Americans implicated in UNSCAM
Dec. 2 - The revelation that Kojo Annan continued to receive payments from Cotecna finally brought the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal under the scrutiny of the mainstream media, and now that they're digging, they are finding things that have been known in the blogosophere for a while but seem new to them, including the involvement of some well known and well-connected Americans and companies which were named in the Duelfer Report: Marc Rich, Ben Pollner of Taurus Oil, ChevronTexaco, and ExxonMobil.
From ABC News: Americans' Role Eyed in U.N. Oil Scandal:
Former American fugitive Marc Rich was a middleman for several of Iraq's suspect oil deals in February 2001, just one month after his pardon from President Clinton, according to oil industry shipping records obtained by ABC News.
And a U.S. criminal investigation is looking into whether Rich, as well as several other prominent oil traders, made illegal payments to Iraq in order to obtain the lucrative oil contracts.
[...]
Another broker was New York oil trader Ben Pollner, head of Taurus Oil, who investigators say handled several billion dollars worth of the transactions now under investigation.
Pollner told ABC News he paid no bribes or kickbacks to the Iraqi regime.
Rich is still living in Switzerland and unavailable for comment.
The roles of several American oil companies, including ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil, are also under investigation. ChevronTexaco received subpoenas requesting information for two separate grand jury proceedings, and said they were cooperating fully with both investigations.
The U.N. oil-for-food corruption scandal only continues to grow in scope. Today, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who is leading the congressional investigation into the program, said that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan should resign because the scandal occurred on his watch.
The remainder of the item concerns the allegations about Kojo Annan.
An interesting column on these names by William Safire in his column in the Oct. 13 NY Times can be read online here at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies website.
I always figured that American businessmen might have been part of the scandal, and am glad that those named are being investigated. The name Marc Rich, however, is likely to spark attempts to drag President Clinton into this to which I say: Don't.
Let's break some new ground and focus on just the facts without partisan bias and opportunist attempts to besmirch either Clinton. I witnessed the ugliness of the last four years of Bush-hating and the previous three years of Clinton-hating and I. Am. Sick. Of. It.
(ABC link via Instapundit.)
Posted by: Debbye at
09:03 AM
| Comments (7)
| Add Comment
Post contains 425 words, total size 3 kb.
1
I don't want a mudfest either, but perhaps some advice would be helpful on how we can ensure Marc Rich's pardon wasn't 'bought' if the investigation isn't allowed to "go there"?
Posted by: Paul at December 02, 2004 10:13 AM (p/TUy)
2
It is all well and good to say let's not go overboard on something, but the Clintons already received a pass of sorts on the Marc Rich pardon since he was leaving office at the time. Otherwise, there certainly would have been a thorough investigation. Both Democrats and Republicans were outraged by the timing of the pardon and the obvious implications of over a million dollars in donations to the Democratic Party and Clinton Library by the Rich family preceding the pardon. Remember, Rich had been charged with stealing over $50 million from American taxpayers and fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution.
I'll grant that Clinton has no connection with the Iraqi Oil for Food scandal, but one doesn't need to be a scandal monger to have the memory of the Rich pardon refreshed or to make assumptions about how deserved Rich was of such a generous Get Out of Jail Free card. (Well, not exactly free.) Maybe he had to replace money spent for Clinton donations, giving the timing.
Additionally, Hillary is an obvious candidate for '08, as well as a US Senator, so the pardon is not water under the bridge that we need not revisit.
Posted by: mikem at December 02, 2004 03:38 PM (EzNXf)
3
It's going to be awkward, for sure, and Hillary's potential as a candidate in '08 will heighten the rhetoric (although the Rich scandal could derail that because, as you've both pointed out, these latest allegations already bring the Clinton name back into the mix.)
But the level of the rhetoric can either be vicious or factual, and all I'm asking is for focus on facts.
Posted by: Debbye at December 02, 2004 07:16 PM (4N+1A)
4
Finally! Something about the Oil-for-food Scam that the European press can latch onto.... there was an AMERICAN involved! Ha! Ha! Never mind the french banker behind the curtain!
Posted by: Joe N. at December 05, 2004 05:21 PM (TmX/b)
5
Yeah, I voted for you too. In fact two days in a row, which is allowed. However, at Daily Kos they printed a spambot script that his readers used to hijack the contest. So it looks like all the effort Wizbang put into an inclusive contest will be for naught. The Kos Kollective are quite pleased with themselves. All this while they are still whining about the 'stolen' election.
I guess this election was about values in more ways than one.
Posted by: mikem at December 05, 2004 10:03 PM (EzNXf)
6
What? This little mud puddle of a blog was nominated for something? Geez, Dubbya, 20 years from now, you'll be so embarassed!
...like David Duke cringing when he sees photos of himself in a white hood.
Posted by: Canole at December 08, 2004 05:47 AM (XhguR)
7
DEAR CANOLE:
I would like to be having your manbabies now.
Posted by: JOEY at December 08, 2004 09:34 PM (Ojo2r)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
18kb generated in CPU 0.013, elapsed 0.0901 seconds.
64 queries taking 0.0835 seconds, 149 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
