Mar. 25 - Two articles by Niles Lathem in the
. From yesterday,
1
You know this is one of my favorite subjects, and that I would spend hours reading through all the links here and in the post about the African uranium below. The fact that there is now some mainstream coverage of stories covered on the blogs for months gives me some hope, but I followed Jack's Newswatch links to this opinion: http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040325/COWENT25/TPComment/Columnists
which recognizes that some good has apparently come from the war, but degenerates to the standard criticisms in the last couple of paragraphs.Any self-respecting blogger would be required to insert a couple of links to substantiating evidence in opinions like this. Journalists, American as well as Canadian, should be required to publish a bibliography of some kind with each article.
Posted by: Sammie at March 26, 2004 01:05 AM (ZDCse)
2
What happens if an actual audit/investigation is conducted which will document the misappropriation of these funds? Is this an international court matter? An Iraqi court matter? Who has jurisdiction over the UN and where is the venue? It is accepted as fact that Sadaam stole $10 Billion from the program. Where is it? How do you spend $10 Billion? How many zeros is that? I haven't had any practice with anything requiring more than one comma. What sorry excuses for human beings these monsters are. Who needs that much money at the expense of Iraqi babies?
Posted by: Sammie at March 26, 2004 01:23 AM (ZDCse)
3
Another thing to note, if you don't already know, is the involvement of Kofi Annan's son, Kojo, in the oil-for-food program.
Cotecna, a Swiss based firm, was hired by the U.N. on December 31, 1998 to monitor the program. Shortly afterward, press reports surfaced that Kojo was a partner in a private consulting firm doing work for Cotecna, and that just 13 months previously he had occupied a senior slot on Cotecna's own staff.
They managed the supplies sent in under terms of those tens of billions of dollars worth of U.N.-approved contracts in which the U.N. says it failed to notice Saddam Hussein's widespread arrangements to overpay contractors who then shipped overpriced goods to the impoverished people of Iraq and kicked back part of their profits to Saddam's regime.
Of cousre, I'm deluded to think that the UN will ever be held accountable.
Posted by: jhuck at March 26, 2004 11:46 AM (miQ8m)
4
You're both right. There really isn't a legal recourse (although the US could throw the UN out of the country!) and in many cases the money trail has probably gone cold.
A MEMRI publication of last month said that individual governments were investigating those said to have received oil vouchers, but again, not much can be done if the person's country doesn't care, as France's doesn't (they claim the recipients did nothing wrong.)
I had heard of the possible involvement of Annan's son, and investigators are looking into it (I'm cheered somewhat that the Iraq Provisional Council has retained KMPG to audit the books) but recovery of the money? Not likely.
By the way, have a good weekend!
Posted by: Debbye at March 26, 2004 05:58 PM (+RO5l)
5
Sammie, I don't read the Globe and Mail unless I'm forced to due to late-breaking news or someone points to a specific article or column.
I've reached a point with most of the Canadian media that my fury exceeds a safe blood pressure.
The Globe is a disgrace, even by Canadian standards, but the upside is it gives Bob over at Let It Bleed a lot of opportunities to slash and burn their articles and pretentiousness!
Posted by: Debbye at March 26, 2004 06:02 PM (+RO5l)
Posted by: gordey at April 04, 2004 09:52 AM (lkCj7)
Posted by: Joseph J. Gaziano at April 21, 2004 06:49 PM (2WfHc)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
