ANOTHER ANNAN IN U.N. OIL SCANDAL

NY Post ^ | Aug 14, 2005 | Anon

[Pharmboy]

August 14, 2005 -- LONDON — The $21.3 billion United Nations oil-for-food scandal has now widened to include the brother of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be "connected" to an African businessman at the center of the scandal.

The probe into Kobina's dealings are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed.

However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal.

A source close to the investigation said: "We believe Kobina Annan may be involved with Michael Wilson and Kojo Annan. We know there is a connection between Kobina and Wilson."

Kobina is the second member of Annan's family — after Annan's son Kojo — to be drawn into the scandal, which has led to the resignation of several senior U.N. officials.

[Pharmboy]

Why is Kofi still walking the halls at the UN?

[mewzilla]

Short answer: Because we permit it.

Sigh.

[gridlock]

Why is Kofi still walking the halls at the UN?

You betray your racism and cultural imperialism by insisting that Colonialist notions of accountability and strict financial scrutiny should apply to transactions in Africa and other Emerging Nations...

[ncountylee]

Kobina...any more at home, Kofi? Hope Bolton is polite and no one cries.

[Pharmboy]

You make a great point...this grand-scale corruption to the tune of $$billions goes on at the UN and all the demonrat socialists can complain about is that Bolton may get a bit testy.

[gridlock]

If they are not reeeeeal careful, John Bolton may be forced to place his hands on his hips IN AN AGRESSIVE MANNER!!!

[kcvl]

Questions Surface About Annan's Nephew

Thursday, March 10, 2005


NEW YORK — Another relative of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) turns out to have ties to a company with U.N. business.

Kobina Annan, nephew of the U.N. chief, worked in the internship program at public-relations firm Ruder Finn until four months ago.

The company represents corporations, foreign governments and U.N. agencies, and also does pro bono work on behalf of the world body. The company's founder, 83-year-old David Finn, is a friend of Kofi Annan and a big U.N. backer.

The story was first reported by The New York Sun.


Ruder Finn denies there was any conflict of interest when Kobina Annan worked there, or that it landed U.N. contracts because of the connection.

"We disagree strongly with the characterization and innuendos that Ruder Finn's pro bono work on behalf of the U.N. was a way to general business," reads a statement to FOX News from Emmanuel Tchividjian, senior vice president at Ruder Finn. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Tchividjian wrote: "Kobina Annan was interested in public relations ... Ruder Finn was not awarded any U.N. contract because of Kobina's employment."

Read the Rudder Finn statement by clicking here.

snip


snip


On another note, Kobina Annan has a book coming out about genocide in the Darfur (search) region of Sudan. The publisher is Ruder Finn Press.


http://tinyurl.com/dvqrh

[Pharmboy]

Funny, but I could not find coverage of this story in the NY Times today. Perhaps tomorrow...

[Pharmboy]

Nice find...thanks for the post.

[kcvl]

H. E. Mr. Kobina Annan on stage

Ghana’s Ambassador to Morocco, His Excellency Mr. Kobina Annan, his wife Ekua Annan and a team from the Ghana Mission in Morocco were part of that evening event that was billed as "Gala Le Corps Diplomatique."

Ambassador Annan and fellow troupers

The Moroccans, especially, were very receptive of the occasion of Ghana's National Day celebration - confirming indeed, and again, as Ambassador Annan put it, that “Ghana has found her place in the Moroccan heart again.”

[backhoe]

Click this picture & go to the "last" for the latest UN scandals:

If you aren't informed about this stuff, you will be made sick. If you are informed, you will be made mad, all over again.

[blue_nova]

Mr. Bolton should point out two things:
1. If oil for 'food' would have not happened then Sadam
would have gone away, and we would not be stuck in Iraq now.
2. If the Clinton admin was not so corrupt then oil for 'food'
would have not turned into the Sadam stays in control of the UN.

[andyandval]

Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco,

What would we do without this highly qualified diplomat in this crucially important position?

[Pharmboy]

Great smug smile on Ambassador Toupee in the middle, eh?

[kcvl]

Adviser to Annan Triggers Concern

BY BENNY AVNI - Special to the Sun
March 9, 2005


UNITED NATIONS - A Canadian tycoon who is a special adviser to Secretary-General Annan yesterday acknowledged that since at least 1997 he has had business and other dealings with Tongsun Park, the Korean influence-peddler who was identified in a federal criminal complaint last week as an unregistered Iraqi agent targeting U.N. officials for bribery.

Maurice Strong was a special adviser to Mr. Annan in 1997, the year Mr. Park made an investment in a company the Canadian tycoon was associated with. Mr. Strong worked as special envoy for U.N. reform in an office located directly across the corridor from the secretary-general on the 38th floor of the U.N. building.

Yesterday, Mr. Strong, who is said to be in the Dominican Republic recuperating from a bout with pneumonia, issued a statement in which he admitted to having had a relationship with Mr. Park since at least 1997. The relationship was formed even though Mr. Park had been found several years earlier to be at the center of a 1970s influence peddling scandal in Washington, known as Koreagate.

The statement by Mr. Strong, who is Mr. Annan's special envoy to the Korean Peninsula, followed the unsealing of a criminal complaint against the North Korean-born Mr. Park last Thursday in Manhattan by U.S. Attorney David Kelley. In the complaint, Mr. Park was accused of targeting two unnamed U.N. officials for bribery.

Mr. Park is also alleged to have told the Iraqis that in 1997 or 1998 he had invested $1 million of Iraqi money in a Canadian company that was set up by the son of one of those officials. The Canadian company later collapsed. The Saddam Hussein regime hoped the bribe money would sway U.N. officials who were in position to influence the sanction regime against Iraq and the formation of the oil-forfood program.


http://tinyurl.com/drne5

[Pharmboy]

If these people involved with this crap were anything but socialist one-worlders, the NY Times and the rest of the media rat pack would be running daily editorials and news items about this.

I detest the MSM more each day...and am totally convinced that ultimately they do more harm by selective coverage than by their editorializing.

[kcvl]

An article published in Wednesday’s New York Sun under the title “Advisor to Annan Triggers Concern” now reveals that David Finn, the chairman of Ruder Finn, has served as a “pro bono” advisor to Kofi Annan since he became UN Secretary General in 1997. Furthermore, the article reveals that Kofi Annan’s nephew Kobina was employed as a paid intern at Ruder Finn – “Kofi Annan asked David Finn if he would give some guidance to his nephew, Kobina Annan,” a Ruder Finn spokesperson is quoted as saying – and that “Ruder Finn's publishing arm is selling Mr. Annan's 2001 Nobel Peace Prize lecture as a hardcover book”. “At the same time that Ruder Finn employed Mr. Annan's nephew,” the article notes,

two senior Ruder Finn officials, Anne Glauber and Dena Merriam, who is Mr. Finn's daughter, were hired as outside contractors by the U.N. Development Program to revamp its communications office. They were paid $30,000 for two months' work, according to a UNDP spokesman, William Orme.

[Bubba]

"Why is Kofi still walking the halls at the UN?"

Because... only a racist would even suggest removal. (humor wide-open)

[kcvl]

Annan's nephew, Kobina, was awarded a job working for the law firm of Ruder-Finn, run by another old friend of Kofi's named David Finn.

At the same time that Ruder-Finn employed Annan's nephew, two senior Ruder-Finn officials, Anne Glauber and Dena Merriam, who is Mr. Finn's daughter, were hired as outside contractors by the U.N. Development Program to revamp its communications office. They were paid $30,000 for two months' work.

Five years ago, Ruder-Finn used the UN and Kofi Annan as the backdrop to a global summit on religion organized by Finn. The Millennium World Peace Summit is a non-profit group.

Its trustees were Finn, his daughter and Ruder-Finn's ethics advisor, Bawa Jain, to whom the UN paid $80,000.

[Malesherbes]

Wake up and smell the Kofi!

[kcvl]

Kofi Annan: Religion Often Strokes 'Flames of Violent Conflict'

Ted Turner, who helped pay for the event, also addressed the U.N. religious leaders summit Tuesday

Julia Lieblich

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 29 (AP)--Crimson robes outnumbered gray suits, and nuns in saris sat next to swamis in turbans Tuesday at the United Nations, where monks, a cardinal, and even a business mogul addressed more than 1,000 religious leaders at the Millennium World Peace Summit.

[kcvl]

Mr. Bawa Jain is a leader in the interfaith movement, creating and participating in global events that unite religious leaders from diverse faith traditions to address critical issues concerning the peace process. He worked with the office of the United Nations Secretary-General to organize the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders that opened at the United Nations in August 2000. He serves as Secretary-General of the Summit, which is continuing its efforts to identify ways that the worldwide religious and spiritual communities can work together as interfaith allies with the United Nations on specific peace, poverty and environment initiatives.

snip

Since the United Nations was created, there has always been a common goal, which is to achieve World Peace. But the Summit itself was created on August 1997, when Secretary-General of the United Nations Mr. Kofi Annan met with CNN President Ted Turner, and both realized that to the better achievement of World Peace, all the spiritual leaders from all around the world should get together, and sign a commitment to peace. We wanted basically, not only to bring religions together, but also races and cultures, all united for common causes: environment, poverty, conflicts, and more.

[Pharmboy]

With ethics advisors like that, we obviously do not need any ethics. This just keeps getting better...irony is so ironical.

[kcvl]

Shouldn't we have Separation of Church and U.N.?!!! Why should taxpayer's pay for a "religious summit" when we aren't even suppose to allow prayer in our own schools?!!!

IMO, it's just another way to funnel money to the one worlders.

******


Bawa Jain of the Interfaith Center of New York, a veteran of the interfaith movement, served as the World Peace Summit's secretary-general. Businessman and staunch UN supporter Ted Turner subsidized the event and served as honorary chair. Maurice Strong, secretary-general of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development and senior adviser to Kofi Annan on UN reform, was a key organizer of the event. The list of partner and advisory groups included the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the United Religions Initiative, and several other interfaith organizations.

As Jain tells the story, the World Peace Summit grew out of a conversation between Turner and Annan. "If you want peace in the world, Kofi," Turner remarked, "you should bring the religious leaders of the world to the UN and make them sign a commitment of peace." According to Jain and other organizers, the World Peace Summit intended to go beyond other interfaith gatherings that merely seek to bring religious and spiritual leaders closer together in a spirit of mutual understanding and harmony. This event emphasized the consistency between the moral foundations of the world's major faiths and the ideals of the United Nations, particularly in the areas of conflict, poverty, and the environment. The religious traditions and the UN have a "common mission," Jain told us. In his mind the UN provides the perfect venue for bringing political and religious leaders together to address the world's problems jointly.

In his introductory remarks prior to Kofi Annan's address to the World Peace Summit, Bawa Jain made three specific requests of the UN: (1) that a council of religious and spiritual advisers to the UN be established; (2) that a summit of religious and spiritual leaders be convened every ten years at the UN; and (3) that a department of religious affairs be created in the UN Secretary-General's office. Such eventualities may yet emerge, but many oppose any attempt to privilege religion at the UN.8

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Why is Kofi still walking the halls at the UN?"

My bet is house and senate seats in 2006 and the MSM slamming us for doing anything that will reform the UN.

[B4Ranch]

"Amatuer"

Our legislators say the same thing.

[ncountylee]

Great rug or what? LOL

[Pharmboy]

The Fundamentals of Jainism

And here's some more stuff:

Overview of Jain Dharma
Jain Dharma teaches that every single living thing is an individual and eternal soul, which is responsible for its own actions. Jains see their faith as teaching the individual to live, think and act in ways that respect and honor the spiritual nature of every living being to the best of one's human abilities. Jains view God as the unchanging traits of the pure soul, chief among them being Infinite Knowledge, Perception, Consciousness, and Happiness ('Ananta Gnana, Darshan, Chaitanya,' and 'Sukh'). The universe itself is eternal, having no beginning and no end. (Hence, it is said that Jainism is a religious path which does not include the concept of a creator God).

The primary figures of Jainism are the Tirthankaras. Jainism has two main variants: Digambar and Shvetambar. Jains believe in ahimsa (or ahinsa), asceticism, karma, samsara, and the jiva. Jain philosophy has many scriptures written over a long period of time. Many Jains consider the primary scripture to be the Tattvartha Sutra, or Book of Realities written over 18 centuries ago by the monk-scholar Umaswami.

As part of its stance on nonviolence, Jainism goes beyond vegetarianism in that the Jain diet also excludes most root vegetables and certain other foods believed to be unnecessarily injurious. Observant Jains do not eat, drink or travel after sunset and always rise before sunrise.

At approximately 8 to 10 million adherents, Jainism is among the smallest of the major world religions. Despite their meager number, Jains are said to have stood out for themselves and Jains work in a variety of significant fields, mainly businesses and sciences but also education, the arts, and agriculture. Jains have been an important presence in Indian culture, contributing to Indian philosophy, art, architecture, sciences and last but not least the politics of Mohandas Gandhi which led to Indian independence. Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat are likely to have the largest Jain population among Indian states. Another state of India with a relatively large Jain population among its residents is Karnataka. Outside of India, East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda) have large communities. Many Jains migrated from E.Africa to UK, Canada & USA.

Jainism has a large following in the Indian region of Punjab, especially the town of Ludhiana. There were many Jains in Lahore (Punjab's historic capital) and other cities before the Partition of 1947. Many then fled to the Indian section of Punjab.

[the invisib1e hand]

Why is Kofi still walking the halls at the UN?

Becuase it's a match made in heaven.

[the invisib1e hand]

oy. the old "nominee account." put everything in the names of your family and friends. 'course, ya gotta give 'em a little off the top, but hey, what's that? you do whachoo gotta do.

And if you ruin their lives in the process...well, shoot, hadn't thought of that. Oh well, they'll be fine. You do whachoo gotta do.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

That's one baaad headrug.

[Chode]

and the HITS... keep right on coming!!!

[knighthawk]

No more UN for US-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

[lakey]

Bump - and bump could have an other meaning. Time is drawing near.