Winds of Change.NET: U.N. Oil for Corruption Scam Update: Dec. 3/04

December 3, 2004

U.N. Oil for Corruption Scam Update: Dec. 3/04

by Joe Katzman at December 3, 2004 2:26 AM

After the Enronesque rip-off of UNSCAM, any other CEO would be packing his bags. Especially if his lieutenants and son were involved. So why isn't Kofi Annan packing his bags, and what makes the U.N. different? Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN, Chair of U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee member) wants to know. His indictment of the supposed "internal investigation" by Paul Volcker is devastating.

To add to the pressure, the Oil for Food Accountability Act has been introduced in the House and Senate. It proposes witholding U.S. dues to the U.N. until the President certifies that the U.N. in really cooperating in the UNSCAM investigvation. The media attention this would aim at the U.N. would make the law's passage a good thing all by itself.

Meanwhile, Clinton pardon-recipient Marc Rich may be up to his old tricks - he's being investigated in connection with UNSCAM. This time, maybe they can keep him in jail.

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Tracked: December 4, 2004 10:13 PM

UN Reform -- Solving the wrong problem from Ravings of John C. A. Bambenek

Excerpt: Maybe this is a day late and a dollar short, but I wanted to comment on some observations about the reform effort at the UN. It strikes me that it really doesn't solve the problem, or more accurately, it's looking at the wrong problem. The main refo...

Comments

#1 from Ron Wright at 5:06 am on Dec 03, 2004

There are considerable discussions taking place on this and related issues at TCP, LGF, Jihad Watch, Roger L. Simon, and the Belmont Club.

See my post on Roger's site that has links to some of these discussions:

The UN Oil for Food scandal is just the tip of many connected icebergs

[...]

This is all a big bunch of BS. The UN and the IAEA can go stick their heads where the sun doesn't sign and for that matter the French government too!!

[...]

Ron Wright, Moderator
HSPIG Forums Site
www.hspig.org

#2 from Ron Wright at 5:10 am on Dec 03, 2004

Yes, I meant to say "shine" and not "sign."

BTW the HSPIG Forums Site has over 2000 articles, essays, and other info on the War On Terror

www.hspig.org

Click on "security forums" in the toolbar.

Ron Wright

#3 from dingo at 7:55 pm on Dec 03, 2004

Last I heard, the internal investigation is headed by Volker but run by a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who specialized in government corruption cases in his district. He's been on the job for only a couple of months, so I can't see how Coleman's 'indictment' of the internal investigation can be devestating.

#4 from Joe Katzman at 8:59 pm on Dec 03, 2004

Dingo,

Read the article. The complete lack of power of the investigators, as well as the lack of cooperation from the UN, make Coleman's distrust well earned. When the entity being investigated, with a CEO strongly connected to the problem, hires the investigators, has no penalties for noncompliance or misleading the investigators, then has a system where it receives the report and then decides what to release.... no, that isn't even remotely credible by any standard and noting these flaws is indeed devastating.

Would you have accepted that response from Enron?