WSJ: Oil for Food Clues - Ignored by a Clueless Press Pursuing the Plame Story

Wall Street Journal ^ | July 29, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

...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....

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....

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"....

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....

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 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....

For his part, Mr. Strong does not deny his connection to Mr. Park, who now lives in South Korea.... 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.

[mallardx]

The Swiss also collaborated with the Nazis by claiming "independence" or "neutrality" in WWII. Note they ended up with all the gold and other valuables, pillaged from the Europeans. Swiss people and their government should be held accountable. They are no better than the Nazis.

[sandydipper]

Brilliant! We run around like crazy chasing a butterfly when there is a tiger at the door.

The oil for food rip off has put millions of tax payer funds into personal accounts. Kofi leads the list - yet he is unaccountable - and drinks scotch in a plush office paid for by me and you! It stinks!!