Oil for Food (OFF) Debacle aka UNSCAM
- Lawhawk
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» Lawhawk - Another person of interest...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,1503...-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Sevan's legal fees reimbursed using OFF monies...
http://www.nysun.com/article/10988Iraqi officials are outraged by a U.N. decision to use money collected through the oil-for-food program to reimburse Benon Sevan, the man at the center of the scandal surrounding the program.Mr. Sevan's legal fees are, in effect, to be paid from the same funds that he has been accused of misusing.
Representatives of the post-Saddam Iraq have complained that the account, a remnant of the oil-for-food era, has been used by the United Nations as its piggybank. Using it to defend the man accused of improprieties in handling Iraqi money as the program's chief is outrageous, Iraq's U.N. deputy ambassador, Faisal Istrabadi, said yesterday.
-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Kofi had more knowledge of Kojo's activities than he let on...
http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2...The committee has been interviewing Pierre Mouselli, a businessman in Paris who was Kojo's business partner. Their relationship started in 1998 when then 45-year old Mouselli met young Kojo (then 23) at a Bastille Day Party in the French Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. Mouselli, who has been a cooperative witness and is not under investigation himself, has told the committee numerous interesting things, which deserved to be followed up, They include:Roger, along with Claudia Rosett, is doing amazing work in this effort to unveil the corruption at the UN, via UNSCAM. The more information that comes out about UNSCAM, the less one should pin their hopes on the UN to do anything worthwhile.1. Previously unrevealed private meetings between Kojo and two separate Iraqi Ambassadors to Nigeria, arranged by Mouselli in or about August 1998. At these meetings Kojo presented the business card of Cotecna, which subsequently won the lucrative oil inspection contract for Oil-for-Food. Cotecna had previously been blacklisted from doing business in Nigeria for alleged arms trafficking.
2. A trip in September 1998 by Mouselli and Kojo to the Non-Aligned Nations Movement Conference in Durban, South Africa during which they traveled with the Secretary General's entourage and later had a private lunch with Kofi Annan. In Mouselli's view, the purpose of the lunch was to make the Secretary General aware of the various business dealings in which he and Kojo were engaged, in order to get the Secretary General's "blessing". It was Mouselli's understanding at the time that Kojo had previously discussed the Iraqi Embassy visits with his father, though he does not recall specific statements regarding the UN inspection contracts.
3. Early Autumn 2002. The Iraqi Ambassador to Nigeria makes a surprise call to Mouselli inquiring of the whereabouts of Kojo (at this point Mouselli and Kojo were not in close contact). Mouselli goes to the Iraqi Embassy where he is informed by the Ambassador that we (the Iraqis) have done favors for Kojo in the past and now need to see him. The Iraqis do not specify what these favors were or what they needed from Kojo, but offer Mouselli a visa to come to Baghdad for further discussion. Mouselli picks up the visa in Paris but does not go to Iraq because of the increasingly violent situation.
Mouselli appears to be reliable. I have spoken to him briefly on the phone in Paris and at some length with his attorney Adrian Gonzalez-Maltes. (Interestingly, witnesses and their lawyers seem not to be under confidentiality agreements in this investigation, possibly because there is no governing body to enforce them.)
-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - What report was Kofi reading?
If anyone thinks that the latest UNSCAM report exonerates Kofi from wrongdoing, they haven't been paying attention. The report does everything except explicitly state that Kofi should be fired from his job as Secretary General for his actions, inaction, and inability to police the oil for food program.-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - It keeps getting worse
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedco...Former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali appears to have involved himself in a sub-scandal here. As described in Volcker's first interim report, Boutros Ghali apparently chose Banque National de Paris (BNP) to serve as the bankers for Oil-for-Food — even though the bank didn't qualify under U.N. procurement standards for the contract.Moreover, Fakhry Abdelnoor — identified in the CIA's 2004 report on Oil-for-Food as Sevan's courier for his Iraqi-supplied oil vouchers — is Boutros-Ghali's nephew.
Sevan has been charged with receiving millions of dollars in vouchers entitling him to receive oil allocations that were later sold to Abdelnoor's oil company, The Africa Middle East Petroleum Company of Panama.
Sevan repeatedly denied knowing Abdelnoor, yet Volcker's investigators found two of his business cards in a search of his U.N. office, and Abdelnoor's name appeared repeatedly in Sevan's phone logs.
Indeed, Sevan was introduced to Abdelnoor by Boutros-Ghali's brother-in-law, Fred Nadler. Could this all be a coincidence?
It certainly looks like nepotism, favoritism and outright willful ignorance of proper management were the rule at the United Nations. Fixing such problems does not happen slowly or easily — and a push for such reform must come from the outside.
This is why the House Committee on International Relations is drafting legislation to help put an end to practices such as this. We will include practical solutions to help achieve better management at the United Nations.
Our effort is only the beginning. The United Nations must get its own arms around its multitude of internal obstacles to accountability and proper management. These problems were always there, I believe — but are only coming to light, under the microscope of Oil-for-Food investigations.
-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Sen Coleman Reiterates: Annan Must Go.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/...-- posted by Lawhawk
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