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How Close Was Kojo Annan to Oil-for-Food?

Friday, December 03, 2004



NEW YORK — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said his son had nothing to do with U.N. business, but it now seems that Kojo Annan (search) at least was shadowing his father and perhaps trading on his last name for an Oil-for-Food contractor.

The younger Annan worked for Cotecna Inspection S.A. (search), a Swiss company that inspected items going into Iraq on behalf of the Oil-for-Food program. Both the company and Kofi Annan (search) have said there was no conflict of interest, and that Kojo Annan had nothing to do with the troubled U.N. program.

But now investigators are looking into memos that show Kojo Annan followed his father to U.N. gatherings around the globe and met with diplomats and heads of state on behalf of Cotecna.

For example, in 1998 the secretary-general went to Nigeria to persuade the military leaders to release political prisoners. The memos show that at the same time, Kojo Annan — who was based in Nigeria for Cotecna — did company business during his father’s trip and may have gotten access to key players because of his family connection.

Annan said Monday he was "very disappointed and surprised" that his son had continued to receive payments from Cotecna until 10 months ago. Annan told reporters that he had been working on the understanding that the payments stopped in 1998 "and I had not expected that the relationship continued."

The secretary-general stressed that his son was an independent businessman "and I don't get involved with his activities and he doesn't get involved in mine."

But expense forms submitted by Kojo Annan suggest a possible father-son involvement. The company recently turned over the documents to congressional committees under a subpoena.

According to records reviewed by The New York Post, Kojo Annan, while working for Cotecna, enjoyed extraordinary access to U.N. diplomats and other international dignitaries because of his father's position.

The documents indicate that Kojo Annan was clearly trading on his father's name to win business for Cotecna, where he worked from 1995 to 1998.

Congress and an independent panel headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker are investigating Cotecna for possibly allowing Saddam Hussein to evade sanctions, as well as irregularities with its U.N. contract.

In one billing memo, Kojo Annan requested compensation for eight days of work in July 1998 — including six days "during my father's visit to Nigeria."

In New York in September 1998, Kojo Annan also held a series of meetings with heads of state and government ministers — primarily from Africa — to drum up business for Cotecna Inspection Services SA during the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Three months after Annan's New York visit, in late December, Cotecna won the $4.8 million contract as the lowest bidder.

In one invoice, the younger Annan, who was then a marketing consultant for Cotecna, billed the company $500 a day for a 15-day trip to New York for "U.N. General Assembly and various meetings relating to other special projects."

The invoice indicates he was trying to help Cotecna win contracts in Nigeria and other African countries. Investigators said they do not know what other "special projects" Annan was referring to.

The bill also included a trip to Durban, South Africa, a few weeks earlier when Annan attended a second U.N-sponsored meeting of African members of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Kojo Annan reported in a memo to Cotecna executives that at that session "many contacts were established at the presidential and political levels, ministerial levels and with certain influential people in the private sector" in order to market the company, which functions as a private customs service.

Ginny Wolfe, a spokeswoman for Cotecna, confirmed to the Post on Wednesday that the younger Annan was sent to U.N. meetings in New York and South Africa to lobby African leaders on the company's behalf.

But she said that "at no time" was Kojo Annan involved in any discussions about the upcoming Oil-for-Food contract.

FOX News' Eric Shawn and The New York Post contributed to this report.

__________________
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

Jolie Rouge

Largest Financial Scandal In History Just Doubled
by Gary D. Halbert
December 7, 2004

The Senate subcommittee investigating the Oil-For-Food scandal revealed last month that Saddam Hussein and his cronies skimmed over $21 billion out of the UN program that was intended to provide food and medicine to the Iraqi people. That is twice the amount we were led to believe earlier this year.

The United Nations has been stonewalling the Senate investigation of the scandal. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has found himself in the crosshairs, and Senator Norm Coleman who heads the investigation publicly called for Annan to resign on December 1 and several times since then. I expect Annan will be forced to resign before this is over.

The US pays 25% of the UN’s annual budget, compared to the United Kingdom that pays only 8.9%. Given how stridently anti-America the UN is, maybe we should also consider relocating the world body to some other country (France comes to mind). Hopefully, with a new Secretary of State and a new UN ambassador, the Bush administration will force reforms on the UN.

Finally, we look briefly at President Bush’s agenda for his second term and some things that have changed since the election.

The Oil-For-Food Scandal Explodes

I first wrote about the United Nations’ “Oil-For-Food” scandal with Iraq on May 25. In that issue, I explained how the scandal worked, who benefited from it and how it went on for years. In May, we knew it was a huge scandal, that it lined Saddam Hussein’s pockets, that it did not feed the Iraqi people, and that it could have contributed to terrorism. We just didn’t know to what extent.

On November 16, I again wrote about the Oil-For-Food scandal and reported that it was far worse than anyone initially thought. In that E-Letter, I reported that the latest estimates were that the UN allowed Saddam to skim $10-$11 billion from the program into his own pockets and those of his cronies. Even at $10-$11 billion, it was called “the greatest financial scandal in history.”

Well now we have learned that the UN allowed Saddam to skim at least $21-$22 billion from the Oil-For-Food program! In late November, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations released these initial findings from its seven-month probe into the Oil-For-Food program. The Senate subcommittee investigating the scandal emphasized in its first public hearing that these are only preliminary estimates, and that the real numbers will likely be even higher when the final results are released early next year.

Senator Norm Coleman, the subcommittee’s chairman, underscored the urgency of the investigations, noting not only that the size of the fraud “is staggering,” and that some of Saddam’s vast illicit stash might still be funding terrorists and costing American lives.

United Nations Stonewalls The Investigation

It should come as no surprise that the UN is resisting the Senate subcommittee investigation. The UN maintains that it is conducting its own “independent inquiry”into the Oil-For-Food scandal, led by former Fed chairman Paul Volcker. While Paul Volcker is widely respected, the UN guidelines on his investigation require that he funnel his findings first through Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General.

It is also interesting to note that the UN’s “independent inquiry” is funded to the tune of $30 million out of one of the old Oil-For-Food accounts it is supposed to be investigating. The UN says it is not planning to release any specific results of the investigation until sometime next summer. Next summer??

Thus far, Mr. Annan has refused to cooperate with the Senate subcommittee investigation. In the spirit of shooting the messenger, Annan has complained often in recent months about criticism of the Oil-For-Food program, and has denounced the Senate investigation as a “campaign that has hurt the UN.”

Kofi Annan Comes Under Heavy Pressure

The Senate subcommittee claims that the United Nations allowed Saddam Hussein and his cronies to embezzle at least $21.3 billion in oil money during 12 years. Most of that huge amount - a staggering $17.3 billion- was pilfered between 1997 and 2003 while Annan was the UN Secretary-General.

Annan’s director of communications, Edward Mortimer, sent a letter to The Wall Street Journal in November asserting that Mr. Annan was “not involved” in designing the Oil-For-Food program. But one wonders how he could not have been involved. For example, Annan’s own official UN biography states that before becoming Secretary-General, he “led the first United Nations team negotiating with Iraq on the sale of oil to fund purchases of humanitarian aid.”

Once he became Secretary-General, Annan accelerated the plans for the Oil-For-Food program. In October 1997, just 10 months into the job, he formalized the program from a temporary relief effort into the “Office of the Iraq Program,” a large UN department that reported to him directly. To run the Oil-For-Food program, Annan picked Benon Sevan who is now alleged to have received oil money from Saddam (which he denies, of course)

Annan’s formalization of the Oil-For-Food program vastly expanded the amount of oil Iraq could sell. It was at this point, apparently, that Saddam Hussein decided that he could start gaming the system with impunity. Shortly thereafter, Hussein began denying the UN weapons inspectors access to certain sites, and eventually kicked them out of Iraq altogether.

Annan’s response during this period was not to curtail Oil-For-Food sales. In fact, he went before the UN Security Council a few months later and urged that Baghdad be allowed to import oil producing equipment, along with the food and medicine, to which the program had been initially limited. This set the stage for the ensuing burst in Saddam’s oil production, kickbacks, surcharges and smuggling of oil.

Under the Oil-For-Food deal, the UN’s Secretariat was paid a 2.2% commission on Iraq’s oil sales, totaling a whopping $1.4 billion over the life of the program. This money was supposed to be used for supervising the program and to ensure the proper use of the oil revenues by Saddam Hussein. Yet according to the Senate investigation, the Secretariat did not:
1) fully account for the amounts of the oil shipments;
2) did not conduct full inspections of all goods entering Iraq;
and
3) did not find (or reveal) the pricing scams and smuggling that let Saddam and his cronies rake in billions in kickbacks on the oil or the relief contracts that were awarded.

As we now know, other than Saddam and his cronies, it was France, Germany and Russia who were the main beneficiaries of the Oil-For-Food scandal. They got the big contracts with Iraq. This explains why they were so opposed to the war in Iraq. It was their gravy train.

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Time For Kofi To Go?

Annan and his aides maintain to this day that the Oil-For-Food program had nothing to do with Saddam’s pricing scams and smuggling of oil. Yet the Senate investigation reveals that Saddam and his cronies pocketed at least $21 billion during the years in which the Oil-For-Food program was running. Those were the very same years in which Annan repeatedly went to bat to enable Saddam, under Oil-For-Food, to import the equipment to rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure, thereby creating vastly more oil to game the system.

Yet we are to believe that Kofi Annan knew nothing about the kickbacks, the pricing scams and the smuggling of oil – even though the Senate investigation will reportedly reveal that numerous people in the UN were in on the scam. It is uncertain whether Annan received any funds from the scandal. We do know that his son received money from the scams. But whether Annan directly benefited from the Oil-For-Food scandal or not, he allowed it to continue for years.

Senator Norm Coleman has called for Annan’s resignation from the United Nations. Coleman said, “It’s time for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign. The massive scope of this debacle demands nothing less.”

Be sure to read Senator Coleman’s December 1 WSJ editorial entitled “Kofi Annan Must Go” in SPECIAL ARTICLES below.

I praise Senator Coleman for his efforts and his hard line against Kofi Annan. I wish President Bush would join him in calling for Annan’s resignation. But he hasn’t. In fact, I was disappointed to hear Mr. Bush say last week that he wishes to strengthen our relations with the UN. I would argue just the opposite!


The UN Rip-off Of The United States

Did you know that the US pays 25% of the United Nations’ budget each year? By comparison, did you know that the next largest contributors are Japan at 12.5% and the UK at 8.9%?

Did you know that the US paid dues and contributions of more than $3 billion in 2003, according to the State Department? This is in addition to the obscenely valuable UN building and land in New York City and elsewhere that we provide.

We do all this despite the fact that many more Americans distrust the UN than trust it. A Rasmussen survey earlier this year showed that only 38% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the UN, while 44% have an unfavorable opinion. The unfavorable numbers are certainly higher now that the details of the Oil-For-Food scandal are being exposed.

The UN is unquestionably an anti-American body. The UN is comprised in large part of representatives of small, poor Third World nations, many of which are inherently corrupt and anti-American. The fact that their ingrained dishonesty and corruption would spill over into the UN really shouldn’t surprise anyone. Nor should it surprise us that the UN has had a history of anti-American activity.

In 2001, for example, the United States was removed from the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in favor of Sudan, one of the world’s absolute worst human rights violators. By the way, Sudan was recently granted a third term on that commission! This is only one of many such examples, so it’s not a stretch to see how a UN organization could be so corrupt.

[b]Is Our Policy Toward The UN About To Change?

There are many of us in conservative circles that would just as soon see the UN relocated to some other country. France would be a good choice, in my opinion. But that is not likely to happen. So it remains to be seen if US policy toward the UN will be toughening under the leadership of Secretary of State-to be, Condoleezza Rice.

President Bush has made it clear that he believes the State Department should carry out the policies and desires of the president, rather than operating its own agenda as it has for years. It is also clear that Condi Rice is fiercely loyal to President Bush. Given that the State Department is our direct link to the UN, it will be interesting to see if Miss Rice will continue the current “accommodationist” policy, or if she will begin to seriously pressure the UN for major reforms.

Colin Powell is clearly in the accommodationist crowd. So also is the current US ambassador to the UN, former Senator John Danforth. Danforth is seen by many as a politician who believes his job is to smooth over relations with the UN. One administration official said, “His M.O. is to make nice with the UN.” Danforth is retiring next year, however, and President Bush will appoint his successor.

With Norm Coleman’s high profile denouncement of the UN and his call for Kofi Anna’s resignation, he has paved the way for the Bush administration to crack down on the UN. With Danforth’s departure, Bush will have the opportunity to appoint a new ambassador who will fight for reform.

Now it remains to be seen if President Bush really wants to see the UN reformed or not. If he does, Condi Rice may be the perfect Secretary of State to do so. She will do what Bush wants. But it is unclear at this point what exactly Bush wants to do.

Talk in Washington over the weekend and on Monday was that Bush is considering appointing Joe Lieberman (D-CT) as the next UN ambassador. Lieberman is one of the few moderate senators. I actually like Lieberman. However, Lieberman is NOT going to shake up the United Nations. If Lieberman is Bush’s choice for the UN, then we will know that all this talk about cracking down on the UN is just so much hot air.

The bottom line is:
1) Kofi Annan needs to go;
2) any other members of the UN that profited from the Oil-For-Food scandal also need to go;
3) Paul Volcker should be given complete autonomy in his UN investigation;
4) Bush needs to appoint someone who is very tough as our next UN ambassador;
5) the US should require that the anti-American policies of the UN be stopped;
and
6) if not, we halt our bloated payments to the UN indefinitely.

If I were in charge, the UN would be jettisoned to another country to host its liberal, anti-American agenda! (Even though a majority of Americans probably agrees with me by now, I’m sure to get lots of nasty responses on this one.)

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

The Political Landscape Since The Election

One month after the election, a lot has changed. President Bush’s approval ratings have risen nicely. According to realclearpolitics.com, Bush’s approval rating has gone from 49% to 53-55% depending on the poll; his 47% disapproval rating has fallen to 43% or less.

Bush has laid out his agenda for the second term. He wants to reform Social Security, simplify the tax code, make his earlier tax cuts permanent and enact serious tort reform. These are huge issues. Add to that an extension of the No Child Left Behind education reform, a comprehensive energy plan and immigration reforms. He also says he intends to cut the budget deficit in half.

“Bush has the most aggressive second-term agenda” in modern history, says Dan Mitchell of the Heritage Foundation. It will be interesting to see how much of this he can get accomplished in his first two years. Typically, not much happens in the last two years of a second term.

The Democrats are still reeling from the defeat in November. A very few in the party understand why they lost so badly this time. James Carville gets it, but most Democrats refuse to accept that most of this country is conservative, and that homeland security is the top issue. And many still don’t realize that the “Hate Bush” 527s and the ultra-liberal likes of Michael Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, et al actually hurt Kerry in the end.

Talk of Hillary Clinton being the Dem’s nominee in 2008 has only accelerated since the election. Assuming she is re-elected to the Senate in 2006 (a good bet), I don’t see anyone stopping her for a run at the White House. Some Republicans believe Hillary is unelectable, while others are scared to death. There is no slam-dunk Republican candidate for ’08, and this is troublesome. John McCain is not the answer, in my opinion.


Stocks Sprint To Three-Year Highs, Oil Plunges

On the financial front, stocks have rallied to a three-year high since the election. On September 7, September 28 and October 19 in these pages, I recommended that readers move to a fully invested position in stocks and/or mutual funds. The markets bottomed in late October and have gone nearly straight up since. The S&P 500 has climbed over 9% since the low.

Oil prices plunged from above $55 per barrel to $42 as of last week. In the September 28 issue of this E-Letter, when oil first surged above $50, I predicted that once the supply lines got back to normal following the hurricanes, oil prices would retreat to the $35-$40 range. I still believe that can happen, barring any major new developments.

That’s all for this week. Gotta do some Christmas shopping



SPECIAL ARTICLES

Senator Norm Coleman: “Kofi Annan must go.”
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005966

Scandal over Kojo Annan (Kofi’s son) deepens.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/.../28/2003212917

A good review of the UN’s failures over the years.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editor...l?id=110005992

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

U.S. out of U.N. — now!
Cal Thomas

In college days, I was aware of them. They were the fringe, and beyond the fringe, who believed fluoridation of the public water supply was a communist plot to poison us; Dwight Eisenhower was a closet communist; the Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations were part of the drive toward "one world government"; Jewish bankers ran the world economy and the United States should get out of the United Nations.

Without buying into the paranoia and conspiracy theories, I am now a convert to the last one. The United Nations does not serve the interests of the United States or the objectives of democracies. The oil-for-food scandal, in which billions of dollars were misappropriated in Iraq, exposed a corrupt bureaucracy, rotting from the head. In the U.N., the United States is opposed by dictatorial regimes who are treated as our equals.


Paul Weyrich, who heads the conservative Free Congress Foundation, writes in his Web commentary, "The U.N. now is dominated by nations of the Third World whose values are so distant from our own that they won't even object to the genocide occurring in the Sudan." Weyrich says he opposes any form of "world government" because, "It would only mean that a cabal who hates our religions and our way of life could gang up on the U.S.A. No good could possibly come from such an institution."


Weyrich is not an isolationist. He believes some type of association of nations can be useful, but such associations should consist only of democracies. Democracies don't start wars against each other and they are more likely to care for the poor and needy than nations who create most of the poor and needy.

What is the United States getting for its money? We pay 22 percent of the U.N. budget, but get 100 percent of the grief from nations who hate us and what we stand for. The League of Nations failed for many of the same reasons the U.N. is failing. The League and the U.N. are based on a flawed philosophy that believes humans are basically good. There is ample contemporary and historical evidence to the contrary.


John Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced that he is leaving after just five months in the job. This kind and decent man saw firsthand the futility of trying to persuade the U.N. to stop the genocide in Sudan. In a conversation with Jon Sawyer of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Danforth spoke of his success in getting the Security Council to meet in Nairobi to discuss Sudan. Representatives of the Sudanese government and the main rebel group signed a memorandum promising to conclude final peace talks by Dec. 31.


Yet, as Danforth thought about his recent diplomatic trip to Nairobi to negotiate a deal between rebels and the Sudanese government, he seemed to be more aware than ever of the U.N.'s shortcomings. "What's the Security Council?" he said to Sawyer. "It is the only real power within the United Nations and it's a very weak power." The council's strength, he said, is "the ability to put real problems front and center," but the body's weakness - its system of vetoes and super majorities - prevents it from using its power to "actually act."


Modern diplomats too often prefer the dithering process to the successful outcome. The process allows them to baptize their failures beneath the soothing water of "caring." It is caring and a willingness to address "complex problems" that is more highly valued than actually resolving something for the common good.


The U.S. presence in the U.N. gives credence to dictators and prevents accountability by most nations. Consider the worthless resolutions passed by the U.N. to control Saddam Hussein before the United States took them seriously and did what the U.N. was afraid to do: act.


Too many U.N. members hate us because our decisiveness exposes their vacillation. The world would be better off without this body and with an association of democracies in its place. It is not likely to happen, because false hope is preferred by too many diplomats and politicians over actual results. Still, the slogan "U.S. out of U.N. - Now!" never sounded more timely or represented an act that would be more beneficial to the United States.

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Annan 'relieved' year over, says he won't resign
Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Posted: 5:11 PM EST (2211 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Relieved at the end of a "horrible year," Secretary-General Kofi Annan insisted Tuesday he has no intention of resigning over an embattled U.N. program to aid Iraqis and will pursue sweeping reforms in his remaining two years in office.

At a year-end news conference, the secretary-general said allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food program had "cast a shadow" over the United Nations and especially over the U.N. relations with the United States, the world body's largest financial contributor.

While Annan said he had "the confidence and support" of the 191 U.N. member states, he said the criticism and attacks in the United States have not helped the U.S.-U.N. relationship, and expressed hope the oil-for-food investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker will "help clear the air."

Annan refused to back the view of his son, Kojo, who said in a statement to CNN last week that the oil-for-food attacks were "a witchhunt from day one as part of a broader Republican political agenda" in the United States.

Kojo Annan is being investigated by Volcker because he worked in Africa for a company that had an oil-for-food contract, but he denies any involvement.

The secretary-general said he and the United Nations had been subjected to persistent attacks from "certain quarters" which he didn't identify, but also to constructive criticism "which we accept."

He refused to accept any personal responsibility until the Volcker investigation is completed in mid-2005, but said "when you run this sort of operation it is inevitable that there may be some mistakes and things that could have been done better."

Annan said the allegations have overshadowed the relief that the oil-for-food program brought to million of Iraqis. Launched in December 1996, it allowed Saddam Hussein's regime to sell unlimited quantities of oil provided the money went primarily to buy food, medicine and humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Gulf War.

A report in October by top U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer said Saddam was able to "subvert" the $60 billion program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997-2003. Saddam also raked in over $8 billion from illicit oil deals with Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt -- and billions more, according to U.S. congressional investigators.

After U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican leading one legislative probe, called for Annan's resignation last month, many countries rushed to support him -- but not President Bush's administration. It took until December 9 for U.S. Ambassador John Danforth to announce Washington's backing.

Last week, Annan held separate talks in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who will succeed him, but not with Bush.

Annan told reporters he had "very good and constructive discussions" on issues that the United States and the United Nations are working on ranging from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Middle East and U.N. reform, and "the question of resignation did not come up."

"On the question of my resignation, let me say that I have quite a lot of work to do," he said, stressing plans for a summit in September 2005 where world leaders will address global security threats in the 21st century.

He expressed hope that Volcker will "find out the truth as quickly as possible" so "we can all calm down" and world leaders can focus not only on the decisions needed to reform the United Nations but on implementing key development goals including halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015.

Annan disclosed that Volcker's first report in January would be accompanied by reports of U.N. internal audits of the oil-for-food program, which have sought by Coleman and other U.S. Congressional investigators. "There's no doubt that this has been a particularly difficult year, and I am relieved that this annus horribilis is coming to an end," he said, using the Latin words for a "horrible year" that Queen Elizabeth II used to describe 1992 when the marriages of her sons, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew, were breaking up and her home at Windsor Castle suffered a serious fire.

The one thing that "will make my nights and days better," Annan said, is less killing of innocent civilians and an end to conflicts in Africa, especially in Sudan, but also in Iraq.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/21/un.annan.ap/index.html

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Former U.N. oil-for-food chief denies wrongdoing
Lawyer: Sevan 'is confident that he will be fully vindicated'
From Phil Hirschkorn CNN
Saturday, December 18, 2004 Posted: 4:26 PM EST (2126 GMT)

(CNN) -- Dogged by allegations that he pocketed oil money from Saddam Hussein's government, Benon Sevan, the former head of the United Nations oil-for-food program, insisted this week that he had done nothing wrong.

The oil-for-food program was a multibillion-dollar arrangement under which Iraq, whose income was limited by economic sanctions, was allowed to sell oil to buy food and other humanitarian supplies. "Mr. Sevan is cooperating fully with the Independent Investigative Committee," attorney Eric Lewis said in a statement to CNN released Thursday. "He has provided all the information that they have asked for, and he is confident that he will be fully vindicated."

It was the first statement in months from Sevan, 67, who is the U.N. official most publicly implicated in allegations of corruption surrounding the oil-for-food program. Sevan was the executive director of the program from its launch in 1996 to its demise in 2003, when the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam's government.

At least six investigations are under way into the defunct oil-for-food program -- including several in the U.S. Congress and one by an independent U.N. panel headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. The Independent Investigative Committee was created by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in the program. Volcker is expected to issue an interim report next month.

Sevan's name appeared on a former Iraqi Oil Ministry list of people who received vouchers from Saddam's government to buy Iraqi oil. Under the program, Saddam personally chose the oil buyers. Besides oil companies, "special allocations" or "gifts" went to numerous individuals, including members of governments, politicians and businessman, according to a recent CIA-sponsored report from former Iraq weapons inspector Charles Duelfer.

Duelfer reported to Congress in October that 13 million barrels of Iraqi oil were allocated to Sevan and seven million were lifted. "Former Iraqi officials say he received his illicit oil allocations through various companies that he recommended to the Iraqi government, including the African Middle East Company," Duelfer reported.

The African Middle East Company is chartered in Panama. A man connected to company -- an Egyptian residing in Switzerland -- personally picked up Sevan's vouchers, Duelfer reported, citing the statements of a former top Iraqi oil official. Sevan is a subject of interest to the House International Relations Committee, one of several congressional panels probing oil for food. The committee is seeking Sevan's bank records in several countries and has sent investigators to his native Cyprus, to explore a potential money trail among family members' bank accounts.

The Iraqi oil voucher list included the governments of Namibia and Yemen, members of the Russian parliament, one-time Russian presidential candidate Vladmir Zhirinovsky, former French interior minister Charles Pasqua, and former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Top voucher recipients by country were Russia, France and China, which combined were allocated more than half of the Iraqi oil exports. Syria, Malaysia, Switzerland, Jordan and Egypt were the next most frequent recipients.

Annan's son also eyed in probe

Kojo Annan, the son of the U.N. secretary-general, has been the subject of accusations of wrongdoing in connection to the program. He says he had no involvement. Annan, 31, who lives in Lagos, Nigeria, once worked for Cotecna, a Switzerland-based company hired by the United Nations in 1998 to verify paperwork on imports bought by Iraq.

Critics have suggested the firm might have been favored in its U.N. bid because of the Annan family connection. Annan and Cotecna deny that. No formal charges of wrongdoing have been made against Kojo Annan.

A group of U.S. Republican legislators has urged Kofi Annan to quit his U.N. post, but the Bush administration has expressed support in his leadership of the 191-nation body.

[i]CNN's Liz Neisloss contributed to this report.[/ii]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/...van/index.html

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Annan Starts Reshuffling UN Staff for Reform Push

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday chose the high-profile British head of a key agency as his new chief of staff, the start of a reshuffle aimed at instituting U.N. reforms and combating scandals.

Mark Malloch Brown, 51, is administrator of the U.N. Development Program, the largest U.N. agency, with programs in 166 countries. An outspoken official and former World Bank vice president, he replaces Iqbal Riza, 70, of Pakistan, who announced his retirement two weeks ago. "This is a first in a series of changes or a shuffle that may happen," Annan told a news conference, without elaborating, in announcing the appointment of Malloch Brown, considered a heavy hitter in the U.N. system.

Annan also needs to replace American Catherine Bertini, the undersecretary-general for management, who wants to leave her post in the spring for other career choices.


He is searching for a replacement for Norwegian diplomat Terje Roed-Larsen, the U.N. coordinator for the Middle East peace process. But U.N. officials said that Kieran Prendergast, the undersecretary-general for political affairs, would not go to the Middle East as some reports said.


The openings give Annan an opportunity in his last two years in office to put in place U.N. reforms he has advocated and tackle the damage caused to the world body over corruption in the Iraqi oil-for-food program, which U.N. officials believe is exaggerated but nevertheless need to confront. Annan said Malloch Brown would be valuable in at the center of U.N. work as well as "revitalize the U.N. system and ensure it is better equipped to deal with the scale and complexity of 21st century challenges."


Malloch Brown will remain head of UNDP as well as chief of staff while the tsunami emergency continues in Asia and until a replacement is found. He left with Annan on Monday for Jakarta, Indonesia, and a Thursday meeting with Asian leaders and an aid appeal.


Malloch Brown made clear that he would be outspoken on problems facing the United Nations, unusual in that post. "I think that a modern, global public organization of this kind has to understand that there are many news cycles a day, that to get your message out requires both a vigorous, rapid response," he said.


He also referred to dissatisfaction among staff that senior officials were not held accountable for their actions. One such case is the retention of Dutchman Ruud Lubbers, the Geneva-based U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, accused of sexual harassment. "It has been a subject of wide commentary that staff morale is not at its highest at this time, and we face also, in the weeks ahead, recommendations that may come from Mr. Volcker," Malloch Brown said.


He was referring to a preliminary report expected in January from Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, who is heading an independent probe of corruption in the oil-for-food program that Republican hard-liners have used to call for Annan's resignation.



01/03/05 23:01

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...3.htm&sc=roitz

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Posted 1/10/2005

Audits ignite debate over U.N. oversight of food program

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 50 internal U.N. audits of the Iraq oil-for-food program flesh out a picture of widespread mismanagement of the program, adding a new dimension to a scandal that has shaken the United Nations.
The reports, released Sunday, detail how U.N. agencies working under the oil-for-food program squandered millions of dollars through suspect overpayment to contractors, mismanagement of purchasing and assets, and fraud by its employees.

The audits, which were carried out from 1996 to 2003 by an internal U.N. watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, have been a source of contention between the United Nations and members of Congress examining allegations of corruption in the humanitarian program.

An independent panel led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who was appointed in April by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to investigate the allegations in the oil-for-food program, was given access to the files. But the reports achieved a wider circulation in recent days after they were distributed to congressional investigators by Volcker's panel and released to the media. The panel posted the audits along with its own report on its Web site on Sunday, a day earlier than originally planned.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who has demanded that Annan resign, called the audits "simply another piece of the puzzle." "Our preliminary review of these audits only underscores my long-held concern about the fraud, mismanagement and lack of adequate oversight at the U.N.'s oil-for-food program," Coleman said in a statement Monday.

In its report, the panel mostly praised the U.N. auditors, but noted that they did not focus on administration from U.N. headquarters and on oil purchase and humanitarian aid contracts - the areas where outside investigators have focused. The panel implied that the auditors' focus missed exposing the corruption, which allowed the Iraqi government to skim at least hundreds of millions of dollars from the program.

Five of the reports, including an audit of a U.N. program that was working to help secure humanitarian goods purchased under the oil-for-food program in Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq, showed widespread mismanagement.

The oversight agency blasted the U.N. Habitat Settlement Rehabilitation Program for mishandling contracts and failing to implement the urgent recommendations of earlier audits. The report said that the problems resulted in a possible loss of $12 million through flawed contracts that exposed the agency to drastic currency fluctuations.

UN-Habitat was one of nine U.N. agencies that helped implement humanitarian aid in Iraq under the $60 billion oil-for-food program that was created as a humanitarian exemption to sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led to the 1991 Gulf War. Beginning in 1996, it allowed Saddam Hussein's government to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other items.

Two other audits examined irregularities that included overcharging by two companies that were hired to monitor Iraqi oil sales and the country's purchase of humanitarian goods under the program. Another audit detailed financial mismanagement by a U.N. agency administering humanitarian aid under the program.

Nineteen of the audits concern the U.N. Compensation Commission, a separate agency from the oil-for-food program, which received 25% of Iraqi oil revenues to compensate victims for losses suffered during Iraq's occupation of Kuwait beginning in 1990.

The audits found that the commission overpaid various parties more than $5 billion. In responses posted on its Web site Saturday, the commission disputed not only the watchdog agency's findings but also its right to audit the commission.

In November 2002, the U.N. office of legal affairs ruled that the watchdog did not have a mandate to look at the compensation commission, but the watchdog continued to issue reports.

Volcker's panel has said it would investigate the UNCC.

The United Nations conceded that the audits illustrate negligent management of contracts but said they also show that the world body was monitoring itself during the oil-for-food program. "These audits do show that this was a program that was highly audited with a great level of oversight by the U.N.," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Saturday.

In an interview with The New York Times published Friday, Volcker downplayed the importance of the audits. "There's no flaming red flags in this stuff," he said.

But investigators from at least five congressional probes into the scandal said they provided further evidence of U.N. malfeasance. "The facts made public so far invite a comparison between U.N. officials and an assortment of corporate executives who perpetrated the recent accounting scandals," said Larry Neal, spokesman for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

In most of the reports, it was unclear what steps the United Nations took to correct the mismanagement uncovered in the reports and to demand repayment from the companies recommended by the auditors. But the report issued today by Volcker's panel also criticized the management of the U.N. program for failing to correct many of the mistakes raised by the auditors. "It appears the OFFP management was not quick to react to criticism and was either unable or unwilling to address issues raised," the report stated referring to the oil-for-food program.

The U.N. emphasized that program executive director Benon Sevan, who is the target of several of the ongoing investigations, commissioned some of the audits in order to improve the execution of the program. "Some of these audits were done by U.N. internal auditors at the request of the program director," said Dujarric. "The reports are management tools."

But in the case of UN-Habitat, the auditors specifically took the agency to task for failing to implement earlier recommendations. "The audit found a situation of mismanagement, which requires urgent attention," the audit report, dated June 30, 2003, stated. "Of particular worry is the blatant neglect of UN-Habitat to implement previous audit recommendation (sic) made by the OIOS and the Board of Auditors, even though UN-Habitat senior management had accepted them."

According to the United Nations, the problems at the agency arose because its involvement with the oil-for-food program more than doubled its operations. "There were obvious growing pains working in a politically difficult environment," Dujarric said Sunday. "Through the years, as the program evolved, better coordination mechanisms in terms of oversight were implemented."

Another audit dated July 3, 2002, and addressed to Sevan examined contracts with Saybolt International BV, a Dutch company that was hired to monitor oil exports from Iraq under the humanitarian program.

The report detailed billing by the company exceeding $2 million. The company inflated invoices, charged for accommodation of workers provided by the Iraqi government and exaggerated staffing and other expenses. For example, the report found that the United Nations was billed several years for 31 days of work in June, which only has 30 days.

Telephone messages left at offices of Saybolt were not returned.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...M_Exclude=Juno

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Iraqi-American charged in U.N. oil-for-food probe
From Terry Frieden -- CNN Washington Bureau
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 Posted: 3:05 PM EST (2005 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Tuesday the first U.S. criminal charges in the investigation of the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq, government sources said.

Samir Vincent, an Iraqi-American who headed Phoenix International in northern Virginia, pleaded guilty to tax violations and engaging in activities as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, U.S. government sources said.

Vincent entered his plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the sources said.

The charges result from multiple investigations regarding alleged corruption in the program, which allowed Iraq, while under economic sanctions stemming from its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, to export a limited supply of crude oil and earmark the revenues for purchases of food, medicine and supplies.

The U.N. oil-for-food program began in December 1996 and ended in November 2003. Under the program's provisions, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government was allowed to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of U.N. sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.

A CIA report found evidence that Saddam had used the program to bribe several international figures, including oil-for-food administrator Benon Sevan. Sevan has denied wrongdoing.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed a three-person committee to investigate, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. That investigation has not yet been completed.

According to a report from The Associated Press, court papers in Vincent's case shows that between 1992 and 2003 Vincent worked closely with Saddam's government in an effort to persuade U.S. and U.N. officials to repeal those economic sanctions and on matters related to admission of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq.

Vincent was also involved in the drafting of the oil-for-food program, including agreements guaranteeing himself and others "millions of dollars in compensation," according to the AP report.

Vincent received $3 million to $5 million, said David N. Kelley, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, according to the AP report,

Vincent is among a handful of American individuals and companies who directly purchased less than 1 percent of the $64 billion in oil bought under the program.

Phoenix International paid $162.2 million for 4.1 million barrels purchased between 1997 and 2000, according to studies by the CIA-backed Iraq Survey Group and by the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

The Iraq Survey Group report in October by former Iraq weapons inspector Charles Duelfer found that Vincent purchased an additional 3.8 million barrels for himself between 1998 and 2002.

The Iraqi-born Vincent has lived in the United States since 1958 and graduated in 1962 from Boston College, where he was a standout member of the track team. In 1964, he represented Iraq on its Olympic team.

In 2000, Vincent, a Catholic, organized a delegation of Iraqi religious leaders to visit the United States and meet with former President Carter and the late New York Cardinal John O'Connor. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops later spoke out against the sanctions, citing its ill effects on Iraqi children.

CNN's Phil Hirschkorn contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/18/oi...ood/index.html

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?