Kofi Responds to the Oil-For-Food Charges

[Guest MikeSC]

US and UK blamed for oil scandal

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan

Mr Annan has become embroiled in the oil-for-food scandal

The US and Britain are partly to blame for the scandal enveloping the UN oil-for-food programme, Secretary General Kofi Annan has said.

 

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein made billions of dollars smuggling oil in defiance of sanctions policed by the US and Britain, the UN chief said.

 

Mr Annan was recently criticised over his son's work with the programme.

 

A UK government minister told the BBC that an interim report had criticised the UN, not national governments.

 

The $60bn (£32bn) UN programme allowed Iraq to sell oil in order to buy civilian goods and ease the impact of UN sanctions.

 

 

The bulk of the money Saddam Hussein made out of smuggling was on the American and British watch

 

Kofi Annan

UN Secretary General

US Senate investigators have alleged that the Iraqi regime received some $4bn (£2.13bn) in illegal payments from oil companies involved in the programme.

 

The BBC's Michael Voss in New York says this figure is dwarfed by the $14bn (£7.5bn) that allegedly came from "sanctions-busting" - illegally selling oil to neighbouring states such as Jordan and Turkey.

 

Overland route

 

"The bulk of the money that Saddam [Hussein] made came out of smuggling outside the oil-for-food programme, and it was on the American and British watch," Mr Annan said.

 

An Iraqi oil field worker checks pipes at the West Qurna oil field in Iraq

Iraq made billions of dollars from illegal oil sales and bribes

 

"Possibly they were the ones who knew exactly what was going on, and that the countries themselves decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan because they were allies."

 

Oil shipments were openly sent from Iraq to Jordan and Turkey during the 1990s and were not intercepted, despite the US maintaining forces in the Gulf area.

 

The overland route from Iraq to Turkey was a very busy oil route, very clearly officially sanctioned by Turkey, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond in Istanbul.

 

It is difficult to believe that the large US and UK embassies in Turkey would not have known that a large quantity of Iraqi oil was being smuggled across the border, our correspondent adds.

 

Mr Annan partly excused the smuggling to Jordan and Turkey, accepting that countries not under sanctions had a right to be compensated for any loss of trading income.

 

'Vigorous action'

 

Gross incompetence has cost the UN any and all credibility it could possibly have

Drew, Trinidad, West Indies

 

Allegations of kickbacks and illegal trading under the oil-for-food programme are being investigated by an independent committee headed by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.

 

In two interim reports, the committee has questioned the ethical conduct of the programme's head, Benon Sevan, and the involvement of Mr Annan's son, Kojo Annan, in a company linked to the oil-for-food deals.

 

UK Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said the UK took "vigorous actions" to ensure that the sanctions regime was not undermined.

 

Pointing to the criticism of the UN in the two interim reports, he added: "I think the UN has to learn those lessons.

 

"I know Kofi Annan wants to do that and we want to work with him to achieve it."

 

On Thursday a Texan, a Briton and a Bulgarian were indicted for bribery.

 

Texan David Chalmers Jr, Bulgarian Ludmil Dionissiev and British oil trader John Irving are accused of paying bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4447165.stm

Ah, so now the Oil-For-Food Scandal was the Americans and British government's fault --- not HIS fucking inept leadership's fault?

-=Mike

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Well, the U.S. and U.K. are part of the U.N., so yes, in a way it is their fault.

 

And, if you think about it, it's our fault to. So, to all those Iraqis that didn't get any food, well, my bad. It won't happen again...

[2GOLD 0]

Oh Kofi, you so crazy.

Ever notice how when the UN does something bad, Kofi apologizes sorta kinda at first and then turns around and claims that the UN is a patsy in all of it?

 

You can set your watch by how face Kofi switches blame.

And he didn't have the balls to blame Canada cause he knew Canada would totally kick his ass.

[Vyce 0]

Forgive me, I've never really paid much attention to UN heads before Annan, so I have to ask in all sincerity: is he just the worst, most inept UN chief ever?

 

I mean, I don't know about the others, so maybe there's been some real fucktards out there.

 

It just seems as if Annan is pretty goddamn spectacular in his awfulness.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

But he recently received a standing ovation from his U.N. bum chums so he can't be all that bad, can he?...

[edotherocket 0]

"The bulk of the money that Saddam [Hussein] made came out of smuggling outside the oil-for-food programme, and it was on the American and British watch," Mr Annan said.

 

An Iraqi oil field worker checks pipes at the West Qurna oil field in Iraq

Iraq made billions of dollars from illegal oil sales and bribes

 

"Possibly they were the ones who knew exactly what was going on, and that the countries themselves decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan because they were allies."

 

Okay so what's he getting at here? That he thought that the U.S and U.K troops were *possibly* turning a blind eye to smuggling and he just did nothing the whole time?

 

That still doesn't make him look any good in this situation!

[Guest MikeSC]

Just to show how bad this whole investigation has been, beat this:

AP: Oil-For-Food Investigators Resign

 

Wed Apr 20, 6:09 PM ET

 

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=/a...investigation_5

Yes, 2 of the investigators are resigning due to the whitewash on Kofi's behalf.

 

It's time for the US to withhold every red dime from every single UN group until this whole thing is resolved.

-=Mike