Oil for Food (OFF) Debacle aka UNSCAM
- Lawhawk
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» Lawhawk - U.N. and Congress in Dispute Over Iraq Oil-for-Food Inquiries
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/28/politi...Congressional committees investigating allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq are at odds with the organization's own inquiry over access to records and personnel, legislators and United Nations officials said yesterday.The officials and diplomats said that in meetings in Washington on July 13, Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve who is leading the United Nations' internal investigation, rejected requests from members of Congress for access to review documents and to interview United Nations officials being scrutinized by his panel.
"He wants us to do nothing now while he does what he can, by persuasion, since his panel can't fire or subpoena anyone," said Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut, who attended one of the meetings. "But we will press on."
-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Serious Charges - Investigations Continuing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3...-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Whiskey A-Go-Go
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/288...Saddam Hussein used the U.N. oil-for-food program to illegally import thousands of gallons of Johnnie Walker whiskey in order to keep his elite Republican Guard happy, according to a new report.
Fox News Channel, in a special report scheduled to air tomorrow night, quotes a U.N. whistleblower as revealing that Saddam was importing the expensive Scotch in the guise of humanitarian supplies right under the noses of U.N. inspectors."The Republican Guards had to be kept in good moods and they were so sophisticated in this regard that he couldn't supply them with cheap whiskey from the Far East," said Paul Conlon, who was fired in 1995 from the U.N. Sanctions Committee.
"He actually had to buy Johnnie Walker and export it via a supplier of various things to his son Uday," Conlon told Fox.
Conlon added the Scotch was probably disguised as chemicals needed for various humanitarian projects.
The hourlong report that will be aired on the Fox program "Breaking Point" also reveals possible links between the al Qaeda terror network and a company selling supplies to Iraq under the oil-for-food program.
-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Friends of Saddam
http://acepilots.com/unscam/ - via Roger L. Simon, covers the UN Oil for Food Scandal. This site should be required reading for anyone learning about the UN's horrible record of oversight and complicity in allowing despots and dictators get away with murder via payoffs, bribery, shakedowns, and blood-tinged oil.-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Kofi's Son Got $3 Million Out Of Oil For Food Dealings
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,1333...The most sensational entry, however, was a single word: "Sevan." It suggested that "Sevan" may have received more than $3 million.The implications of this are immense and immediately apparent. Russia, France, and other nations who opposed US action are up to their eyeballs in this scandal, which saw billions diverted from their humanitarian aims to line the pockets of those who oversaw the program and looked the other way at Saddam's regime."Sevan" is also the last name of Benon Sevan (search), the man picked in 1997 by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to run the Oil-for-Food program at a salary of $186,000 a year.
"He is a clear suspect," said Rep. Christopher Shays (search), R-Conn., chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations.
Sevan has refused to discuss Oil-for-Food with reporters this year but FOX has confirmed that Sevan has told Annan that he is innocent.
"If Mr. Sevan's name appears on this list ... that would be deeply shocking," said Denis Halliday (search), the former head of Oil-for-Food's Baghdad operation and an outspoken critic of U.S. policy toward Iraq.
Halliday dismisses the Oil-for-Food scandal as a "small" matter, whether or not Sevan received millions from Saddam.
"I mean, every large organization has problems," Halliday said. "So let's not kill the organization because we have one or two people who may or may not have been corrupt."
But Sevan was not just any person — he was the chief Oil-for-Food watchdog for the U.N. Security Council.
In fact, the Al Mada list contains numerous names from two Security Council countries that opposed Operation Iraqi Freedom: Russia and France.
From Russia alone, there are 46 entries on the Al Mada list — including scores of Kremlin ministries and the Russian Orthodox Church. Among the dozen or so French names listed: at least one senior government official close to French President Jacques Chirac (search).
What's more, FOX News obtained a secret Oil-for-Food computer database listing some of the companies from which Saddam chose to "buy" goods. Again the Security Council looms large.
Between January 1997 and February 2001 alone, French companies listed in the database sold more than $2.9 billion worth of goods to Iraq. Russian companies got almost $2.6 billion and Chinese firms received nearly $1.9 billion. Sales from the United States and the United Kingdom amounted to $376 million.
Russia, France and China are permanent members of the Security Council and all opposed U.S. and British efforts to topple Saddam before the second Gulf War.
The issue is whether Oil-for-Food corrupted both the U.N. administration and the Security Council itself, therefore affecting decisions of war and peace.
Shays fears it did.
-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Company admits thousands of tons of banned materials smuggled
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/309...A company hired by the United Nations to police humanitarian shipments to Iraq under the oil-for-food program has admitted that thousands of tons of questionable material was likely smuggled to Saddam Hussein's regime under its watch, The Post has learned.In a series of recent formal meetings with congressional investigators, executives from the Swiss-based Cotenca Inspection S.A., a company that functions like a private customs service, claimed the lack of shipment-inspection authority given by the United Nations to its agents hampered its ability to keep Saddam from busting sanctions.
The company, which is under subpoena from a handful of congressional committees, has admitted its agents really did little more than inspect paperwork of the hundreds of thousands of shipments of goods that went into Iraq and only got to look at the actual shipments if the importers agreed to co-operate.
A great many truck drivers simply "bullied their way" into Iraq without having their shipments looked at by Cotenca at all, congressional investigators said.
Cotenca said that while it was able to inspect most of the shipments of food that went into Iraq, it was able to inspect only 10 percent of the more sensitive shipments of other goods sent to Saddam's regime, congressional investigators said.
The company also said that its agents were only stationed at four border crossings in a country the size of California and its agents only had one — frequently broken — forklift at Iraq's major seaport of Um Qasar.
"It's not really fair to call them an inspection company. They were basically functioning as a document authentication company and the implications of this are staggering," said a congressional investigator.
Cotenca's admission comes after months of back-and-forth tensions with investigating committees over a confidentiality agreement the company was forced to sign with the United Nations in order to get the inspection contract.
At the early stages of the scandal when congressional committees started looking for answers, U.N. officials wrote sternly worded letters to Cotenca and other companies doing business with the program, reminding them of their obligations to stay quiet. But in August, at least three congressional committees issued subpoenas to Cotenca and top executives are expected to be in Washington on Oct. 5 to testify about their role in the program before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security.
-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - Congress Investigating Oil for Food
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ci...Congressional investigators examining "a semitrailer truck load" of subpoenaed documents are trying to determine whether lax monitoring at a French bank that held more than $60 billion for the U.N. oil-for-food program facilitated illicit business deals by the former Iraqi government, officials told The Associated Press.Although BNP Paribas isn't the target of the probe involving companies and individuals in 50 countries, the documents could provide a road map to alleged corruption at the United Nations (news - web sites) and by politicians from France, Russia, Britain, Indonesia and Persian Gulf states who have been implicated.
The three congressional panels that subpoenaed BNP Paribas documents are looking into whether the bank met minimum standards that require financial institutions to identify customers, partly to prevent money laundering. The committees are among at least five in Congress investigating allegations of U.N. corruption and reports that Iraqis skimmed billions of dollars in kickbacks through deals administered by the United Nations.
Investigators also are pressing for information from the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Bank of New York, which is responsible for regulating foreign banks operating in the United States.
"From our perspective this is a scandal of overwhelming proportions. There are so many pieces. We want to follow the money wherever it leads," said Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The United Nations' largest humanitarian aid program from 1996 to 2003, when it ended, oil-for-food was designed to allow the former Iraqi government to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from sanctions in place since 1991.
The BNP bank, which held the escrow account through which all of the U.N. program's oil money flowed, maintains investigators sought its documents as evidence targeting other companies and individuals. But several congressional panels say the bank also is under scrutiny.
-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - BNP Paribas Under Scrutiny
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/310...-- posted by Lawhawk
» Lawhawk - House Panel Slams UN Oil-For-Food Program
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,1342...Congressional investigators have uncovered new evidence of corruption within the U.N. Oil-for-Food program (search) and are expected to unleash a fresh barrage of accusations and criticisms next week, FOX News learned Friday.A memo, obtained by FOX, was prepared for members of the House subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations. The panel, chaired by Rep. Christopher Shays (search), R-Conn., will hold a hearing on the matter next Tuesday.
The committee will be highly critical of what it says is the lack of transparency about Oil-for-Food, a program the United Nations created in late 1996 to allow the Iraqi government to sell oil so it could buy humanitarian goods. But officials believe billions of dollars were diverted to Saddam Hussein and his associates.
Investigators said the list of oil purchasers was not known and the list of humanitarian providers was not known. Plus they found that not only were internal U.N. audits not released, they continue to be withheld from both member states of the United Nations as well as from the public.
But the committee will also single out certain Security Council (search) nations as being complicit in the corruption, among them France, Russia and China. Businesses from these nations, the memo says, made billions through their involvement with Saddam’s regime.
-- posted by Lawhawk
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