POLITICS: UN's Annan: Oil-For-Food Scandal Broke On US, Britain's Watch

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has claimed that the U.S. and Britain are complicit in the multi-billion-dollar "Oil-For-Food" scandal. Referring to the two countries, Annan said, "Possibly they were the ones who knew exactly what was going on, and that the countries themselves decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan because they were allies."



In terms of both money and political scope, the "U.N. Oil-For-Food Scandal", in which funds from restricted Iraqi oil sales were allegedly stolen, is one of the largest scandals in history, and reportedly involves several key staff members of the U.N., including Kofi Annan's son Kojo.

Investigations, including an inquiry by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, are still ongoing regarding the scope and nature of the scandal, as well as who was directly involved.

There has been frequent speculation that Annan may resign over the scandal, but so far, the rumors have not been substantiated, and despite a mass exodus of U.N. staffers, Annan remains the Secretary General.

Some background on the program and scandal may be found on Wikipedia: Oil-for-Food Programme


[edit on 4/15/2005 by Majic]

This statement from Annan is truly outrageous. Every moment he remains in place as Secretary-General is a slap in the face to all that is good and decent in the world. Kofi must go immediately and the UN must be completely reformed from top to bottom or be totally dismantled. As it is now, the organization is totally useless, irrelevant and evil.

If Koffi Annan has nothing to do with this scandal, then I see no reason why he should resign. He does his job well, and just initiated a transformation of the UN to make it a stronger organisation in coming decades in terms of fighting terrorism and other actual problems.

The UN is truly one of the best organisations in this world, with an average budget they manage to help millions of people into better situations.
Calling the UN evil shows a total lack of understanding of what the UN is, what UN is supposed to be and what the UN has done for this world so far.

This statement is only outrageous in the ears of those Americans that don't want to hear that their "wonderfull country" also plays a part in the scandal.

[edit on 15-4-2005 by Jakko]

There were scumbag American citizens involved in the scandal and they are being prosecuted and will pay for their crimes.

But Annan's statement trying to deflect blame from himself by implying that it was the responsibility of the U.S. and/or Britain to do the accounting and oversight of this UN program is revolting.

Annan is not deflecting blame, because there IS no blame for Annan.
He is just sharing with the world who and what exactly is involved in this scandal, which is a good move.

Do you think the ones responsable for this scandal should only be revealed and mentioned when they are not from America or Brittain?

Annan is obviously involved in this, and he is now trying to blame the US and Britain for the dirty deals he helped start.

It was he, not the US or Britain, who allowed Saddam to choose anyone the dictator wanted to as buyers for oil and as providers of whatever Saddam needed. It was Annan the one who not only allowed Saddam to choose his business partners, but it was him who made it clear that Saddam's business were confidential.

As Oil-for-Food worked in practice, there were two glaring flaws that lent themselves to manipulation by Saddam. One was the U.N. decision to allow Saddam to choose his own buyers of oil and suppliers of goods — an arrangement that Annan himself helped set up during negotiations in Baghdad in the mid-1990s, shortly before he was promoted to Secretary-General. The other problem was the U.N.'s policy of treating Saddam's deals as highly confidential, putting deference to Saddam's privacy above the public's right to know. Even the Iraqi people were denied access to the most basic information about the deals that were in theory being done in their name. The identities of the contractors, the amounts paid, the quantity and quality of goods, the sums, fees, interest, and precise transactions involved in the BNP Paribas bank accounts — all were kept confidential between Saddam and the U.N.

Excerpted from.
www.nationalreview.com...

Here is a link to the statement of record of Claudia Rosett Before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations April 21, 2004. It is quite the read.

Statement for the Recordof Claudia Rosett


Here is another link to what was happeninh with OFF.

A closer reading of both interim reports reveals serious leadership failures at the United Nations. The reports dramatically add to the growing pic­ture of mismanagement, incompetence, and unac­countability at the U.N. Contrary to Annan’s claims, the reports do not in any way vindicate him or the United Nations. Indeed, the destruction of thousands of critically important documents by the U.N. chief of staff and previously undisclosed meetings between Kofi Annan and Cotecna execu­tives make a mockery of U.N. claims of vindication.
..................
The most significant finding in the Second Interim Report is that Iqbal Riza, Kofi Annan’s chief of staff, authorized the shredding of thousands of U.N. documents between April and December 2004. Among these documents were the entire U.N. Chef de Cabinet chronological files for 1997, 1998, and 1999—many of which related to the Oil-for-Food Program.
..................
Issue #2: Kofi Annan and His
Dealings with Cotecna

The Second Interim Report gives the overall impression that the relationship between Kofi Annan and Cotecna officials was closer than previ­ously known. Itstates that Kofi Annan met twice with Elie Massey, the owner of Cotecna, before the U.N. awarded it the Iraq inspection contract. Their first meeting was in February 1997 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the second was in September 1998, arranged by his son Kojo. Significantly, when Kofi Annan was first interviewed by the Volcker Committee in Novem­ber 2004, he denied meeting with Mr. Massey before the awarding of the Cotecna contract. He retracted that statement when he was re-inter­viewed in January 2005, after “a review of the com­puter of the Secretary-General’s assistant, (where) the Committee found information reflecting that the Secretary-General had met with Elie Massey on two occasions prior to the award of the inspection contract to Cotecna.”[11] In addition, Annan met with Elie Massey once in Geneva in 1999, after Cotecna was awarded the U.N. contract.[12]

Excerpted from.
www.heritage.org...

[edit on 15-4-2005 by Muaddib]

Where is Oliver North when you need him?

Some body needs to be the good soldier and step up.

The fact that Annan knew about this back then, and is only revealing it now, shows he was complicit in it. He is corrupt and must go.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
There were scumbag American citizens involved in the scandal and they are being prosecuted and will pay for their crimes.

But Annan's statement trying to deflect blame from himself by implying that it was the responsibility of the U.S. and/or Britain to do the accounting and oversight of this UN program is revolting.

Annan is correct in saying that the US and Britain were complicit in the Oil for Food scandal.

They knew about his smuggling of oil to places like Jordan and they allowed it to happen.

See the thread below:
WAR: U.S. Govt. Ignored Reports of Iraqi Oil Smuggling

And here's another:

signonsandiego
Former State Department officials said the United States had little choice but to allow some of these sales to Iraq's neighbors.

Jordan was desperate after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The U.N. penalties against Iraq had cost Jordan a major trading partner. Iraq owed Jordan money, but could not repay without selling oil. Jordan needed oil, but could not import from other producers, which were angry that Jordan had supported Iraq in the war.

"We realized that the Jordanian economy and the Jordanian state would collapse" if it didn't get access to oil, said David Mack, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs at the time.

The United Nations formally acknowledged Jordan's oil dealing with Iraq in May 1991, without approving or disapproving of it. Because of that, some people question whether the trade can be considered illicit.

How can we call it not britain or americas fault?
Britain and the USA and the other 191 members are infact the UN, WE are the UN....

HES A SLIMEBALL THAT KOFI CHARACTER.

Originally posted by britain is best
HES A SLIMEBALL THAT KOFI CHARACTER.

Like we were anybetter?

HES GOT TO BE A STOOGE FOR CHIRAC

Originally posted by britain is best
HES GOT TO BE A STOOGE FOR CHIRAC

Right......thank you ...... does any one else smell trolls?
Mods do you smell it?

HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME

I heard on the tube that there may not have even been an oil for food program, if there had been NO scandal. It was made for the "scandal".

Originally posted by britain is best
HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME

I have insulted no one in this thread......simply implied a worry....

The Annan Dilemma

Some may find this hard to believe, but I'm finding myself unsure of whether Kofi Annan was directly involved in the Oil-For-Food scandal.

I can't base my uncertainty on facts one way or another, but rather a hunch.

My current sense -- admittedly unsubstantiated -- is that Annan was not directly involved and did not know of the extent of the corruption, although he may have had some inklings.

And, again ironically, I don't think his allegations about the U.S. and Britain are necessarily cut from whole cloth either, although at this stage of the game they come across as a desperate gambit rather than credible accusations.

The problem for Annan is that whether he was directly involved or not, he presided over the U.N. during one of the most spectacular scandals in U.N. history -- and that's only one of them.

The Child Sex scandal isn't something any Secretary General would want to have to take credit for having happen on his watch, either.

And by even the most generous assessments, the U.N. is rife through and through with scandals and corruption. Scores of high-level U.N. officials are jumping ship.

Annan, as the top dog, must take responsibility for his failures as a leader.

Whatever his ties to this scandal may be, I consider it unlikely that Mr. Annan will serve the remainder of his term as Secretary General, and I expect him to step down sometime soon -- from exhaustion, if nothing else.

His position has become untenable.

His position has become untenable.

I agree with that statement, I also agree that there is a very good chance that he was not involved at all, but with all the Rhetoric being thrown at him these days, he is starting to show some strain and may step down due to "health problems". That's my "hunch" anyway.

Eight to Thirteen billion dollar question or two or three or.....

If Annan was not involved, was he aware of it [his son ring a bell]?

Accordingly, if he was not involved but was aware, then why did he not step in and stop it? Documents related and concerning this scadal were being shredded in an office right next to his, which Annan entered daily for over a month, and yet he wasn't "involved".....?

Btw, who is UN top member #1? Who is UN top member #2? Ummm, and no, they are not the US and Britain. These are individuaks within the UN itself.

I'm noticing a number of members within this thread that have stated, unequivically, that Bush should be held accountable for the actions at Abu Ghraib, for the war in Iraq, in other areas, and yet, ironically, they are the same ones that are saying/indicating that Annan should NOT be held accountable for the Oil-for-Food scandal, etc.

Interesting, eh?





seekerof

[edit on 15-4-2005 by Seekerof]