such a site of managerial mayhem?

It was Annan who handpicked Sevan in 1997 to run Oil-for-Food. It was Annan whose office received many of these audit reports, had access to all of them and until last week refused to release any of them even to Congress. And it was Annan, who in closing out the United Nations role in Oil-for-Food in Nov. 2003 made a point of praising Sevan as a man who had served the world body “far beyond the call of duty.”

Did Annan simply not care? Or is he himself so inept that he truly had no clue about the many internal signs that Sevan’s office was an organizational disaster?

Background on Mr. Sevan

More on Sevan

New York Times weighs in on Scam

New York Times blames own country

While the United Nations' oil-for-food program was in operation in Iraq, U.N. auditors were flagging grievous weaknesses in its management that were never rectified. But the reports, which were released last week by a U.N. investigating committee, reveal far more disturbing problems with the audits themselves, which never targeted the system of bribes and kickbacks that formed the core of the corruption. The great unanswered question is who dropped the ball and why.

oil-for-food program was transformed into a piggy bank for Saddam Hussein

Piggy bank robbed

The investigations, into what may be the largest financial scandal in U.N. history, come at a time when Annan is grappling with a host of other public-relations disasters, among them allegations that U.N. peacekeepers raped Congolese girls and a no-confidence vote on senior management by U.N. staffers. Annan has begun a management shake-up and promised to focus on reform in the coming year. But as the U.N. lurches toward its 60th birthday, critics of the agency, including many prominent Republicans angry over its failure to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, are using the scandal to bash both the U.N. and Annan. Some, for instance, have attempted to conflate the oil-for-food scandal with the well-documented smuggling of nearly $6 billion in Iraqi oil during the U.N. sanctions regime. One Republican estimate placed the amount of fraud at an astounding $21 billion, more than one third of the entire $60 billion program. However, there is virtually no evidence to support that estimate, investigators and other experts say. The U.S. Government Accountability Office places the amount of fraud in the oil-for-food program at $4.4 billion. And as Juan Carlos Zarate, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for terrorist financing and terrorist crimes, puts it, "All the estimates are a little soft."

More foolishness on the BBC and the UN, what a laugh

Aiding and Abetting the Enemy

Your not Teflon anymore

Spotlight on an enabler

Kofi Annan was once known as the "Teflon secretary general" of the United Nations, because nothing bad seemed to stick to him. But that was then. These days, pretty much everything seems to be sticking to the 66-year-old Ghanaian diplomat.

For Annan, 2004 devolved into what he called an " annus horribilis ." No fewer than eight investigations were initiated into corruption allegations within the U.N.'s former "oil-for-food" program in Iraq. Among those stung by the allegations was Annan's son Kojo, who was paid by a Swiss firm that held a U.N. food contract. Some in Congress called on Annan to resign. At the same time, tensions with President Bush grew over the U.N.'s reluctance to play a larger role in Iraq and over U.S. assertions that Annan was meddling in American politics. U.N. diplomats felt Bush allowed Annan to twist in the wind before reaffirming administration support in December. U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, meanwhile, were accused of raping young women. And back at headquarters, U.N. staffers were enraged over Annan's purportedly dismissive handling of misconduct allegations against his senior aides.

Is the UN dangerous to the United States

US politicians push for world government?

There is plenty of powerful support among liberal politicians to strengthen the U.N. and to subject the U.S. to its power. Until quite recently, the overwhelming majority of Americans didn't know much about the U.N., and they cared even less.

The behavior of the U.N. Security Council during the run-up to the Iraq war got the attention of some people who thought France and Germany should be a little more cooperative. After the invasion of Iraq, when it was learned that high-level officials in France, Germany and Russia were on the take from Saddam, many people were disgusted.

Now that the extent of the Saddam-U.N. corruption is finally being discovered, American outrage is demanding changes at the U.N. The problem is: What is the appropriate action?

More UN stupidity

Smoke screen blame game starts

After withholding most audits Volcker starts blame game

The blame game over the multibillion-dollar Oil-for-Food program is underway. Investigators probing allegations that administrators at the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq took bribes and allowed Saddam Hussein to skim money from the program are raising concerns that U.N. officials discouraged internal auditors from focusing on the program's central office.

On Sunday, an independent committee looking into the allegations released more than 50 audits of the program carried out by the United Nation's internal watchdog. The audits detail how U.N. agencies working under the oil-for-food program allegedly squandered millions of dollars through suspect overpayment to contractors, mismanagement of purchasing and assets, and fraud by its employees.

UN whistleblower seeks another post

LIttle by little it comes out

Nothing about Sevan yet

Investigators probing allegations that administrators at the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq took bribes and allowed Saddam Hussein to skim money from the program are raising concerns that U.N. officials discouraged internal auditors from focusing on the program's central office.

On Sunday, an independent committee looking into the allegations released more than 50 audits of the program carried out by the United Nation's internal watchdog. The audits detail how U.N. agencies working under the oil-for-food program allegedly squandered millions of dollars through suspect overpayment to contractors, mismanagement of purchasing and assets, and fraud by its employees.

Not enough documents yet.

More document necessary

As reporters and commentators have digested the 58 internal audits and a briefing paper released this week by the U.N. commission investigating the oil-for-food scandal, many have concluded that they contained little significant information.
The commission's briefing paper offers this intriguing explanation: "The advice of [oil-for-food] management was to emphasize scrutiny of activities in Iraq."

Recall that Benon Sevan was U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's hand-picked director of the oil-for-food program, and that he ran it from U.N. headquarters in New York.

Recall also that Sevan allegedly took millions of dollars worth of oil vouchers from agents of Saddam Hussein's government. Sevan has steadfastly maintained his innocence, claiming that he did nothing wrong and took no money.But it sounds like Sevan wanted to avoid scrutiny of his management activities in New York by encouraging auditors to focus their attention elsewhere. Imagine what a full audit of the program's New York operations might have found if Sevan was, indeed, on the take.

Could this be true

Congressional committees should check this out

For months, the US Congress has been investigating activities that violated the United Nations oil-for-food programme and helped Saddam Hussein build secret funds to acquire arms and buy influence.

President George W. Bush has linked future US funding of the international body to a clear account of what went on under the multi-billion dollar programme.

But a joint investigation by the Financial Times and Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, shows that the single largest and boldest smuggling operation in the oil-for-food programme was conducted with the knowledge of the US government.

“Although the financial beneficiaries were Iraqis and Jordanians, the fact remains that the US government participated in a major conspiracy that violated sanctions and enriched Saddam's cronies,” a former UN official said. “That is exactly what many in the US are now accusing other countries of having done. I think it's pretty ironic.”

U.N. 'peacekeepers' rape women, children

Defeating the Woman-Haters

Let Kofi spin!

A Damning Indictment of U.N. Operations

No wonder Kofi didn't want to release audits

It is not hard to see why U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan strongly resisted the release of internal U.N. documents relating to the Oil-for-Food program. The 55 audits produced by the Internal Audit Division (IAD) of the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) paint an ugly tableau of widespread mismanagement and incompetence on the ground in Iraq, which undoubtedly played an important role in allowing Saddam Hussein to skim billions of dollars from a humanitarian program designed to help the Iraqi people. In particular, the United Nations failed to effectively oversee the U.N.-appointed contractors whose role it was to inspect humanitarian goods coming into Iraq and the export of oil from the country. In addition, the U.N. wasted millions of dollars as a result of overpayments to contractors, appalling lack of oversight, and unjustified spending.
 

The U.N. audits were only released after pressure from Congress and the Bush Administration, as well as calls from Capitol Hill for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s resignation. The failure to release the audits earlier has undoubtedly damaged Annan’s reputation and lent the impression of cover-up, as well as reinforcing the general lack of openness and accountability on the part of the U.N. with regard to Oil for Food.

Audits not complete, most hidden

Powell: Kofi is accountable

Sec. Powell changes mind

The Bush administration, which earlier backed Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, on Tuesday demanded he be held accountable for mismanagement in the program.

"What we have heard, so far, is that there were serious problems inside the U.N. on the management of this. We're not sure if there were criminal problems, but there were certainly management problems," outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell told Fox News.

"And the secretary-general will have to be accountable for those management problems," he added in the television interview.

U.N. internal auditors have found management lapses in the now-defunct, $64 billion program although they found no corruption among individual United Nations officials.

The spotlight on Annan has intensified this week after Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, who is conducting an independent probe of the program, released more than 50 internal U.N. reports.

While the Bush administration was slower than other major governments to back Annan as the scandal mushroomed last year, it has resisted echoing some calls in Washington for Annan to resign.

Powell's criticism on Tuesday was noteworthy because it came from the Cabinet official believed to be most supportive of Annan.

BBC and UN lie by ommission

Another way to steal found by Claudia Rosett

Another UN giveaway to thugs

Let's be honest. Along with United Nations secrecy, Saddam Hussein's perfidy, and the general coyness of the bribed, one of the big obstacles to getting to the bottom of the Oil for Food scandal is the sheer horror of actually having to read the reams of U.N. documents tied to the program--on the occasions when documents do turn up. It's a step forward that on Sunday Paul Volcker's U.N.-approved inquiry finally released the program's 55 secret internal audits, which Congress and others had been requesting for months.

But among those who have been asking, in some cases for years, to see such documents and are now slogging across the acres of bureaucratese therein, I dare say there's a certain feeling of "be careful what you wish for." Beyond the highlights already reported, including waste, abuse and maladministration costing hundreds of millions, maybe billions, in money that belonged to the people of Iraq, it may take a while before the ramifications have been fully explored.

Head Vulture from UN brings Mercedes'

UN official pays sex slave

UN criticised

An independent inquiry into mismanagement of Iraq's oil-for-food programme has sharply criticised the United Nations for insufficiently auditing operations at its New York headquarters, as well as failing to review oil and humanitarian contracts under the scheme.

In an analysis of 58 internal UN audits released late on Sunday, the inquiry committee, headed by Paul Volcker, said: “There were no examinations of the oil and humanitarian contracts by IAD [the UN's internal audit division] during the OFFP. Oil contracts were not examined with an eye to the enforcement of contract requirements, despite the fact that UN officials had contract-approval responsibilities.”

It was also “unclear” why the audits that were undertaken “focused on areas and operations peripheral to, or . . . away from, headquarter operations of the OIP [Office of the Iraq Programme].” A lack of review in New York meant “less accountability”; and even where audits of the programme were done, there was often no follow-up.

UN Candybar buys sex from 13 year old girl

Who's stingy? Why do we need the UN?

Close them down

With the oil-for-food-for-dictators scandals pushed temporarily into the background, it is easy to forget the absurdity of arguments in favor of a "lead role" for the United Nations. Why were there no calls for former Enron execs to take the lead role in the rebuilding of the Iraqi oil and gas industry? Why does the American press and the American left disconnect the Kofiklatch from the siphoned-off billions still being used to attack Americans and Iraqis from the meeting planners gathering at various relief conferences around the world.

Some audits finally released

Only 400 pages released out of 58 audits

Internal United Nations audits of the so-called oil-for-food program in Iraq criticize an office, led by a former top aide to Secretary General Kofi Annan, for failing adequately to supervise and audit the companies hired to inspect the oil moving out of Iraq and goods going in under the multibillion-dollar program.

An early sampling of 10 reports obtained by The New York Times yesterday chide the United Nations' Office for Iraq Program for permitting the program's major contractors to overcharge the United Nations and understaff posts at ports and borders where oil and goods were supposed to be monitored. Altogether, the auditors have prepared 58 reports, totaling about 400 pages, many of which criticize how the aid program was administered.

Background

More background

The Real UN at "work".

More UN rapes in Congo

More UN slicksters involved in bribe taking

More rats to be outed

Iraqi officials have recently implicated more U.N. staffers in bribe taking during the oil-for-food program in a development that could dramatically escalate pressure on the world body, The Post has learned.

Investigators from the House International Relations Committee said several current and former officials in Iraq's Oil, Health and Transportation ministries have told them that U.N. staffers assigned to the "661 Committee" — the U.N. Security Council group that oversaw sanctions and approved oil-for-food contracts — regularly took bribes and kickbacks from suppliers of aid to Iraq during the program.

The Iraqi ministry officials said the U.N. staffers, based in New York, were paid to accelerate approval of oil-for-food contracts or provide secret information on why certain suspicious contracts with Saddam Hussein's regime were blocked by the 661 Committee, investigators said.

Volcker to release some audits.

Have they been sanitized?

A UN-appointed independent inquiry into Iraq's multibillion-dollar oil-for-food programme said yesterday it would release 56 internal United Nations audits to the public on Monday, following US congressional criticism of its alleged reluctance to share documents.

The Volcker committee said its decision to release the audits, conducted by the UN's internal investigative arm, was "consistent with earlier understandings with congressional investigating committees, as well as with an official response by the UN to member state inquiries".

Danforth: Volcker Doesn't Have Right Tools

Volcker given no powers to investigate

The man tapped to lead an investigation into the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal will not be able to effectively do his job, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth (search) told FOX News on Friday.

Danforth said that Paul Volcker (search), the chairman of the independent inquiry committee commissioned to probe the troubled U.N. program, has not been given the proper tools to conduct an investigation.

"The fact that he doesn't have subpoena power, he doesn't have a grand jury, he can't compel testimony, he can't compel production of documents and witnesses and documents that are located in other countries might be beyond his reach," Danforth told FOX News' Jonathan Hunt on Friday.

Another OFF ripoff in the making.

UN has 100's of Bureaucrats on the ground already

The Bush administration, conscious of the massive embezzlement in the U.N.-run oil-for-food program in prewar Iraq, was quick to emphasize that the world body will not be in a position to divert aid.
    "We are not making the U.N. head of a corporation called Tsunami Relief," one U.S. official said. "Kofi Annan is not asking for a blank check written to the U.N."

Nations will continue to control their own donations to tsunami victims, with the U.N. role as overall aid coordinator limited to keeping tabs on nearly $1 billion in aid over the next six months, U.S. and U.N. officials said yesterday.

    Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, promised yesterday that the United Nations will be a responsible coordinator of the relief effort, which is the largest in history.
    "The U.N. [agencies] will account for every penny spent and however we've used every resource provided to us," Mr. Egeland told reporters in New York.
    He said that more than 40 agencies with hundreds of employees are in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and other affected countries.
    Bush administration officials, meanwhile, discouraged parallels between the tsunami relief effort and the oil-for-food program, from which Saddam Hussein siphoned an estimated $20 billion.

UN Bureaucrats arrives, Gucci's on the ground

Kofi gets a cuddle from his friends

More on Kofi's Intervention

Heritage Policy Weblog

One worrying trend that has developed over Kofi Annan's tenure as Secretary-General of the United Nations has been the organization's increasing attention to and involvement in American politics. As a politically neutral international organization, in theory, all American politicians should be equal allies, whether they be Democrat or Republican. But the truth is, sadly, that some are now more equal than others at the UN.

The suspicious timing of a release of information from the UN's IAEA in October led Nile Gardiner to wonder whether the UN had finally abandoned any vestigial appearance of neutrality to actively meddle in U.S. politics. Though his evidence was circumstantial, Gardiner made a convincing case that the IAEA likely leaked materials potentially damaging to the Bush reelection effort to a newspaper and television network immediately prior to the election, when the Bush campaign would find it difficult to answer the questions raised.

As we have described many times, Annan ratcheted up his rhetoric against the U.S. administration during the election buildup, seemingly doing his bit to affect the U.S. electoral outcome. Though Annan's (apparent) candidate did not win, it isn't difficult to imagine that his constant stream of criticism of the U.S. president and his conduct of the war in Iraq managed to sway some votes. Once an international diplomat, Annan refashioned himself a political surrogate.

Secret meeting of Cabal to bolster Kofi

Kofi's confidants say play straight.

If Annan's sympathies weren't apparent enough during the election, they have become clearer now that Annan himself is under fire for a series of scandals that continue to chip away at the UN's credibility. Who has stepped forward to strike back against those uncovering mismanagement at the UN, bribery, corruption, and complicity with murderous dictators?

The NYTimes reports only a single recommendation from the group, that Annan "refresh his top management team." Annan apparently agreed. On December 22, his chief of staff and long-time aide Iqbal Riza announced his retirement. Word is that Riza was pushed out and that there may be more changes ahead in the UN's senior management.

What other advice was offered at the Sunday meeting? As yet, no details have emerged. Some ideas, though, are obvious. Anyone concerned about the UN's future and its credibility would no doubt urge Annan to open records pertaining to the Oil for Food program to outside investigators and to cooperate better with those in Congress who are policing the UN now that it has proven incapable of policing itself. Anyone concerned about the UN would urge greater transparency throughout the organization. And in terms of the UN’s international operations, productive cooperation in Iraq, replacing today’s reluctance, would be an obvious and important step forward, as well as a positive gesture to the U.S. administration, which is now justifiably wary of the UN under Annan’s leadership.

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NEW MARC RICH LINK STINK

Once a Thief, always a thief

New details of billionaire trader Marc Rich's shady oil deals under the U.N. oil-for-food program are emerging, The Post has learned.These include deals with front companies that have connections to Saddam Hussein's underground financial network.

In particular, prosecutors are probing four suspicious deals that took place in February through April 2001. In these cases, Rich was listed as a secondary buyer of oil contracts originally allocated by Saddam to mysterious French and Egyptian companies.

The questionable deals began a month after sanctions-buster Rich, a convicted tax dodger, received his midnight pardon from then-President Bill Clinton. Iraqi shipping records, originally published in the Middle East Economic Review, a respected oil-industry database, provide an intriguing glimpse into some of Rich's oil dealings with the U.N. program and appear to bolster prosecutors' suspicions that he was a key figure in many of Saddam's moneymaking and global influence-peddling schemes.

It so Rich, Marc at it again

O.J. type verdict possible with Saddam?

United Nations has expressed “serious doubts”

IRAQI judges and prosecutors involved in the case against Saddam Hussein will stage a mock trial of a fictional dictator in an attempt to prevent legal chaos when the deposed president appears before a special tribunal in Baghdad.

The Iraqi lawyers are due to visit London amid intense security later this month for a second training session with British and American lawyers. At a secret session in October the Iraqis were driven to and from their London hotel in a bus with bulletproof windows.