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Jolie Rouge
05-25-2004, 09:40 PM
by Gary D. Halbert
May 25, 2004

This week, we look into the United Nations’ (UN) “Oil-for-Food” program in Iraq, which was established after the Gulf War in 1991 and was designed to allow Iraq to sell enough oil to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people, such as food, medical supplies, essential services, etc. The program was never intended to line the pockets of Saddam or benefit his cronies around the world, which sadly is exactly what it did for many years.

As with many UN programs, Oil-For-Food was poorly structured, thus allowing for massive abuses. The nature and scope of these abuses were so grievous and so widespread that the Oil-For-Food program may well have been the greatest financial scandal of the last 100 years. This incredibly huge scam crosses borders, religions and political ideologies, uniting those involved in plain and simple greed.

What’s most stunning are recent revelations exposing those at the UN and elsewhere who were primarily responsible for the abuses, and who participated in this massive fraud. In short, many in the UN administrative infrastructure and many of its members have been blatantly corrupt, as have some of our so-called “allies” around the world.

This scandal also brings to light the UN’s outrageous hypocrisy and duplicity as they loudly criticized our efforts in the War on Terror as inhumane, yet at the same time they were skimming millions from the Oil-for-Food program and thereby depriving the Iraqi people of needed food and medicine.

Is it any wonder there was such opposition to the US invasion of Iraq?

No, it was simply bad for business!


Why do you need to know about this?

First, because there is a massive cover-up underway at the UN.

Second, the liberal media is cooperating as always. What have you heard from them about the Oil-For-Food scandal recently?

Third, it is also worth mentioning that John Kerry has featured the UN in many of his foreign policy proposals, including his desire to have the UN put in charge of the administration of Iraq.

As more and more evidence comes to light, that would be like allowing the fox to guard the hen house. Finally, if all the facts in this scandal actually see the light of day, the UN will emerge discredited, weakened, and very possibly, broken. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.


The U.N. Exposed

A recent Rasmussen survey showed that only 38% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the UN, while 44% have an unfavorable opinion. Actually, these favorable/unfavorable numbers were quite surprising to the media, but probably not to most of you reading this. The unfavorable numbers are almost certain to rise in the near future as the scathing details of the Oil-For-Food scandal are exposed.

If you are surprised by the recent revelations about Oil-For-Food, you really shouldn’t be. After all, 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) for the first time since 1947 in favor of Sudan, one of the world’s absolute worst human rights violators. By the way, Sudan was recently granted another 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.

When it was conceived in April of 1995, the Oil-For-Food program was intended to be a humanitarian mechanism. Prior to its full implementation in 1997, Iraq was subject to extremely stiff trade sanctions resulting from Saddam’s defiance of UN weapons inspectors. The Oil-For-Food program provided basic relief in the form of limited crude sales. In the beginning, the program was well intentioned, seeking to bring relief in the form of food and medical supplies to the Iraqi people. After all, it didn’t seem fair to punish the citizens of Iraq for the crimes of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime.

Unfortunately, this program rapidly turned into a complicated kickback scam that allowed Saddam to bribe political figures and institutions around the world, as well as fuel his notoriously evil rule. From information discovered to-date, it appears that the tangled web of deceit extended beyond the UN and the governing body of the Oil-For-Food program itself, but also may include several of our so-called “allies,” as you will read below.


How This Information Came to Light

The corruption in the Oil-For-Food program had long been suspected. A June 20, 2003 article by Marc Perelman on The Forward Internet website discussed doubts about the Oil-For-Food program and suggested that some of the money was being used to fund terrorism (more about this later). In part, Perelman said:
“The now-defunct program allowed Iraq to buy food and medicine with its oil proceeds under U.N. supervision. Although the oil sales in question were legal and approved by the U.N., several observers say the system involved kickbacks and was used by Saddam to buy political support and to finance intelligence activities and even terrorist groups.”


Concrete evidence came to light in December of 2003. While advising the Iraqi Governing Council, Claude Hankes-Drielsma, the UK Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, sent an urgent fax to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
“As a result of my findings here, combined with earlier information I most strongly urge the UN to consider appointing an independent commission to review and investigate the Oil-For-Food Programme. Failure to do so might bring into question the UN’s credibility and the public’s perception of it…My belief is that serious transgressions have taken place and may still be taking place.”


Mr. Hankes-Drielsma was shown various documents at the Iraqi Oil Ministry that strongly indicated major abuses in the Oil-For-Food program. These documents reflected both individuals and institutions that Saddam rewarded with allocations of Iraqi oil. The names were compiled into a spreadsheet at the request of the Iraqi Governing Council. Some of the names have been published in Al Mada, an Iraqi daily paper, and will likely appear soon in more mainstream sources.


[b]How The Scam Worked

From its inception, the Oil-for-Food program was riddled with flaws and loopholes, opening the door for the grievous abuses that followed. One of the major flaws was that Saddam Hussein was given the right to 1) select the parties who would buy the Iraqi oil, and 2) select the suppliers of the humanitarian aid. Hussein was also allowed to set the price at which Iraqi oil would be sold.

All the seeds for a giant scandal were put into place. Hussein had the ability to determine with whom to deal and set the official price of Iraqi oil. Furthermore, the rules did not force Hussein to deal directly with the end-users; instead, he was allowed to sell oil through middlemen. For political purposes, Hussein would sell the oil at a discount to the middlemen and they, in turn, sold it to the end-users at market prices. Nice work if you can get it!

Another flaw in the program was that all deals were confidential between Hussein and the UN. Under this arrangement, the UN was not to examine the contracts for Iraqi oil except between the Iraqi Oil Ministry and the first purchaser. The story is that the UN had no idea the middlemen were adding surcharges to the contracts awarded them by Saddam, and therefore they went totally unnoticed by the UN. Yeah, right!

In one alleged example, UN Oil-For-Food administrator Benon Sevan was granted an allocation of 7.3 million barrels of Iraqi oil, on which he could expect to make a $3.5 million profit. Not a bad take for an international bureaucrat!


The US General Accounting Office estimates Hussein skimmed as much as $10 billion from a total of $67 billion that flowed through the program. It all went either directly to Hussein personally, or to supporters of the regime. By bribing UN officials and foreign dignitaries, Hussein also guaranteed their silence as he used money for purposes other than the humanitarian aid for which it was designed. The UN also looked the other way when Hussein sold oil to other countries in excess of the amounts allowed by the Oil-For-Food program.

Jolie Rouge
05-25-2004, 09:42 PM
Who’s On The List?

The names and institutions on this list – that benefited greatly from the Oil-For-Food program - are so numerous and shocking that when they are all confirmed, this could be the greatest financial scandal in history – if in fact it is fully reported. The documents are still being translated from Arabic, a slow and difficult process. What we know now is that the list spans at least 50 countries.

When the list is taken in total, three obvious favorites emerge. At the top of the list is RUSSIA, which is not really a surprise. The Russians have had a vested interest in Iraqi oil production for nearly 15 years. There are four pages of entries detailing voucher recipients in Russia that total over one BILLION barrels of crude. On the Russian side, the notable recipients include the 'Director' of the Russian President’s office, other prominent Russian politicians and even the Russian Orthodox Church (why, how?).

Admittedly, Hussein owed the Russians tens of billions of dollars in loans, so it is not hard to see why the Russians would try to get some of their money back, even if through questionable or illegal means. Yet as the scandal is sorted out, it looks like much of the Oil-For-Food money may have simply lined the pockets of key Russian politicos to a great degree. This, of course, explains why the Russians opposed the war in Iraq from the very beginning.

Finishing strong in second place behind the Russians in the Oil-For-Food scandal is none other than our long-time “ally” FRANCE! France’s oil vouchers account for 150.8 million barrels of crude and notable recipients include French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Patrick Maughien, who is a close friend of Jacques Chirac and head of Soco International oil company, and former French Ambassador to the UN, Jean-Bernard Merimee.

Surprised? This clearly played heavily into French opposition to the War. For all their moral and diplomatic objections, this exposes the French as the smarmy and back-biting erstwhile allies they really are.



SYRIA comes in third in the voucher sweepstakes, again not a surprise, as they have long been allied with the Hussein regime. There are 14 names in the Syrian column accounting for 116.9 million barrels of crude. Syria’s motivations are plain, having been a hotbed of terror and anti-Americanism for years.


Outraged yet?

Wait, it gets better.

As noted above, Benon Sevan, the director of the Oil-for-Food program, is on the list. Yet even more notable is Kojo Annan, the son of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The internal audit conducted by the UN revealed that millions of dollars are unaccounted for. It devotes nearly 20 pages to the UN’s dealings with Cotecna, a Swiss firm awarded a $4.8 million contract for the Oil-for-Food program. Cotecna employed Kojo Annan as a consultant prior to making its bid for the contract. Sevan has so far denied all wrongdoing. He has refused to be interviewed and will not comment. Ditto for Kofi Annan and his son.

The names go on and on: the President of Indonesia, the PLO, a member of the British Parliament, and even rogue American ex-patriot financier Marc Rich. Needless to say this is a powder keg with global ramifications.


Oil For Food For Terrorism?

There has been, thus far, modest media attention on this scandal, with the exception of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. That’s not unusual at all considering that the media in general adore the UN and will be hesitant to report any negative news until the evidence becomes overwhelming.

Claudia Rosett of the Wall Street Journal quotes financial investigators as saying there are possible “terrorist connections” in the list of companies that did business under the Oil-for-Food program. She writes:
"Included are a remnant of the defunct global criminal bank, BCCI, while another was close to the Taliban while bin Laden was on the rise in Afghanistan, and a third was linked to a bank in the Bahamas involved in Al Qaeda’s financial network; a fourth had a close connection to one of Saddam’s would-be nuclear bomb makers.”


Fred Gedrich, a Senior UN and Foreign Policy Analyst at Freedom Alliance, believes that
“the UN created an environment where Saddam could funnel large sums of money to terrorists and terrorist organizations to the detriment of humanity and civilization…”


Could this be the clinching connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein? Quite possibly. Many conservatives already believe that there is sufficient evidence of a tie between the two. However, I’m sure that the liberals and mainstream press won’t believe there is a tie until they see a picture of Hussein handing a Publisher’s Clearinghouse-sized check to bin Laden.

Conclusion

Think about this for a minute. There was very little UN opposition to US military action in Afghanistan. But as we set our sights on Iraq, the protests began in earnest, even though Iraq had been openly defying UN resolutions for over a decade. Afghanistan was not bad for business, but Iraq was. Not only that, but US action in Iraq also carried the threat that the Oil-For-Food program would be discovered to be a sham.

I find it scarcely comprehensible that a world organization whose chief mandate is one of peace and humanitarian assistance has, through the actions of many of its membership and key administrators propped up a tyrant, oppressed an already poor people, defrauded the world and in the process, lined their pockets while either directly or indirectly suborning anti-Americanism and terrorism across the globe.

The UN has had anti-American tendencies for decades, but this blatant display is alarming. The UN has become a misguided echo chamber of bitter and corrupt Third World countries whose only chance at global influence is through the UN. It will hopefully be discovered that the UN is largely a criminal entity whose petty agendas are at odds on a global basis with freedom and democracy, and certainly anti-American.

We can only hope that as this scandal grows in intensity and visibility, the US can use this as an impetus to finally remove itself from the UN, and maybe even insist the UN relocate to somewhere else beyond our shores. But maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part and that of other conservatives. In lieu of that, it would be nice to see a suspension of US payments to the UN and at least an indefinite US ‘abstention’ from UN sponsored programs and activities. Maybe that, too, is just wishful thinking.

At the very least, there should be a massive shake-up at the UN with indictments, arrests, convictions, increased scrutiny and a great deal of public shame.



Very best regards,

Gary D. Halbert

Jolie Rouge
07-08-2004, 09:54 AM
Since this has a direct bearing on the character of those some of our "representatives" would like to oversee our Presidential elections


Funny -- I didn't hear about this on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX .....

Jolie Rouge
09-21-2004, 12:31 PM
UNITED NATIONS Secretary General Kofi Annan called the Iraq war “illegal” last week. It was the first time he has used that word to describe the war that brought down the nefarious Saddam Hussein regime and was, indirectly at least, approved by a unanimous vote of the United Nations Security Council. As usual, he is wrong.

www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=44204



things that make you go .."HMMMMMM"...

stresseater
09-21-2004, 08:25 PM
I had a friend messenger me the link to this the last night and yes how terrible is it that this hasn't had any press time to speak of and yet it connects so many dots. Why did our typical allies not act on the many many years of sanctions? Because they were lining their pockets maybe. :rolleyes: They sure didn't want us going in there and finding records. NOW maybe these people won't be forced to starve so that others get rich. :( :(

Jolie Rouge
10-07-2004, 12:58 PM
Report accuses officials of profiting from illicit Iraq oil sales

NEW YORK (AP) — Vivid allegations of widespread corruption at the U.N. oil-for-food program by the top U.S. arms inspector have added credibility to accusations the United Nations looked the other way while Saddam Hussein's government skimmed billions of dollars and offered kickbacks to European and Arab countries and officials.
The inspector's report implicates the top U.N. official overseeing the $60 billion program, accusing him of accepting bribes in the form of vouchers for Iraqi oil sales, and details Iraqi manipulation to illegally enrich Saddam's government and influence Security Council members.

The alleged schemes included an Iraqi system for allocating lucrative oil vouchers, which permitted recipients to purchase certain amounts of oil at a profit, according to the report issued Wednesday by Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group.

He said the Iraqi government manipulated the U.N. program from 1996 to 2003 in order to acquire billions of dollars in illicit gains and to import illegal goods, including parts for missile systems. The report estimates Saddam generated $10.9 billion in hard currency through illicit means from 1990 to 2003 during the entire sanctions period.

It also said the vouchers "provided Saddam with a useful method of rewarding countries, organizations and individuals willing to cooperate with Iraq to subvert U.N. sanctions."

Responding to the report, a high-ranking Republican congressman demanded the United Nation's independent inquiry speed up its timetable and release documents to Congressional investigators.

"The world cannot wait years for answers to the growing body of evidence implicating senior U.N. officials in outright corruption," said Rep. Henry Hyde, who chairs the House International Relations Committee. "Immediate public access to U.N. internal audits and other documents — thus far denied to members of the Security Council — is imperative if the world body is to escape further damage to its credibility as a result of this grossly mismanaged program."

Secretary-General Kofi Annan in April appointed former Fed chairman Paul Volcker to lead an independent investigation and he has said his committee will not deliver a report before mid-2005. Volcker has refused to share with Congress documents for their probes, including 55 internal audits of the oil-for-food program produced by the United Nations.

The Duelfer report said that Benon Sevan, the former chief of the U.N. program, is among dozens of people who allegedly received secret oil vouchers, with Saddam personally approving the list of recipients. The voucher list was dominated by Russian, French and Chinese recipients, in that order, with Saddam spreading the wealth widely to prominent business leaders, politicians, foreign government ministries and political parties, the report said.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said refused comment on "any specific allegation against Mr. Sevan or anyone else."

"This is in the hands of Paul Volcker," he added. "We are cooperating with him fully. Benon Sevan is cooperating with him fully, and we will wait for Volcker's judgment. Benon, meanwhile, stands by his statement that he's done nothing wrong."

The report also names former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri and the Russian radical political figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky as voucher recipients and other foreign governments range from Yemen to Namibia.

Zhirinovsky denied the allegations. "I never took a drop (of oil), or a single dollar from Iraq or from any other country. I have never dealt with oil," Russia's Interfax news agency cited Zhirinovsky as saying Thursday. "I do not care what (bribes) someone might have received. I personally gained nothing."

Zhirinovsky has visited Iraq frequently and called for increased trade between the two countries. The oil companies mentioned included top Russian producers Yukos and Lukoil. Company officials could not immediately be reached to comment on the allegations.

In France, Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous counseled caution. "It is important to assure oneself very precisely on the veracity of this information," he said. "We understand that these accusations against companies and individuals were not verified either with the people themselves or with the authorities of the countries concerned."

Marty Natalegawa, a spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry said: "There is no credence to these allegations. It's a fact that we took part in the oil for food program, but this notion of vouchers is far fetched. There were no dealings other than the oil for food."

The names of American companies and individuals who may have been involved in oil deals weren't released because of U.S. privacy laws, the report said.

The program was designed to allow limited oil sales to pay for humanitarian goods.

The governments of Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt also did a brisk illicit oil trade with Iraq — more than $8 billion from 1991 until 2003, the report said: "These governments were full parties to all aspects of Iraq's unauthorized oil exports and imports."

Critics of the oil-for-food program and U.S. congressional investigators have long alleged that administration of the program was rife with corruption and failed to prevent illicit business deals and massive kickbacks to the Iraqi government.


http://yahoo.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-10-07-oil-for-food_x.htm?csp=1

kvmj
10-07-2004, 02:22 PM
American companies are involved in this too. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6194795/

I think the fact that most of our allies to join the invasion of Iraq is that they did not find the "evidence" credible. And, what do you know? They were absolutely right!

LuvBigRip
10-08-2004, 10:21 AM
WASHINGTON - Enriched with billions of dollars raised by exploiting the U.N. oil-for-food program, Saddam Hussein spent heavily on arms imports starting in 1999, finding six governments and private companies from a dozen other nations that were willing to ignore sanctions prohibiting arms sales, the report by the top American arms inspector for Iraq has found.

The purchases, which included components of long-range missiles, spare parts for tanks and night-vision equipment, were not enough to allow Iraq to significantly rebuild its conventional military or create a viable chemical, biological or nuclear weapons program, according to the report by the inspector, Charles A. Duelfer, which was released Wednesday.

But the relative ease with which Saddam was able to buy weapons-working directly with governments in Syria, Belarus, Yemen, North Korea, the former Yugoslavia and possibly Russia, as well as with private companies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East - is documented in extraordinary detail, including repeated visits by government officials and arms merchants to Iraq and complicated schemes to disguise illegal shipments to Iraq.

"Prohibited goods and weapons were being shipped into Iraq with virtually no problem," says the report. "Indeed, Iraq was designing missile systems with the assumption that sanctioned material would be readily available."

The report suggests that Saddam was justified when, speaking at a gathering of leaders of the Iraqi armed forces in January 2000, he boasted that despite efforts by the United States and the United Nations to isolate Iraq, he would still be able to buy just about whatever he wanted.

"We have said with certainly that the embargo will not be lifted by a Security Council resolution, but will corrode by itself," Saddam said in the speech, a remark that is quoted on the cover of the chapter in Duelfer's report that details the ineffectiveness of the embargo.

The report is replete with names, dates and documents detailing negotiations over arms purchases and technical advice, which continued until just days before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

One Iraqi memo from 2000 informed military officials in Baghdad that the deputy general manager of the French company Sofema, a military-component marketer, would be visiting and bringing a company catalog so that they can "discuss your needs with him."

President Bush, speaking to reporters Thursday on the South Lawn of the White House, said the report demonstrated that Iraq had been determined to illegally rebuild its military.

"Saddam was systematically gaming the system, using the U.N. oil-for-food program to try to influence countries and companies in an effort to undermine sanctions," he said.

The report raises fundamental questions about the effectiveness of sanctions, a tool the United States has frequently used as a foreign-policy tool short of military action.

Jolie Rouge
10-14-2004, 08:35 PM
Oil-for-Food Probe Includes Annan's Son
Thursday, October 14, 2004


NEW YORK — The Justice Department criminal probe into the U.N. Oil-for-Food program is focusing on several individuals, among them U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son, FOX News has learned.

Kojo Annan, the secretary-general’s son, was employed by a U.N. contractor that monitored food and medicine shipments that were flowing into Iraq as part of the multibillion-dollar program created in late 1996.

The Oil-for-Food program is now being probed by the Justice Department and Congress as a boondoggle that enriched Saddam Hussein and others. A report delivered last week by Charles Duelfer found that Saddam was able to "subvert" the $60 billion U.N. Oil-for-Food program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997-2003.


The Justice Department investigation is looking into Kojo Annan’s conduct and determining whether Annan and others can be prosecuted for any crimes in the United States, according to law enforcement sources.

Kojo Annan was a consultant for Cotecna, a Swiss-based company, and helped manage the firm’s operations in Nigeria. He ended his assignment with the firm just months after it got a $4.8 million U.N. contract to monitor goods coming into Iraq.

At congressional hearings last week, Cotecna officials said they were unable to do their job properly because of Saddam's relentless manipulation of the U.N. system that let him bilk an estimated $11 billion from the program.

Cotecna issued a statement that in part states “at no time did Kojo Annan have anything to do with Cotecna’s operations relating to the United Nations or Iraq.” The company noted that Kojo Annan was hired a year before the Oil-for-Food program began and before his father was elected secretary-general.

FOX News was unable to locate Kojo Annan for comment but his father told reporters at the United Nations earlier this year that there was no connection. "Neither he nor I had anything to do with contracts for Cotecna. That was done in strict accordance with U.N. rules and financial regulations and these are also part of the issues that the panel investigating this issue will look into,” Annan said April 28.

Another person under investigation is Samir Vincent, an American citizen who was born in Iraq. Vincent's name was listed in the CIA report released last week that cited the Oil-for-Food scandal extensively in its discussion of Saddam's ambitions as one of three U.S. citizens who were allowed to profit by selling Iraqi oil or the right to trade it.

The Duelfer report said that Vincent, a Virginia-based businessman, received about $4 million worth of Oil-for-Food vouchers over four years. In a faxed statement to FOX News, Vincent said it was his company, Phoenix International, which received oil vouchers legally under the program.

In 2000, Vincent led Iraqi religious leaders on a tour of the United States to push for an end to sanctions against Saddam. Among the people who the group met with was former President Jimmy Carter.

The Justice probe, centered in the Southern District of New York, is considered a full investigation, in other words it has gone on far beyond an initial inquiry. It has been going on for several months, sources said, but there is no indication whether prosecutors plan to seek any indictments.

Besides the Justice Department investigation, committees in the House and the Senate are also examining what happened with Oil-for-Food. Plus, the United Nations has appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to lead its own independent investigation.

The scandal also is spilling over the campaign trail. Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney began to cite Oil-for-Food last week as another reason why the decision to go to war with Iraq was the right move.


FOX News' Eric Shawn, Jonathan Wachtel, Anna Persky and Per Carlson contributed to this report.



www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135503,00.html

kvmj
10-15-2004, 10:49 AM
The French Ambassador has responded:

To the Editor:

Re "Duelfer to France: J'accuse!" (column, Oct. 13): William Safire reports that I and my colleague, the French ambassador to the United Nations, have reacted strongly to allegations in the Duelfer report on relations between French companies or individuals and the former Iraqi regime. But Mr. Safire seems not to understand the reasons for our reactions and, to the contrary, appears to be taking for granted unverified accusations and preposterous conclusions.

The allegations in the report have not been verified, and individuals and companies that were named were not given a chance to have their denials mentioned in the report. Their rights were therefore not protected, contrary to those of American individuals and companies, whose names were not made public until they were later leaked to the press.

Furthermore, I cannot accept innuendo implying that France's vote in the Security Council was "bought off." The reasons for my country's opposition to the invasion of Iraq are well known: there was no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11; and questions and doubts about Iraqi stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction could be clarified through United Nations inspections and didn't constitute an imminent threat to the security of the West.

To that extent, the other conclusions of Charles A. Duelfer's report support France's position. I wonder why Mr. Safire chose to remain silent on this part of the report.

Jean-David Levitte
Ambassador of France
Washington, Oct. 13, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/l15france.html

Jolie Rouge
10-23-2004, 07:09 PM
Saddam Abused Oil-For-Food Program
[i]By DESMOND BUTLER [/ii]]

NEW YORK (AP) - Interviews with dozens of former and current Iraqi officials by congressional investigators have produced new evidence that Saddam Hussein micromanaged business deals under the U.N. oil-for-food program to maximize political influence with important foreign governments like Russia and neighboring Arab states.

The Iraqi officials, who were flown outside of Iraq for their own safety during the interviews, provided a list of foreign companies favored by Saddam and his top lieutenants for import contracts under the U.N. program. They also revealed a parallel blacklist of companies that the then-Iraq leader disqualified from getting deals, investigators told The Associated Press.


The precaution of redoubled secrecy comes after an Iraqi official involved in the oil-for-food investigation of corruption died in a car bombing in late June after speaking with investigators from the House International Relations Committee. The official, Ehsan Karim, who headed the Iraqi Finance Ministry's audit board, was interviewed in Amman, Jordan, on May 21.

The Iraqi officials also helped investigators identify Iraqi front companies, which operated abroad to solicit and process alleged bribes from foreign companies and to help facilitate imports for the Iraqi government, including dual-use military goods such as vehicles.

The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to permit the former Iraqi government to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exception to U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

One of the documents, known as ``the exempt list'' and obtained by AP from congressional investigators at the House International Relations Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., catalogues companies personally approved by Saddam and top lieutenants to circumvent Iraqi regulations to sign deals. The list contains hundreds of names of companies from more than two dozen countries.

No French, Chinese or American companies are on the list, but more than 280 Russian and 100 Saudi companies account for well over half of the list. The investigator who provided the document to AP said Congress might not have the full list.

Earlier this month, the top U.S. arms inspector, Charles Duelfer, published a report that listed foreign companies and individuals who had received vouchers for oil contracts under the U.N. program from the former Iraqi government. The report said Saddam himself approved companies.

Duelfer's report alleged that Saddam's government had used the oil vouchers to both solicit kickbacks and to reward countries and individuals willing to cooperate with Iraq's political goals. Companies and individuals from Russia, France and China dominated the list.

Saddam was able to ``subvert'' the $60 billion U.N. oil-for-food program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997-2003, the Duelfer report said. In addition to oil-for-food schemes, Iraq brought in over $8 billion in illicit oil deals with Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt through smuggling or illegal pumping through pipelines during the full period that sanctions were in place, the report added.

But the new lists obtained by AP of both companies favored and spurned by the Iraqi government are a more overt illustration of Saddam's manipulation of the program. One investigator described the exempt list as the equivalent of the list in Duelfer's report of oil voucher recipients, but in this case for goods imported under the U.N. program. ``Until now, it had been thought that only vouchers for oil were handed out, but due to disclosures by Iraqi officials from the Ministry of Trade, we now understand that the practice was spread even further,'' said the investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Companies on Saddam's special lists got vouchers giving them priority for deals in humanitarian goods under oil-for-food, or to act as middlemen for companies providing goods. Some Iraqi officials confirmed the lists were crafted to reward companies from countries supporting Iraqi political goals, especially the lifting of U.N. sanctions, investigators said. ``These lists illustrate how Saddam Hussein cynically manipulated and corrupted the oil-for-food program,'' said Hyde. ``The fact, disclosed in the Duelfer report, that some countries based their Iraq policies on these corrupt practices is shameful.''

The exempt list came from an official at the Iraqi Ministry of Trade and was authenticated separately by over a dozen current and former Iraqi officials, investigators said. The official told investigators in Amman that names could be placed on this list by Saddam through his secretary, Abdel Hamoud, by Iraqi Vice-President Taha Ramadan, or Hussein's sons Oday and Qusay, according to notes of the interviews obtained by AP. ``Many foreign delegations were coming to Baghdad by plane with businessmen and sometimes even artists,'' the official told investigators, according to other notes that were read to AP. ``They broke sanctions laws and spread propaganda then they would go to the ministry of trade. Anyone who could agree to a contract for any item at a set price would get a voucher.''


Another official explained that Saddam and others sometimes asked that foreign delegations bring favorite artists with them for entertainment. He alleged that Saddam granted vouchers to a prominent Egyptian actress, called Raghda, whose picture he kept in his bedroom.

Iraqi officials said that as many as 3,000 to 4,500 contracts or about 10 to 15 percent of all deals for importing goods through the U.N. program were granted to companies on the exempt list. The list includes numerous large Russian oil companies - whose names also appear on the oil vouchers list published in Duelfer's report - including Gazprom, Lukoil and Tatneft. In the past, Russian companies have denied any wrongdoing in the oil-for-food program.


A handful of obscure companies from Western countries including Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Italy and Switzerland appear on the list. Over 250 companies appear on Saddam's blacklist, obtained from an Iraqi Health Ministry official, according to congressional investigators. The document also details reasons the companies lost favor with the Iraqi government. Dozens of the companies are blasted for ``dealing with the Zionist entity,'' apparently referring to Israel.

One contract in English obtained by AP from investigators required companies given deals with the Iraqi government to sign a pledge that says, ``We hereby confirm our commitment and pledge not to deal with Israel.''

American companies Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett-Packard Co., and Eli Lilly and Co., make the list for this reason and Agilent Technologies Inc. - which was spun off from Hewlett-Packard - is accused by Vice President Ramadan of changing its name from Hewlett-Packard to ``enter into Israel,'' according to the document.

Lukoil, which reportedly clashed with Baghdad after refusing to break sanctions to begin development of an Iraqi oil field, is the only company to make the oil voucher list, the exempt list and the blacklist. Its entry onto the blacklist is dated October 2002. In December 2002, Iraq announced the cancelation of a $3.7 billion contract with Lukoil to develop the oil field.


10/23/04 21:39


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1333&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041023%2F2139726866.htm&sc=1333

Jolie Rouge
11-03-2004, 07:32 AM
Bumping for YNKYH8R

YNKYH8R
11-03-2004, 09:27 AM
One of the documents, known as ``the exempt list'' and obtained by AP from congressional investigators at the House International Relations Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., catalogues companies personally approved by Saddam and top lieutenants to circumvent Iraqi regulations to sign deals. The list contains hundreds of names of companies from more than two dozen countries.

No French, Chinese or American companies are on the list, but more than 280 Russian and 100 Saudi companies account for well over half of the list. The investigator who provided the document to AP said Congress might not have the full list.

Earlier this month, the top U.S. arms inspector, Charles Duelfer, published a report that listed foreign companies and individuals who had received vouchers for oil contracts under the U.N. program from the former Iraqi government. The report said Saddam himself approved companies.

Duelfer's report alleged that Saddam's government had used the oil vouchers to both solicit kickbacks and to reward countries and individuals willing to cooperate with Iraq's political goals. Companies and individuals from Russia, France and China dominated the list.
A handful of obscure companies from Western countries including Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Italy and Switzerland appear on the list. Over 250 companies appear on Saddam's blacklist, obtained from an Iraqi Health Ministry official, according to congressional investigators. The document also details reasons the companies lost favor with the Iraqi government. Dozens of the companies are blasted for ``dealing with the Zionist entity,'' apparently referring to Israel.
One contract in English obtained by AP from investigators required companies given deals with the Iraqi government to sign a pledge that says, ``We hereby confirm our commitment and pledge not to deal with Israel.''

American companies Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett-Packard Co., and Eli Lilly and Co., make the list for this reason and Agilent Technologies Inc. - which was spun off from Hewlett-Packard - is accused by Vice President Ramadan of changing its name from Hewlett-Packard to ``enter into Israel,'' according to the document.


So there are some inconsistencies. First they aren't dealing with the French and the Chinesse, then they aren't. :confused:
Then we find out the American companies are on the 'black list' because we deal with Israel
This shows two things.
1. Individual companies in countries were subverting the oil-for-food program. This articles fails to show where the UN knew anything about it until later. Therefore it is not the UNs fault if other countries who operate inside the UN are caught doing illegal activities.

2. America was, apparently, the only country adhearing to the oil-for-food rule. Leaving us out of the loop for oil vouchers. I'll bet you that the US Government was pretty pissed they weren't in on the deal also.

So basically every country was in bed with Iraq but us, and we're pissed at the UN?
I'm not surprised we were on their black list after we dealt arms to Iran and Iraq during th Iran/Iraq war.

Jolie Rouge
11-15-2004, 03:15 PM
Probe: Saddam Made $21B From U.N. Program

WASHINGTON (AP) - Saddam Hussein's regime made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the U.N. oil-for-food program - more than double previous estimates, according to congressional investigators. ``This is like an onion - we just keep uncovering more layers and more layers,'' said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., whose Senate Committee on Government Affairs received the new information at hearing Monday.

New figures on Iraq's alleged surcharges, kickbacks and oil-smuggling are based on troves of new documents obtained by the committee's investigative panel, Coleman told reporters before the hearing. The documents illustrate how Iraqi officials, foreign companies and sometimes politicians allegedly contrived to allow the Iraqi government vast illicit gains. The findings also reflect a growing understanding by investigators of the intricate schemes Saddam used to buy support abroad for a move to lift U.N. sanctions.

Coleman said the probe is just beginning and that officials aim to discover ``how this massive fraud was able to thrive for so long.'' He said he is angry that the United Nations has not provided documents and access to officials that investigators need to move ahead. Officials must get to the bottom of the allegations because, among other things, it will help the international community to better design future sanctions programs, some senators said. ``That humanitarian program was corrupted and exploited ... for the most horrible and aggressive purpose'' of raising money for Saddam's military, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.


But the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, said ``for the most part the U.N. sanctions achieved their intended objective of preventing Saddam from rearming and developing weapons of mass destruction.''

Saddam's military spending plummeted after sanctions were imposed in 1991 to a fraction of what it had been before, he said, adding that the vast majority of illicit income was from publicly disclosed trade agreements that the world well knew about ``but winked at.''

``Saddam Hussein attempted to manipulate the typical oil allocation process in order to gain influence throughout the world,'' Mark L. Greenblatt, a counsel for the Senate panel's permanent subcommittee on investigations, said in prepared testimony obtained by The Associated Press. ``Rather than giving allocations to traditional oil purchasers, Hussein gave oil allocations to foreign officials, journalists, and even terrorist entities, who then sold their allocations to the traditional oil companies in return for a sizable commission.''

The reference to terrorist groups referred to evidence that the regime had allocated oil to such organizations as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Mujahadeen Khalq, a group seeking to overturn the government of Iran, Greenblatt said. Previous estimates - one from the General Accountability Office and the other by the top U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer - concluded that Saddam's government brought in $10 billion illicitly from 1990 to 2003, when sanctions were in place.

But congressional investigators found that vastly more oil - totaling $13.7 billion - was smuggled out of Iraq than previously thought. Investigators also raised the GAO's estimate of $4.4 billion in oil-for-food kickbacks by $200 million, and said the regime made $2.1 billion more through a scheme where foreign companies imported flawed goods at inflated prices.

According to the documents, the Iraqi government signed deals to import rotting food and other damaged goods with the full understanding of the exporting companies, who accepted payments for top quality products while kicking back much of the price difference to the Iraqi regime.

The panel estimated that such substandard goods accounted for 5 percent of all goods imported under the oil-for-food program, which was put in place in 1996 amid concerns that the Iraqi population was suffering from lack of food and medicines under the sanctions. The rough estimate ``is drawn from anecdotal information provide by officials of the former Iraq regime, the United Nations, and U.S. government officials,'' the panel said.

The total estimate of illegal revenue also includes $400 million from interest earned from hiding illicit funds in secret bank accounts. Another $400 million in illicit revenue grew out of pricing irregularities and kickbacks in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.

The Senate panel is conducting one of several congressional probes into alleged illegal profiteering in the oil-for-food program after allegations of corruption came to light earlier this year when Saddam was driven from power during the U.S.-led invasion. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker heads a panel that's conducting an independent investigation.

Associated Press reporter Desmond Butler contributed to this story from New York.



11/15/04 13:08

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=NW_1-T&oldflok=FF-APO-1153&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041115%2F1308848521.htm&sc=1153&photoid=20030205XUN110

LuvBigRip
11-17-2004, 10:01 AM
Probe: Oil-for-Food Money Went to Palestinian Bombers' Families

Wednesday, November 17, 2004



WASHINGTON — Money from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program (search) helped pay the families of Palestinian homicide bombers, the House Committee on International Relations is expected to reveal Wednesday during a hearing on corruption in the Iraqi relief program.

Investigators working for Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the panel, are expected to say they have traced funds from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's (search)kickback scheme through a Jordanian bank and into the hands of families of bombers who attacked Israeli citizens.

It has long been established that Saddam paid bounties of $15,000 to $25,000 to the Palestinian families of the murderers. Hyde's committee will reveal at the hearing that some of the reward money was deposited from illegal profits Saddam made by demanding 10 percent kickbacks on all the contracts of companies that did business with the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program.

Those funds were then deposited with other Iraqi money, such as Jordanian Oil-for-Food oil payments, into the Central Bank of Iraq account in the Rafidain Bank (search) in Amman, Jordan. The funds were then transferred to another account in the bank controlled by Iraq's ambassador to Jordan Sabah Yaseen (search). It was from Yaseen's account that Saddam's officials would cut and hand out checks to the homicide bombers' families, Hyde's investigators are expected to say.

Corruption Spreads Outward

As congressional inquiries continue into the scandal-ridden Oil-for-Food program, more evidence has come to light revealing how Saddam was able to funnel more than $21 billion away from the food and medicine program into the pockets of criminals.

"In essence, the Hussein regime created a system of kickbacks, as we have heard today, skimming schemes and smuggling operations to bilk the international sanctions regime of all its potential value and profits," Juan Carlos Zarate, an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department, told lawmakers on Monday.

"He used the implements of the state, the Central Bank, commercial enterprises and his diplomatic and intelligence assets to help skirt international restrictions. In some cases, he used this system to attempt to procure weapons and other banned goods, all in an effort to fortify his regime," Zarate said.

According to U.S. officials, the former Iraqi leader spread billions of dollars around the globe, particularly targeting France, Russia and China, all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (search).

While diplomats from those three nations deny they were bought off, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) says he doesn't believe they were, Saddam's oil voucher scheme was aimed at ending sanctions, and a CIA report revealed that Saddam was very generous to his friends and supporters.

According to U.S. investigators, Saddam was able to set up a system of rewarding sympathizers and supporters with pieces of paper that entitled them to sell allocations of Iraqi oil to real oil companies at an instant profit, sometimes earning in the hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars. Saddam allegedly even personally picked the lucky recipients as a reward for their support.

Witnesses at the Senate Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (search) told lawmakers Monday that Saddam got away with the scam because the Security Council made the mistake of letting him pick the buyers and sellers of Iraq's oil, which in effect let Saddam nearly completely control the relief program.

Subcommittee chairman Norm Coleman of Minnesota suggested that a lot of businesspeople wanted to play ball with Saddam, and cited the case of a well-known multinational corporation, Weir Group (search), which sells oil equipment. That company did $80 million worth of business under the Oil-for-Food program but Coleman said the company inflated one big contract by 30 percent and admitted it knew the extra money was going to Saddam.

In another example, the Al Bashier Trading Company (search) was apparently run directly by Saddam's regime, say officials. In that situation, Saddam made money by selling items to himself. Al Bashier allegedly secretly took the Oil-for-Food money to buy weapons.

In a different situation, Saddam also ran Corsin Financial Ltd. (search), a front company whose money is now missing. Saddam presumably grabbed the money and used it to pay for his palaces, bolster his corrupt regime and go on a weapons-buying spree.

United Nations Keeps a Tight Lip

In essence, say investigators, Saddam relied on a sophisticated worldwide financial network of both legitimate and shell companies to earn billions in illegal profits. One official who allegedly received such a voucher was the Oil-for-Food program's former director, Benon Sevan (search). He has denied the allegation, but the Senate panel wants to pull him in to discuss the accusations.

At the hearing, Charles Duelfer (search), who now heads the weapons inspections team in Iraq, told Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the investigations subcommittee, that he believes Sevan likely did get the vouchers.

"The Iraqis firmly believe that," Duelfer said. "I would conclude with high confidence from the data that the Iraqis provided, from all we saw, that that happened."

Annan has promised Sevan will cooperate with the U.N.'s own investigation, but it's not clear what Sevan would do if subpoenaed by the Senate, and he could claim diplomatic immunity to avoid testifying or even meeting with senators.

Coleman's subcommittee has also wanted to meet with U.N. officials to discuss their Oil-for-Food audits. But the U.N.'s chief in-house investigator, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker (search), has refused to disclose information to any Senate panels, saying that to do so now would hurt his investigative efforts.

Volcker claims that "partial and premature disclosures of sensitive internal documents or demands for congressional appearances of U.N. employees will be damaging to the pursuit of investigative leads, chill participation of those called upon to cooperate, and risk misleading, prejudicial and unfair impressions on institutional, personal and member-state behavior."

YNKYH8R
11-17-2004, 11:18 AM
Quick question for anyone...are Palestinian's muslims? And if they are how do they differ from the Sunni and Sh-ite?

LuvBigRip
11-17-2004, 11:29 AM
Palestinians are mostly Muslim. But like with any nationality, they have Christians and so on within the race. Shi-ite and Sunni are tribes within the Arab clans. They are also mostly Muslim, with Christian faiths intermixed. The difference, if I am not mistaken is the type of Islam they subscribe to. There are hardliners and more mainstream muslims, as with any faith. But the predominant faith within the Arab world, is Islam. Sunni, Shi-ite, Palestinians, Saudi's, Kuwaiti's and many many more fall into that category.

Jolie Rouge
11-17-2004, 12:30 PM
Oil-For-Food - Much Worse Than We Thought
by Gary D. Halbert
November 16, 2004

last wrote about the “Oil-for-Food”program in Iraq in May shortly after the United Nations (UN) engaged former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to conduct an internal investigation of the scandal. Only limited attention was focused on the scandal at the time, as the media was busy trying to get John Kerry elected president.

When I wrote my E-Letter on the subject in May, we were told that Saddam Hussein and his cronies in Iraq and elsewhere had skimmed $10-$11 billion from the Oil-For-Food program, which was supposed to be a humanitarian effort to get food and medical supplies to the beleaguered Iraqi people. At that time, I said this was the largest financial scandal in history.

The United States Senate, to its credit, figured out that the Volcker investigation into the scandal was not going to get very far, since Volcker has only limited powers and no subpoena authority to go after the bad guys in the UN. So the Senate launched its own investigation, which has received little attention due to the election. But now, the facts are starting to leak out.

On Monday, we learned that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations now believes that Hussein and his cronies pocketed in excess of $21 billion, more than twice the $10 billion reported earlier, from the Oil-For-Food program. And it will probably get even larger.

We also learned that the Senate has requested over 50 Oil-For-Food documents and registers from the United Nations, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is stonewalling. So far, he has refused to turn over the documents. The good news is, this will likely lead to the resignation of Annan before this is over.

The trouble is, much of the billions that Hussein skimmed from the program is unaccounted for. The fear is that some of that money may now be in the hands of terrorists and insurgents that are battling our troops in Iraq. Given the scope of this unfolding scandal, we revisit the topic this week, including excerpts from my May 25 issue in which I explained how the scandal worked.

The Oil-For-Food Scandal Widens

Until this week, we had been told that the Oil-For-Food scandal allowed Saddam Hussein to pocket some $10 billion in illegal profits that he used to build palaces and purchase military arms and equipment. Senator Norm Coleman who is heading the Senate investigation said on Monday that the hearings to be conducted this week and beyond will reveal that Hussein illegally pocketed over $21 billion from the program.

About all we have learned from the Volcker investigation is that the scandal involved some 248 companies that bought Iraqi oil since the program began. Volcker also released a list of 3,545 firms that sold humanitarian goods to Saddam Hussein’s regime during the seven-year Oil-For-Food program.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is demanding a full and complete independent audit of the UN’s Oil-For-Food records, and has requested over 50 specific documents. So far, Kofi Annan is stonewalling. That has led to increasing pressure for Annan to resign his post as the head of the UN. There is a very good chance that will occur shortly.

As I will discuss below, the largest benefactors from the Oil-For-Food – other than Saddam Hussein and his cronies – were Russia, France and a host of other players. This explains why France and Russia were so opposed to the war in Iraq. We can only hope that all the facts are revealed in the weeks and months just ahead, and that the UN and the other major players are properly discredited! And we will hopefully learn, finally, if Saddam used his Oil-For-Food billions to fund terrorists.

Doomed From The Very Beginning

The UN Oil-For-Food program was established after the Gulf War in 1991 and was designed to allow Iraq to sell enough oil to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people, such as food, medical supplies, essential services, etc. The program was never intended to line the pockets of Saddam or benefit his cronies around the world, which sadly is exactly what it did for many years.

As with many UN programs, Oil-For-Food was poorly structured, thus allowing for massive abuses. The nature and scope of these abuses were so grievous and so widespread that the Oil-For-Food program is proving to be the greatest financial scandal in history. This incredibly huge scam crosses borders, religions and political ideologies, uniting those involved in plain and simple greed.

What’s most stunning are recent revelations exposing those at the UN and elsewhere who were primarily responsible for the abuses, and who participated in this massive fraud. In short, many in the UN administrative infrastructure and many of its members have been blatantly corrupt, as have some of our so-called “allies” around the world.

While many in the UN loudly criticized our efforts in the War on Terror as inhumane, at the same time they were skimming millions from the Oil-for-Food program and thereby depriving the Iraqi people of needed food and medicine. Is it any wonder there was such opposition to the US invasion of Iraq? No, it was simply bad for business!

There is a massive cover-up underway at the UN, and the media is cooperating as always. Despite the latest revelations from Volcker and what is emerging from the Senate investigation, we hear only scant soundbites in the media about this enormous scandal. If all the facts in this scandal actually see the light of day, the UN will emerge discredited, weakened, and very possibly, broken. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Jolie Rouge
11-17-2004, 12:45 PM
The United Nations Exposed As Corrupt

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. These favorable/unfavorable numbers were quite surprising to the media, but probably not to most of you reading this E-Letter. The unfavorable numbers are almost certain to rise in the near future as the scathing details of the Oil-For-Food scandal are finally exposed.

If you are surprised by the recent revelations about Oil-For-Food, you really shouldn’t be. After all, 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 corruption would be found in 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) for the first time since 1947 in favor of Sudan, one of the world’s absolute worst human rights violators. (You can check out Sudan’s human rights record by clicking here.) By the way, Sudan was recently granted another 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.

When it was conceived, the Oil-For-Food program was intended to be a humanitarian mechanism. Prior to its full implementation, Iraq was subject to extremely stiff trade sanctions resulting from Saddam’s defiance of UN weapons inspectors. The Oil-For-Food program provided basic relief in the form of limited crude sales with the proceeds to be used for humanitarian purposes. In the beginning, the program was well intentioned, seeking to bring relief in the form of food and medical supplies to the Iraqi people. After all, it didn’t seem fair to punish the citizens of Iraq for the crimes of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime.

Unfortunately, this program rapidly turned into a complicated kickback scam that allowed Saddam to bribe political figures and institutions around the world, as well as fuel his notoriously evil rule and his military. The tangled web of deceit extended beyond the UN and the governing body of the Oil-For-Food program itself, and also includes several of our so-called “allies,” as you will read below.

How This Information Came to Light

The corruption in the Oil-For-Food program had long been suspected. A June 20, 2003 article by Marc Perelman on The Forward Internet website discussed doubts about the Oil-For-Food program and suggested that some of the money was being used to fund terrorism (more about this later). In part, Perelman said:

“The now-defunct program allowed Iraq to buy food and medicine with its oil proceeds under U.N. supervision. Although the oil sales in question were legal and approved by the U.N., several observers say the system involved kickbacks and was used by Saddam to buy political support and to finance intelligence activities and even terrorist groups.”


Concrete evidence came to light in December of 2003. While advising the Iraqi Governing Council, Claude Hankes-Drielsma, the UK Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, sent an urgent fax to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

“As a result of my findings here, combined with earlier information, I most strongly urge the UN to consider appointing an independent commission to review and investigate the Oil-For-Food Programme. Failure to do so might bring into question the UN’s credibility and the public’s perception of it… My belief is that serious transgressions have taken place and may still be taking place.”

Mr. Hankes-Drielsma was shown various documents at the Iraqi Oil Ministry that strongly indicated major abuses in the Oil-For-Food program. These documents reflected both individuals and institutions that Saddam rewarded with allocations of Iraqi oil.

How The Scam Worked [//b]

From its inception, the Oil-for-Food program was riddled with flaws and loopholes, opening the door for the grievous abuses that followed. One of the major flaws was that Saddam Hussein was given the right to:
1) select the parties who would buy the Iraqi oil;
and
2) select the suppliers of the humanitarian aid.
Hussein was also allowed to set the price at which Iraqi oil would be sold.

All the seeds for a giant scandal were put into place. Hussein had the ability to determine with whom to deal and set the official price of Iraqi oil. Furthermore, the rules did not force Hussein to deal directly with the end-users; instead, he was allowed to sell oil through middlemen. For political purposes, [b]Hussein would sell the oil at a discount to his chosen middlemen and they, in turn, sold it to the end-users at market prices, thus pocketing huge profits. Nice work if you can get it!

Hussein then pocketed billions from the oil sales and built palaces and purchased military equipment and arms. It is also suspected that he used some of the money to fund terrorists. Much of the money is still unaccounted for.

Another flaw in the program was that all deals were confidential between Hussein and the UN. Under this arrangement, the UN was not to examine the contracts for Iraqi oil except between the Iraqi Oil Ministry and the first purchaser. Until recently, the UN maintained that it had no idea that the oil was being sold at significant discounts in many cases, or that the middlemen were adding surcharges to the contracts awarded them by Saddam. Therefore they went totally unnoticed by the UN. Yeah, right!

In one alleged example, UN Oil-For-Food administrator Benon Sevan was granted an allocation of 7.3 million barrels of Iraqi oil, on which he could expect to make a $3.5 million profit. Not a bad take for an international bureaucrat! For a graphic representation of how the scam worked, click here.

The US General Accounting Office initially estimated that Hussein skimmed as much as $10 billion from the money that flowed through the program. As noted earlier, the ongoing Senate investigation reveals that Hussein pocketed over twice that much – over $21 billion. It all went either directly to Hussein personally or to supporters of the regime.

By bribing UN officials and foreign dignitaries, Hussein also guaranteed their silence as he used money for purposes other than the humanitarian aid for which it was designed. The UN also looked the other way when Hussein sold oil to other countries in excess of the amounts allowed by the Oil-For-Food program.

[b]Who’s On The List?

The names and institutions on this list – that benefited greatly from the Oil-For-Food program - are so numerous and shocking that when they are all confirmed, this will prove to be the greatest financial scandal in history . According to Paul Volcker, as noted above, the list includes at least 248 companies that purchased Iraqi oil through the program.

From that list, three obvious favorites emerge. At the top of the list is RUSSIA, which is not really a surprise. The Russians have had a vested interest in Iraqi oil production for nearly 15 years. In documents released earlier this year, there are four pages of entries detailing voucher recipients in Russia that total over one BILLION barrels of crude . On the Russian side, the notable recipients include the “Director” of the Russian President’s office, other prominent Russian politicians and even the Russian Orthodox Church (why, how?).

Admittedly, Hussein owed the Russians tens of billions of dollars in loans, so it is not hard to see why the Russians would try to get some of their money back, even if through questionable or illegal means. Yet as the scandal is sorted out, it looks like much of the Oil-For-Food money may have simply lined the pockets of key Russian politicos to a great degree. This, of course, explains why the Russians opposed the war in Iraq from the very beginning.

Finishing strong in second place behind the Russians in the Oil-For-Food scandal is none other than our long-time “ally” FRANCE! In documents released earlier this year, France’s oil vouchers account for 150.8 million barrels of crude and notable recipients include French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Patrick Maughien, who is a close friend of Jacques Chirac and head of Soco International oil company, and former French Ambassador to the UN, Jean-Bernard Merimee. This clearly played heavily into France’s opposition to the War.

More recent information indicates that Russia purchased $19.2 billion in Iraqi oil while Russian vendors received $3.3 billion in humanitarian contracts. French firms purchased more than $4 billion in oil and received $2.9 billion in humanitarian aid sales.

SYRIAcomes in third in the voucher sweepstakes, again not a surprise, as they have long been allied with the Hussein regime. There are 14 names in the Syrian column accounting for 116.9 million barrels of crude. Syria’s motivations are obvious, having been a hotbed of terror and anti-Americanism for years.

Jolie Rouge
11-17-2004, 12:49 PM
Outraged yet? Wait, it gets better. Yet even more notable is Kojo Annan, the son of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kojo Annan worked for a Swiss company, Cotecna, as a “consultant.” Cotecna was awarded a $4.8 million contract for the Oil-for-Food program.

The names go on and on: the President of Indonesia, the PLO, a member of the British Parliament, and even rogue American ex-patriot financier Marc Rich (who was pardoned by Bill Clinton). Needless to say this is a powder keg with global ramifications. The internal audit conducted by the UN revealed that tens of millions of dollars are unaccounted for.


Oil For Food For Terrorism?

There has been, thus far, modest media attention on this scandal, with the exception of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. That’s not unusual at all considering that the media in general adore the UN and will be hesitant to report any negative news until the evidence becomes overwhelming.

Earlier this year, Claudia Rosett of the Wall Street Journal quoted financial investigators as saying there are possible “terrorist connections” in the list of companies that did business under the Oil-for-Food program. She wrote:

“Included are a remnant of the defunct global criminal bank, BCCI, while another was close to the Taliban while bin Laden was on the rise in Afghanistan, and a third was linked to a bank in the Bahamas involved in Al Qaeda’s financial network; a fourth had a close connection to one of Saddam’s would-be nuclear bomb makers.”

Fred Gedrich, a Senior UN and Foreign Policy Analyst at Freedom Alliance, believes that “the UN created an environment where Saddam could funnel large sums of money to terrorists and terrorist organizations to the detriment of humanity and civilization…”

The connections between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein are still not completely clear. Hopefully, the Senate investigations will reveal these connections in the weeks and months ahead.

Conclusions

There was only token UN opposition to US military action in Afghanistan. But as we set our sights on Iraq, the protests began in earnest, even though Iraq had been openly defying UN resolutions for over a decade. Afghanistan was not bad for business, but Iraq was. The UN and allies like Russia and France wanted the Oil-For-Food sham to continue, as did Saddam Hussein.

It is outrageous that a world organization whose supposed mandate is one of peace and humanitarian assistance had, through the actions of some of its members and key administrators: 1) propped up a tyrant; 2) oppressed an already poor people; 3) defrauded the world; and 4) in the process, lined their own pockets, while directly or indirectly promoting anti-Americanism and possibly terrorism across the globe.

The UN has had anti-American tendencies for decades, but this blatant display is alarming. The United Nations has become a misguided echo chamber of bitter and corrupt Third World countries whose only chance at global influence is through the UN. It will hopefully be discovered that the UN is largely a criminal entity whose petty agendas are at odds on a global basis with freedom and democracy, and are certainly anti-American.

With the latest Senate investigations, we can hope that this scandal grows in intensity and visibility, and the UN is exposed as a corrupt, anti-American institution. As you can read below in Special Articles, it will clearly take more than Volcker’s investigation, which has no subpoena power, to get the truth out and expose all the culprits.

Maybe the US can use this as an impetus to finally remove itself from the UN, and maybe even insist the UN relocate to somewhere else beyond our shores. But maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part and that of other conservatives. In lieu of that, it would be nice to see a suspension of US payments to the UN and at least an indefinite US ‘abstention’ from UN sponsored programs and activities. Maybe that, too, is just wishful thinking.

At the very least, there should be a massive shake-up at the UN with indictments, arrests, convictions, increased scrutiny and a great deal of public shame. It’s definitely time for Kofi Annan to go!

On that note, did you hear that Bill Clinton said he might be interested in becoming the next UN Secretary General? Wouldn’t that be special! Maybe I’ll tackle that one in a future E-Letter.

Very best regards,
Gary D. Halbert


SPECIAL ARTICLES

The Senate versus the United Nations.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak15.html

Kofi Annan continues to stonewall investigators.
http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20041114-103940-6516r.htm

How the Oil-For-Food Scandal worked.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133484,00.html

Is the Volcker Oil-For-Food Commission credible?
http://www.heritage.org/Research/InternationalOrganizations/wm569.cfm

janelle
11-17-2004, 01:07 PM
I heard about this on Rush Limbaugh today. You guys are GOOD. I come here and you already have all the info about it. And Kerry was going to have the UN tell us what to do in the war. :eek: :mad:

LuvBigRip
11-18-2004, 09:40 AM
U.N. Response to Probe Troubles Senators

Friday, November 12, 2004



NEW YORK — Two U.S. senators investigating the U.N. Oil-for-Food (search) program have told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) in a letter that they were "troubled" by his decision to withhold documents or witness testimony from lawmakers.

Sens. Norm Coleman (search) of Minnesota and Carl Levin (search) of Michigan sent a letter to Annan Tuesday in which they blasted Annan for "affirmatively preventing" their congressional panel from getting requested information.

"They are not providing access to U.N. personnel, not providing access to U.N. internal audits," Coleman told FOX News.

Coleman and Levin — respectively, the chairman and ranking minority member of the Senate Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee — want to know how Saddam Hussein was able to pocket an estimated $11 billion through payoffs and oil smuggling.

Click here to read the senators' letter as well as other related correspondence (pdf).

The lawmakers are asking Annan to hand over documents outlining why the consulting firm Lloyd's Register, a London-based company, was dropped in favor of a firm his son, Kojo Annan (search), once worked for. A Lloyd's official asked for U.N. permission to cooperate with the panel but was denied.

"The organization has no objections to a contractor responding to authorized subpoenas for records, documents, tapes or other materials, subject to certain conditions. I note, however, that in the present case, the requested cooperation would be entirely on a voluntary basis … Under the circumstances, the U.N. does not authorize the provision of materials or information relating to its contract with Lloyd’s Register," Bruce C. Rashkow (search), director of the U.N. general legal division, wrote to a Lloyd’s official on Aug. 31.

Both Annan and his son's company, Swiss-based Cotecna Inspection SA, have denied any wrongdoing, but Annan has also not yet made available audits that could detail who exactly was getting money. The Oil-for-Food program was started in late 1996 as a way to let Iraq sell some oil to allow humanitarian goods reach Iraqis but investigators now believe the program was a multi-billion dollar corruption scheme.

Asked about the senators’ letter, Annan’s communications director said he would look into the claims that his boss is not cooperating. The spokesman said the situation was "very awkward" and he called the senators’ communication "a troubling letter."

The Senate panel also wants to talk to Benon Sevan (search), the former head of the Oil-for-Food program. Sevan has been accused of receiving bribes from Saddam but he denies the charges.

"We have a number of questions we want to ask the individual in charge of the program and the most serious question that has been reported: ‘Why did you get these vouchers? What was the reason you got them in the first place?'"

Sevan has promised to cooperate with investigators and has denied any wrongdoing. But he has yet to agree to testify before congressional panels.

Coleman told FOX News he's angry that the United Nations has so far tried to block his investigation. Senate hearings start Monday.

The CIA and others say Saddam rigged a global network of bribes, payoffs and kickbacks, including hundreds of fake front companies, to earn his billions. The United Nations is conducting its own investigation, but that report is not due until next year.

ckerr4
11-18-2004, 12:15 PM
Quick question for anyone...are Palestinian's muslims? And if they are how do they differ from the Sunni and Sh-ite?

Sunnis and Shiites are types of Muslims. The difference is in the beliefs, much like the difference in the beliefs of two different Christian denominations. Both are Muslim, but there was a split in the faith regarding succession of the religious leadership early in the formation of the faith. Here is a decent (quick) link to explain it (but you can find more in-depth by googling, if you find you're interested):

http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_intr1.htm (then click on "schools of Islam)

Anyone who converts from any culture or country can decide to be a certain branch of Islam, I assume.

A Palestinian, though, is someone from what was Palestine, now the Occupied Territories. It's also used to described the many (Palestinian originially) refugees that are in Jordan, Syria, etc. It's more of a national designation, like American or Mexican.

There are Palestinian Muslims, Palestinian Christians, Palestinian Jews. The majority of Palestinians are Muslim.

So, there would be Palestinian Sunni Muslims and Palestinian Shiite Muslims. :)

Jolie Rouge
11-19-2004, 02:55 PM
UN staff union mulls no-confidence motion against senior UN management
1 hour, 37 minutes ago


UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN staff union was meeting to discuss a no-confidence measure against senior management of the United Nations, which has been hit by a series of scandals involving top UN officials.

But sources said a planned vote could be put off until next week after UN officials asked to meet with union members to quell the uproar over a possible no-confidence vote in senior management of the world body led by Secretary General Kofi Annan. "The idea is to keep dialogue going and see if we can't sort out our differences so that it isn't necessary to adopt a resolution saying they have no confidence in senior management," Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard said. "We'd certainly like them to have more confidence in us, and we hope that we can achieve that through dialogue," he told reporters.


A draft union resolution obtained by AFP on Thursday complained of "a lack of integrity, particularly at the higher levels of the organisation," and asked to "convey this vote of no confidence to the secretary general."

The measure cites unnamed senior management but both sides, faced with heavy media scrutiny after news of the resolution broke, insisted Annan was not the prime target.

Eckhard said it was a "misinterpretation" to call the measure a no-confidence vote in Annan, even though he is the most senior official in the United Nations.

In a press release, the staff union stressed that the draft text had not yet been adopted and said that the measure did not "express the desire" for a no-confidence vote against Annan.

Sources said the immediate anger behind the resolution had been sparked by the announcement on Tuesday that Dileep Nair, the head of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), had been cleared of wrongdoing by Annan.

Nair had faced allegations of harassment and favouritism but was exonerated after what Eckhard termed a "thorough review" of the case. Some allegations had been made in an unsigned letter, he said.

The crisis comes with Annan and the United Nations under fire over allegations of fraud and corruption in the UN program that oversaw oil sales by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime. Annan has publicly complained of a "campaign" against the United Nations over the so-called oil-for-food program, which ran between December 1996 and November 2003.


But it also follows the exoneration in July of Ruud Lubbers, the UN's top official for refugees who had been the target of a sexual harassment complaint brought by a female member of his staff. Annan also cleared Lubbers of any wrongdoing in that case but reportedly sent him a letter conveying his "concerns" about the official's behaviour.


Eckhard, the spokesman, acknowledged the staff union was "not happy" with this week's decision on Nair, whose OIOS office functions as the UN's internal watchdog for wrongdoing, and that the question would be discussed next week. "It's been a bit of an up-and-down relationship" with the union, he said, but added: "We accept them as the legal representatives of the staff."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041119/ts_afp/un_annan_041119200730&e=2&ncid=

Jolie Rouge
11-19-2004, 03:13 PM
UN staff raps management, backs Annan
8 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN staff union passed a resolution sharply critical of the world body's senior management but expressed support for beleaguered Secretary General Kofi Annan.

An earlier draft of the resolution had strongly worded language about no confidence in senior staff of the United Nations, which has been buffeted by scandals over the past few months.

Union president Rosemarie Waters said that version had left open the possibility of criticising Annan, which she insisted her committee did not want to do, despite often troubled relations with UN management.

She said the wording that had appeared in a version on Thursday had been changed to avoid "an incorrect interpretation," and said the union wanted managers to heed Annan's call for greater accountability. "(Annan) is in a very difficult job under very difficult circumstances," Waters said. "He's doing his best."


Union officials said they would make the full text of the resolution available later in the day.


Annan has seen his tenure rocked by a series of scandals and mishaps of late, including controversial decisions to pardon two senior officials who had faced allegations of sexual harassment.

Some staffers had been especially angered by the decision this week not to pursue action against Dileep Nair, the head of the UN internal oversight office, who had been accused of harassment and favouritism.

Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard on Tuesday announced that Nair had been cleared after a thorough review, although staffers complained that they had not been consulted after raising the complaints in April. "We voted a resolution requesting (Annan) to release the report on the investigation that he's done and requesting some transparency," Waters said. "The confidence level is low in the senior management."


Passage of the resolution comes with Annan and the United Nations under fire over allegations of fraud and corruption in the UN programme that oversaw oil sales by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.

Annan has publicly complained of a "campaign" against the United Nations over the so-called oil-for-food program, which ran between December 1996 and November 2003.

The resolution also follows the exoneration in July of Ruud Lubbers, the top UN official for refugees who had been the target of a sexual harassment complaint brought by a female member of his staff. Annan also cleared Lubbers of any wrongdoing in that case but reportedly sent him a letter conveying his "concerns" about the official's behaviour.

Eckhard, the spokesman, acknowledged the staff union was "not happy" with this week's decision on Nair, whose OIOS office functions as the UN internal watchdog.

Before the vote, he said UN officials had been in touch with the union to set up a meeting next week to avoid a showdown and "keep dialogue going and see if we can't sort out our differences."


Waters said she had not been informed of the meeting.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041119/ts_afp/un_annan_probe_041119215820&e=1&ncid=

Jolie Rouge
11-19-2004, 03:22 PM
KOFI'S CASH LAUNDRY . . .
Fri Nov 19, 2:29 AM ET

When French bank BNP Paribas was jockeying to win the United Nations bank account for Saddam's Oil-for-Food program, it's not likely that its sales pitch was: "The job is so easy, a monkey could do it."

But as Congress widens its probe into Oil-for-Food's legacy of global bribery and theft, the bank is fast realizing that a confession of stupidity is its best — maybe its only — defense against what could be a massive financial liability.

As Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) put it on Wednesday, the U.N. aid program was a closed-end system of "hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil."

"No one seemed to be in charge of watching Saddam Hussein while he and his government were conducting perhaps the largest financial swindle in history," Hyde observed at a congressional investigatory hearing.

Hyde's International Relations Committee has found that Saddam stole an eye-popping $21 billion from the Iraqi people through Oil-for-Food. The despot diverted money that belonged to Iraqis into his own accounts — then used the cash to buy weapons, bribe officials and journalists and reward terrorists.

Much of that money was first washed through that BNP account — administered by the bank's New York office.

Hyde thinks that BNP may have been "noncompliant" (to put it nicely) with standard banking practices — possibly doling out millions in payments to Saddam's favorite contractors without proof of delivery of any actual goods to the Iraqi people, for example, or authorizing payments to third parties outside of the U.N.'s credit system.

Hyde has pledged to further investigate his early evidence — to find if BNP "facilitated Saddam Hussein's manipulation and corruption of the program."

BNP Paribas' strategy is to play up its "see-no-evil" role. The North American CEO of the bank, Everett Schenk, appeared before Hyde's committee Wednesday to repeat one word over and over: "Non-discretionary."

* BNP's job was to deliver "non-discretionary" banking services to the United Nations, Schenk said.

* "The bank has had no discretion over how money has been spent or invested under the Oil-for-Food program," he repeated.

* "The responsibilities of the bank [were] non-discretionary banking services," he repeated once more.

Translation: It wasn't our job to make sure that Saddam wasn't laundering moneythrough these accounts at the expense if his people (the supposed beneficiaries of the UN account).

BNP was just doing what the United Nations told it to do, Schenk has testified — because BNP desperately needs Congress to accept that it was paid millions of dollars just to process paper.

And that's because the Treasury Deptartment has been bandying about a much scarier word lately: "repatriation."

Assistant Treasury Secretary Juan Carlos Zarate told a second congressional committee this week that Treasury's mission is to "hunt to find and repatriate stolen Iraqi assets to the Iraqi people."

And BNP knows that — in the absence of aggressive U.N. co-operation with U.S. investigators — the bank will remain the last traceable stop for so many of those plundered billions.

BNP was paid, essentially, to be Saddam's sole financial gateway to the world. If the Treasury can't find a huge chunk of Saddam's money because it was washed through an opaque system administered by the United Nations — with BNP serving, at best, as silent enabler —it's becoming clear that BNP must bear some responsibility for the lost cash.

Clearly there is a need to reclaim as much of the cash as possible for the Iraqi people. That goes without saying.

At the same time, BNP needs to be clear about the role U.N. higher-ups played in the rip-off.

The overriding question is: What did Kofi Annan know, and when did he know it?

We bet BNP can help with answers.

It is Congress' responsibility to see that they come quickly, and publicly.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=106&ncid=742&e=4&u=/nypost/20041119/cm_nypost/kofiscashlaundry

Technologist
11-19-2004, 03:37 PM
As I have said many times before (when I brought up the food for oil program previously)....

Tell the UN they have 30 days to get the hell OUT of the building...

Tell them they have an additional 15 days to get OUT of the US....

Don't let the door hit you in the butt!!!

We can sell the building, or use it for counter-terrorism office space...

UN = League of Nations = Waste of time and money...

Jolie Rouge
11-30-2004, 04:54 PM
:rolleyes:


Annan: Son's Iraq Ties A Surprise
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 30, 2004

(CBS/AP) Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "very disappointed and surprised" that his son had continued to receive payments until this February from a firm that had a contract with Iraq's oil-for-food program, the subject of numerous corruption investigations.

Annan told reporters Monday that he had been working on the understanding that payments to his son, Kojo Annan, from the Swiss-based firm Cotecna Inspection S.A. stopped in 1998 "and I had not expected that the relationship continued."

But on Friday, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Kojo Annan's lawyer had informed the independent panel appointed by the secretary-general to investigate allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food program that the younger Annan continued to receive monthly payments through February 2004.

The disclosure was the latest embarrassment for Annan and the United Nations over the humanitarian program that was instituted in December 1996 to help Iraqis cope with sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Annan on Monday 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."

Annan has said his son joined Cotecna at the age of 22 as a trainee in Geneva before he became secretary-general and worked in West Africa. The firm was hired by the United Nations on Dec. 31, 1998 to authenticate that food, medicine and other goods entering Iraq corresponded to a list of goods approved for import.

In a statement in April, Cotecna said Kojo Annan's full-time employment — which focused entirely on its activities in Nigeria and Ghana and had nothing to do with the oil-for-food program — began in 1995 and ended in December 1997 after which he was retained as a consultant until early 1999. It did not mention any further payments.

The United Nations previously said Kojo Annan stopped receiving monthly payments from Cotecna at the end of 1999. But Eckhard said Friday he continued to be paid because he had an open-ended no-compete contract which allows an employee who leaves a company to receive money to ensure he won't set up a competing company. "There is nothing illegal in this," Eckhard said. Also, continuing investigations by the U.S. Congress and the United Nations have not shown any wrongdoing by Cotecna.

Cotecna spokeswoman Ginny Wolfe said Kojo Annan was paid $2,500 a month "to prevent him from working for any of their competitors in Africa" which she described as a very competitive market. "Kojo Annan's sole responsibilities were in Africa," she said. "He had nothing to do with any U.N. discussions and work."

U.S. Ambassador John Danforth discussed the oil-for-food investigations with the secretary-general on Monday and was asked afterward whether the United States still has confidence in Annan. "I don't think the U.S. government rushes to judgment until all the facts are in," he said, urging that the investigation be exhaustive and reveal all the facts to avoid any charges of a cover-up.

Five U.S. congressional panels have been pressing the independent inquiry headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to hand over internal U.N. documents for their own oil-for-food probes. But Volcker told the Senate that his panel won't hand over documents until its investigative reports are issued starting in January.

CBS Radio News reports Danforth said everything should be handed over to the congressional committees for the sake of transparency.

But he added, "I am not for chaos, everyone asking everyone for everything at the same time."

"As soon as the information can be made public, the better off we can be," Danforth said.

The oil-for-food program allowed Saddam's regime to sell unlimited quantities of oil provided the money went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Gulf War.

Annan reiterated that he has "no involvement with granting of contracts, either on this Cotecna one or others."

But the secretary-general said he understood "the perception problem for the U.N., or the perception of conflict of interests and wrongdoing."

Eckhard said both Cotecna and Kojo Annan's lawyers had informed the United Nations that they have turned over information to the independent inquiry headed by Volcker. "To the extent that there's an allegation of the awarding of this contract and the secretary-general's son, leave that to Volcker to investigate," Eckhard said. "We feel there is not. We have looked into it and we can find no evidence, but it's not for us to judge now, it's for Mr. Volcker to judge."

Annan told reporters Monday he spoke to his son after learning that he had been paid through February, "but I really don't want to get into this."

Asked whether he was disappointed and angry with his son for taking the money and not disclosing it, Annan replied: "Naturally I was very disappointed and surprised, yes."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/19/iraq/main656749.shtml

LuvBigRip
12-01-2004, 01:50 PM
WASHINGTON — The senator leading an investigation into the United Nations' Oil-for-Food program in Iraq is calling on Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) to resign.

Writing in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Sen. Norm Coleman (search), R-Minn., argues that Annan should step down because "the most extensive fraud in the history of the U.N. occurred on his watch. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, as long as Mr. Annan remains in charge, the world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks and under-the-table payments that took place under the U.N.'s collective nose."

Annan's office declined to comment Tuesday night.

The humanitarian Oil-for-Food program (search), which began in 1996, allowed Iraq to trade oil for food, medicine and other necessities that became scarce under strict U.N. economic sanctions imposed after the Gulf War. The program was credited with preventing widespread starvation.

Two weeks ago, Coleman's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said it had uncovered evidence that Saddam Hussein's government raised more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting U.N. sanctions against Iraq, including the Oil-for-Food program.

"Mr. Annan was at the helm of the U.N. for all but a few days of the Oil-for-Food program, and he must, therefore, be held accountable for the U.N.'s utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses," wrote Coleman.

The subcommittee's ranking Democrat, Carl Levin (search) of Michigan, has worked closely with Coleman on the investigation, but said Tuesday night he didn't see a need for Annan to resign.

"While I believe that one or more specific individuals working with the Oil-for-Food program at the U.N. may have acted improperly, I have seen no evidence of impropriety whatsoever on the part of Kofi Annan," Levin said in a statement issued to The Associated Press.

In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Coleman said: "Any private company would have asked for his (Annan's) resignation. But the members of the board, in this case Security Council members China, Russia and France, have all benefited from Saddam being in power."

Coleman said another factor in asking for Annan's resignation was the secretary-general's refusal to give his subcommittee access to the U.N.'s 55 internal audits and interviews with U.N. staff members. Annan has argued that doing so would interfere with an internal investigation by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Coleman stressed that in calling for Annan's resignation, he wasn't coming to any conclusions about his involvement in the Oil-for-Food program.

"I'm not Kofi's boss," Coleman said.

He called Annan's resignation "inevitable," especially in light of this week's revelation that Annan's son, Kojo Annan, received $30,000 a year for over five years from a Swiss-based company under investigation in connection with suspected corruption in the Oil-for-Food program.

Coleman stopped short of saying he would move to cut U.S. funding for the U.N. if Annan stays on.

"I'm not prepared to say we need to step back from our (financial) commitments to the U.N," he said. "But ultimately, if our efforts are thwarted, I think that issue does come into play. The consequence of the path we're on right now is not a good path for the United Nations."

Coleman said he didn't ask any other senator to join his call for Annan's resignation, but said he had "no doubt" that many senators will support the effort.

cavemtmomma
12-01-2004, 04:06 PM
There is no such creature as a "Palestinian Jew" most Jews don't recognize Palestine as a real place. Jews have lived in the Holy Land since we stopped following Moses around in the wilderness. The Romans called the land palestine as an insult to the Jews. It was a reference to the philistines that lived there prior to the Jews.(the philistines were not a semetic people)The so called occupied territories belonged to Lebanon and Syria prior to Israel taking them in a war. We also took desert from Egypt but we gave that back.We didn't give the territories back because they were used by Arabs to launch missles and attacks into Israel.

YNKYH8R
12-02-2004, 06:48 AM
Kind of like the land of make believe from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?

Technologist
12-02-2004, 09:52 AM
Bush Calls for Full U.N. Oil-For-Food Probe

40 minutes ago


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Thursday called for a "full and open" accounting of the U.N. oil-for-food program but would not say whether he thought U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) should resign.

"I look forward to the full disclosure of the facts, get an honest appraisal of that which went on. And it's important for the integrity of the organization to have a full and open disclosure of all that took place with the oil-for-food program," Bush said.


Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record) of Minnesota, who is investigating corruption in the oil-for-food program, Wednesday called on Annan to resign. He said former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) reaped some $21.3 billion from the program because of Annan's lack of oversight.


Bush, asked if Annan should resign, would not say.


"On this issue, it's very important for the United Nations (news - web sites) to understand that there ought to be a full and fair and open accounting of the oil-for-food program," he said.


"In order for the taxpayers of the United States to feel comfortable about supporting the United Nations, there has to be an open accounting," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&u=/nm/20041202/pl_nm/iraq_un_bush_dc&printer=1

YNKYH8R
12-02-2004, 11:44 AM
Sometimes I don't know wether people are angry with the UN or secretly happy that this is blowing up in their face.

Technologist
12-02-2004, 11:50 AM
I am OVERTLY "happy that this is blowing up in their face".

LuvBigRip
12-03-2004, 01:43 PM
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.

Jolie Rouge
12-07-2004, 10:57 PM
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.

Jolie Rouge
12-07-2004, 11:03 PM
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.)

Jolie Rouge
12-07-2004, 11:06 PM
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/archives/2004/11/28/2003212917

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

Jolie Rouge
12-22-2004, 02:01 PM
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.

Jolie Rouge
12-22-2004, 02:22 PM
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

Jolie Rouge
12-22-2004, 02:28 PM
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]

www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/18/iraq.sevan/index.html

Jolie Rouge
01-03-2005, 10:15 PM
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/story.jsp?floc=ne-world-12-l4&flok=FF-RTO-roitz&idq=/ff/story/0002%2F20050103%2F2301352183.htm&sc=roitz

Jolie Rouge
01-10-2005, 02:00 PM
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/2005-01-10-audit-furor_x.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

Jolie Rouge
01-18-2005, 01:18 PM
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.

www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/18/oil.for.food/index.html

Jolie Rouge
01-18-2005, 11:08 PM
Iraqi-American pleads guilty in U.N. oil-for-food probe
Samir Vincent a former Olympic athlete
By CNN's Terry Frieden and Phil Hirschkorn
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 Posted: 10:22 PM EST (0322 GMT)

(CNN) -- An Iraqi-American businessman pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegally doing business with and lobbying for Iraq for a decade as part of the United Nations' oil-for-food program.

Samir Vincent entered the guilty pleas to four charges Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York, including engaging in prohibited financial transactions with Iraq, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and making false statements on his income tax returns.

During his plea, Vincent implied that he was aware of an unnamed U.N. official who may have been bribed by the Iraqi regime.

Vincent told Judge Denny Chin that in return for millions of dollars in cash payments and Iraq's permission to buy its oil, he lobbied U.S. and U.N. officials to have stringent international economic sanctions repealed.

He did not register as an agent for a foreign government, Vincent told the court, because "I understood that the Iraqi government did not want some of my activities on their behalf to become public."

In describing his deal with Baghdad, Vincent said that he and others were to receive millions of dollars once the oil for food program was successfully launched in 1996. "Several hundred thousand dollars of this money was given to me, in Manhattan, and the rest was given to others, one of whom I understood to be a United Nations official," Vincent said.

Vincent likely will face less than the maximum 28-year prison term. No sentencing date is set.

The charges against Vincent represent the first U.S. criminal prosecution to result from multiple investigations regarding alleged corruption in the U.N. program.

The program allowed the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, while still under sanctions stemming from its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, to export a limited supply of its crude oil and earmark the revenues for purchases of food, medicine, and supplies.

Various U.S. estimates allege that Saddam, who was able to choose the vendors, exploited the program to seize an estimated $2 billion to $4 billion in illegal surcharges on its oil sales and kickbacks on the humanitarian goods purchases. "The integrity of a program that's designed to protect innocent people from suffering at the hands of brutal regimes is a serious matter," said Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Ashcroft announced the charges and plea deal at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. "This is not a concluded investigation, but an ongoing one."

The United Nations operated the oil-for-food program from 1996 to 2003. 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.

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

The U.S. charges state that in return for Iraq's permission to buy its oil and millions of dollars in cash payments, Vincent lobbied U.S. and U.N. officials to have stringent international economic sanctions repealed but failed to register as a lobbyist, as U.S. law requires.

Vincent bought approximately 9 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil and profited by $3 million to $5 million by reselling it, said U.S. Attorney David Kelly, whose office prosecuted the case.

According to court documents, as early as 1992 Vincent met with U.N. officials to seek favorable treatment for Iraq and convey messages from Baghdad.

Between 1998 and 2003, following instructions from Baghdad, Vincent lobbied former U.S. government officials to exert their influence on the Clinton and Bush administrations in an unsuccessful effort to repeal the U.N.-imposed sanctions on Iraq, according to court documents. "I continued to meet periodically with Iraqi officials in Baghdad and Manhattan and tried to develop ideas for lobbying the U.S. government to open an official dialogue with Iraq in the hopes that this might lead, among other things, for the lifting of sanctions," Vincent said.

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

A number of U.S. oil companies, including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, oil refiner Bayoil, and oil field equipment supplier Baker-Hughes have been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors, along with the largest U.S. buyer of Iraqi oil, Houston businessman Oscar Wyatt and his former company, Coastal Oil, now owned by El Paso Inc.

Vincent's name and the name of a firm he runs -- Phoenix International, based in Fairfax, Virginia -- appear in former Iraqi oil ministry records obtained since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam's regime in 2003.

Phoenix International has not been charged.

According to studies by the CIA-backed Iraq Survey Group and the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee, Phoenix International paid $162.2 million for 4.1 million barrels purchased from Iraq.

The ISG report last October by former Iraq weapons inspector Charles Duelfer found that Vincent purchased an additional 3.8 million barrels for himself.

Federal prosecutors accounted for five separate oil allocations to Vincent between 1997 and 2001 for 9.2 million barrels. Prosecutors said Vincent wrote a letter to the Iraqi Intelligence Service in 2002 requesting additional allocations as a payoff for his lobbying efforts.

Volcker 'fully aware' of Vincent

Volcker, due to issue a detailed report at the end of the month, said his committee was "fully aware" of Vincent's activities and has sought prosecutors' permission to interview him. "It is hoped that today's developments will allow us to meet that objective as soon as possible," Volcker said.

The 64-year-old Vincent, a naturalized American citizen born in Iraq, has lived in the United States since 1958 and graduated in 1962 from Boston College, where he was a star of the track team, competing in the high jump, long jump, triple jump, hurdles, discus, and javelin, according to a university Web site. 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 Jimmy 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, as did many opponents of the embargo.

www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/18/oil.for.food/index.html

Jolie Rouge
01-19-2005, 09:59 AM
Rice Vows to Pursue Oil-For-Food Scandal

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

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

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who is trying to force Annan to resign, invited Rice's comments at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

More than 50 internal U.N. audits of the Iraq oil-for-food program released Jan. 10 by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services detailed how U.N. agencies working under the program squandered millions of dollars through overpayment to contractors, mismanagement of purchasing and assets, and fraud by its employees.


Coleman said disclosures so far revealed only the tip of the problem.


The program permitted Iraq an exemption in U.N. economic sanctions and allowed oil sales if the income were used for food and medicine for the Iraqi people.



01/18/05 16:41

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1152&idq=/ff/st ory/0001%2F20050118%2F1641644603.htm&sc=1152

Jolie Rouge
01-25-2005, 03:16 PM
Panel questions Annan, delays report
U.N. secretary-general interviewed in oil-for-food investigation
From Richard Roth -- CNN
Tuesday, January 25, 2005 Posted: 4:58 PM EST (2158 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been formally questioned three times in the oil-for-food investigation, the latest interview taking place Tuesday, his office said.

The interviews were conducted by members of the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

A U.N. spokesman said Tuesday he could not say how long the sessions were -- except that they were for "an extended period of time."

A source said Volcker took part in at least the second interview, which was in Annan's office at U.N. headquarters. It was not known if he attended Tuesday's session.

Volcker's interim report on the oil-for-food program had been expected next Monday, but the committee has decided to delay its release by at least one week, said sources close to the investigation.

The sources said the process is being held up to give those involved more time to respond.

From the start, Volcker said no one was untouchable in his probe, and Annan pledged to cooperate fully.

Annan has come under scrutiny for alleged U.N. mismanagement of the program and for an apparent conflict of interest because a firm employing his son, Kojo Annan, won the U.N. contract to inspect goods shipped to Iraq.

The oil-for-food program began in late 1996 as a way to permit Iraq, while still under economic sanctions, to export some of its oil.

Revenues from the sales were deposited in a U.N.-controlled bank account, with proceeds earmarked for purchasing food, medicine and approved supplies.

Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna Inspection in the late 1990s. The Switzerland-based firm replaced Lloyd's Register in 1998 as the contractor tapped to authenticate goods arriving in Iraq. The contract became worth $66 million over five years, according to a U.N. official.

Both Cotecna and the younger Annan have said his work was unrelated to any of the firm's business in the Middle East or with the United Nations and was limited to West Africa, where Kojo Annan lives.

The oil-for-food program grossed $64 billion, according to Volcker's committee, with two-thirds of the funds paying for Iraqi imports. The rest paid for U.N. weapons inspectors, Iraqi reparations to Kuwait for its 1990 invasion and costs of administering the program.

Earlier this month, Volcker's committee said U.N. audits of the program revealed "under-pricing of oil and the overpricing of humanitarian goods" as well as "inadequate procedures, policy, planning, controls and coordination process across numerous areas of activity."

Volcker's committee also found U.N. management overseeing the program was "not quick to react to criticism and was either unwilling or unable to address issues raised."

The program ended in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Previously, Saddam handpicked the buyers of Iraqi oil and the vendors of humanitarian goods, allowing him to extort surcharges on the oil and kickbacks on the goods worth an estimated $1.7 billion to $4.4 billion, according to studies by the CIA-backed Iraq Survey Group and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Besides Volcker, the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a handful of U.S. congressional committees are investigating the oil-for-food program.

Last week, federal prosecutors obtained a guilty plea from an Iraqi-American, Samir Vincent, who bought oil from Iraq and was paid by the deposed regime to lobby U.N. and U.S. officials for the removal of sanctions.

Vincent pleaded guilty to failing to register as a lobbyist, engaging in banned financial activity with Iraq and failing to report income on his tax returns.


CNN's Phil Hirschkorn contributed to this report.

www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/25/food.annan/index.html

Jolie Rouge
02-03-2005, 01:19 PM
By Don Emmert, AFP
Updated 2/3/2005

Probe: Oil-for-food chief 'seriously undermined' U.N. integrity

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A sweeping investigation of the U.N. oil-for-food program accused program chief Benon Sevan of a conflict of interest, saying Thursday his conduct in soliciting oil deals was "ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations."

Although Sevan said he never recommended any oil companies, the investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker concluded that he repeatedly solicited allocations of oil from Iraq under the program and "created a grave and continuing conflict of interest."

Volcker's first report, as outlined to The Associated Press by an official close to the investigation and by Volcker himself in an op-ed article in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, found the $60 billion program "tainted" from top to bottom.

Volcker said in the article that program managers, auditors, contractors hired to oversee the program's operation and those who controlled U.N. expenditures for it, all failed "to follow the established rules of the organization designed to assure fairness and accountability."

The 219-page report was scheduled to be released by Volcker Thursday afternoon. He personally delivered a copy to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday morning and spent about 45 minutes with the U.N. chief.

"We had some discussion of it," Volcker said.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan was "perhaps surprised" by Volcker's decision to preview his findings before giving the secretary-general the report.

"We are currently studying the report," Eckhard said.

Mark Malloch Brown, the secretary-general's new chief of staff, would hold a press conference after the report's release to give Annan's reaction, he said.

The oil-for-food program, launched in December 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, quickly became a lifeline for 90% of the population.

Under the program, Saddam's regime could sell oil, provided the proceeds went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Gulf War. Saddam's government decided on the goods it wanted, who should provide them, and who could buy Iraqi oil. But the Security Council committee overseeing sanctions monitored the contracts.

The program ended in November 2003, after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam. Allegations of corruption first surfaced in late 2000, with accusations that the Iraqi leader was putting surcharges on oil sales and pocketing the money.

In January 2004, the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada published a list of about 270 former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials from more than 46 countries suspected of profiting from Iraqi oil sales that were part of the U.N. program. Annan appointed Volcker in April to lead an independent investigation.

Volcker made clear that the committee's intention is to improve the United Nations, not to destroy it, and he applauded Annan for opening the world organization's books, saying "few institutions have freely subjected themselves to the intensity of scrutiny entailed in the committee's work."

The interim report will not address questions about Annan or the employment of his son, Kojo, by the Swiss company, Cotecna Inspection SA, which had a U.N. contract to certify deals under the oil-for-food program.

Critics have raised questions about nepotism and whether Kojo Annan played any role in securing contracts for Cotecna — allegations he denies. Volcker said the investigation of the secretary-general and his son "is well advanced" and the person close to the inquiry told AP that it will be addressed in a separate report later this winter.

Though Sevan has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, Volcker said "the evidence is conclusive that Mr. Sevan, in effectively participating in the selection of purchasers of oil under the program, placed himself in an irreconcilable conflict of interest." This violated both U.N. rules and Sevan's responsibility as an international civil servant, he said.

Volcker did not accuse Sevan of corruption. Annan has said he will lift the diplomatic immunity of any U.N. official if Volcker finds evidence of alleged involvement in criminal activity. Sevan has retired, but remains on the U.N. payroll for $1 a year to help with the investigation.

The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Sevan personally intervened to steer lucrative Iraqi oil contracts to Africa Middle East Petroleum, a Swiss-based oil trading company. The contracts could be sold to international traders for a markup of up to 35 cents a barrel, the paper said.

Volcker said the procurement process was "tainted," auditing of the program was "underfunded and undermanned," and its management was "lacking." Perhaps not surprisingly, he said, "political considerations intruded" into procurement.

Last month, Volcker released more than 50 audits of the oil-for-food program carried out by the U.N.'s internal watchdog office, headed by Dileep Nair, who is also expected to be criticized in the report, the official familiar with the investigation said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The audits detail how U.N. agencies working under the oil-for-food program allegedly squandered millions of dollars through suspect overpayment to contractors, mismanagement of purchasing and assets, and fraud by its employees.

In a briefing paper that accompanied the release of the audits, Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee questioned why the auditors neglected the New York headquarters of the Office of the Iraq Program, which Sevan headed. It said auditors also neglected the oil and humanitarian supplies contracts, and transactions through the program's account at the French bank BNP Paribas.

Investigators say Saddam's government used its control over contracting to corrupt the program.

Expectations that the preliminary report will produce real evidence are high, especially since Volcker has come under intense criticism for comments downplaying his potential findings. He has said he intends to provide a final report around midyear.

Annan told reporters Wednesday the United Nations is already taking measures to strengthen some management practices and will implement Volcker's recommendations, saying there will probably be some "harsh judgments."

He added that he has already asked the General Assembly to review the mandate of the U.N. watchdog office, which was created 10 years ago, "to see how we can strengthen it and give it appropriate authority to do its work."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-02-03-oil-program_x.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

Jolie Rouge
02-03-2005, 10:16 PM
Annan Vows Action Against UN Staff in Iraq Program
Thu Feb 3, 2005
By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A probe into the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq said the director of the operation got oil allocations for a firm run by a friend, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan vowed to discipline him.

Benon Sevan, who ran the humanitarian program, was accused in a report from Paul Volcker, the former head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, of soliciting and getting the allocations for a trading firm connected to the family of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.


A second official, Joseph Stephanides, now director of Security Council affairs, was alleged to have intervened in selecting large contractors for the program he helped organize in 1996, before Sevan took over in late 1997.


Annan said he too would be disciplined and that if criminal acts were committed, diplomatic immunity would be lifted. The oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996 and ended in November 2003, allowed Saddam Hussein's government to sell oil in order to buy humanitarian goods. It was intended to ease the life of ordinary Iraqis under 1990 U.N. sanctions.


The fraud allegations have cast a shadow over the world body and Annan himself, who chose Volcker to lead an independent investigation. "I think it is a fact that Mr. Sevan placed himself in a grave and continuing conflict of interest situation that violated explicit U.N. rules and violated the standards of integrity essential to a high-level international civil servant," Volcker told a news conference.

Sevan, a Cypriot, issued his own statement. "Mr Sevan never took a penny," his lawyer Eric Lewis said. "Unfortunately, in the current political climate, the Independent Inquiry Committee needs to find someone to blame."

But Annan, who took over the top U.N. post from Boutros-Ghali in January 1997, said in a statement the report contained "extremely troubling evidence of wrongdoing" by Sevan, who has retired from the United Nations but gets a token salary because of the inquiry.

'THE SECRETARY-GENERAL IS SHOCKED'

"The secretary-general is shocked by what the report has to say about Mr. Sevan," Annan's chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, told a news conference. "He very much doubts there can be any extenuating circumstances to explain the behavior, which appears proven in the report."

But he noted, "we got a thumbs up" on administration of the program and Iraq should be encouraged that the funds were used as intended.

Volcker said few institutions had subjected themselves to such "intensity of scrutiny."

The report also cited "convincing and uncontested evidence" that three firms: Banque Nationale de Paris; the Dutch Saybolt Eastern Hemisphere and Britain's Lloyd's Register Inspection were awarded contracts without competitive bidding in 1996. But Volcker said in the interim report -- the final one will be in June -- the most serious violations of the U.N. sanctions involved illegal oil sales outside oil-for-food.


"And there is no question that those sales were known by the U.N. Security Council," which included the United States.


A CIA investigation in September found Saddam earned $1.7 billion via kickbacks on goods and oil under the program. He got an additional $8 billion in oil sales to Jordan, Turkey and Syria, which were known to the council.

Volcker said he was concentrating on wrongdoing by U.N. officials. Specifically, the report said Sevan had convinced Iraq to sell oil allocations to African Middle East Petroleum company, an obscure trading firm registered in Panama with offices in Switzerland and Monaco.

The company is headed by Egyptian Fahkry Abdelnour, a cousin of Boutros-Ghali. The deal was also helped along by Fred Nadler, the former secretary-general's brother-in-law, the report said.

He also questioned Sevan's assertion that an aunt in Cyprus, now deceased, had given him some $160,000 over several years. The trading firm, according to Iraqi records, netted a profit of $1.7 million, the report said.

Volcker said allegations of conflict of interest by Annan would be handled in a later report. Annan's son Kojo once worked in West Africa for a Swiss firm Cotecna, under contract to the United Nations in Iraq.

Annan has said he had no hand in assigning contracts and his son says he had left the company when the deal was made.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&e=7&u=/nm/iraq_un_dc

Jolie Rouge
02-07-2005, 10:46 PM
U.N. Oil-For-Food Program Chief Suspended
By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan suspended the head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and a senior official who dealt with contracts after an independent inquiry accused them of misconduct, a U.N. spokesman said Monday.

Benon Sevan, who was in charge of the $64 billion humanitarian program, and Joseph Stephanides, head of the U.N. Security Council Affairs Division, were informed Friday that they had been suspended with pay, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Sevan and Stephanides were told they would receive a letter ``laying out the charges against them,'' which will allow them to defend themselves before U.N. disciplinary bodies, he said.

``Suspension is the beginning of a disciplinary process,'' Eckhard said.


``It means that they should not come onto the premises here unless it's in connection with summoning their defense, which they have 14 days to present in writing,'' he said.


After Sevan and Stephanides respond to the charges, the U.N. Secretariat headed by Annan will make a final decision on sanctions.


Eckhard said there are three options: the cases could be closed, Annan could decide to dismiss them, or the matter could be referred to the Joint Disciplinary Committee which would then make a recommendation to Annan.


Sevan and Stephanides are entitled to two appeals; the process can take months.


Annan said he was shocked by the findings of an investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker regarding Sevan. The secretary-general has said that if any of Volcker's findings lead to criminal charges, he would lift diplomatic immunity.


Asked Monday about Volcker's findings, Annan said ``we acted on the report as soon as it came out.''


Volcker has said he expects to release another interim report this winter about Annan and his son, Kojo, who worked for a U.N. oil-for-food contractor though not in Iraq, and a final report in mid-2005. ``This is not the end,'' Annan said. ``It's the beginning. And we will act on the other reports ... as they come out.''


Eckhard noted Monday that Volcker is still investigating Sevan but has not alleged any criminal wrongdoing.


Sevan ran the oil-for-food program from 1996 until it ended in November 2003. He retired from the United Nations last year but remains on the payroll for $1 a year to help with the investigation. Stephanides is scheduled to retire in about five months.


Eckhard said their U.N. pensions cannot be touched.


The investigation led by Volcker accused Sevan in an interim report released Thursday of a ``grave conflict of interest,'' saying his conduct in soliciting oil deals from Iraq was ``ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations.''


Volcker did not say that Sevan received kickbacks, but expressed concern at $160,000 in cash which Sevan said he received from his aunt in his native Cyprus from 1999-2003. The report questioned this ``unexplained wealth,'' noting that the aunt, who recently died, was a retired government photographer living on a modest pension.


Volcker said he is still investigating ``the scope and extent of benefits'' that Sevan received from his request that a small Swiss-based oil company, African Middle East Petroleum Co. Ltd. Inc., be given a chance to buy Iraqi oil.


Sevan's lawyer, Eric Lewis, accused Volcker's Independent Investigative Committee of trying to make his client a ``scapegoat'' and said ``Mr. Sevan never took a penny.'' He said Sevan was proud of his 40-year U.N. career and of the oil-for-food program, which saved tens of thousands of Iraqis ``from death by disease and starvation.''


Under the program, Saddam Hussein's regime could sell oil, provided the proceeds went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Gulf War. Saddam's government decided on the goods it wanted, who should provide them, and who could buy Iraqi oil. The U.N. Security Council committee overseeing sanctions monitored the contracts.


In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could be resold at a profit.



02/08/05 00:14

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-main-9-l1&flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050208%2F0014346008.htm&sc=1110

Technologist
02-09-2005, 07:12 PM
Good Job Jolie....

Boy, sure is quiet in here, you could almost hear a door being closed...

SHUT DOWN THE UN!!!

Jolie Rouge
02-09-2005, 10:00 PM
Fri Feb 4, 2005
William F. Buckley

A wild thought passes through my mind, which is that maybe Benon Sevan is in fact innocent! Innocent of receiving money directly from his buddy Fakhry Abdelnour, the Egyptian whose company (AMEP -- African Middle East Petroleum) wanted some Iraqi chits to permit oil purchases. Benon Sevan was certainly not innocent of using his influence in behalf of his friends and of failing to blow any whistles when suspect contractors were designated to oversee the oil-for-food program, a cover-up for easing the life and enhancing the fortunes of Saddam Hussein. The U.N. had evolved into a bureaucracy besotted by people who were contriving to get around the freeze on the full production and sale of Iraqi oil.

There is one concrete item that Paul Volcker's commission of inquiry brought out. During the period being examined, Benon Sevan received gifts totaling $160,000 from -- not Saddam, not Abdelnour, not Amir Mohammad Rashid, the former Iraqi oil minister. But from an aunt. An aunt greatly devoted to Sevan, we plausibly assume, though she is dead and can't be questioned. She was a photographer who lived in Cyprus. Now, many transactions can amount to $160,000. For instance, two transactions, added together, of $80,000 each. But the Volcker commission focuses on a figure of $160,000, paid by Abdelnour to Saddam Hussein as an illegal surcharge for oil purchased.

So it's odd, but there is no evidence that the aunt in Cyprus gave another $160,000 to Abdelnour. And anyway, those would have been discrete benefactions. Sevan says he is entirely innocent. High U.N. officials who worked with him for many years before his retirement express worry and annoyance that Sevan should have got himself so embedded in the sticky oil-for-food situation, but it isn't likely that he will be yanked from his retirement in Cyprus, deprived of his diplomatic immunity and charged with grand larceny.

No, the debacle of oil-for-food demonstrates the difficulty in managing, without leakage, a sum like the extraordinary $64 billion involved. That is the value of the oil that Iraq was permitted to sell in order to raise money to feed hungry Iraqis and to look after medical and other needs. The component parts of the operation, which took place under the supervision of the United Nations, begged for exploitation. There were a myriad of people eager to get the coupons for that oil, because it was being merchandised at a price lower than the price of oil in the world market.

A reporter for The New York Times summarizes the handling of the matter: "Iraq did not sell oil to just anyone. Under the guidance of Taha Yassin Ramadan, an Iraqi vice president, and the Revolutionary Command Council, headed by Mr. Hussein, a large portion of the oil allocations were handed out to a select group that included businessmen, politicians, journalists and diplomats who were perceived to be sympathetic to Iraq."

The friendly people negotiated the sale of $64 billion in oil. It beggars the imagination that anything on such a scale, going through so many hands, could have got safe, hygienic passage from Iraqi oil wells to bread for kids.


Mr. Volcker's commission has put off for months the completion of its investigation. What we can say at this point is that, quoting the news item, the "United Nations' largest relief effort was riddled with political favoritism and mismanagement."

"I am reluctant to conclude that the U.N. is damaged beyond repair," commented Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee. "But these revelations certainly point in this direction." Sen. Norm Coleman of the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigation wants action taken against Mr. Sevan, just to begin with.

But whatever steps are taken concretely, they aren't -- based on the evidence of the Volcker commission -- going to tell us very much that we don't already take for granted, namely the attractions of larceny. If what happens is the demystification of the United Nations as a vessel of incorruptibility, then that belated introduction to reality is welcome. It doesn't tell us what exactly a renewed relationship with the U.N. should stress. It doesn't even tell us what has happened to all that money Saddam accumulated, some of it with the connivance of U.N. officials.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=128&ncid=742&e=9&u=/ucwb/20050205/cm_ucwb/oilforun

Jolie Rouge
02-15-2005, 10:46 AM
Annan Says 'Concessions' Made to Saddam

LONDON (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in an interview broadcast Sunday that ``concessions'' were made to Saddam Hussein to win his agreement to the oil-for-food program because there were concerns the Iraqi people would starve without it.

Annan told British Broadcasting Corp. television's ``Breakfast With Frost'' program he has no plans to resign over the allegations of kickbacks and bribes in the oil-for-food program. ``It was a political arrangement, it was a transaction that was intended to force Saddam Hussein to comply with the inspection requirements, disarmament requirements, and, in the process, concessions were also made to him,'' Annan said.

``Saddam had resisted the scheme for several years and there was concern that if something is not done the Iraqi population will starve. And some of these concessions were the price they had to pay to get the scheme off the ground,'' he added. ``In retrospect, one may criticize it. But at the time, because of the urgency and the need to help the Iraqi people, some concessions were made.''

Several U.S. congressional committees have been investigating allegations of corruption in the program that allowed the former government of Iraq to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.

Concerns about Annan's leadership deepened with the release of an interim report last week from an investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker which criticized U.N. management of the program.

Annan said he was awaiting the results of the investigation and he expected the full report to show how complex the oil-for-food program was. ``In the meantime I have put forward solid and bold proposals for reform, so resignation is not on the cards for me at the moment,'' Annan said in the interview.


02/13/05 13:00

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1103&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050213%2F1300826023.htm&sc=1103&photoid=20050213LON100D

Jolie Rouge
02-16-2005, 03:15 PM
UN Defends Ban on Testimony Before Congress
By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations will not allow its officials to testify before the U.S. Congress or other national legislatures but will make them available behind closed doors, according to a letter released on Wednesday.

The letter was addressed to Norm Coleman, the Minnesota Republican who heads a U.S. Senate panel probing the scandal-tainted U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq. Senators on the panel on Tuesday sharply criticized the United Nations for failing to provide access to its officials in their inquiry.

Coleman also wants diplomatic immunity lifted on Benon Sevan, the former director of the now-defunct $67 billion program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil in order to buy goods that would alleviate the impact of 1990 trade sanctions.

Sevan is listed in Iraqi documents as having received oil allocations, which were then lifted by a small Panama-registered trading firm.

In the letter, Mark Malloch Brown, the chief of staff for Secretary-General Kofi Annan, suggested the U.S. Congress, which is handling numerous investigations, establish a briefing schedule that U.N. officials could attend. He said diplomatic immunity could be waived in certain circumstances but not "in relation to testimony under oath before national legislative bodies."

"Otherwise similar testimony would have to be offered to more than 190 legislators of U.N. members states, Malloch Brown wrote in the letter dated Monday, a day before the hearing.

The committee had wanted Dileep Nair, head of the U.N. watchdog agency to testify, but Malloch Brown offered Dagfinn Knutsen, chief auditor of the program for future hearings.

Coleman charged that Sevan received money, although another independent probe by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, is not certain and is still investigating. Until Volcker finishes his probe, U.N. officials said Sevan would retain his immunity.

In the best-documented figures to date, Saddam Hussein's government earned close to $2 billion from illicit trade and surcharges through the oil-for-food program, according to CIA adviser Charles Duelfer last September. But he said the Iraqi government earned more than $8.5 billion outside the oil-for-food program, mainly through illegal oil trade to Jordan, Syria and Turkey and others, which was known to members of the U.N. Security Council, including the United States.

At the U.S. Senate hearing, Sen. Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, released documents showing a Jordanian oil firm sought approval from a U.S.-led international naval force in 2003 to import millions of barrels of Iraqi crude through the Gulf in violation of U.N. sanctions in February 2003, the Washington Post reported.

But Patrick Kennedy, a senior official at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, defended the decision to issue waivers to Jordan and Turkey, which were suffering under 1990 U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

"By ensuring that Jordan was not strangled by a lack of a critical resource, the Jordanian government was able to pursue policies of critical importance to U.S. national security in the region," Kennedy told the committee.

The Senate committee is also investigating whether Annan's son, Kojo, used his influence to get a contact with Cotecna, a large goods inspection firm hired under the program. The younger Annan had worked for Cotecna in West Africa.

In a written statement late on Tuesday, Kofi Annan said, "At no time was I involved with any negotiations or lobbying of the United Nations with regard to the oil-for-food program inspection contract."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050216/ts_nm/iraq_un_oil_dc&e=2&ncid=

Jolie Rouge
03-10-2005, 08:57 PM
New Chief of Staff Says Annan Won't Quit
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)'s new chief of staff rejected new speculation the top U.N. executive might resign, saying Thursday he expected Annan to finish his term and warning that an early departure would be seen as "a political assassination."

Mark Malloch Brown said the secretary-general's resignation would be "a staggering blow to the stature and the independence of the institution" and would divide U.N. members.

The United Nations and Annan have been under scrutiny for the past year over alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers in Congo and mismanagement of the world body, which Malloch Brown said is now being addressed.


Several U.S. congressmen have called for Annan's resignation over the oil-for-food allegations. Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is expected to report later this month on his investigation into the activities of Annan and his son, Kojo, who worked in Africa for a company that had an oil-for-food contract.

Malloch Brown's arrival in mid-January coincided with — and in some cases sparked — the departure of top U.N. staff. The new chief of staff also started to clean up what he called some "egregious" problems in personnel and auditing practices, such as sexual harassment and whistle-blowing.

His high profile has been welcomed by some staffers but criticized by others who believe their access to the secretary-general has been curtailed and that Malloch Brown — not Annan — is now running the United Nations.

In recent weeks, Annan has appeared grim and uneasy. Some diplomats say he also appears preoccupied and detached, leading to new speculation he might quit before his second five-year term ends Dec. 31, 2006.

Malloch Brown said he would not have given up "a great job" as head of the United Nations Development Program to become the secretary-general's chief of staff only "to have a large bulls-eye painted on me for a couple of months."

"Clearly I am expecting him to finish his term, and I think it would be a catastrophe for the legitimacy of the U.N. if he did not," Malloch Brown said. "It would be viewed as a political assassination if he left and would just completely divide the U.N. membership and be a staggering blow to the stature and the independence of the institution. "So I think it is absolutely vital that he finish, and that he finish strong," leaving a legacy of reform and change at the United Nations, "and that is what we are going to deliver," he said.

World leaders hopefully will agree to those reforms at a summit in September, when they will consider a blueprint put forward by Annan to overhaul the 60-year-old world body so it can better address the threats and challenges of the 21st century.

Malloch Brown defended his own performance, saying "like it or not, I am the lightning rod."

"Inevitably, we are just in the phase where people have seen trees coming down, but they haven't seen new trees planted. So I think there is an inevitable sort of lag in expectations," he said. "I think things are where we want them to be," he stressed, saying he is focusing on reform and appointments.

Annan has a host of high-level posts open, including Malloch Brown's job at the UNDP; the chief of the U.N. refugee agency after Ruud Lubbers stepped down following sexual harassment allegations he denied; and the head of the U.N. agency dealing with Palestinian refugees.

The head of the U.N. watchdog agency, Dileep Nair, is under investigation over complaints from the U.N. Staff Union and finishes his contract in April.

Malloch Brown said he expect "people of huge caliber" leading all these agencies "and you will see a team which is very, very strong, and you will see more U.N. reform in the short term."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=8&u=/ap/20050311/ap_on_re_us/un_annan_s_future

Jolie Rouge
03-17-2005, 08:39 PM
Whistle-blower: 'Gaping holes' in oil-for-food
Former monitor says U.N. fired him for reporting corruption
From Phil Hirschkorn -- CNN
Thursday, March 17, 2005


(CNN) -- A former United Nations monitor of the organization's oil-for-food program in Iraq told a congressional committee Thursday that the program had "gaping holes" and that large amounts of aid never reached the Iraqi people.

Rehan Mullick testified that by his estimate more than 20 percent of the shipments to Iraq, worth $1 billion a year, were not distributed properly, with many goods pilfered by the Iraqi military. "A fourth or fifth of the supplies were not distributed," he said.

Mullick, 39, an American sociologist of Pakistani origin, appeared before the House International Relations Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations in Washington. The subcommittee is one of a half-dozen congressional panels probing the program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, until the U.S.-backed invasion deposed the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Mullick worked for two years in Iraq as a data analyst for the program designed to permit Iraq, while under international economic sanctions stemming from its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, to export a limited amount of its crude oil reserves and import food, medicine and supplies screened by the United Nations. "Soon after I started my job, it became amply evident that there were gaping holes in U.N.'s efforts to meet [its] objectives," Mullick told the committee in his written statement, though he read aloud only parts of it.

Mullick said in his statement that a database to track the humanitarian shipments was "muddled beyond repair," that survey techniques "were at best amateurish," and that statistics quoted by the United Nations were "misleading."

Over seven years in the program, Iraq sold 3.4 billion barrels of oil for $64.2 billion, which was deposited by buyers in a U.N.-controlled bank account. More than two-thirds of the money was earmarked to buy goods, while the balance paid for program costs, weapons inspectors and reparations to Kuwait.

The United Nations would routinely send contract information for approved imports to Baghdad, and U.N. staff in Iraq were expected to ensure the goods reached their destination. But Mullick said "Saddam loyalists" with jobs at the U.N. mission corrupted the program's data. "A lot of items that were held back or redirected by the government of Iraq were never observed," Mullick's statement said.

Mullick said Saddam stole supplies from the program to rebuild his military. "The Iraqi military rebuilt its logistics by diverting thousands of trucks, pickups, 4-by-4s, et cetera that were delivered to Iraq under the oil-for-food program," he said. "It was common knowledge in Iraq that thousands of Toyota Camrys and Avalons imported under the program were promptly gifted to the functionaries of Iraqi intelligence and the Baath Party."

Whistle-blower says he was rebuffed

Mullick told the subcommittee that he repeatedly alerted U.N. officials of problems he observed but was rebuffed. "Each suggestion resulted in my supervisors reducing my job responsibilities," Mullick said. "This continued to occur until my only job was to run the slide projector at staff meetings."

Mullick said he eventually submitted a 10-page report to U.N. headquarters in 2002 reporting that 22 percent of supplies imported under the program never reached Iraq's 27 million people. "I heard nothing," Mullick said. "Finally I was contacted and told my contract was not being renewed."

Mullick received a doctorate from Iowa State University and is married to an American woman. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Islamabad. Pakistan. "The U.N. did nothing to act on his warnings, and they essentially fired him for his honesty," said California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the subcommittee chairman. "Doctor Mullick did the right thing and was treated as an outcast."

Besides the congressional probes, oil-for-food participants are also being investigated by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and an independent panel led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Investigators have estimated Saddam extorted approximately $2 billion to $4.5 billion by imposing surcharges on the oil sales and kickbacks on the goods Iraq bought. In addition, Iraq earned an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion in oil sales outside the program to neighboring Jordan, Turkey and Syria, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. (Full story)

The U.N. said in February that the longtime head of the program, Benon Sevan, had been suspended from any remaining duties. Still, the United Nations found the program to be a success, saying, for example, that food delivered reduced the malnutrition rate among Iraqi children by 50 percent. Mullick described the United Nations as having "old mafia-style management."
He added in his statement, "Had the U.N. chosen to listen to and offer protection to those who blow the whistle on bureaucratic injustice and corruption, a program like oil for food would have worked more in the interest of the impoverished Iraqi people rather than their detractors."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/17/oil.for.food/index.html

Jolie Rouge
03-28-2005, 02:02 PM
3/28/2005

Investigators critical of Annan in oil-for-food probe

NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq will criticize U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for not properly confronting his son's employment by a Swiss company that won a contract under the program, an official said Monday.
The report, set to be released Tuesday, will find that Annan didn't pay enough attention to the apparent conflict of interest involving his son, Kojo, who worked for Cotecna Inspection S.A. at a time the Swiss firm won a U.N. contract to certify the import of goods under the oil-for-food program, the official said.

The Independent Inquiry Committee headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker will also criticize the secretary-general for failing to detect shortcomings in the U.N.'s internal bureaucracy that allowed problems in the oil-for-food program to continue until 2003, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in West Africa from 1995 to December 1997 and then as a consultant until the end of 1998 — when the oil-for-food contract was awarded. He remained on the Cotecna payroll until 2004 on a contract to prevent him from working for a competitor in Nigeria or Ghana.

Oil-for-food investigators have been seeking to verify the Swiss firm's claims that it paid Kojo Annan about $365,000 over eight years.

The secretary-general, his son, and Cotecna all deny any link between Kojo Annan's employment and the awarding of the U.N. contract to the company.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard has said there will be no U.N. comment until the report is released.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-28-oil-for-food_x.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

Jolie Rouge
03-29-2005, 02:17 PM
Annan Refuses to Quit U.N. Over Report
By EDITH M. LEDERER

NEW YORK (AP) - 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. However, they criticized the U.N. chief for not properly investigating possible conflicts of interest in the matter.

Asked if he was planning to step down in a response to the program, Annan replied, ``Hell, no.''

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.

The report's conclusion was not the clear vindication that the secretary-general had wanted, though the investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker did not accuse the U.N. chief of corruption or any other wrongdoing.

While Kofi Annan said he accepted that criticism, he was happy with the report's findings he committed no wrongdoing. ``After so many distressing and untrue allegations have been made against me, this exoneration by the independent inquiry obviously comes as a great relief,'' he said.


At a press conference after the report was released, Volcker said the investigation found no evidence that Kofi Annan improperly influenced the process by which Cotecna was selected for an inspection contract under the oil-for-food program. ``Our investigation has disclosed several instances in which he might, or could have become aware, of Cotecna's participation in the bidding process,'' Volcker said. ``However, there is neither convincing testimony to that effect nor any documentary evidence. ``Taking all of this into account, the committee has not found the evidence is reasonably sufficient to show that the secretary-general knew that Cotecna had participated in the bidding process in 1998,'' Volcker said.


Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in West Africa from 1995 to December 1997, and then was a consultant for the firm until the end of 1998 - when it won the oil-for-food contract. He remained on the Cotecna payroll until 2004 on a contract to prevent him from working for a competitor in West Africa.

Although Tuesday's report found no wrongdoing by Kofi Annan, it clearly faulted the secretary-general's management of the world body and his oversight of the oil-for-food program.

The $64 billion oil-for-food program was the largest U.N. humanitarian aid operation, running in 1996-2003. Saddam Hussein's government was allowed to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit. U.S. congressional investigators say Saddam's regime may have illegally made more than $21 billion by cheating the program and other sanctions-busting schemes.


The report is the second issued by Volcker's team. It coincides with allegations of sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and of sexual harassment and mismanagement by senior U.N. staff and comes a week after Kofi Annan called for the biggest overhaul of the United Nations in its 60-year history. ``I think we all share the hope and confidence that the results of our investigation ... may contribute to the larger objective of a reformed U.N., a U.N. capable of commanding and maintaining the support of its member states and the public at large,'' Volcker said.



Some critics, including several U.S. lawmakers, have been calling for Kofi Annan to resign. Even before the report was issued, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., reiterated his call for Kofi Annan to ``put the interests of the U.N. ahead of his personal interest'' and step down.

Senior U.N. officials insist the secretary-general has no intention of stepping down, and U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard dismissed reports describing the secretary-general as weak and depressed.

Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee found that Kojo Annan was not forthcoming with either his father or the committee and accused him of consistently trying to hide the nature of his relationship with Cotecna. It said an investigation was continuing into Kojo Annan's dealings with the program.


In a letter annexed to the report, Kojo Annan's lawyer, William R. Taylor, rejected any claim that Kojo Annan had not been wholly cooperative with the committee. But Taylor admitted he had not told his father the entire truth. ``He regrets the embarrassment that omission caused to his father and to the United Nations and accepts responsibility for it,'' Taylor wrote.


The Volcker report said that while Cotecna ``generally has cooperated'' with the investigation, the committee ``concludes that Cotecna has made false statements to the public, the United Nations, and the committee.''


After a British newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, reported the link between Kojo Annan and Cotecna in January 1999, the report said, ``Cotecna disguised its continuing relationship with Kojo Annan by routing the payments that were made to him'' through three different companies, in response to instructions from the secretary-general's son.


The secretary-general initiated an inquiry through his staff, which concluded within a day that Kojo Annan's connection to Cotecna was not known to the officials handling contract bids.


Volcker's investigation, however, concluded, that Kofi Annan's inquiry ``was inadequate'' and that the issue should have been referred to the U.N. legal office or internal watchdog.


In an attached letter, Kofi Annan's lawyer defended the secretary-general's action, saying he acted on the advice of three advisers.


Associated Press reporters Desmond Butler and Nick Wadhams contributed to this report.



03/29/05 15:44

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0001/20050329/1544374615.htm&photoid=20050329NYK711D

Jolie Rouge
04-06-2005, 11:49 AM
Senate Votes to Reduce U.S. Dues to U.N.
By KEN GUGGENHEIM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted Wednesday to reduce the United States' share of the cost of U.N. peacekeeping missions by tens of millions of dollars.

The vote reflected congressional criticism of the United Nations following allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the oil-for-food program for Iraq, sexual abuses by peacekeepers and other scandals.

U.S. dues are now capped at 27.1 percent of the peacekeeping budget. Under a 1994 law, that cap is to be reduced to 25 percent.

The Bush administration - with the support of Democrats - asked that the cap be maintained at 27.1 percent. A Democratic proposal to keep the higher cap was defeated in a 57-40 vote, mostly along party lines.


The United States is expected to spend about $1 billion on peacekeeping operations this year, with much of the money for activities in Sudan and Haiti. The administration is seeking about the same amount for next year.


If the cap were reduced, that could result in roughly a $75 million peacekeeping cut.


The vote came as an amendment to a bill authorizing $34 billion in spending on foreign aid and State Department operations for 2006. The figure generally reflects Bush's spending request and is about 13 percent more than current spending.


Prospects for the overall bill becoming law are unclear. No foreign aid authorization bill has been passed since 1985, according to Senate staff, largely because of disputes related to abortion policies and other issues. The actual funding for foreign aid comes from separate spending bills.


In arguing to allow the 25 percent cap to become law, Republican senators said this would strengthen the hand of U.S. diplomats as they negotiate the U.S. share of peacekeeping expenses and push for reforms at the United Nations.


Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist warned that if the Democratic proposal were adopted, ``we will make that job more difficult by conceding our willingness to live with the status quo.''


But Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the 25 percent cap could lead to the United States falling behind in its U.N. dues, as it did in the 1990s. He said it would compound problems caused by Bush's nomination of John Bolton, a sharp critic of the United Nations, to become the new U.N. ambassador, he said.


``The double whammy of sending Bolton to the U.N. and cutting our commitment ... would be a very serious problem,'' he said.


The House has not yet taken up its version of the bill. It is expected to include provisions calling for greater openness and other changes at the United Nations.



04/06/05 14:44


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1153&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050406%2F1444999256.htm&sc=1153

Jolie Rouge
04-14-2005, 06:17 PM
Texas businessman indicted in U.N. oil-for-food probe
From Phil Hirschkorn -- CNN
Thursday, April 14, 2005

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal authorities indicted a Texas oil executive, a South Korean businessman and two others Thursday as part of a U.S. probe of the United Nations' Iraq oil-for-food program.

David Chalmers, owner of the Houston-based company Bayoil Inc., which participated in the U.N. program, was arrested in the Texas city Thursday and made an initial appearance in federal court. Chalmers and two associates are accused of paying millions to the regime of Saddam Hussein to secure oil deals, thereby diverting money from the U.N. humanitarian aid program.

Kelley also announced an indictment against Korean businessman Tongsun Park, who allegedly worked as a lobbyist who tried to influence U.N. officials and disguised his relationship with the Iraqi regime. Park is believed to be at large in South Korea.

Chalmers faces three felony charges in an indictment unveiled by Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office is overseeing the federal criminal probe. Charged with the businessman were two of his oil traders -- John Irving of Britain, who lives in London, and Ludmil Dionissiev of Bulgaria, who lives in Houston as a permanent legal alien.

Irving and Dionissiev dealt with Baghdad and the foreign oil companies in pursuing deals with surcharges, according to the indictment.

An arrest warrant will be sought for Irving in the United Kingdom.

Chalmers and Dionissiev were each expected to post $500,000 bail -- including $150,000 in cash -- and appear in New York for their arraignment Monday.

The South Korean businessman, Tongsun Park, is accused of acting as an unregistered lobbyist for Iraq starting in the early 1990s and being paid $2 million by the Hussein regime.

Park is believed to be at large in South Korea. In the 1970s, Park was a lobbyist for the Korean government and a central figure in an influence-peddling scandal involving dozens of members of U.S. Congress.

Kelley said Chalmers and his associates "paid inflated commissions" to brokers "knowing and intending a portion of these commission payments were earmarked for the kickback to the Hussein regime."

"By doing this, the defendants were essentially diverting funds that otherwise would have been deposited to the oil-for-food escrow account from which humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people was to be paid," he said.

Bayoil, an oil refiner, distributes and trades petroleum-related products. It is one of a handful of U.S. oil companies that together accounted for less than 1 percent of the $64 billion in Iraqi oil sales during the seven-year humanitarian program.

Bayoil purchased nearly 6 million barrels of Iraqi oil in 1997, shortly after the program was launched, according to records from the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

Subsequently, according to the indictment, Bayoil paid "millions of dollars in secret illegal surcharges to the government of Iraq" for additional purchases of oil in 2000 and 2001.

Chalmers and Bayoil allegedly schemed to buy some 40 million barrels of oil allocated to other companies beginning in 2000, the same year Baghdad started imposing surcharges.

In addition to the price of oil, negotiations allegedly resulted in Bayoil wiring $1.3 million to a Swiss bank account controlled by the foreign oil company, which in turn wired the money through a Manhattan bank to an Iraqi-controlled front company in the United Arab Emirates.

In late 2001, the defendants allegedly paid another $839,000 surcharge for another 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil allocated to another company and then another $451,000 surcharge for another million barrels allocated to another company.

Kelley said the U.S. government intended to force Bayoil to forfeit at least $100 million in assets, which he called a "conservative estimate" of the total business the company conducted with Iraq.

The percentage of that sum paid in surcharges was not immediately disclosed.

However, a CIA-backed Iraq Survey Group report by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer found that surcharges on the U.N.-approved oil exports averaged about 25 cents to 30 cents a barrel.

Prosecutors estimated that Bayoil made at least $1 million in profits from its alleged offenses and are seeking twice that -- a maximum fine of $2 million -- from the company.

Accused refute charges

Chalmers is accused of wire fraud, conducting financial transactions with a state sponsor of terrorism and breaking the economic embargo with Iraq.

Criminal charges have also been levied against Bayoil USA and a Bayoil subsidiary chartered in the Bahamas. "We will vigorously dispute the allegations of criminal conduct," said Catherine Recker, one of Chalmer's attorneys, in a written statement. Recker said Chalmers and Bayoil would "enter pleas of not guilty when called upon to do so."

David Howard, who is representing Dionissiev, said in a written statement that his client intends to plead not guilty "because he is not guilty, and he will be found not guilty at trial."

"The complete absence of specifics in the government's indictment concerning Ludmil Dionissiev demonstrate that the government has seriously over-reached by charging him," Howard said.

The Chalmers and Bayoil indictments are the second case brought by federal prosecutors investigating the oil-for-food program.

In January, an Iraqi-American who lives in Virginia, Samir Vincent, pleaded guilty for illegally lobbying for Iraq. Vincent was paid by Baghdad to lobby U.S. and U.N. officials to lift economic sanctions on Iraq imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Vincent is now a cooperating witness, and as a result of his information, an indictment against an alleged Vincent accomplice was also announced Thursday.

The oil-for-food program was launched in late 1996 to aid Iraqi citizens adversely impacted by the sanctions and appeared to achieve its goals of delivering more than $40 billion of humanitarian goods, as well as paying for weapons of mass destruction inspections and reparations to Kuwait.

But the program has long been a suspected source of an estimated $2 to $4.5 billion of illicit revenue for Saddam, who extorted the illegal surcharges on the oil sold and an estimated 10 percent kickback on the food, medicine, and supplies purchased.

By design, Baghdad controlled which vendors participated in the program, but not its revenues; those were deposited into a back account controlled by the U.N., which approved the contracts.

The surcharges and kickbacks were deposited in Iraqi-controlled bank accounts in other countries.

Saddam's deposed regime also pocketed an estimated $6 to $8 billion bypassing the U.N. program by selling oil to neighboring Jordan, Turkey, and Syria, all with U.S approval in an effort to bolster its Mideast allies.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan strongly condemned the permitted smuggling activities Thursday. "It was on the American and British watch," Annan said. "They knew exactly what was going on. They decided to close their eyes."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/14/oilfood.indictment/index.html

Jolie Rouge
04-18-2005, 11:54 AM
Oilmen plead not guilty in oil-for-food case
Monday, April 18, 2005


NEW YORK (AP) -- Two Houston oilmen pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that they cheated the United Nations oil-for-food program out of humanitarian aid funds by paying millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime.

The pleas were entered by David B. Chalmers Jr., sole shareholder of Houston-based Bayoil (USA) Inc., and oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian citizen and permanent U.S. resident, during a brief proceeding in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Chalmers and Dionissiev were arrested Thursday at their Houston homes as federal authorities in Manhattan accused them of cheating the United Nations of at least $100 million that should have gone for humanitarian aid to Iraqis.

The men were charged along with a British citizen, John Irving. Prosecutors said they would seek Irving's extradition from England.

Chalmers and Dionissiev entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who continued to allow each of them to remain free on bail of $500,000, secured by $150,000 in cash.

The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It let the Iraqi government sell limited -- and eventually unlimited -- amounts of oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods.

Bart Dalton, a lawyer who said he has known Chalmers since the 1970s, spoke on behalf of the men outside court, saying they "entered pleas of not guilty for the best reasons possible. They are not guilty. We fully expect them to be exonerated of these charges."

Robert E. Welsh, entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Bayoil, said it was a "vibrant and active business."

If convicted of the charges, Chalmers, Irving and Dionissiev could face up to 62 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.

On January 18, Samir A. Vincent, 64, an Iraqi-born American businessman accused of skimming oil-for-food money, admitted to being an illegal agent of Saddam's government.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/18/oil.food.plea.ap/index.html

Jolie Rouge
04-20-2005, 06:12 PM
Oil-For-Food Investigators Resign
By DESMOND O. BUTLER and NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writers

UNITED NATIONS _ - Two senior investigators with the committee probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program have resigned in protest, saying they believe a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion operation was too soft on the secretary-general, a panel member confirmed Wednesday.

The investigators felt the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, played down findings critical of Annan when it released an interim report in late March related to his son, said Mark Pieth, one of three leaders of the committee. "You follow a trail and you want to see people pick it up," Pieth told The Associated Press, referring to the two top investigators who left. The committee "told the story" that the investigators presented, "but we made different conclusions than they would have."


The investigators were identified as Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan.

Parton, as the senior investigative counsel for oil-for-food, had a wide purview. He was responsible for investigations into the procurement of companies under the oil-for-food program and he was the lead investigator on issues pertaining to allegations of impropriety relating to the secretary-general and his son Kojo Annan. Duncan worked on Parton's team.

Parton, a lawyer and former FBI agent who has worked on a hostage-rescue team abroad, confirmed to AP on Wednesday that he resigned a week ago, but he declined further comment.

Duncan did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages left at the Rockefeller Family Fund, where she is a member of the board. She is a granddaughter of billionaire David Rockefeller.

The committee's interim report last month faulted Annan's management of the oil-for-food program, which was set up to help ordinary Iraqis cope with crippling U.N. sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein's regime after his 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The report also said Annan didn't properly investigate possible conflicts of interest surrounding a U.N. contract awarded to the Swiss employer of Kojo Annan. The investigators criticized Kofi Annan for refusing to push his top advisers further after they conducted a hasty, 24-hour investigation relating to his son and found nothing wrong. But the interim report cleared the secretary-general of trying to influence the awarding of the $10 million-a-year Swiss contract and said he didn't violate U.N. rules.


Annan said the report exonerated him — something Pieth denied at the time — and the secretary-general said he had no plans to resign. The investigation into Kojo Annan continues. Volcker has promised to deliver a final oil-for-food investigation report in mid-summer.

The oil-for-food scandal has been among a series of problems that have plagued the United Nations in recent months. U.N. peacekeepers have also been accused of sexual misconduct in Congo and other missions, while the former U.N. refugee chief was accused of sexual harassment.

Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard said the resignations were an internal committee matter and refused to comment. U.N. officials have repeatedly said the report speaks for itself.

A spokeswoman at Volcker's committee, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, said the resignations came after the investigators had completed the work they signed on to do.

Pieth acknowledged disagreements within the committee about how to interpret the evidence on Annan, but he denied investigators were censored. He also praised the work of Duncan and Parton. "I have high esteem for both Robert and Miranda," Pieth said. "It's not a bad parting. I think they are very capable people."

Pieth added, however, that he believed the two investigators got "personally very involved" in the probe and so grew upset. "Again, this is the nature of things," he said.


The inquiry committee has more than 70 investigators probing all aspects of oil-for-food, and Duncan and Parton were two of its most senior investigators.

The investigators report their findings to the three committee members — Volcker, Pieth and former Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone — who then make conclusions.

Pieth said the committee had deliberately created an atmosphere where investigators felt comfortable dissenting with others. "I am also quite happy that there are people who dare to speak their mind because that is one of the problems with the U.N. — that you have these guys nodding their heads," Pieth said. "We reproached the secretary-general that he was satisfied with his top guys, who told him after 24 hours that everything was fine," he added, referring to the internal probe of Kofi Annan. "It's not a good thing to have these guys who only say what you want to hear."


The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, let the Iraqi government sell limited — and eventually unlimited — amounts of oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods. But Saddam's government had authority to decide who would have the right to purchase oil and it is believed to have extracted kickbacks ranging from an estimated $9 billion to $21 billion.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050421/ap_on_re_us/oil_for_food_investigation

Jolie Rouge
04-21-2005, 04:27 PM
U.S. says oil-for-food report doesn't clear Annan

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.S. State Department official said Thursday that an interim report on bribery and other wrongdoing in the U.N. oil-for-food program didn't exonerate Kofi Annan as the secretary-general had proclaimed.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is attending the Asia Africa Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia.
By Suzanne Plunkett, AP

The statement from Mark Lagon, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, was the first time the United States had rebutted Annan's claim, made shortly after the release of the report on March 29, that he had been cleared by the committee.

Annan came under fresh scrutiny a day after The Associated Press reported that two senior investigators with the Independent Inquiry Committee resigned because they believed the report that cleared the secretary-general of meddling in the $64 billion program was too soft on him.

Lagon said the resignations were further reason to suggest Annan wasn't cleared.

"It appears that two people who had a hand in forming that report think that even what the report said was perhaps a little too charitable about the secretary general and his leadership," Lagon said.

The committee led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker faulted Annan's management of the oil-for-food program, which was set up to help ordinary Iraqis cope with crippling U.N. sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein's regime after his 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The report did clear Annan of interfering in the awarding of a $10 million-a-year U.N. contract to the Swiss employer of his son, Kojo Annan. But it also said Kofi Annan didn't sufficiently investigate possible conflicts of interest surrounding the contract.

"We aren't calling for the resignation of the secretary-general, however it is probably an exaggeration to suggest that the Volcker report exonerated the secretary-general," Lagon said.

Volcker's committee is investigating allegations of widespread fraud in the program, which ran from 1996-2003 and was meant to help ordinary Iraqis suffering under U.N. sanctions.

But Saddam's government had authority to decide who would have the right to purchase oil and it is believed to have extracted kickbacks ranging from an estimated $9 billion to $21 billion.

Scandal surrounding the oil-for-food program has become a problem that won't go away for Annan. Last week, U.S. Attorney David Kelley filed charges against three people allegedly connected to oil-for-food, including a South Korean businessman with ties to current and past U.N. officials such as former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, according to staff.

The Kelley complaint against the South Korean, Tongsun Park, cited two high-ranking U.N. officials — identified only as "official 1" and "official 2." It said Park met them in an apparent bid to influence the ultimate design of the oil-for-food program, and doesn't rule out the possibility that they may have been bribed.

According to the complaint, Park invested $1 million in a company run by the son of one of the officials. The company later folded

And on Wednesday, Annan's special envoy for North Korea, Maurice Strong, stepped aside after he acknowledged business ties with Park. The Volcker committee is investigating Strong's possible role in oil-for-food, while Strong denies he had anything to do with the program.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Strong conceded it was his son, Frederick Strong, who ran the company in which Park invested money. That would make Maurice Strong "official 2."

The newspaper identified the company as Cordex Petroleums Inc.

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, sent Volcker a letter demanding that he investigate the actions of the two unidentified U.N. officials.

Volcker and the leaders of his inquiry say their final report — expected in midsummer — will likely lead to dozens of criminal prosecutions by legal authorities in various countries for bribery, sanctions busting, money laundering and fraud.

Volcker recently underwent surgery to repair swelling in his abdominal aorta, his office said Thursday. He's in good health after the April 1 operation, according to a statement from his chief spokesman, Michael Holtzman. The committee's work wasn't delayed, his office said.

The operation is called an endovascular repair of an aneurism in the abdominal aorta. In layman's terms, Volcker's aorta had begun to swell where it passed through his abdomen. Doctors performed a minimally invasive procedure, inserting a stent to help blood flow.

If not addressed, such aneurisms can burst and cause massive internal bleeding.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-04-21-annan-off_x.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

Jolie Rouge
05-16-2005, 10:07 AM
US court rules for UN on papers in oil, food probe
1 hour, 3 minutes ago


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A federal court ordered Tuesday that a U.N.-commissioned independent inquiry into corruption in the oil-for-food program be allowed to inspect papers one of its investigators gave to a congressional panel.

The investigator, Robert Parton, a former FBI agent, resigned his post from the Independent Inquiry Committee headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Parton said the panel's last report was not tough enough on Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and he took materials from the independent inquiry with him.

The United Nations went to court last week after Parton turned over documents from the Volcker committee to the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee, led by Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde. The U.N. suit seeks to force Parton to return the documents and not comply with subpoenas from two other congressional committees.

Judge Ricardo Urbina in U.S. District Court in Washington ruled that Parton had to provide to the Volcker committee "the opportunity to inspect and copy all materials that the defendant allegedly copied, removed or otherwise ... obtained from the IIC," the Independent Inquiry Committee.

Urbana on May 9 issued a 10-day restraining order against Parton from responding to subpoenas from two committees as the Volcker panel had requested.

The U.N. complaint puts the inquiry committee on a collision course with the U.S. Congress where Republican legislators accuse the panel of undue secrecy. Volcker says he has to protect the credibility of his investigation.

Susan Ringler, counsel for the inquiry, said in a brief that the documents could "pose a grave risk to the safety of Iraqi witnesses, who if their names are disclosed, fear for their lives and the lives of their families."

But Parton, in a reply filed this weekend, said no lives were in danger and the names of sensitive witnesses had been "redacted" or crossed out.

He said that the committee had given Annan information that violated the confidentiality of a witness. The committee has denied this.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/un_usa_oil_food_dc

Jolie Rouge
05-17-2005, 07:19 AM
5/17/2005
U.S. role in oil-for-food probe eyed

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.S. Senate subcommittee sought to tie together the complex threads of Saddam Hussein's manipulations under the U.N. oil-for-food program in a hearing Tuesday, detailing how illicit Iraqi oil was sold to peddle influence and made its way to market — sometimes in the United States.

The daylong hearing in Washington was reviewing three major reports from the subcommittee of the U.S. Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, which studied in great detail how Saddam made billions of dollars in illegal oil sales despite U.N. sanctions imposed in 1991 after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Committee investigators argue that politicians from France, Britain and Russia were involved, as was a Texas-based oil company, Bayoil. And often, the United States and other members of the U.N. Security Council looked the other way. "On the one hand, the United States was at the U.N. trying to stop Iraq from imposing illegal surcharges on oil-for-food contacts," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said. "On the other hand, the U.S. ignored red flags that some U.S. companies might be paying those same illegal surcharges."

Those scheduled to testify Tuesday included George Galloway, the outspoken British lawmaker accused by the subcommittee of taking vouchers under oil-for-food.

In his opening statement at the meeting, subcommittee chairman Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said more than $300,000 in surcharges were paid to Saddam's regime in allocations involving Galloway. "Senior Hussein regime officials informed the subcommittee that the allocation holders — in this case, Galloway — were ultimately responsible for the surcharge payment and, therefore, would have known of the illegal, under-the-table payment," he said.

Speaking to reporters before the hearing began, Galloway said the subcommittee's investigation was intended to take attention away from failed U.S. efforts in Iraq. "It's the mother of all smokescreens," he said.

The oil-for-food program, which ran in 1996-2003, was designed to let Saddam's government sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods to help the Iraqi people cope with crippling U.N. sanctions. But Saddam peddled influence by awarding favored politicians, journalists and others vouchers for oil that could then be resold at a profit. He also smuggled oil to Turkey, Jordan and Syria outside the program, often with the explicit approval of the United States and the rest of the Security Council.

Many of the allegations made by Coleman's subcommittee are not new. In April, Bayoil USA owner David Chalmers was indicted in U.S. District Court for allegedly funneling kickbacks to Saddam. Chalmers has denied any wrongdoing.

But rarely had the allegations been spelled out with so much detail or scope. Coleman's investigators have interviewed former top Iraqi officials and businessmen, who provided a behind-the-scenes look at how Saddam's grand scheme worked.

Documents released Monday by the minority Democrats on Coleman's subcommittee studied two issues: Bayoil's involvement and a single instance that saw Saddam's regime smuggle more than 7 million barrels of oil out of the Iraqi port of Khor al-Amaya, apparently with U.S. knowledge, in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The report found that Bayoil imported some 200 million barrels over two years starting in September 2000 and sold it to U.S. oil companies. At that time, Saddam was trying to tinker with the price of oil so that when he sold it, companies could be compelled to pay him kickbacks.

The report claimed that Bayoil paid "directly or indirectly" some $37 million in kickbacks to Saddam even as the United States and other council members realized what the dictator was doing and began ordering price hikes to quash the kickbacks scheme.

Bayoil then sold the crude to U.S. companies, though there is no evidence the companies knew about the kickbacks, the report said.

The committee singled out the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, which the United Nations repeatedly warned about Bayoil's scheme. It cited an apparent misunderstanding in which U.S. authorities assumed the United Nations would monitor individual companies, while U.N. officials believed that was the responsibility of national governments.

The report's focus on the single instance of oil smuggling, through Khor al-Amaya, was meant to illustrate how Saddam sold oil outside oil-for-food.

The committee cited an October report by U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer saying that while Saddam pocketed more than $225 million illegally under oil-for-food, he made some $8 billion in illegal oil sales outside the program.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-05-17-oilforfood-us_x.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

Jolie Rouge
06-14-2005, 07:46 PM
Memo raises questions on Annan role in UN contract
By Irwin Arieff
June 14, 2005

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A newly disclosed memo appeared to cast doubt on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's insistence he was unaware of a bid by a Swiss firm that employed his son for a lucrative contract under the scandal-tainted U.N. oil-for-food program.

U.N.-appointed investigators were "urgently reviewing" the memo, Michael Holtzman, a spokesman for the Independent Inquiry Committee led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, said on Tuesday.

The memo described a late-November 1998 Paris meeting of Annan with officials of Cotecna Inspection Services, just weeks before the Geneva-based company won the contract. The contract has become a focus of Annan's critics, including several U.S. Republican lawmakers who have accused him of mismanagement and called for his resignation.

Chief U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan had no recollection of any such meeting during the trip to Paris, for a summit of French-speaking world leaders.

Annan's son, Kojo Annan, was a Cotecna consultant at the time of the encounter described in the memo, but it was unclear whether Kojo was present at the encounter. The document was written by Michael Wilson, a family friend of the Annans who was at the time a senior Cotecna executive.

The one-page Dec. 4, 1998, e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was addressed to top Cotecna executives and devoted just two sentences to the U.N. contract matter.

It stated: "We had brief discussions with the SG and his entourage. Their collective advise (sic) was that we should respond as best as we could to the Q&A session of the (sic) 1-12-98 and that we could count on their support."

The memo was first disclosed by the New York Times.

ANNAN HAS 'NO RECOLLECTION'

Annan, in Paris on Tuesday, "has no recollection of any such exchange," Eckhard told reporters.

A view that the United Nations would support Cotecna's bid "could not have come from the secretary-general because he had no knowledge that Cotecna was a contender for that contract," the spokesman said.

Cotecna officials later attended a question-and-answer session on the U.N. bidding in New York on Dec. 1, 1998 -- the meeting the memo was apparently referring to. Wilson, in a second memo obtained by Reuters, said the session went well.

"Our chances of getting the contract are very good. We presented a sound technical tender competitively priced. With the active backing of the Swiss Mission in New York and effective but quite (sic) lobbying within the diplomatic circles in New York, we can expect a positive outcome to our efforts," Wilson wrote.

The first memo, commenting on an unrelated matter, referred to the presence at the Paris summit of a Cotecna official identified as "KA," but it was unclear whether this was a reference to Kojo Annan.

Cotecna, U.N. officials and Kojo Annan's lawyers could not immediately say whether he had attended the Paris meeting or been in contact with his father at the time.

Cotecna won a multimillion-dollar U.N. contract on Dec. 31, 1998, to certify goods coming into Iraq under the $67-billion oil-for-food program, which ran from late 1996 until 2003.

The program is under investigation by several U.S. congressional committees as well as the Volcker panel.

The program allowed Iraq, then under U.N. sanctions, to export oil and use the proceeds to import humanitarian goods.

A report released by the Volcker committee in late March concluded Annan did not influence the contract award.

Cotecna, which said it uncovered the memo only recently, reiterated in a statement its view that it had won the contract "fairly and on the basis of price."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20050614/ts_nm/iraq_un_oil_dc


---------


I guess that Annan is using a page out of the Clinton handbook ... :rolleyes:

Jolie Rouge
02-02-2006, 09:23 PM
World's biggest miner BHP drawn into Iraq oil-for-food inquiry

SYDNEY (AFP) - The world's largest consolidated miner BHP Billiton has been drawn into an Australian probe into the UN oil-for-food scandal when the inquiry's head asked to be allowed to investigate the company's dealings in Iraq.

A commission of inquiry into the UN oil-for-food programme is investigating the payment of 220 million US dollars in kick-backs to the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein by Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB.

Inquiry head, former judge Terence Cole, Friday requested that the government expand the probe so he could investigate the dealings of mining giant BHP Billiton in Iraq.

Cole said it was appropriate that he request permission to investigate "BHP Billiton Limited and its associated companies and Tigris Petroleum Corporation," over a multi-million dollar wheat shipment funded by BHP a decade ago.


"The original transaction preceded the United Nations oil-for-food programme. However, there is material before this inquiry which suggests that the original transaction in 1995-6 might have been in breach of United Nations sanctions," Cole told the inquiry.


BHP Billiton said it would cooperate fully with the inquiry.


Cole did not ask to expand his rights to question the government's involvement, saying he was confident the inquiry's terms of reference allowed him to probe Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.


But he warned he may ask the government to widen his scope if he uncovers evidence of illegal acts by the government or its officers.


Prime Minister John Howard Friday rejected allegations that his government, which controlled AWB until mid-1999, knew about any illegal payments in Iraq.


"I did not know, my ministers did not know and on the information that I have been provided and the advice that I have received from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, I do not believe that the department knew that AWB was involved in the payment of bribes," he told commercial television.


"We frankly believed all along that AWB was an organisation of complete integrity."


Howard said he, his ministers and department officials were prepared to appear before the inquiry if asked to do so.


Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also stressed that his department was not aware of the alleged bribes.


"I am convinced that no-one in my department knew that AWB was paying kickbacks," he told Sky News.


The UN's probe last year accused AWB of paying 220 million dollars in bribes to Iraq to secure 2.3 billion dollars in wheat contracts during the oil-for-food programme.


These were the biggest payments made by any of the more than 2,000 companies worldwide that the UN report implicated in the scandal.


Senior AWB executives have denied knowingly paying bribes, saying they believed the cash was for transport fees, and have told the inquiry that their deals with Iraq were approved by the government.

02/02/2006

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-world-12-l3&flok=FF-AFP-shint&idq=/ff/story/7000%2F20060202%2F2230000001.htm&sc=shint


U.S. Official Pleads Guilty in Iraq Scheme
By TONI LOCY

WASHINGTON (AP) - A former U.S. occupation official in Iraq pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to steal more than $2 million and rigging bids on $8.6 million in reconstruction contracts.

Robert J. Stein, 50, of Fayetteville, N.C., admitted that he and his co-conspirators smuggled millions of dollars out of Iraq into the United States aboard commerical airliners and laundered cash through multiple bank accounts in Switzerland, Amsterdam and Romania.

Stein was a Defense Department employee who served as a contract official for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, controlling more than $82 million in funds slated for rebuilding the Middle Eastern country.

He told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that he also stole $600,000 in cash and used coalition money to buy dozens of machine guns and other weapons for use by a private security company he and his co-conspirators had formed to operate in Iraq.

The bulk of the bid-rigging benefited businessman Philip H. Bloom, who faces federal conspiracy and money laundering charges. Bloom's name was not mentioned in court Thursday. But prosecutors have identified him and his role in the Stein conspiracy in other court papers.


In exchange for steering contracts to Bloom, Stein and others received plane tickets, jewelry, alcohol and sexual favors from women at Bloom's villa in Baghdad.


Bloom, a U.S. citizen who lived in Romania for many years, and five U.S. Army Reserve officials have been implicated with Stein in the theft and kickback scheme, according to court records.


Stein told the judge that Bloom, whom he referred to as ``co-conspirator number 6,'' made the initial approach about the scheme and that the thefts and bid-rigging ``just came into play.''


When Kollar-Kotelly asked who was in charge, Stein said, ``I'd have to say myself, yes ma'am.''



02/02/06

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001/20060202/1311075976.htm&ewp=ewp_news_0206iraq_scheme

Jolie Rouge
11-26-2006, 10:45 PM
Charges recommended in oil-for-food scam
8 minutes ago

CANBERRA, Australia - An inquiry into multimillion-dollar kickbacks to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein paid by Australia's monopoly wheat exporter on Monday recommended criminal charges against 11 company officials but found no illegal activity by the government.

The final report of the royal commission into payments by the Australian Wheat Board, now known as AWB Ltd., under the U.N.'s corruption-riddled Iraq oil-for-food program was made public Monday when it was formally tabled in Parliament.

In his report, former judge Terence Cole said, "I found no material that is any way suggestive of illegal activity by the Commonwealth or any of its officers." The Commonwealth of Australia is a formal title used for the government.

Prime Minister John Howard ordered the inquiry last year after an investigation by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker exposed the AWB as the largest source of suspect payments under the oil-for-food program. From 1999-2003, AWB executives authorized $222 million in bogus transport fees to a Jordanian trucking company part-owned by Saddam's government, Volcker found.

Payments to Saddam were illegal under U.N. sanctions imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and former Trade Minister Mark Vaile were called to testify before the government inquiry in April.

All denied having any knowledge that AWB was breaking the U.N. sanctions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061127/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_oil_for_food

Australia inquiry says AWB misled UN over Iraq

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd may have breached Australia's Crimes Act over the payment of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, a judicial inquiry found on Monday.

The inquiry by retired judge Terence Cole found charges were possible against 11 managers of AWB, and found the company had misled the United Nation's oil-for-food program over $222 million in payments to Iraq before 2003.

Cole spent 11 months examining whether AWB had broken any Australian laws over the payments, mostly paid as trucking fees through Jordanian company Alia ahead of the 2003 Iraq war.

He found no Australian government minister or official had acted illegally over the payments.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061127/wl_nm/australia_awb_dc_1

Jolie Rouge
02-22-2007, 03:20 PM
5-year sentence in oil-for-food caper
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A South Korean businessman convicted of accepting at least $2 million to secretly work on Iraq's behalf to influence the United Nations' oil-for-food program was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison.

Tongsun Park was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin for his conviction seven months ago on conspiracy charges. A jury had rejected his claims that he was a middleman representing the U.N.'s interests in relieving the pain of Iraqis under Saddam Hussein.

The judge called it a "harsh" sentence for a 71-year-old man in poor health but said it was reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances.

"You acted out of greed, acted to profit out of what was supposed to be a humanitarian program," the judge said.

Park said he didn't want to speak in court. His lawyer noted his client's age, poor health and desire to get his life back on track.

Federal prosecutors said at Park's trial in July that he was part of a corrupt group of bureaucrats and oil tycoons who enabled a humanitarian effort to be twisted into a corrupt venture for bureaucrats, oil tycoons and Saddam.

Earlier Thursday, the judge rejected requests by Texas oilman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr.; Houston-based Bayoil (USA) Inc.'s sole shareholder, David B. Chalmers Jr.; and oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev to dismiss charges that they paid secret and illegal surcharges to Iraq to receive allocations of oil. Among the charges are wire fraud and conspiracy.

The judge noted that Wyatt had claimed he was being prosecuted solely because he criticized U.S. policies and actions toward Iraq but had offered no credible evidence to support the theory.

"Mere speculation that prosecutors were influenced by Wyatt's opposition to U.S. foreign policy is not sufficient to show discriminatory purpose," the judge wrote.

Park was convicted despite the few links between him and Iraq after 1997, even though the conspiracy was alleged to have stretched from 1992 to 2002.

The oil-for-food program from 1996 to 2003 let the Iraqi government sell oil primarily to buy food and medicine for Iraqis, suffering because of sanctions imposed on their country after it invaded Kuwait and brought about the first Gulf War. By 2000, authorities said, Saddam had begun insisting that those he dealt with pay kickbacks.

Prosecutors said Park exploited his relationship with former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to join an effort by Samir A. Vincent, an Iraqi-American, to earn the favor of Iraq and share as much as $45 million in windfall gains if the sanctions were lifted.

Authorities say the oil-for-food program was corrupted after Saddam was allowed to choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods.

Vincent, who testified against Park, has pleaded guilty to federal charges and is cooperating with the government. He said Park arranged meetings during 1993 involving Park, Boutros-Ghali and Vincent, including three meetings at Boutros-Ghali's New York residence.

Prosecutors said evidence proved that some money Park received from the government of Iraq was supposed to be used to "take care" of Boutros-Ghali.

An independent panel concluded in 2005 that Iraq had a scheme to bribe Boutros-Ghali but found no evidence the secretary-general was aware of the plot or received the money.

Park also faces trial in Washington on charges that he made false statements about his participation in the oil-for-food program during a December 2004 interview by FBI agents at the Watergate Hotel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070222/ap_on_re_us/oil_for_food;_ylt=AsyQskJ4PvyHoS7Yaan7Cm.s0NUE

Jolie Rouge
07-17-2007, 02:37 PM
July 17, 2007
Caught Red-Handed
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/018261.php

We have followed, from time to time, the loathesome career of George Galloway, formerly Saddam Hussein's chief shill in the West, more recently a defender of terrorists, hero to Western leftists, and cat impersonator.

His downward spiral continues: this morning, a Parliamentary committee released a report recommending that Galloway be suspended from Parliament for a month for concealing the fact that his "Mariam appeal," an alleged charity, was funded in part by Saddam Hussein. Galloway, true to form, tried to obscure the issue at hand by claiming that he deserves to be awarded a medal, not suspended from the House of Commons. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2090185.ece


The report is available here. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmstnprv.htm#reports


This represents, I believe, the fourth official inquiry that has found misconduct of some kind on Galloway's part in connection with Saddam's oil-for-food program.

There hasn't really been any doubt for some time about the fact that Galloway took money from Saddam in return for defending the tyrant; money from oil-for-food kickbacks has been traced not just to the Mariam Appeal, but to Galloway's wife's bank accounts. But the most interesting aspect of the Parliamentary committee's report is that it appended a translation of an audio recording of a meeting between Galloway and Saddam Hussein in 2002. At its conclusion, the transcript contains an exchange in which Galloway acknowledges that he has performed services for Saddam and has been paid for those services, but notes that his payments have been delayed and reduced by pressures which the oil-for-food program was then under.

The Parliamentary committee worked closely with Norm Coleman's Senate Subcommittee on Investigations; Norm deserves a great deal of credit for focusing attention on Galloway's misdeeds and sharing documentary evidence that it accumulated with the Parliamentary committee and others. This latest revelation ought to silence Galloway's defenders once and for all, but given their historic obliviousness to evidence, it probably won't.

UPDATE: Here is the key language from Galloway's meeting with Saddam Hussein and Tariq Aziz in August 2002:


Finally, may I say that our work has been going on for years and I believe that Your Excellency is aware of the results which we have achieved. Mr Tariq Aziz has helped us with his contacts and has used his influence to facilitate our job and facilitate the mechanism by which we have been able to obtain the funding necessary to finance our activities. But, we are now suffering from the problem of the price of oil which has resulted in a reduction in our income and delay in receiving our dues.

I don't see any way to understand those statements other than as an acknowledgement that Galloway was on Saddam's payroll.

Jolie Rouge
08-17-2007, 10:24 PM
Houston men plead guilty in UN oil-for-food scandal

They’re lucky they weren’t charged with treason.
Via the Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5063884.html


Houston oilman David Chalmers, accused of funneling illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s regime at at time when Iraq was the target of strict economic sanctions, pleaded guilty today to a conspiracy charge.

Chalmers’ business associate at Houston-based BayOil, Ludmil Dionissiev, pleaded guilty to one count of facilitating a shipment of merchandise into the United States, knowing that shipment to not be authorized by law.

That leaves Houston oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt as the lone defendant still slated to go to trial in September on charges he made millions of dollars in illicit payments to Saddam’s government for the privilege of buying Iraqi crude.

Wyatt attorney Carl Parker said today that his client is not guilty and intends to proceed to trial. Parker said he does not believe today’s guilty pleas will affect Wyatt’s prospects.

“I don’t think it will mean anything to Wyatt,” Parker said. “I think the government made a stretch trying to tie them together in the first place. They’re not partners. They haven’t acted together.”

The charges stemmed from oil sales conducted under the United Nations’ scandal-plagued oil-for-food humanitarian program for Iraq.

That program was designed to allow Baghdad to export crude to help the Iraqi people while keeping the proceeds out of Saddam’s hands.

But the Iraqi government began demanding that purchasers pay a secret surcharge to lift Iraqi crude. All three men were accused of funneling payments to Saddam’s government from mid-2000 to March 2003.


So, Oscar Wyatt is still set to go to trial. Here’s the latest on his case.
Like I said, he’s lucky he isn’t charged with treason: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5053155.html


Oscar Wyatt’s defense lawyers are trying to ensure a jury never sees an Iraqi document they say suggests the Houston oil tycoon “has committed the deplorable crime of treason.”

The 82-year-old Texas oilman is slated to stand trial in September on charges he funneled millions of dollars in illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s government in order to win lucrative oil export contracts.

The document in question suggests Wyatt discussed American troop levels and possible dates for an attack with members of Saddam’s regime, prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

While the purported discussion about troop levels and attack dates are reminiscent of some of the armchair speculation common in the runup to the war, the details varied from what actually occurred when the war started.

Wyatt attorney Gerald Shargel, in an interview today, said the document contains “not a single fact that wasn’t reported in media outlets both in the United States and internationally, not a single fact.”

In a motion filed late Monday in U.S. District Court, Wyatt’s lawyers argue: “This document essentially alleges that Wyatt has committed the deplorable crime of treason and aided an enemy of the United States.” The filing does not contain the document itself, although Wyatt’s lawyers have confirmed it is the one obtained by the Chronicle from other sources.

Wyatt’s lawyers want U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to keep the document from being presented as evidence at the trial because “such actions would likely to be considered repugnant by most Americans and could potentially cause bias.”


:rolleyes:

Ya think?

:rolleyes:


If you haven’t checked out the Oil-for-Food Facts website, you should.
http://www.oilforfoodfacts.org/