| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"^Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
01 Aug 2005 09:32:03 PM |
| Object: |
HUH, I thought everything was Bush's fault. |
U.N. Oil-for-Food Scandal
Oil for Food Clues
The Wall Street Journal
July 29, 2005
The press corps continues to topple whole forests pursuing the
leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity. But we thought our readers might
prefer an update on the far more important Oil for Food investigations,
which are moving fast and promise more breakthroughs soon.
Last month we learned that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan may
have been aware that Swiss inspections company Cotecna was bidding for an
Oil for Food contract it eventually won later that year. "We had brief
discussions with the SG and his entourage," says a memo written by Cotecna
executive and Annan family friend Michael Wilson. "Their collective advise
[sic] was that we should respond as best we could to the Q&A session ... and
that we could count on their support."
Mr. Annan has denied having any prior knowledge of the Cotecna
bid in testimony to Paul Volcker's committee investigating Oil for Food. But
if the substance of the Cotecna memo is accurate -- the company confirms its
authenticity -- it means the Secretary General may have misled
investigators. Mr. Volcker is checking the matter out, and we now know he
plans to issue at least three more reports -- two more than had been
originally planned -- in the coming weeks. It'll be interesting to see if
Mr. Annan will then be able to claim exoneration, as he did earlier this
year.
Then there is the continuing investigation of Benon Sevan, the
senior U.N. bureaucrat formerly in charge of Oil for Food. Back in February,
Mr. Volcker cited Mr. Sevan for "placing himself in an irreconcilable
conflict of interest," after he allegedly received oil allocations from
Saddam Hussein's regime worth up to $1.2 million.
It later emerged that Mr. Sevan had mysteriously inherited
$160,000 from a Cypriot aunt of modest means. Mr. Sevan is now the target of
a probe by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, although he enjoys
diplomatic immunity on account of a $1 annual U.N. salary. (Mr. Annan has
pledged to lift Mr. Sevan's immunity if criminal charges are filed; we'll
have to see if he honors it.)
Also of interest is the recent decision by the U.N. not to renew
the contract of Canadian businessman and former undersecretary general
Maurice Strong. Mr. Strong, who helped oversee Mr. Annan's first round of
organizational "reforms" in 1997 and was the U.N. point man on North Korea,
has admitted to hiring his stepdaughter to work in his U.N. office.
More seriously, Mr. Strong has a curious link to Korean
businessman Tongsun Park; in the 1990s, Mr. Park had a million-dollar stake
in a Calgary oil company called Cordex in which Mr. Strong and his son were
major investors. Now Mr. Park, who in the 1970s was a central figure in the
"Koreagate" influence-peddling scandal, has been indicted by U.S. Attorney
David Kelley for taking millions from Saddam to lobby two senior U.N.
officials on Oil for Food business. One of those U.N. officials, according
to Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper, is Mr. Strong.
For his part, Mr. Strong does not deny his connection to Mr.
Park, who now lives in South Korea: "Indeed, as a native of North Korea, he
has advised me on North Korean issues in my role as U.N. envoy," he says.
The U.N. has not been notably helpful in getting Pyongyang to abandon its
nuclear ambitions.
The Oil for Food probe is about the corruption of a U.N. that
claims to be the sole source of moral legitimacy for military action around
the world. Somehow this seems more important than who leaked the name of a
partisan CIA official who was safely ensconced at Langley and now rides the
Beltway cocktail circuit.
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| User: "cLIeNUX user" |
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| Title: Re: HUH, I thought everything was Bush's fault. |
01 Aug 2005 09:48:52 PM |
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U.N. Oil-for-Food Scandal
Oil for Food Clues
The Wall Street Journal
July 29, 2005
I saw an interesting tidbit in the nether reaches of a long webpage on the
JFK assassination last night. There's a vignette about Barron, then the
CEO of the Wall Street Journal, exhibiting apparent foreknowledge of
Grover Cleveland's impending demise.
The press corps continues to topple whole forests pursuing the
leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity. But we thought our readers might
prefer an update on the far more important Oil for Food investigations,
which are moving fast and promise more breakthroughs soon.
The Wall Street Journal thought wrong. The Plame thing is as important as
it gets.
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| User: "SmirkS" |
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| Title: apparently, it is. |
01 Aug 2005 09:50:44 PM |
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the fake Harry Hope posted:
I thought everything was Bush's fault
Bush on Palmeiro: 'I believe him'
Dallas Morning News (subscription), TX - 6 hours ago
Little more than an hour after word of Rafael Palmeiro's suspension for
steroid use by Major League Baseball, President Bush defended the former
Ranger. ...
phhhhhhht.
--
TheTruthHurts.
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