The Oil-for-Food Scam: What Did Kofi Annan Know, and When Did He Know It?

Commentary Magazine ^ | April 16, 2004 | Claudia Rosett

[quidnunc]

For years, the United Nations Oil-for-Food program was just one more blip on the multilateral landscape: a relief program for Iraq, a way to feed hungry children in a far-off land until the world had settled its quarrels with Saddam Hussein. Last May, after the fall of Saddam, the UN Security Council voted to lift sanctions on Iraq, end Oil-for-Food later in the year, and turn over any remaining business to the U.S.-led authority in Baghdad. On November 20, with some ceremony, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lauded the program’s many accomplishments, praising in particular its long-serving executive director, Benon Sevan. The next day, Oil-for-Food came to an end.

But it has not ended. Suddenly, Oil-for-Food is with us again, this time splashed all over the news as the subject of scandal at the UN: bribes, kickbacks, fraud, smuggling; stories of graft involving tens of billions of dollars and countless barrels of oil, and implicating big business and high officials in dozens of countries; allegations that the head of the program himself was on the take. In February, having at first denied any wrongdoing, Sevan stopped giving interviews and was then reported to be on vacation, heading into retirement. By March, the U.S. Congress was preparing to hold hearings into Oil-for-Food. Kofi Annan, having denied any knowledge of misdeeds by UN staff, finally bowed to demands for an independent inquiry into the UN program, saying, "I don’t think we need to have our reputation impugned."

The tale has been all very interesting, and all very complicated. For those who look yearningly to the UN for answers to the world’s problems, it has provoked, perhaps, some introspection about the pardonable corruption that threatens even the most selfless undertakings. For those who believe the UN can do nothing right, Oil-for-Food, whatever it was about, is a delicious vindication that everyone and everything at the world organization is crooked, the institution a fiasco, and politicians who support it fit for recall at the next electoral opportunity.

The excitement may be justified, but a number of important facts and conclusions have gone missing. Oil-for-Food, run by the UN from 1996 to 2003, did, in fact, deliver some limited relief to Iraqis. It also evolved into not only the biggest but the most extravagant, hypocritical, and blatantly perverse relief program ever administered by the UN. But Oil-for-Food is not simply a saga of one UN program gone wrong. It is also the tale of a systematic failure on the part of what is grandly called the international community.

Oil-for-Food tainted almost everything it touched. It was such a kaleidoscope of corruption as to defy easy summary, let alone concentration on the main issues. But let us try.

-snip-

[TheConservator]

Excellent article. Definitely worth the read.

Perhaps they will turn up the name of "Kerry" or "Heinz" (or "Rodham" or "Clinton" for that matter) on some of those oil vouchers.

The U.S. needs to withdraw from the U.N., and kick it out of our country.

[GailA]

MASTER LIST OIL FOR FOOD SCANDAL

[Cicero]

Devastating. Claudia Rosett has written on this scandal earlier for the Wall Street Journal, which she is too modest to mention. I am delighted to see this appear in Commentary. It's very, very interesting that some of the old marxist, left-wing intellectual journals seem to be breaking with the Democrats, so that at this point Kerry and company are well to the left of them on issues of war and peace.

Commentary, The New Republic, The Nation, all seem to have a firmer sense of justice and patriotism than John F'n Kerry and the DNC.

[lepton]

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