Timmy (formerly the Wonder Dog)—long-time Tacitus and ObWi commenter and all around good guy—has been bringing up the UN Oil for Food Scandal repeatedly recently, and although I generally support the UN, I do think this issue is being under scrutinized in the blogosphere. Timmy certainly seems to wish to hash it out.
William Safire, in his infinite originality, has opted to call it (or at least perpetuate the title) “Kofigate.” He agrees with Newsday that this is perhaps “the most underreported story of the year.”
A good view from the Far Right on this is found in this Washington Times piece by Newt Gingrich.
ClaudeHankes-Drielsma, no stranger to examining large-scale fraud, led the investigation of the Nobel Prize and South African corruption scandals. He estimates that the Oil for Food scam is likely to emerge as the largest financial scandal in history.
Why this topic is particularly noteworthy from the Right is that the two biggest beneficiaries of the scandal were Russian and French businessmen, some with ties to the very top of their respective governments, and as Gingrich points out,
It is hard not to conclude that the intense opposition to the war in Iraq was directly related to the lucrative deals made under the Oil for Food program. There is mounting credible evidence that the U.N. utterly failed in its responsibility to manage the program.Moreover,it seems extremely implausible that the United Nations was unaware of what was going on. Worse, it may be revealed that high-ranking U.N. officials were willing participants.
But this story holds interest well beyond how embarrassing it might be for our so-called weasely allies. According to one source, the “Food for Oil Scandal Could Spell End for United Nations”:
There are growing cries in Congress for the United States to pull out of the United Nations if the U.N. does not conduct a thorough investigation and punish all those who profited. My source reports that one of his sources in the British goverment has stated that England is ready to stop pushing for a United Nations investigation and demand that the world create an independent council to investigate not only this scandal but the United Nations itself. These British lawmakers are certain the United Nations is inherently corrupt and cannot be saved.
Some US lawmakers agree that the UN’s appointed and so-called independent investigation is suspect.
A congressional leader is questioning whether an independent panel created by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan can get to the bottom of allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food program.
In a letter to Annan, Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Committee, also said the committee plans to request U.N. documents as part of its own inquiry into the allegations of corruption. The committee plans a hearing on the program this month, and Hyde said he would ask that a U.N. representative testify.
Iraq’s new governing council is apparently moving ahead with its own investigation:
Iraq’s new governing council has hired the accountants KPMG and the international law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, to investigate claims that large sums of money – which should have been spent on food and medicine for ordinary Iraqis – were diverted through oil “vouchers” to line pockets abroad.
Now the pink elephant in the room with regard to whether the Right should be comfortable criticizing the UN’s “independent” investigation when they’re more than content with the Bush administration’s “independent” investigations (Plume, 9/11, WMD, etc.) needn’t enter into this discussion (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Nor need it be pointed out that the Bush administration definitely has a score to settle here (simply food for thought). This scandal does need some serious sunlight shined on it.
hmmm … not a lot of facts in this post, Edward … I agree that there was a problem with oil-for-food, but the reason it has been under-reported to this point is that very little has been actually proven.
In particular, the charges against Kofi Annan’s son look particularly weak. Calling it “Kofigate” without really any evidence that Annan or his son have done anything wrong is an act of pure hackitude on Safire’s part. But we’ve come to expect that from old Bill “Hillary is out to get me” Safire, haven’t we?
hmmm … not a lot of facts in this post, Edward
Not my fault Praktike…bellicose blathering seems to be the extent of what’s out there on this. Safire’s specialty indeed.
Personally I think its a convenient distraction for the administration as the pressure mounts to suck up to the UN so they’ll help more in Iraq.
Just because you can’t pin the billions of dollars in fraud on Kofi’s son doesn’t mean that there aren’t facts available if you want to look them. If you care about the facts, I suggest you peruse Roger L. Simon’s archives for the past two months or so. He has done an excellent job on trying to report it.
Not my fault Praktike
Yeah, I know.
I just wanted to lay that marker down early. If Timmy has some better stuff, I’d like to see it. I’m open-minded.
But don’t give me any of this William Safire and Newt Gingrich garbage and try to claim it’s facts.
I would stipulate that relying on opinion pieces for facts that can’t be independently confirmed is a bad idea, as a general rule.
Sebastian, I can’t bear to read Simon.
Can you put an ObWi post together with a summary of the charges and evidence thus far assembled?
I would stipulate that relying on opinion pieces for facts that can’t be independently confirmed is a bad idea, as a general rule.
Well Sebastian has offered Roger L. Simon’s site (you’ll have to go into the archives to find them, but he does have several posts on it). Of course, if nothing else, this current post will hopefully serve to alleviate him of the burden he feels:
If not for the dedication of bloggers like him…
To be fair, there does seem cause for concern:
But I think you’re right in general, Praktike, some folks are already building the UN’s coffin, and the trial has barely begun…for decorum’s sake, perhaps they should wait just a bit.
Sigh. I wish I had more time. Will someone pay me to blog? I would trade in my JD for the law school loans to go away.
But I’ll try to get to the UN scandal in the next couple of days.
praktike, I would give you NYT and BG garbage only it is old news and I would have to pay for it. If you believe that the UN Oil for Food Program was run on the up and up, we could pursue the Edward solution and wager on it.
we could pursue the Edward solution and wager on it.
I’m lost…what’s perceived as the “edward solution”?
betting on a disagreement?
Timmy,
I wrote this above: I agree that there was a problem with oil-for-food.
But you said: If you believe that the UN Oil for Food Program was run on the up and up …
See the problem there?
Praktike, the basic components of this little program came to light when the GC and CPA took over the contracts and found when they calculated the value of the contracts issued almost to the last one they were overvalued by 10%, which was being used as a kick back. The other interesting thing is companies with contracts to provide ‘services’ to Iraq that couldn’t be found. The phone number, address and people listed as controlling the company were forgeries and no record could be found of any ‘good’ or ‘service’ that this company ever provided. But money sure was being sent to someone. It’s almost what you would expect to find if you were auditing a mobbed up business that was being bled of capital for money laudering purposes. There is little doubt that millions to billions of dollars were misdirected/looted out of this program.
Add in the fact that Kofi pulled this little program under his control and oversight and he begins to smell just a little bit, as does the UN by association. And then realize that this was for billions of dollars for several years. It makes Tyco, Enron, WorldCom and the rest look like small potatoes in comparison.
There are only three situations that can be true here:
1. Kofi and others knew what was going on, and they turned a blind eye to it.
2. Kofi and others knew what was going on, and were profitting from it.
3. Kofi and others had no idea what was going on, meaning that the UN is so inept that it shouldn’t be allowed to administer the financing of a 7-year old’s lemonade stand.
BBC news idem,
Washington Post editorial,
Kurdistan Regional Government complaint,
Global Policy Forum watchdogs,
U.S. Department of State,
Yahoo’s Asia News, and last but not least
Al Jazeera all have something to say about Timmy’s pet peeve. I have to say that I’m shocked, shocked that there are accusations of corruption in the UN. It’s almost as if people are getting payoffs for their support of a UN policy. I wonder if that ever happens within national governments?
Thanks, Joe and fabius.
It looks bad.
But let’s see if (a) the independent inestigation is in fact independent, and (b) it finds anything implicating Annan and/or Sevan.
If it turns out to be true, perhaps this will be the final impetus to overhaul the UN, or scrap it and start over with a new and better structure.
Bring on the Democracy Caucus. The UN has no moral authority.
I didn’t know about the Democracy Caucus, Bird Dog…did some reading and must say it sounds promising…
Anything that liberals and conservatives both feel will benefit them is either a God-send or destined to fail…I’ll hope for the first one.
You might find this opinion piece (which has the merit of providing rather more facts than either Safire or Gingrich) an interesting counter, Edward. (You have to register to read it, but registration is free and appears to be reasonably spamproof.)