Oil for Food (OFF) Debacle aka UNSCAM

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=131...

Top 93. Dec 7, 2004 7:19 AM

» Lawhawk - DLC getting in on the oust-Annan action

Unfortunately, the United Nations' credibility has been steadily eroded by its own misdeeds, with a burgeoning scandal over its incompetent and sometimes corrupt management of the Iraq oil-for-food program being the most damaging example. Last week it was reported that the son of U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan received a series of payments from a Swiss firm that won a lucrative contract under the oil-for-food program. This development has fed growing doubts that the United Nations will be able to own up to its problems or reform its operations so long as Annan remains at the helm.
The appearance of a payoff to the secretary general's son was just the latest in a series of revelations about the oil-for-food program. Begun in 1996, the program allowed Baghdad to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food and other humanitarian goods in order to soften the impact on the Iraqi people of the sanctions imposed on the country after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. A U.N. committee supervised the program; vetted contracts for food purchases; arranged payments; and hired inspectors to ensure Iraq did not import material that could be used for arms.
But mismanagement, corruption, and manipulation of the program by Saddam Hussein allowed his regime to amass at least $21 billion outside of the United Nations' control, with the great bulk of that sum -- $17.3 billion -- pilfered between 1997 and 2003 on the secretary general's watch. In effect, the United Nations colluded in Saddam's successful evasion of U.N. sanctions. The most damning charge so far -- that a former chief of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, accepted bribes from Saddam's regime -- was made in October by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer, who led a Senate investigation into the scandal. The program is now the subject of at least four congressional investigations, three U.S. federal investigations and the U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has underscored the urgency of such investigations, noting not only that the size of the fraud is "staggering," but also that some of Saddam's vast illicit stash might right now be funding terrorists and costing American lives. In an opinion piece in last week's Wall Street Journal, Coleman urged Annan to resign. "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 occurred under the U.N.'s collective nose."
Annan's handling of the fallout over the past week has done nothing to improve his perceived credibility: He has refused requests from congressional committees for access to the United Nation's 55 internal audits and other reports, or for the chance to interview U.N. officials who oversaw the program, saying that it would interfere with the Volcker inquiry. That inquiry is expected to release an interim report in January. The full report could take another year and cost as much as $30 million -- to be funded with leftover cash in the oil-forfood program.
Annan's intransigence should not deter the Senate subcommittee on investigations or other congressional investigations. Volcker can hardly be expected to conduct a thorough and unbiased inquiry into a scandal in which the U.N. secretary general and his son are involved. The world deserves a full and thorough accounting of what transpired. The sooner the United Nations can get past this matter, the sooner it can get back to the important business of making itself an effective instrument for collective security against terrorism, failed states, and acts of genocide, a goal that Annan has strongly supported. The secretary general should place this critical mission ahead of his personal interests, and step aside. Given his own lack of credibility on the oil-for-food program, this step is the price Annan must pay to help restore the U.N.'s credibility, and to salvage his legacy as secretary general.

Indeed.

-- posted by Lawhawk

Top 94. Dec 7, 2004 12:30 PM

» Lawhawk - Re: DLC getting in on the oust-Annan action

In response to DLC getting in on the oust-Annan action posted by Lawhawk:

Correction/clarification issued by the DLC says that they only want Annan off the UNSCAM investigations, not out of his job. Too bad the DLC doesn't see the folly of Annan keeping his job which entailed overseeing the bureaucracy responsible for the UNSCAM in the first place, not to mention all the other malfeasance.

-- posted by Lawhawk

http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/...

Top 95. Dec 7, 2004 12:32 PM

» Lawhawk - Missing the big picture

-- posted by Lawhawk

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/211...

Top 96. Dec 8, 2004 7:10 AM

» Lawhawk - Sevan laundered UNSCAM money in family businesses

Congressional investigators are examining whether the former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program laundered profits from shady oil deals with Saddam Hussein through family businesses in Cyprus to make it look as if his newfound wealth was coming from an "inheritance."
A spokesman for the House International Relations Committee told The Post yesterday the panel is investigating new information that ex-oil-for-food chief Benon Sevan concocted an elaborate scheme to hide profits he received from sweetheart oil deals by diverting money to family members in his native Cyprus.
"The information we received is that he diverted the money [from the deals] to family members in Cyprus," the spokesman said.
"We have been informed that it was set up so that if he were to be put in a room and asked where his money came from, he would say it came from inheritance from his grandmother or an aunt."
The committee is now searching for a money trail through banks in several countries, the spokesman said. Sevan hasn't been questioned by the congressional probers.

This would be extremely damning to Sevan if the investigators can cull sufficient evidence and/or get Sevan to cop to laundering the money via his family businesses in Cyprus.

-- posted by Lawhawk

Top 97. Dec 8, 2004 7:13 AM

» Lawhawk - Sen. McCain defends Annan

http://www.observer.com/pages/conason.asp - this is a rather curious position for McCain to take. He's trying to show himself to be a moderate within the GOP so that he increases his credibility among Democrats going forward and particularly towards a 2008 Presidential bid. Future statements made by McCain must be considered in light of his desire to run for President.

Similarly, the same should be said of potential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bill Frist, Rudy Giuliani, Gov. George Pataki, and even former candidates Al Gore, John Kerry, and John Edwards, who may all test the waters in 2008.

-- posted by Lawhawk

http://nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumn...

Top 98. Dec 10, 2004 6:09 AM

» Lawhawk - Lack of accountability

Americans tend to be baffled by these reactions. They look at the multiplying scandals around the United Nations and wonder how the man in charge can avoid being held responsible for any of it by other countries.
But the explanation is simple: Kofi Annan is the symbol of the United Nations' lack of accountability. He is never held responsible for what goes wrong, because the United Nations is never held responsible, either. It sails in a cloud of noble idealism over the actual failures, hypocrisy, corruption and outright criminality that attend some U.N. actions on the ground below.
And there is a polite consensus outside the United States not to notice the glaring contradictions between idealism and reality. Too many influential people and institutions have invested too much in the United Nations and the U.N. system to see its flaws clearly.

No kidding.

-- posted by Lawhawk

http://www.nysun.com/article/6076

Top 99. Dec 10, 2004 7:45 AM

» Lawhawk - What did Kojo actually do?

The next chapter of the Kofi Annan saga will focus on whether there was any real substance to the job for which the secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, received lucrative payments during a period of years in which he was ostensibly working in West Africa.

-- posted by Lawhawk

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/363...

Top 100. Dec 13, 2004 7:07 AM

» Lawhawk - City, State, and Feds Investigating Rich's Ties to UNSCAM

Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned.
Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said.
"We think he was a major player in this — a central figure," a senior law-enforcement official told The Post.
Investigators are looking into a series of deals that took place in the months after his pardon from Clinton. If criminal wrongdoing is established in these deals, he could be subject to prosecution.
Investigators say they have received information that Rich and Ben Pollner, a New York-based oil trader who heads Taurus Oil, set up a series of companies in Liechtenstein and other countries that they used to put together deals between Saddam and his international supporters in the controversial oil-voucher scheme — which the dictator designed to win international support against U.S. sanctions at the United Nations.
Under the scam, hundreds of international political and financial figures from France, Russia and other countries were awarded middleman vouchers allowing them to purchase set quantities of Iraqi oil at discount rates.
These so-called "non-end users" could then resell the oil on the open market and make profits of up to 50 cents a barrel. Benon Sevan, who headed the U.N. oil-for-food program, is among those listed in Iraqi Oil Ministry documents as having been a recipient of the vouchers.
Since most of the recipients did not have refineries or cargo ships, they needed to sell the oil to someone else who could ship the oil out of Iraq in order to cash in.

Investigators now believe Rich and Pollner brokered many of the deals by finding buyers for the oil allocated to people who were bribed by Saddam. The discount Iraqi oil would be resold to major oil companies at higher prices and Rich and Pollner would pocket percentages of the profits, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, sources said.
"To make this work, they needed someone who knows what he's doing and how to put these deals together," the senior law-enforcement official said of Rich's role in the scandal.
So intense is the interest of prosecutors in the Rich connection that Pollner was recently "grabbed" and questioned by investigators from Morgenthau's office as he was on his way to Kennedy Airport for an overseas trip, a law-enforcement official told The Post.

Read the whole thing. Rich was pardoned by President Clinton right before he left office, and many questioned the reasoning and rationale for the pardon in light of the fact that Rich was still on the lamb for tax fraud. Now, it seems that President Clinton unleashed Rich to engage in yet more criminal activity relating to the UNSCAM.

-- posted by Lawhawk

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/363...

Top 101. Dec 13, 2004 7:22 AM

» Lawhawk - Marc Rich A Lifelong Dirty Dealer

The still-in-exile commodities trader is the world's preeminent sanctions-buster, having earned a massive fortune through decades of financial skulduggery.
Prosecutors say Rich sold Soviet oil to South Africa's apartheid regime and that he bought oil from Libya's Moammar Khadafy and Iran's ayatollahs while they were under worldwide embargos.
Rich is also alleged to have helped Mafia figures plunder Russian financial resources after the fall of communism, and did business with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Romanian butcher Nicolai Ceaucescu — all at a time when U.S. businessmen were barred from dealing with those countries.
His deals have earned him a fortune estimated between $1 billion and $8 billion. Rich and his glamorous second wife, Gisela, live in a mansion in Zug, Switzerland.
The Saddam allegations are "perfectly consistent with Marc Rich's pattern of behavior, and it confirms that he never should have been pardoned," said former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the U.S. attorney who got Rich indicted in 1983.
Rich, 68, whose friends insist is now "semi-retired," was born Marc David Reich in Belgium and fled with his Jewish parents to the United States in 1942 to escape the Nazis.
His career began in 1954 at Phillips Brothers, then a big Wall Street trader. He made his first deal with a rogue state, Castro's Cuba, a few years later. In 1975, he started his own firm and is credited with creating the "spot oil market," in which middlemen purchase and resell oil.
The indictment, which also named his partner, Pincus Green, charged that Rich bought $200 million worth of oil from Iran during the embassy hostage crisis, and that he evaded $8 million in taxes.
He fled the United States to Zug, where he ingratiated himself with local authorities by hosting ritzy parties and donating hundreds of millions of dollars to charities in Switzerland, Israel and other countries.
In 1984, Rich pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a record $172 million fine for tax evasion. But prosecutors also wanted jail time, so he chose to continue his life of elegant exile.
There also have been whispers of his involvement in intelligence operations with the Israeli Mossad and other clandestine services.
Rich always kept one step ahead of U.S. marshals, who had launched at least two operations in Europe to try to apprehend him.
His pardon in the waning hours of the Clinton presidency came after his ex-wife, Denise, a songwriter and Manhattan socialite, organized a massive campaign. It was helped in part by donations of more than $1 million to Democratic campaigns and Clinton's defense fund, library fund and Hillary Rodham Clinton's New York Senate campaign.

-- posted by Lawhawk