Posted on 09/25/2004 8:17:45 AM PDT by Ginifer
By Brian Ross
April 20 - At least three senior United Nations officials are suspected of taking multimillion-dollar bribes from the Saddam Hussein regime, U.S. and European intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS.
One year after his fall, U.S. officials say they have evidence, some in cash, that Saddam diverted to his personal bank accounts approximately $5 billion from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program.
In what has been described as the largest humanitarian aid effort ever undertaken, the U.N. Oil-for-Food program began in 1996 to help Iraqis who were suffering under sanctions imposed following the first Gulf War.
The program allowed Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil, under supposedly tight U.N. supervision, to finance the purchase of much-needed humanitarian goods.
Most prominent among those accused in the scandal is Benon Sevan, the Cyprus-born U.N. undersecretary general who ran the program for six years.
In an interview with ABCNEWS last year, Sevan denied any wrongdoing.
" Well, I can tell you there have been no allegations about me," he said. "Maybe you can try to dig it out." And in a Feb. 10 statement, Sevan challenged those making the allegations to "come forward and provide the necessary documentary evidence" and present it to U.N. investigators.
But documents have surfaced in Baghdad, in the files of the former Iraqi Oil Ministry, allegedly linking Sevan to a pay-off scheme in which some 270 prominent foreign officials received the right to trade in Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices.
" It's almost like having coupons of bonds or shares. You can sell those coupons to other people who are normal oil traders," said Claude Hankes-Drielsma, a British adviser to the Iraq Governing Council.
Investigators say the smoking gun is a letter to former Iraqi oil minister Amer Mohammed Rasheed, obtained by ABCNEWS and not yet in the hands of the United Nations.
In the letter, dated Aug. 10, 1998, an Iraqi oil executive mentions a request by a Panama-based company, African Middle East Petroleum Co., to buy Iraqi oil - along with a suggestion that Sevan had a role in the deal. "Mr. Muwafaq Ayoub of the Iraqi mission in New York informed us by telephone that the abovementioned company is the company that Mr. Sevan cited to you during his last trip to Baghdad," the executive wrote in Arabic.
A handwritten note indicated that permission for the oil purchase was granted by "the Vice President of the Republic" on Aug. 15, 1998.
The second page of the letter contains a table titled "Quantity of Oil Allocated and Given to Mr. Benon Sevan." The table lists a total of 7.3 million barrels of oil as the "quantity executed" - an amount that, if true, would have generated an illegal profit of as much as $3.5 million.
" Somebody who is running the Oil-for-Food program for the United Nations should not be receiving any benefit of any kind from a rogue dictator who was perpetuating terror in his country," said Hankes-Drielsma.
Full Investigation Announced
The United Nations, at first, dismissed the allegations about Sevan, but this week, Secretary General Kofi Annan said there would be a full investigation led by the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, Paul Volcker.
" We are going to investigate these allegations very seriously," Annan said during a press conference.
In addition, Congress is scheduled to begin hearings into the bribery scandal this week.
As for Sevan, when news of the scandal first broke earlier this year, he took a long vacation to Australia.
He declined to answer questions when ABCNEWS found him last week staying at a luxury casino resort.
A U.N. spokesman says Sevan, who makes $186,000 a year, has submitted his retirement papers, effective May 21. The spokesman said Sevan would remain on full salary through the course of the U.N. investigation, which is expected to last at least three months.
Oil Contracts for Political Support
The inquiries into the United Nations Oil-for-Food program result from the release in January of a list of 270 individuals, companies and institutions that allegedly received lucrative oil contracts from Saddam Hussein's former regime in return for political support.
The list was published by an Iraqi independent newspaper which claimed the document was discovered in the files of the former Iraqi Oil Ministry in Baghdad.
Oil vouchers were allegedly given either as gifts or as payment for goods imported into Iraq in violation of the U.N. sanctions.
The following are the names of some of those listed as receiving Iraqi oil contracts (amounts are in millions of barrels of oil):
Russia The Companies of the Russian Communist Party: 137 million
The Companies of the Liberal Democratic Party: 79.8 million
The Russian Committee for Solidarity with Iraq: 6.5 million and 12.5 million (two separate contracts)
Head of the Russian Presidential Cabinet: 90 million
The Russian Orthodox Church: 5 million
France Charles Pasqua, former minister of interior: 12 million
Trafigura (Patrick Maugein), businessman: 25 million
Ibex: 47.2 million
Bernard Merimee, former French ambassador to the United Nations: 3 million
Michel Grimard, founder of the French-Iraqi Export Club: 17.1 million
Syria Firas Mostafa Tlass, son of Syria's defense minister: 6 million
Turkey Zeynel Abidin Erdem: more than 27 million Lotfy Doghan: more than 11 million
Indonesia Megawati Sukarnoputri: 11 million
Spain Ali Ballout, Lebanese journalist: 8.8 million
Yugoslavia The Socialist Party: 22 million Kostunica's Party: 6 million
Canada Arthur Millholland, president and CEO of Oilexco: 9.5 million
Italy Father Benjamin, a French Catholic priest who arranged a meeting between the pope and Tariq Aziz: 4.5 million
Roberto Frimigoni: 24.5 million
United States Samir Vincent: 7 million Shakir Alkhalaji: 10.5 million
United Kingdom George Galloway, member of Parliament: 19 million
Mujaheddin Khalq: 36.5 million
South Africa Tokyo Saxwale: 4 million
Jordan Shaker bin Zaid: 6.5 million
The Jordanian Ministry of Energy: 5 million
Fawaz Zureikat: 6 million
Toujan Al Faisal, former member of Parliament: 3 million
Lebanon The son of President Lahoud: 5.5 million
Egypt Khaled Abdel Nasser: 16.5 million
Emad Al Galda, businessman and Parliament member: 14 million
Palestinian Territories The Palestinian Liberation Organization: 4 million
Abu Al Abbas: 11.5 million
Qatar Hamad bin Ali Al Thany: 14 million
Libya Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem: 1 million
Chad Foreign minister of Chad: 3 million
Brazil The October 8th Movement: 4.5 million
Myanmar (Burma) The minister of the Forests of Myanmar: 5 million
Ukraine The Social Democratic Party: 8.5 million
The Communist Party: 6 million
The Socialist Party: 2 million
The FTD oil company: 2 million
UN, CBS, CBS, UN
Hmmm. It's all sort of starting to merge into one big acronym.
Truer than true.
Coffee Anon is only worried about 'media uproar'...and his own arse...not anything like justice, restitution, honesty, prosecution, or truth.
Ping
George W. Bush will win reelection by a margin of at least ten per cent.
I wonder how she got the job in the first place?
With such an egregious inability to draw conclusions based upon demonstrated fact this woman has no business serving on any sort of investigatory panel. The notion that the media are Bush sycophants is a self-evident absurdity.
This is not a proper use of the conjunctive "or." The only gramaticlly correct construction in cases like this is " both... and ...."
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
By charging that the United States launched an "illegal war" in Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan affirms just how far he and the United Nations are removed from reality.
Maybe if the U.N.'s Security Council held Saddam Hussein's feet to the fire with its own resolutions after the Gulf War, the question of military action 10 years later in Iraq would have been moot. Instead the paper tiger of untied nations effectively allowed Saddam to plant thumb to nose and wiggle his fingers at the agency's ineptitude.
Forget weapons inspections. The United Nations couldn't even administer an oil-for-food program without allegations of widespread thievery, illegal payments from companies buying Iraqi oil, and billions of dollars in kickbacks.
Yet seemingly unfazed by any scandal in his own house, Annan opened Tuesday's U.N. session prior to President Bush's address by saying the rule of law is at risk around the world.
Bush didn't address the "illegal war" charge but instead urged delegates to "fight radicalism and terror with justice and dignity."
To be clear, the U.N. resolution adopted in November 2002 clearly authorized "serious consequences" if Iraq refused to disarm. Saddam refused. Previous resolutions used the same language.
And last time we checked, the U.S. Constitution has not been rewritten by the United Nations to impinge on this nation's sovereign right to act in its own defense. At least not yet.
If Mr. Annan's true intent was to lob a political grenade at President Bush in the weeks ratcheting up to the election, then this one went off in the secretary-general's face.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1223163/posts
#24...backhoe's file on Oil for Food.
FOX news will have more on the UN and Oil for Food tomorrow Sunday show.
Dropping a Daisy-Cutter on the UN building will probably do more to stop terrorism than all that we have doen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Truer words have not been spoken. When I worked Civil Service I found out that was the case too. If you do your job and follow the rules you don't get promoted, but if you screw up - instant raise and promotion.
What a credible investigation...
I stand corrected. You are EXACTLY right!
(snip)
The Commission’s operations are shrouded in secrecy, with little transparency or external oversight.
(snip)
Its investigation could cost $30 million in all. (snip)
In other words, it has:
The secrecy of the Hillary Health Care Task Force;
The price tag of the Iran-Contra Investigation;
The same effects on the Principal ThugsTM as the Ken Starr investigation.
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