Posted on 05/17/2004 3:05:37 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
First came the shock that United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s son, Kojo was connected to the ill-fated program. According to the New York Post On-Line edition, family members of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali are officers of a Panamanian-registered company in which Benon Sevan, a UN assistant Secretary General, appointed to administer the oil-for-food program, had a connection.
The Post said it got its information about the Boutros-Ghali connection from Claude Hankes-Drielsma, a British businessman and advisor to the Iraqi governing council.
The oil-for-food program could totally annihilate the credibility of the world’s largest bureaucracy, the United Nations.
Iraq sold $47 billion worth of oil in this program, giving Saddam Hussein a $4.7 billion personal profit.
Kicked off eight years ago as a UN plan to feed hungry Iraqis with Iraq’s legendary oil revenues, it ended last year in a stunning quagmire of alleged bribes, kickbacks and billions lost to "The Butcher of Baghdad".
Vouchers given to Sevan and other politicians, businessmen and political parties on the list enabled them to serve as middlemen and flip the contract to another oil company making between 10 cents and 60 cents profit on each barrel of oil.
The oil-for-food tap has never been turned off. The Post says there are "several hundred million" from the program sitting in three banks in Jordan. Someone is drawing the money from these accounts, but "no one knows whom."
Just weeks ago, Boutros-Ghali was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada. Only nine foreigners have been so honoured, and even as the former UN Secretary General was receiving the award, some Canadian officials were calling it "strange" because the Rwandan genocide happened under his watch as UN Secretary General.
It was under Boutros-Ghali’s direction that the UN 420-page Our Global Neighbourhood, which produced the blueprint for global governance, was published.
When Boutros-Ghali left the UN, he went on to head the Francophonie, the organization of French-speaking nations.
It gets worse.
Canadians are also said to have made oil deals with Saddam, and ties with the Canadian Company involved go all the way up to Prime Minister Paul Martin’s office.
A man called Benon Sevan may be the UN kingpin in the oil-for-food program.
In the Canadian connection, it’s a man called Paul Desmaris. Desmaris is the largest shareholder and director of TotalFinaElf, the largest corporation in France, which held tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein.
Martin replaced Prime Minister Jean Chretien last December. Chretien’s daughter, France is married to Andre Desmaris, son of Paul Desmaris.
Martin maintains powerful UN connections through Annan’s special UN advisor Maurice Strong. In fact, Strong, who also happens to be the architect of the Kyoto Protocol, hired Martin in the 1960s to work for Paul Desmaris Sr.
According to respected Financial Post columnist Diane Francis, "In 1974, Desmaris made Martin president of Canada Steamship Lines and then in 1981, he made him spectacularly rich by selling the company to him and a partner for $180 million. Martin’s shipping company is estimated to be worth about $424 million, making him the 63rd richest person in Canada."
Shortly after his arrival in the Prime Minister’s office, Martin gave the company to his three sons.
Canadian columnists have lamented that Canada Steamship Lines has been the recipient of hundreds of thousands from the Liberal government in Ottawa.
In order to escape Canadian taxes, ships operated by Canada Steamship lines fly flags of convenience rather than the Canadian flag.
At the United Nations, it’s not only a global world; it’s the proverbial small one.
When is this going to reach the mainstream news? Any guesses?
What!? Insult the french that they love so much.
And this is why GW will do whatever he can to bury this thing. Bremer is already making some moves. This scandal will not see the light of day. It's too big.
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