"I think we can do business with this man," Kofi Annan.

2% right off the top

"WHEN UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL Kofi Annan quipped several years ago that he could "do business" with Saddam Hussein, he meant it figuratively. In light of the substantive charges coming out of the ever-expanding Oil-for-Food scandal, the throwaway line seems revealing or at least ironic.
"I think we have to take him literally," says Republican senator Norm Coleman, who is leading one of eight investigations into the corruption and mismanagement of the U.N.'s largest-ever humanitarian relief effort.
The basic outline of the scandal is simple: Saddam Hussein used the Oil-for-Food program to circumvent U.N. sanctions imposed after the Gulf war and to enrich himself and his allies. He did this by bribing leading journalists and diplomats and demanding kickbacks from those who profited from selling Iraqi oil. That he was able to do so indicates at least that the U.N. badly mismanaged the program it set up in December 1996. None of this is particularly astonishing. No one is surprised to learn that Saddam Hussein cheats, that politicians take bribes, and that the competence level of the U.N. bureaucracy is, well, suboptimal."

From the start the United Nations was bought with Saddam's money. The United Nations became an enabler of theft and greed all for the 2% off of the top. Saddam an old briber from way back knew exactly what he was doing, he knew that kind of money flowing in to the UN would give him carte blanche with what ever he wanted to do, he paid everyone who put their hands out including members of the Security Council and their governments. Ron

A recap of UN abuse by Claudia Rosett

Iraq and the Importance of the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Scandal

The oil-for food scandal the biggest heist in the history of humanitarian relief. It involved thousands of contractors in dozens of countries and Saddam personally obtained vast sums of money from the program. In all, the program is estimated to have involved $9-17 billion, but it may have been even more.
As a result, there are three investigations in congress, federal prosecutors have indicted suspects and named two officials and there has been an internal U.N. investigation. The organization has an important aim but a rotten core. In particular, the oil-for-food scandal demonstrates that, at the U.N., incentives matter, because there is a culture of privilege and secrecy.
There has been a proliferation of other U.N. scandals, such as the African sex scandal; auditing problems; the resignation of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees amid allegations of sexual harassment; and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights admitting Zimbabwe, and so on. None of these, however, have attracted the same amount of attention. This scandal has opened at window into the U.N. itself in a way other U.N. scandals have not.

Cost over charge of $700 Million on UN renovation

It's either graft or stupidity

THE UNITED NATIONS has been in the news of late. As usual, most of the news is negative: evidence suggesting that one or more members of the Security Council were bribed by Saddam; an inability to deal effectively with various crises in Africa; the embarrassing presence of nations such as Iran, Syria, Libya, Zimbabwe, and Saddam's Iraq on U.N. commissions on human rights, proliferation and weapons of mass destruction; the oil for food scandal.

In the midst of these controversies, the United Nations is proceeding with plans to upgrade its Manhattan headquarters. The organization's headquarters at Turtle Bay were completed in 1950 and renovated in the 1970s. The United Nations now believes that another renovation project is necessary, and has prepared a $1.2 billion plan to carry out the work.

The United Nations has said its plans to renovate its headquarters at Turtle Bay will cost $1.2 billion.
That strikes Donald Trump as far too much. "The United Nations is a mess," the developer said yesterday, "and they're spending hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessarily on this project." Trump has gone further, expressing the view that the expenses projected by the U.N. can only be the result of graft or incompetence.

With a cost overrun like that one it could only be because Kojo is the contractor. Doesn't the United Nations put anything out to bid? Must it always go to good friends like the OFF banking business that was given by Mr. Boutros-Boutros Ghali to his good friends BNP Paribas with out a bid. Does it always have to be done in the back room with a handshake, wink and a nod. Why can't the UN Secretariat uses standard practices, why do they have to chisel and steal. This is the organization that is to good for Mr. Bolton? [Hat tip to Robert]

I got no dirty oil, says Galloway

Iraqi documents say Galloway took allotments

GEORGE GALLOWAY, the MP who taunted the Prime Minister over Iraq after scoring an upset victory in the election, faced fresh accusations last night that he had received oil allocations from the Saddam Hussein regime and may have used his Mariam Appeal charity to conceal payments.

A US Senate committee published evidence from Iraqi documents and interviews with Iraqi officials that the former Labour MP, re-elected to Parliament for his Respect party, received allocations for millions of barrels of oil.

Taha Yassin Ramadan, the ousted Vice-President of Iraq, told Senate investigators last month that Mr Galloway had been granted the oil allocations because of his opinions about Iraq and because he wanted to lift the embargo against the country. Another Saddam-era official told US Treasury Department officials in 2003 that a British MP, identified as Mr Galloway, “benefited tremendously from the illegal trade of oil by Iraq”.

The Iraqi's sound like they are getting their filling systems operable now. Just after the invasion paper and files were everywhere but now they are back in place and snoopers can find out the secrets of Saddams payoffs. There will be more revelations coming and there will be lots of embarrassment and heads rolling. Uday, Saddam's son seemed to like hidden camera's when talking to the bribed with out them knowing they were on "Candid Camera;" lot of shaking going on among the bribee's wondering if they will be getting some type of Iraqi version of an Oscar.

My favorite is the one I posted yesterday in comments, its really embarrassing and in case you didn't see it here it is again. The woman was a bribeee, she was Syrian and worked from France as a "reporter", she finally gets to meet the great murderer Uday and here is what she says to him on film. See yesterdays posting for the whole article in the "Weekly Standard".

"...in its exposé, Al Hurra showed new footage of a meeting between Naanaa and Uday that reveals her obsequiousness and sycophancy toward the dictator's son. After Uday greets Naanaa, she gushes, "Hello to you, the dear son of the dear and the precious son of the precious. Hello, is kissing allowed?" Kissing was indeed allowed. [this is where if Uday would have pulled off his shoe she would have given the bottom of his feet a tongue massage and his toes a good sucking, hope she's married to one of the Moslem maniacs an when he espies this, cuts her head off.]

"During their conversation, Naanaa refers to a "beautiful and sweet letter" that Uday had written to her, telling him, "I was so always looking forward to seeing you." Naanaa also expresses concern about the 1996 assassination attempt on Uday, saying, "We got worried about you, you know. . . . I just lost it when I heard the news." Have you ever heard such an unctuous spiel, if she didn't put horns on her old man that night it would be a surprise.

John Bolton is finally going to get a chance for an up or down vote. Just what were the recalcitrant Senators thinking of when they took the UN's side against a decent man. Don't they know or care just what the UN has been doing and has been involved in. Great thefts, rapes, molestation's, genocide's, this organization isn't trustworthy and the Senators brought shame upon themselves for bringing scorn on a man that has shown his loyalty to his country.

Al Jazeera takes bribe from Killer

Uday's Oil-for-News Program

Here is a story of where some of the "Oil for Food" money went. We all just 'knew' that Al Jazeera' was on the take and now we know it for sure because the stupid reporters allowed their sorry selves to be filmed sucking up to Uday, one of Saddam's murderous son's. Didn't we have a head of major US news organization do about the same thing, what was his name, wonder if the Iraqi have films of him taking money.

"On January 6, 2005, the U.S.-funded Arabic satellite network Al Hurra broadcast an explosive exposé detailing the financial links between Saddam Hussein's regime and the Arab press. Al Hurra's documentary--so far overlooked in the West--aired previously unseen video footage, recorded by Saddam Hussein's regime during its murderous heyday, of Saddam's son Uday meeting with several Arab media figures and referring to the bribes they had received.
Recipients of this Baathist largesse appeared to include a former managing director of the influential Qatar-based government-subsidized satellite network Al Jazeera, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali. The videotaped meeting between Uday and al-Ali occurred on March 13, 2000, when al-Ali still worked as Al Jazeera's managing director. Their conversation makes clear that this was not their first meeting, but that they had met on prior occasions--and that Al Jazeera had put into effect the directives that Uday had proffered in those previous meetings." Much more at the site above, be sure to read it. Ron

I haven't forgotten Maurice Strong and his "Kyoto Protocols." We'll stay with that one for a few day's anyway. Its such a massive shift of funds from the Western Countries to China its strange that the money angle hasn't been considered more by the Western press. If the 17,000 experts on the various form of climatology are right, this could be much larger than the "Oil for Food" thefts. A Canadian wrote in with a quote from Maurice..."..."If we don't change, our species will not survive... Frankly, we may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse." -Maurice Strong quoted in the September 1, 1997 edition of National Review magazine.

He's willing for the industrial nations to collapse, all based on phony jargon and what 17,000 scientists says is 'gobbledegook science' and this is Kofi Annan's main man, his main confidant, the man with the office right next door, the man who is on paid leave right now for paling around with the Korean bag man Mr. Park, "...saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse" this wording sounds like something out of Department 6, the Department of Disinformation which was at one time a real trouble maker. Wonder if he picked that up from his old Aunty, the one buried in Beijing by Mao himself so it has been written.

Here is some more eminent scientists that think something doesn't smell right when it comes to the Scam and Dazzle of the 'Kyoto Protocols': They are climate experts who disagree with the science at the heart of greenhouse gas restriction treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol.

George Taylor Oregon State Meteorologist, Oregon State University, Past President of the Association of State Meteorologists
Dr.Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen Reader, Department of Geography, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK, Editor, Energy & Environment
Dipl.-Ing. Peter Dietze Climate consultant, official scientific IPCC TAR Reviewer, Germany
Dr. Sherwood Idso President-Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Tempe, AZ
Dr. Fred Seitz Past President, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, President Emeritus, Rockefeller University, New York, NY
Dr. Robert Balling Director - Office of Climatology, Arizona State University
Dr. Richard P. Lindzen Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Chris de Freitas Professor, School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Hans Erren Geophysical consultant, The Hague, Netherlands
Dr. David Wojick, P.E. Independent journalist and policy analyst, specializing in Kyoto issues
Art Robinson of OISM Founder - Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine
Dr. Asmunn Moene
Former head of the National Forecasting Center, Meteorological Institute, Oslo, Norway
Prof. Dr. Kirill Ya. Kondratyev Head of Russian Academy of Sciences; Academician, Research Centre for Ecological Safety, St.-Petersburg, RUSSIA
Dr. Petr Chylek Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Science - Dalhousie University
Dr. Ross McKitrick Professor of environmental economics at the University of Guelph - also expert in the science
Dr. Craig D. Idso
Chairman, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Tempe, AZ
Dr, Hugh W. Ellsaesser Atmospheric Consultant - previously with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, CA
Dr. Philip Stott Emeritus Professor of Biogeography - University of London (UK)

Can't squeeze the toothpaste back in the tube

Volcker says the evidence has immunity?

"Friday, at a hastily assembled press conference in New York, Mr. Volcker stepped forward to say he wants his evidence back. Mr. Hyde said no. That has triggered a potentially explosive showdown, pitting the powers of Congress against the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, which, by Mr. Volcker's account, extend to his "independent inquiry."All of which may be useful in illustrating the rules by which the United Nations, and now its "independent inquiry," play. Most involve the United Nations' climate of privilege and secrecy, whence sprang oil for food in the first place. Mr. Volcker's inquiry, for example, is funded at the behest of Mr. Annan

Were Mr. Hyde to comply with Mr. Volcker's demands, but send back the Parton papers in a manner consistent with the U.N.'s own recent record of dealing with Congress, it would be a long handoff. Congress is still smarting over the time it took the United Nations to turn over its oil-for-food internal audits.

Mr. Volcker's March report on Kofi Annan and Kojo Annan failed to mention that the younger Annan had served on the board of directors of a now-defunct company, Air Harbour Technologies, first alongside the U.N. secretary-general's special adviser, Maurice Strong, and then alongside an adviser for U.N. oil-for-food contractor, Cotecna Inspections. Mr. Strong has taken leave from his U.N. job until information about some of his own business connections can be clarified, part of a tangle arising from a federal bribery complaint issued last month and related to oil for food."

Maurice Strong's name keeps coming up in various articles. If you remember he is the person who promoted the Kyoto Protocols into existence and former president Clinton signed the agreement just before his final term was up. President Bush however killed it as soon as he was sworn in to office. Now a story has arisen about 17,000 scientists saying its based upon "bad" science and its a major Scam. It was signed into law in Canada and has already had cost overruns of $5 Billion Dollars just for starters. Its hard to think of a bigger Scam than "Oil for Food" but the Kyoto Protocols could surpass it easily and could ruin the industrial nations of the western world besides. The same type of scheme is before the Senate for ratification and its called, "Laws of the Sea" and it is a hot item for the Democrats.

The "Law of the Sea" is a UN thing and there are taxing provisions that could give the UN more money than any existing nation now in existence. Lots of liberal Senators like Kerry, Kennedy, Feinstein etc. have voted for the Kyoto Protocols and will vote for the "Laws of the Sea" because the UN wants independent financing for their operations. Maybe we should look at what 17,000 thousand scientists are saying about "Kyoto" because "The Laws of the Sea" is from the same bunch of rascals. Fox News, where are you, check this out.

Just got a list of names from the nice folks that think there is bogus science being practiced when it concerns the "Kyoto Protocols." These are experts that are saying something is very wrong with the data that can cost governments and industry Billions if not Trillions of dollars. For the kinds of money that will be transferred to China its worth a look and consideration. There is more names to follow, hey Fox News, check this out, could be 100 times bigger than the "Oil for Food" scam.

Some of the many climate experts who disagree with the science at the heart of
greenhouse gas restriction treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol.

Dr. Tim Patterson Professor - Department of Earth Sciences (Paleoclimatology)
Carleton University, Ottawa
Dr. Ian Clark
Professor, Isotope Hydrogeology and Paleoclimatology, Department of Earth Sciences (arctic specialist), University of Ottawa
Dr. Tim Ball Environmental Consultant - 28 years climatology Professor University of Winnipeg
Dr. Madhav Khandekar Environmental Consultant (extreme weather events)
25 years with Environment Canada in Meteorology
Dr. Tad Murty Climate researcher, Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba., Editor - "Natural Hazards". Previously Senior Research Scientist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Former Director of the National Tidal Facility of Australia
Dr. Fred Michel Professor - Department of Earth Sciences (Permafrost specialty)
Carleton University, Ottawa
Dr. Sallie Baliunas Astrophysicist - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Dr. Paul Copper, FRSC Professor - Department of Earth Sciences, Laurentian University, Sudbury
Dr. Vincent Gray Expert reviewer for the IPCC climate reports and author of "The Greenhouse Delusion; a Critique of 'Climate Change 2001'", Wellington, New Zeeland
David Nowell Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, Canadian member and past chairman of the NATO Meteorological Group, Ottawa
Dr. Roy W. Spencer Principal Research Scientist, Earth System Science Center of the University of Alabama in Huntsville
Dr. James O'Brien Robert 0. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography; Director, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
William Kininmonth Managing Director, Australasian Climate Research, Kew, Australia
Paavo Siitam Agronomist (soil chemistry, fertility and microbiology), Colborne, Ontario
Dr. Ian Plimer Professor/Chair, Department of Geology, University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Gary D. Sharp Scientific Director, Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study, Salinas, CA
Dr. Kenneth Green Chief Scientist, Fraser Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia
Dr. Paal Brekke Solar physicist, European Space Agency, Norway
Dr. John Christy Director, Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama
Dr. Chris Essex Professor of Applied Mathematics, University of Western Ontario
Dr. Roger Peilke Professor and Colorado State Climatologist; Current President of the American Association of State Climatologists
Dr. William M. Gray Professor of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University
Dr. Howard C. Hayden Emeritus Professor of Physics - University of Connecticut;
Dr. Lee C. Gerhard Principal Geologist, Kansas Geological Survey; Adjunct Professor, Colorado School of Mines; Noted author and geological expert on climate history.
Dr. Fred Singer President of The Science & Environmental Policy Project, Distinguished Research Professor at George Mason University, Professor Emeritus of environmental science at University of Virginia.
Dr. Pat Michaels Research Professor, Dept of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia
Dr. Willie Soon Astrophysicist - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Senator Coleman will subpoena Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan to testify.

Volcker say's they have immunity

Senator Coleman, who has called on Mr Annan to resign for mismanagement, vowed to force a showdown by issuing the subpoenas anyway. “I spoke with Mr Volcker and expressed my grave and growing concerns about the credibility and independence of the investigation into the criminal misconduct that occurred in the UN Oil-for-Food programme,” he said.

Questions have been raised about Mr Volcker’s impartiality by the resignation of the two investigators and by his ties to a company once run by Maurice Strong, a Canadian tycoon and diplomat under investigation by the Volcker panel.In the 1960s Mr Strong, 76, ran Power Corporation of Canada, which later hired Mr Volcker as a paid consultant. The UN is refusing to reveal whether Mr Strong played any role in recommending Mr Volcker for his post as head of the Oil-for-Food inquiry.

Just who is this Maurice Strong everyone is not talking about? Why, he is the man who single handly put together the "Kyoto Protocols" and what is that you might ask? Well, basically its a way to get the industrial nations of the world to buy hot air credits from China and a few other places. Here is an article where you can get a very good idea what is transpiring. article

Iqbal Riza recieves "get out of jail free" card from Kofi.

Don't worry about It, says Kofi

Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that he had decided there were no grounds for disciplining his former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, who was criticized by the independent committee investigating the oil-for-food program for ordering the shredding of three years of files.

"While those actions were careless, I do not believe they can be construed as deliberate attempts to impede the work of the independent inquiry committee," Mr. Annan said April 19 in a letter to Mr. Riza that was released Thursday. His reference was to the panel headed by Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman. "I accept your apology and assure you that I still have great faith in your professionalism and well-known

Maurice Strong and nepotism, hat tip to Roger Simon

To soft on Kofi says Senator Coleman

No cooperation says Volcher

The Senate panel probing the U.N. oil-for-food scandal will subpoena two investigators who quit the United Nations' own inquiry on the grounds that it was too soft on Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
    The announcement yesterday by Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, was the latest sign of the growing antagonism between congressional investigators and the $30 million U.N.-appointed inquiry headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Another UN Resignation, Bertini this time.

You know what jumps off of ships?

Kofi Annan "reluctantly" accepted another resignation on Tuesday. The latest one is from Under-Secretary-General for Management Catherine Bertini. It was Bertini who cleared UN auditor Dileep Nair of a wide range of allegations including corrupt practices and violating Staff Regulations in November 2004. Dileep Nair, as Canada Free Press reported in March, is the embattled-by-Paul-Volcker UN auditor accused of "misusing Oil-for-Food funds and violating UN Staff Regulations."

Nair left the UN last week maintaining his innocence. Bertini will leave the UN at the end of this month.  Canada's Louise Fréchette, Kofi’s #2, who blocked Nair from reporting Oil-for-Food audit irregularities to the UN Security Council remains at the UN intact.

Volcker tries to defend probe

More smoke and mirrors

"I thought we criticized him rather severely; I would not call that an exoneration," Volcker said in an interview broadcast on Fox News.

Volcker's remarks followed the recent resignations of two of his top investigators, Miranda Duncan and Robert Parton.

Parton, a former FBI agent who served as Volcker's senior investigative counsel, quit out of frustration that the report did not provide a more critical account of Annan's handling of the $64 billion humanitarian program, a source close to Parton said on the condition of anonymity.

Don't forget the Kanadian Konnection

Don't forget Canadian Louise Frechette

Volcker’s number two man former Canadian spy chief Reid Morden

Paul Volcker: Just fishing with the Canadians at Power Corp.

Some more on Mr. Strong

$8 Billion missing in new UN scandal

$10 Billion shortfall because of Canadian Kyoto Protocols, gee thanks Mr. Strong

The ties between Volcker, Strong and Canadian Corp.

Not only Volcker and Strong

UNITED NATIONS - The next chapter in the United Nations crisis may erupt over U.N. investigator Paul Volcker's membership on the board of one of Canada's biggest companies, Power Corporation, since a past president of the firm, Canadian tycoon Maurice Strong, is now tied to the oil-for-food scandal.

Also, following yesterday's reports of resignations of top investigators on Mr. Volcker's team, Washington officials revisited Secretary-General Annan's assertion that the team's report last month exonerated him. For the first time, the Bush administration hinted that it may cease support of Mr. Annan altogether.

Deputy Secretary-General, Canadian Louise Frechette is already being mentioned as a replacement for Kofi Annan but it has to be remembered that Ms. Frechette was brought into the UN by Mr. Maurice Strong and that four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food program, with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Frechette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the U.N. Security Council. This detail was buried on page 186 of the 219-page interim report Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee released Feb. 3. Deputy Secretary-General, Canadian Louise Frechette Blocked UN Auditors, this has to be remembered when/if Kofi Annan is replaced. Ron

Kofi not exonerated say's US State Department official.

"Time to step aside"

Deputy Secretary-General, Canadian Louise Frechette, more information

Annan wants to "reform" the U.N. again

Claudia Rosett

Since the U.N.'s self-described dawn of integrity three years ago (one of several such sunrises since Mr. Annan became secretary-general in 1997), we have seen the sex-for-food scandal in the Congo, featuring the rape of minors by U.N. peacekeepers, which continued well after press disclosures last year prompted a U.N. internal investigation. We have seen theft at the World Meteorological Association, scandal in the U.N. audit department, the resignation over sexual harassment charges of the refugee high commissioner Ruud Lubbers, turmoil within the Electoral Assistance Division, and allegations of corruption involving the U.N.'s Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization. We have seen rebellion by the U.N. Staff Union against "senior management, and a raft of resignations by senior U.N. officials who nonetheless linger on the premises on official salaries of a dollar a year, plus the various perquisites and connections the place affords.

UN staff have recommended that Maurice Strong be suspended according to report.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Investigators Robert Parton (senior investigative counsel) and Miranda Duncan (deputy counsel) have resigned because information was not being followed up by the Volcker Committee!!! These are two of the top three field investigators for the committtee. Only Michael Cornacchia remains. Hat tip to Roger L. Simon

Maurice Strong resigns

Maurice Strong knows "`Koreagate Man'"

What else don't we know

Strong, got his start in the world of business by Paul Desmarais’ Montreal-based Power Corporation. Desmarais is a key figure in Paribas BNP, Saddam’s favourite bank, officials of which are said to be "cooperating with investigators" in the oil-for-food probe.

Strong also happens to be a power behind the throne in Canadian politics as senior advisor to adscam, scandal-plagued Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin--also launched into the business world by Power Corp.

Kofi Annan’s special envoy to Korea Maurice Strong admits he knows "Koreagate Man" Tongsun Park and even that Park invested in an "energy company" with which he was associated in 1997--but flatly denies any involvement in the scandal-ridden UN oil-for-food program.

As Kofi Annan’s special envoy to Korea, Strong returns from his Korean trips to openly criticize the U.S. Strong told CBS’s Dan Rather on May 26, 2004: "The single most important thing that comes out of my discussions there is the strong conviction that the country is threatened by the United States. They contend that this is the reason, and the only reason, that they require nuclear weapons."

Another Canadian implicated in huge theft of 8 Billion

$425 Million of aid money missing in Canada

Kofi blames others for his incompetence

Is Kofi saying he didn't know?

"Every man and his dog is buying Iraqi oil," said one oil trader quoted by the Times of London in early 2001. The same story described "total anarchy" and "flagrant disregard of U.N. Security Council resolutions" in Oil for Food. A myriad of shady middlemen had moved in after the world's major oil companies shunned Iraq in response to Saddam's widely publicized demand the previous year for illegal kickbacks on oil contracts.

This open and flagrant corruption--the Times story was one of many--is the best evidence of Kofi Annan's unfitness to continue to lead the U.N. It's not merely that it all happened on his watch, but that it was allowed to happen in plain view."

U.N. underwriting: Not another dime

It's official: Kofi says the US and England did it.

Kofi blames US

"U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who earlier angered the United States and Britain by calling the Iraq war 'illegal,' has upset both nations again -- this time accusing them of allowing Saddam Hussein to enrich himself selling oil outside the U.N.-run oil-for-food program.
    Mr. Annan set off the latest dispute on Thursday by asserting that Saddam made more money smuggling oil to Jordan and Turkey -- under the noses of the United States and Britain -- than he skimmed from the 1996-2003 U.N.-run oil-for-food program.

Mr. Annan just can't make something like this fly. Even though his hand picked investigators led by Mr. Volcker does his best to hide information that is cascading forth, Mr. Volcker can't keep it all in and we learn of such things as paper shredding by Kofi Annan's Chief of Staff.

"The most significant finding in the Volcker Report is undoubtedly the revelation that Kofi Annan's then-Chief of Staff Iqbal Riza authorized the shredding between April and December 2004 of thousands of UN documents--the entire UN Chef de Cabinet chronological files for the years 1997, 1998 and 1999, many of which related to the oil-for-food program."

Only in the never-never land of UN bureaucracy could you find some one like Kofi Annan and his Secretariat. This organization is dangerous and has to be down sized for our safety, it is trying to gain a position of more power than its member states. It is an unelected group of nameless and unaccountable greymen who have brought forth genocide's, rapes, pedophilia and the most monumental theft of all time.

The United State has to stop buying into the UN bureaucracy, its an incremental thing that they are attempting and the only thing they need is time and they have decades to outlast any opponent. First the "Kyoto Protocol" and then the ICC and now the Law of the Sea, just a little bit at a time until we have something out of Orwell's 1984. Ron

Kojo's friend in UN bribery investigation

Kofi says America did it!

Liberal press smoke screen to start?

" U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday the United States and Britain bore part of the blame in the Iraq oil-for-food debacle by allowing unsupervised oil exports that Saddam Hussein exploited.

Annan, addressing a seminar on the United Nations and the media, said most of the money Saddam earned was by oil sold to Jordan and Turkey outside of the $67 billion U.N. program."

Now that there is a Texas oil man indicted, look for the liberal press to start paying attention to Kofi's problem in the UN. They won't mention his son working for Cotecna or the shredding of documents or the lack of cooperation with the various Congressional committees but it would be surprising if they don't jump on a Texas oil man. Wonder if they will mention the rapes in the Congo or question what is happening in Darfur. The UN is the liberal's darling, the 'fix' for everything bad in the world, the world government that will take care of us so that we don't have to worry about it anymore. It was the Texan's who did it, watch the smoke from the liberal press. Just resign Mr. Annan your getting to be very embarrassing. Ron

Where did Kojo get the $235,000; hat tip Roger Simon

UN Commission on Human Rights

A thuggish and murderous bunch

"Some of us can hardly wait for John Bolton to get to the United Nations, where he promises to be the most candid U.S. emissary since the charming Daniel Patrick Moynihan, or maybe the astute Jeane Kirkpatrick.
    Each towered over (and told off) that distinguished den of thieves, tyrants, haters, apologists for terror, and pompous nullities who can speak forever and still say nothing. At the U.N., talk comes by the yard and action by the inch."

Has there ever been such a rogues gallery of countries. Can you believe that Sudan sets with these worthies while killings its own citizens and portions of our tax dollars help support some of the bloodiest killers on earth. What a farce this 'United Nations Commission on Human Rights' has become, just like its parent and its Secretariat. Ron

Kofi Aide Shredded Thousands of Documents

Seven full months of shredding and he has immunity

It is hardly surprising that Volcker has struggled to find evidence of "improper influence" if a great deal of vital evidence has ended up in a shredder. Despite UN protestations, this latest report will add to a growing picture of mismanagement, incompetence, and unaccountability in a world body in deep crisis and in serious need of reform.

The most significant finding in the Volcker Report is undoubtedly the revelation that Kofi Annan's then-Chief of Staff Iqbal Riza authorized the shredding between April and December 2004 of thousands of UN documents--the entire UN Chef de Cabinet chronological files for the years 1997, 1998 and 1999, many of which related to the oil-for-food program.

Significantly, Kofi Annan announced the retirement of Riza on Jan. 15, 2005, exactly the same day that Riza notified the Volcker Committee that he had destroyed the documents.

Riza was chief of staff from 1997 to 2004, almost the entire period in which the oil-for- food program was in operation, and would undoubtedly possess an intricate knowledge of the UN's management of the program. He was a long-time colleague of Kofi Annan, and served as Annan's deputy in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations from 1993 to 1996.

Another reason for Annan to leave

Give up Sovereignty to the criminals?

The best reason why Kofi Annan should go is the U.N. secretary-general's effort to nudge the body of sovereign nations toward becoming a fledgling world government.

Not to minimize the scandal that allowed Saddam Hussein to skim $21 billion while under U.N. sanctions, or to excuse Annan's son's own alleged corruption. But let's be real. From the Orlando Sentinel

If you haven't read Kofi Annan's plans for the United States, you should. What this man is suggesting is setting up a world government and just for starters raising the United States contribution 5 times higher. The UN organization is to the point where it is asking for more responsibility and money when it can't take care of the responsibilities and money's that it has already been trusted with. Why would anyone trust this organization, massive thefts, genocide's, rapes and murders, everyday fare for Kofi and crew but they want to show you how they can really do it if you trust them just one more time. Ron

The Canadian connection

Handpuppet of UN says Kofi clean

Kofi not responsible says Volcker

"Investigators of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq said Tuesday there was not enough evidence to show that Secretary-General Kofi Annan knew of a contract bid by his son's Swiss employer.

The report released Tuesday also accused the company, Cotecna Inspection S.A., and Annan's son, Kojo, of trying to conceal their relationship after the contract was awarded. It also faulted Kofi Annan for conducting a one-day investigation into the matter, saying it should have been a more rigorous, independent probe."

Get out your brush, the white wash just got here. Just glancing at the report I see that Kofi is exonerated because he wasn't aware of the actions around him, apparently if your stupid you get a pass. So the way its run at the UN, if you close your eyes to the malfeasance of others, you can't be accused of any criminality, even if your the one running the whole show. The buck doesn't stop with Kofi it seems but is spread like smoke thru-out the whole Thugocracy until its so ethereal; the malfeasance won't stick on anyone. What did we really expect from the hand puppet of the UN anyway. Compare this investigation with any of the ones pertaining to US Corporations and you realize what a joke this is. Ron

Roger Simon's take on the report

More on Kojo's Iraqi connection

Kofi, Kojo and Kotecna in Kahoots?

Simon hits a gold seam

No joy for Kofi Annan today. Roger L. Simon has posted some information that will cause him some pain. It looks as though information is about to come out that will tie Kofi into Cotecna just a little tighter because of his son. In part Mr. Simon tells the story of business dealings and meeting of Kojo Annan with people he really shouldn't have been associating with.

“The Volcker committee has been interviewing Pierre Mouselli, a businessman in Paris who was Kojo's business partner. Their relationship started in 1998 when then 45-year old Mouselli met young Kojo (then 23) at a Bastille Day Party in the French Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. Mouselli, who has been a cooperative witness and is not under investigation himself, has told the committee numerous interesting things, which deserved to be followed up,”

He tells of meetings between Kojo and two separate Iraqi Ambassadors to Nigeria and a trip in September 1998 by Mouselli and Kojo to the Non-Aligned Nations Movement Conference in Durban, South Africa during which they traveled with the Secretary General's entourage.

Other interesting stuff in the blog that really opens a can of worms for Kofi about his son's business dealing. He really didn't need this coming out just now. Go to the site and read the article in its entirety.

Mr. Boutros-Boutros-Ghali says its a right wing plot

Family ties

Oil-for-Food Blamed on Conservatives

Former United Nations chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali is blaming the oil-for-food scandal on "right-wing politicians" in the United States, saying they are merely using it as a tool to damage the world body's reputation.

Reuters reports that Boutros-Ghali, who served as U.N. secretary-general from 1991 to 1996, also has said current chief Kofi Annan should stay right where he is.

" A gem laid out in Paul Volcker’s tabled Interim Report says: Director of the discredited Oil-for-Food Program Benon Sevan, helped steer oil contracts to a relative of former UN Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali.

The relative is Ghali’s son, with whom Sevan was in business. And then there’s Sevan’s Panamanian bank account with Boutros Ghali. Ghali was head honcho [Secretary General] at the UN in 1966 when Oil-for-Food got underway. He’s also the guy who chose the Banque Nationale de Paris, now known as BNP Paribas, to handle the program’s account." From an article by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com, February 7, 2005

Mr. Ghali should explain just how involved he was with Mr. Sevan. Did he have a joint account with Mr. Sevan in Panama? Was his son in business with Mr. Sevan in Panama? Did Mr. Ghali steer the banking business to BNP Paribas who's largest stockholder was a personal friend of Saddam?

Oil-for-Food: It's all relative

Jordanian 'peace' keepers accused of rape in E. Timor

Sevan threatens to go home if not treated right.

Pay the attorney fee's or else, says Sevan.

"I am shocked and dismayed that the U.N. Secretariat has agreed to pay Benon Sevan's legal fees from assets belonging to the Iraqi people," said Iraqi Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie.

The money to reimburse Mr. Sevan, as well as the $30 million to fund the official inquiry, comes from a fund set up with Iraqi oil revenues to administer the $64 billion oil-for-food program.

However Mark Malloch Brown said that, "Mr. Sevan made it clear that if he was not reimbursed ... he was going home to Cyprus," he told reporters yesterday. "He didn't see the need to subject himself to leaks and attacks."

Mark Malloch Brown apparently hasn't heard about arresting someone who has misappropriated money under cover of "doing his job." Just think of what would have happened to the guys and girls from Enron if they would have tried this. Hey Brown, Benan Sevan had a Panamanian Corporation going along with Butros-Butros-Butros's cousin and they snagged a couple of million dollars. "...he was going home to Cyprus." Lift his immunity with out telling him and tip off Henry Hyde, Henry would sweat him like a cooked chicken. Ron

Now it's $300,000 and Kofi meets with Cotecna

How much more did Kojo make

" U.N.-appointed panel investigating influence peddling in the oil-for-food program in Iraq is examining three contacts between Secretary General Kofi Annan and executives of a Swiss company that made payments to Annan's son while it conducted millions of dollars' worth of business with the world body, a senior U.N. official said.

Malloch Brown acknowledged Wednesday that the United Nations erred in suggesting Tuesday that Volcker's committee had backed a decision by Annan to pay Sevan an undisclosed but "big number" in legal fees."

Well we know from other sources [Claudia Rosett] that Kojo worked for Cotecna up until last year, he was drawing down $2500 per month for something and now we find out that there was other moneys paid to him that double the amount previously known. Cotecna has admitted to paying out $300,000 to Kojo Annan using subterfuge in order to hide the full amounts. It isn't because Cotecna thought to do the right thing and tell the investigators, they were caught by investigative reporters [Financial Times and the Italian Paper Il Sole]. The reporters also found out about the meetings of Kofi Annan and the the owners of Cotecna, this wasn't information that was given by the Secretariat freely, Kofi got caught. Even the news that Benan Sevan's attorneys fee's were being paid out of the Iraqi slush fund wasn't freely given; someone leaked the information. Great salaries, great retirements, all the women you can fondle, unbelievable side deals, attorney fee's paid and the possibility of a huge financial prize, World Government where you can tax whole countries, where the possibilities are limitless, where everything is hidden and you have a living breathing bureaucracy that will rule all, that will live forever. Ron

King Kofi meets Cotecna secretly

Kofi gets Kott.

Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in Nigeria until December 1997. He was later retained first as a consultant and then on an unusual “non-compete” contract. Cotecna categorically denies any impropriety.

It insists his work had nothing to do with the UN contract and that it never took advantage of Kojo's access to the secretary-general.

But the FT/Il Sole investigation reveals that senior executives from Cotecna met Kofi Annan on various occasions, once at his UN office.

A UN spokesman said the meetings had nothing to do with a contract awarded under the oil-for-food programme. Kojo Annan declined to comment.

Didn't Kofi say that he had never met any one from Cotecna? Ron

Benan Sevan's lawyers paid by Kofi

Mr. Sevan get retirement, legal fee's paid and immunity

Just how sweet a job at the United Nations has became apparent when it was disclosed that Mr. Sevan's legal fee's are paid by the UN. First Mr. Sevan sets up a Panamanian Corporation for he and his old friend the former Secretary Generals nephew or cousin or who ever, makes a couple of million and then gets caught by some digging by Claudia Rosett. Now the New York Sun has found out that Mr. Sevan's legal fee's are being picked up by the United Nations, probably a Iraqi slush fund on some sort, the Iraqis' will be pissed off when they hear about this. Great salary, retirement in a 5 Star Hotel and all your legal bills paid and immunity besides; if Ken Lay had the same deal he would have thought he'd died and went to heaven. Ron

"After months of denials, the United Nations admitted yesterday that, in an exception to its own rules, it has paid for the legal defense of Benon Sevan. The U.N.'s own investigation panel denounced Mr. Sevan for his central role in the oil-for-food scandal that has engulfed the world body.

Questions regarding whether the U.N. would cover Mr. Sevan's legal fees were raised soon after the name of the oil-for-food program chief appeared on a list published by the Iraqi newspaper al-Mada shortly after the start of the Iraq war. The newspaper accused world diplomats, businessmen, and U.N. officials of accepting bribes from Saddam Hussein in the form of oil allocations.

U.N officials distanced themselves from Mr. Sevan, even as the former Annan confidant continued to demand that they cover his legal fees. The retired Mr. Sevan remains a U.N. employee, with a symbolic $1-a-year salary, to make himself available for questioning by an independent committee headed by Mr. Volcker."

Whistle blower get shaft, Sevan gets bills paid.

Sec. Rice says's John Bolton to lead U.N. shake up

Bolton is the man for a shake up!

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday she expects John R. Bolton, Washington's ambassador-designate to the United Nations, to lead an overdue shake-up of that organization. "John Bolton was my first choice," Miss Rice told editors and reporters in an interview at The Washington Times. "I think John is a straightforward, tough-talking, very good diplomat, and I think that's what you need at the United Nations."

What is needed in United Nations right now is an investigation that is transparent. Mr. Volcker is not the person to lead that investigation. " As Canada Free Press (CFP) revealed, Paul Volcker, who heads up the Independent Inquiry Commission into the oil-for-food scandal, held a seat on Power Corp’s international advisory board. [Read the two previous articles on Power Corporation and which companies it controls]" This should have been enough to disqualify him from leading an 'independent inquiry' of the United Nations but there is something else. "In addition to his connections to Power Corp., which he did not disclose upon being appointed head of the UN probe, Volcker has also been linked to a pro-UN lobby group, the United Nations Association of the United States (which happens to receive generous support from BNP Paribas). Critics are suggesting that the final report, expected in June, could end up being a whitewash."

There is a thread through this whole hidden non-disclosure by Mr. Volcker and its called "Power Corporation." If you have no idea who owns this entity and how Mr. Volcker is involved, read the previous two entries. Ron

Why Bolton will be good for the UN

More on Power Corp and Volcker

Mr. Volcker has to explain

When you add it all up, contemporary Canadian influence abroad has all the intrigue of a fast-moving spy novel.

Andre Desmarais also sits on the China International Trust & Investment Corp (CITIC), described as the alleged investment arm of the PLA, the Chinese military. Through its subsidiaries, the CITIC could be the largest manufacturer of weapons and arms in the world.

Maurice Strong, special ambassador to the UN, has publicly stated his belief that China is the economic and ecological future of the world, a sentiment echoed only last week by Prime Minister Martin. When it comes to global influence, Canada’s Montreal-based Power Corporation is an octopus with tentacles everywhere.

Both Prime Minister Paul Martin and his mentor Maurice Strong, senior advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, worked for Power Corp.

Martin’s immediate predecessor is former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, whose daughter, France is married to Andre Desmarais, son of Power Corp’s founding father, Paul Desmarais.

Desmarais Sr. is a major shareholder and director of TotalFinaElf, the biggest oil corporation in France, which has held tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein.
Continuing to join the dots on Volcker and potential conflicts of interest is Volcker’s number two man on the IIC, Reid Morden. Morden has connections to Desmarais in his role of selling nuclear plants to China and others for companies dominated by Desmarais. Although he is Canada’s former intelligence chief, Morden does not answer to the Canadian government. As CFP letter writer Peter Herberg puts it, "Can you imagine the uproar if a former CIA chief did this and took part in a UN investigation that refused to cooperate with congress?

As Canada Free Press (CFP) revealed, Paul Volcker, who heads up the Independent Inquiry Commission into the oil-for-food scandal, held a seat on Power Corp’s international advisory board.

Those are some of the ties of Power Corp., oil-for-food and Fracophonie’s Land of the fleur de lis.

A blueprint for world powerMr. Volcker has to explain

Who or what is "Power Corporation of Canada."

You have to follow the money

"When Montreal-based Power Corporation of Canada found itself, in late January, the topic of a news story on America’s top-rated Fox News Channel, which draws millions of U.S. and international viewers, executives there probably weren’t thrilled. the Fox News story wasn’t prompted by an announcement from Power of some billion-dollar takeover or the appointment of a new senior executive. It was something altogether different: the revelation that the man handpicked by the UN secretary general last April to probe the UN’s scandalized Oil-for-Food program, Paul Volcker, had not disclosed to the UN that he was a paid adviser to Power Corp., a story which had originally been broken by a small, independent Toronto newspaper, the Canada Free Press. Why did the highest-rated cable channel in the U.S. care? Because the more that Americans came to know about Oil-for-Food, which has been called the largest corruption scandal in history, the more the name of this little-known Montreal firm kept popping up."

"Now, Volcker himself is the one facing allegations of conflict. In addition to his connections to Power Corp., which he did not disclose upon being appointed head of the UN probe, Volcker has also been linked to a pro-UN lobby group, the United Nations Association of the United States (which happens to receive generous support from BNP Paribas). Critics are suggesting that the final report, expected in June, could end up being a whitewash."

This is a long and convoluted article but try to stay with it. The political connections mentioned in this story are very interesting, the companies seemed intertwined through politics and marriage. This will give you a very good idea why France didn't want Saddam out and even more surprising why Canada didn't either. Mr. Volcker really has to explain why he didn't mention his connection with some of the companies and people in this story. Perhaps Senator Coleman and his investigating committee can ask the questions. The United Nations is a dangerous organization, this article points out several reasons that is to the detriment of the United States to still be a member. Ron

Kojo Annan still busy as a bee.

More on Louise Frechette

John R. Bolton next Ambassador to UN

More mismanagement found

The trail leads higher than Sevan

With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) next up for review by Paul Volcker’s inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal, a crucial question is whether Volcker will expand upon information tying the scandal directly to the U.N. chief’s office — by way of Annan’s second-in command, Louise Frechette (search).

Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food (search) program, with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Frechette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the U.N. Security Council. This detail was buried on page 186 of the 219-page interim report Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee released Feb. 3.

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette

LOUISE FRÉCHETTE

The other players

7 Year Old Girl raped by UN Peace keeper

Dileep Nair tried to tip off Security Council

Where there is smoke...

Saddam's agent and his friends

According to documents recently obtained by the House International Relations Committee, Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt and Saddam Hussein's American oil spy, Samir Vincent, worked together to finance shipments of medicines and baby formula for Iraq in 1997 and 1998 through such charities as the Friendship Force Foundation, a group closely connected to former President Jimmy Carter, his wife, Rosalynn, and other luminaries.

Darfur: the ICC will kill them

Immunity not lifted yet by Kofi

For $1, Sevan gets immunity

The suspended U.N. head of the scandal-tainted oil-for-food program in Iraq has asked the United Nations for more time to answer a list of charges made against him, a U.N. spokesman said on Wednesday.
He was accused of steering an Iraq oil allocation to a relative of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the U.N. secretary-general from 1991 to 1996. The relative, who owned a small Panamanian-registered trading company, earned $1.5 million from the transaction.

Sevan is retired and receives $1 a year but retains his diplomatic immunity until Annan lifts it. The arrangement was made so he would cooperate with Volcker's probe, which will be completed in mid-year.

UN finally to investigate rape charges of 12 year olds

More rapes than first thought, says UN

Another black mark against the UN

Annan defends UN

Still won't cooperate with Congressional Committees

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan strongly defended the United Nations and said it is the "right body to lead" multinational missions.

Annan, making his first comments since Sunday's resignation of the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR Ruud Lubbers over sexual harassment allegations, has seen the UN come under increasing fire, notably over the tainted oil-for-food program it ran in Iraq.

Who was there for tsunami relief

If you leave a fox in charge of the henhouse, don’t expect many eggs.

Kofi fiddles while the world burns

Photos of the Sudan Genocide

Roger L. Simon on Kofi

The arrogance of the UN is unexceptable

UN refuses to cooperate

The breathtaking arrogance displayed by Annan and the U.N. leadership is simply unacceptable. Oil for Food has further eroded the American public’s trust in the U.N. and exposed potentially irreconcilable fault lines between the U.S. government and the U.N. To coerce a recalcitrant U.N. to cooperate, Congress should apply powerful financial pressure on the U.N.

With the arrival of new chairmen for both the House and Senate Appropriations committees, it’s time for Congress to withhold the generous contribution that U.S. taxpayers bestow on the United Nations each year -- until and unless it fully cooperates with these and other concurrent investigations.

A lack of U.N. cooperation has compounded congressional anger. Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, chairman of the Investigations Subcommittee, and his Democratic counterpart, Michigan’s Carl Levin, have accused Kofi Annan of blocking efforts by Congress to obtain U.N. documents relating to Oil for Food, including 55 internal audit reports. Annan also refuses to allow congressional investigators to interview U.N. officials.

American taxpayers should demand accountability from an institution that depends on their funding. Luckily, that’s finally starting to happen. As the United Nations Oil for Food scandal continues to unfold, Congress is beginning to flex its investigative muscle. Five different committees are investigating the largest financial fraud of modern times.

This article is from the Heritage Foundation and was dated in December of 2004. Only the arrogance has gotten worse since this article was written.

U.N. refugee chief Ruud Lubbers resigned in the face of sexual harassment charges

Malloch Brown smokes Sen. Coleman again.

Finger given to Coleman

Under pressure from Washington, the United Nations says it would like to reform itself and rebuild ruptured ties with the United States. But this week, the U.S. relationship with the U.N. seemed to be summed up by one thing: an empty witness chair.

At a Senate hearing on the Iraqi "oil-for-food" program Tuesday, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) called on the world body's oversight chief, Dileep Nair, to testify. He didn't appear.

Coleman, who heads the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, saw it as another instance of U.N. stonewalling. "I'm saddened that the U.N. did not see fit to allow Mr. Nair to appear today despite assurances from the U.N. that it would cooperate closely with our investigation," Coleman said at the hearing.

UN High Commissioner denies sex charges

UN Bureaucrats dither while rape and murder continues

Raped Darfur women wrestle with fate of babies

A very real threat to all women

King Kofi's UN paid $1.4 Billion

2.2% paid to UN right off the top of Billions

Volcker's recent interim report--there is another interim one expected soon and a final report due out this summer--does not even begin to address the true dimensions of Oil-for-Food, in which the United Nations oversaw more than $110 billion of Saddam's business transactions while Saddam racked up sanctions-busting illicit income estimated at anywhere from $9 to $17 billion. The emerging picture is that Oil-for-Food was the largest scam in the history of humanitarian relief. And the big questions are: Who at the United Nations might be to blame? And what needs fixing? 

To cover its costs for overseeing the program, the Secretariat collected 2.2 percent of the revenue on every barrel of oil sold, amounting to $1.4 billion over the life of the program (plus another 0.8 percent, or $500 million, to pay for weapons inspections that ceased in late 1998, when Saddam stopped cooperating with them). This meant that Annan--who was secretary-general for all but the first month of the program--did not have to petition member-states for donations to run Oil-for-Food

Saddam was increasingly treated as an esteemed businessman rather than as a tyrant needing close supervision. The United Nations from the start let Saddam choose to whom he would sell oil and decide what goods Iraqis needed, subject to U.N. approval. The Secretariat, which retained records of Saddam's transactions, kept critical details of the deals secret, including the names of his business partners and the prices paid for relief supplies.

Peacekeepers or predators?

Time to retire like Mr. Sevan

Raped by UN as young as 12 years old

Not just UN Theft but also UN Rape

Is the US complicit in war crimes by funding the UN

The ongoing crimes against the very people that the United Nations are supposed to be protecting brings forth the questions: Is the poor ravaged people better off with out UN 'help' and is the United states complicit in crimes committed by United Nations personnel by funding the operations without oversight.

The people who were left after the machete hacking in Rwanda and the survivors of other carnage and rape while supposedly being 'protected' by UN personnel would certainly think that question apropos. The United Nations Thugocratic Bureaucracy doesn't seem to be doing to well, now we find the Secretariats family members involved in the "Oil for Food" imbroglio, it doesn't seem to stop, it seems to be getting worse if that is possible. Here is another report by Dr. Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation about a situation that has gone on much to long. Its a very long article and is a rather disheartening one, read it here because you won't see it in to many other places, its just not Politically Correct. Ron

The U.N.’s Heart of Darkness: Why Congress Must Investigate the Congo Scandal
by Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., and Joseph Loconte

Living in the shadow of the Oil-for-Food controversy is another major United Nations scandal that may cause untold damage to the world body’s already declining reputation. U.N. peacekeepers and civilian officials from the U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo stand accused of major human rights violations. At least 150 allegations have been made against the Mission’s personnel.[1] The allegations involve rape and forced prostitution of women and young girls across the country, including inside a refugee camp in the town of Bunia, in northeastern Congo. The victims are defenseless refugees, many of them children, who have already been brutalized and terrorized by years of war and who looked to the U.N. for safety and protection. The U.S. Congress should act to ensure that the U.N. personnel involved are brought to justice and that such barbaric abuses are never repeated.

The full article

Kojo right in the middle of it

Senator Coleman getting answers

Kojo Annan, the son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, played a far more extensive role than previously revealed in a company that won a key contract under the scandal-plagued Iraq oil-for-food program, Senate investigators have learned in a letter to Cotecna executives just months before the contract was awarded, Kojo wrote of putting in place for the company "a 'machinery' which will be centered in New York that will facilitate the continuation of contacts established and assist in developing new contacts in the future."

 Investigators also have uncovered documents suggesting that Benon Sevan, the U.N. official who oversaw the seven-year program and was suspended last week, had a much more direct interest in laundered oil deals handed out as bribes by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein under the program.

The United Nations Association of the United States of America

Just how can someone who was/is associated with “The United Nations Association of the United State of America” have an impartial and independent investigation of the "Oil for Food" scam? Mr. Volcker thought it so important that we didn't know about his association he didn't put it on his curriculum vitae; why is this? Read the article in its entirety here by inputing Professor Gardiner's name or the name of the article in the search engine or by clicking below. Out of all the Investigators that could have been chosen why pick one that is on the UN cheer leading team. Just how much is going into the paper shredders or erased from hard drives, maybe nothing but there is a doubt now and there needn't have been one with a neutral investigator. Ron

"The United Nations Association of the United States of America is a pro-U.N. advocacy group that supports the work of the United Nations. In the grateful words of Kofi Annan, 'There are United Nations Associations in many other countries, but this one is unique—both in the challenges it faces and in the energy and resources it devotes to tackling them. From our perspective, it is hard to think of any work more valuable than what you do to improve the understanding of United Nations issues in our host country.' [6]"

"The Volcker Committee suffers from a huge credibility problem of its own. It is hard to see how a team of investigators hand-picked by the U.N. Secretary-General, whose own son is a subject of investigation, could be considered truly independent. There is also a major question mark over its Chairman’s neutrality. After Mr. Volcker’s several years as a director of the United Nations Association and Business Council for the United Nations, it is difficult to see how he could cast a critical, objective eye over the U.N.’s leadership." From "the Volcker Oil-for Food Investigation: Is there a Conflict of Interest by N. Gardiner, Ph.D.

If this is so smart and the right way to run an inquiry, we should have let Mr. Ken Lay run the investigation of Enron. How can you not have doubt when you find this kind of information out; why was it hidden from the public? Turn the investigation over to Henry Hyde or Senator Coleman, this is the greatest theft in hundreds of years and the American People deserve better than they are getting. They get to pay their taxes into this organization of malfeasance and thats all? US citizen's pay 22% to 40% of the operating costs of the United Nations and they get shuck and jive from Kofi and crew when $23.3 billion is missing and a lot of it is being shot back at our troops in Iraq. Time for a change, guys. Ron

Is there a conflict of interest?

UN inspector bribed with Saddam's money

Rep. Joe Barton turned down for information

The Kiss off for Congressional Committee

Once again, I respectfully urge the U.N. Secretariat reconsider its position of asserting cooperation in public while withholding it in practice. No valid reason exists for the United Nations to refuse the United States Congress prompt access to essential information on this important matter.

In light of the U.N.'s repeated refusals to provide this Committee with specific relevant documents and witnesses, the assertion that "we are cooperating" with Congressional investigations is puzzling, if not disingenuous. No special prosecutor exists in this case, and there is no credible threat that the Volcker panel might compromise a Congressional inquiry, or vice versa. In fact, as noted above, this Committee has requested far more from the U.N. than merely the internal audits, which the Volcker Committee released to the public several weeks ago. To date, however, the U.N. has not produced to this Committee any other responsive documents, nor has it made available any U.N. officers or employees with knowledge of the Program.

Another Congressman asked for documents and got finger

Senator Coleman wants answers

The Definition of Genocide

Is the UN trying to set a record for genocides

Not much on the Oil for Food scam today and thought a definition of genocide would be of interest since one is going on in the Sudan but the United Nations says not. There has been a lot of killing in Sudan, most of the Christians have been wiped out [2 million] and now the black Moslems are getting the chop, shot, raped, gang raped, starved and 50 other types of mayhem and murder. Terrible stories are coming out of that area but the UN cannot say the word "genocide" because of the tender sensibilities of the Sudanese Thugocracy. You would think that Rwanda and the Marsh Arabs would be enough within the last 20 years. A political game is going on now and pretty soon there will be no more starving people to worry about and that is what is wanted apparently.

Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 
Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide

Wanna be genocided, call for UN help

Murderous Sudanese on UN Rights committee

UN does nothing while women raped

Gang rape in Darfur

Where are the hidden audits and reports

Give the reports to the Congressional Committees, stop hiding them

As Mr Volcker wrote in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, the findings “do not make for pleasant reading”. Not so for anti-UN conservatives in America, who are wallowing in Schadenfreude. They had feared a whitewash from the committee, and in anticipation had begun to call into question Mr Volcker’s suitability to investigate the UN. (He had served as a director of UNA-USA, a pro-UN group based in New York.)To achieve the thorough thrashing many Republicans think the UN deserves, five committees in the Republican-controlled Congress are investigating oil-for-food themselves.

They have called for the Volcker committee to share all of its witnesses and evidence with Congressional committees and federal investigators. They complain about the committee’s lack of subpoena power. Mr Volcker has pointed out that national legal jurisdictions, including America’s, cannot penetrate the UN’s diplomatic immunity. However, the UN said on Thursday that it would take immunity away from any member of staff thought to have committed criminal acts.

But the organisation clearly feels it has been unfairly singled out. In his BBC interview, Mr Malloch Brown claimed that some $21 billion in total went missing thanks to oil-related smuggling and the like during the Saddam era, and that the oil-for-food programme accounted for only a small fraction of that. Much of the rest, he said, was dodgy dealing condoned by the governments of America and other countries. The UN's critics thus “need to look closer to home”.

Benon Sevan, helped steer oil contracts to a relative of Boutros-Ghali.