Posted on 06/01/2004 4:07:32 AM PDT by OXENinFLA
Kenndy is blowing his top, or about to have a heart attack.......
Gee ... what a shocker
The Dems defending terrorists and not the people who are being beheaded by the terrorists
Naaaaa .. it will be a stroke
He seems to me back for more
Bobby Bryd is up and inviting everyone to book signing regarding a George Washington book
We can only hope that when he does explode it does'nt stain to much of the carpet and furnishings.
Ooooooooooo ENSIGN up talking about THE OIL-FOR -FOOD scandle..
Dang I missed it .. my sister came over for a visit
Will post as soon as it's available!
IRAQ POLICY
Iraq Multi-National Force Commander Nomination
On Thursday, Chairman Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and Ranking Member Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) lead a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing on the pending nomination of General George W. Casey, Jr., to be Iraq Multi-National Force Commander.
ON C-SPAN.ORG AT 10AM ET
Oh, boy This should be a hoot to watch...
S 2400 (National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 )
An original bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2005 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe personnel strengths for such fiscal year for the Armed Services, and for other purposes.
YEAs 97
NAYs 0
Not Voting 3
Yup, you guessed it JOHN KERRY was one of the 3 that didn't vote........
Oh, and if you're wondering about the Daschle Amdt on veterans health care. It fail to get 60 votes to wave the Congressional Budget Act.
OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM -- (Senate - June 23, 2004)
[Page: S7221] GPO's PDF
---
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I rise to speak about the Oil-for-Food scandal. I do so because I have been told that high ranking officials at the State Department and Paul Volcker, who is heading up the U.N. investigation, believe Senators are not personally committed to gaining access to all relevant documents, including U.N. audits. That is not true.
A bipartisan group of Senators, including ranking members from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, wrote to Mr. Bremer in Iraq asking him to secure the Oil-for-Food documents.
I ask unanimous consent that the letter be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
U.S. SENATE,
Washington, DC, June 9, 2004.
Hon. L. PAUL BREMER, III,
Administrator, Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad, Iraq.
DEAR MR. BREMER: We are writing to inquire about the status of documents relating to the United Nations ``Oil-for-Food'' Program (OFF Program), and express our concerns about recent developments that could jeopardize American interests with respect to those documents.
The Section 2007 report submitted to Congress in April states that you have ordered ``all relevant records in Iraq ministries be inventoried and protected so that they can be made available'' for certain investigations into the OFF Program. We also understand that the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) regarding the sharing of documents and information relating to the OFF Program.
Our concern is that all documents related to the OFF Program be secured not only for the IIC and the Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit (BSA), but also for investigations conducted by Congressional committees. Accordingly, we request that the CPA work with the Inspector General's Office of the Department of Defense (DoD IG) to secure a copy of all documents that are being gathered for the BSA and the IIC investigations. Once such documents are secured, a complete set of documents relevant to the OFF Program should be delivered within sixty (60) days or no later than August 31, 2004, to the General Accounting Office for further delivery, upon request, to any Congressional committee of competent jurisdiction. Please identify by no later than June 11, 2004, a person at the CPA and at DoD IG responsible for securing the documents in response to this request.
We are sure you will agree that these documents should be secured for all investigations into the OFF Program, whether in Iraq or the United States. In light of the recent dissolution of the Iraqi Governing Council, the formation of a new Iraqi government ahead of schedule, and the rapidly-approaching June 30th turnover date, we are concerned that American access to such documents will be jeopardized. Accordingly, we believe that the documents should be secured, duplicated, and delivered to DoD IG prior to June 30, 2004.
Sincerely,
Norm Coleman,
Carl Levin,
Saxby Chambliss,
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.,
Lindsey Graham,
John Ensign.
Mr. ENSIGN. Congressional investigators have an interest in making sure those documents are available and accessible. A subpoena has been served on BNP by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Chairman Coleman and the ranking Democrat, Senator Levin, have also sent letters seeking Oil-for-Food documents to
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the State Department and the General Accounting Office.
An amendment to the Defense bill, which would help Congress to conduct its own inquiries into the Oil-for-Food Program was passed unanimously. We want access to those documents. We wish the Volcker panel well; however, we are not going to abandon the duty of this Congress to conduct proper oversight or subcontract that role to an international body. The stakes are much too high.
We now believe that Saddam Hussein, corrupt U.N. officials, and corrupt well-connected countries were the real benefactors for the Oil-for-Food Program. They profited from illegal oil shipments, financial transactions, kickbacks, and surcharges, and allowed Saddam Hussein to build up his armed forces and live in the lap of luxury.
The evidence in this far-reaching scandal tells an unbelievable story. Our own U.S. General Accounting Office estimates that Saddam Hussein siphoned off $4.4 billion through oil sale surcharges. Saddam Hussein also demanded kickbacks on the humanitarian relief side from suppliers which amounted to 10 to 20 percent on many contracts. Saddam used this revenue to rebuild Iraq's military capabilities, to maintain lavish palaces, buy loyalty, oppress his people, and perhaps financially support terrorism.
And as Claude Haknes-Drielsma, an IGC consultant investigating the scandal, testified, the secret payments ..... ``provided Saddam Hussein and his corrupt regime with a convenient vehicle through which he bought support, internationally by bribing political parties, companies, and journalists ..... This secured the cooperation and support of countries that included members of the Security Council of the United Nations.''
The United Nations should be embarrassed. What resulted from the goodwill gesture was international scandal, corruption at the highest levels, and suffering Iraqi citizens--not exactly a model U.N. program.
Tasked by the international community to deny Saddam Hussein the ability to rebuild his military apparatus while providing humanitarian needs, the United Nations allowed the corrupt to become richer and innocent Iraqis to be oppressed. Today we have a chance to rectify that injustice. We must demand that the United Nations cooperate completely with efforts to extrapolate the truth from this scandal and punish the guilty.
Unfortunately, that does not appear to be happening, as William Safire notes in a recent column entitled ``Tear Down This UN Stonewall.'' He talks about how Paul Volcker's first choices for staffing the U.N.'s own Oil-for-Food--
..... were turned off not just by the lack of subpoena or oath-requiring power ..... but by an inadequate budget to dig into the largest financial rip-off in history. As a result, after nearly three months, a foot-dragging bureaucracy has successfully frustrated the independent committee dependent on it.
We know that officials acting on behalf of Benon Sevan, the executive director of the Oil-for-Food Program for the United Nations, who is personally implicated in the scandal, are asking contractors not to release documents relating to the program to congressional investigators without first getting U.N. authorization. We know the U.S. has asked for copies of the U.N. internal audit reports on this program, and the U.N. denied our request. I will include an exchange of letters to that effect in the RECORD.
It was reported recently that the head of the U.N.'s own inspector general's office himself is now being investigated by the United Nations. The U.N. should be more interested in bringing the truth to light than trying to protect its tattered reputation and its corrupt officials. I hope the Volcker panel gets the tools it needs from the U.N. to do a thorough investigation of the Oil-for-Food Program. The Volcker panel work does not obviate the need for the U.S. Congress to conduct its own investigation.
My amendment ensures that the Oil-for-Food documents in Iraq are secured before the June 30 handover and that copies are brought to the United States. Right now it is unclear what will happen to those documents following the June 30 handover. The amendment also requires U.S. agencies to provide relevant congressional committees access to Oil-for-Food documents. Additionally, it calls on the U.S. to use its voice and vote to get access to U.N. Oil-for-Food audits and core documents.
Lastly, it mandates a GAO review of the Oil-for-Food Program. Under the Helms-Biden U.N. reform legislation which was signed into law, as this amendment makes clear, we believe the GAO should have access to U.S. documents relating to the Oil-for-Food Program.
We in the Congress have a choice to make. We could do nothing and allow the word ``humanitarianism'' to be the new code word for corruption and scandal from here on out, or we can stand up and make the United Nations rightfully accountable for the corruption that has harmed innocent Iraqis.
The answer is clear: We must act.
The U.N. is broken. If the Security Council is to function, there cannot be questions as to whether members are more interested in lining their pockets than preserving security. We have to make sure Iraqi government officials get a clear message that the corruption and kickbacks of the Saddam Hussein regime--potentially aided and abetted by U.N. officials--will no longer be tolerated.
I thank my colleagues for helping to craft this amendment. Lindsay Graham took the lead in achieving this consensus. Senators Chambliss, Coleman, Lugar, Kyl, Enzi, and the majority leader all made important contributions, as did the minority, in finalizing the language. This was truly a collaborative process.
I ask unanimous consent that the letters I mentioned earlier be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
United States Representative for United Nations Management and Reform,
New York, NY, May 10, 2004.
Mr. DILEEP NAIR,
Office for Internal Oversight Services, the United Nations, New York, NY.
DEAR MR. NAIR: The U.S. Mission requests the following documentation/information regarding the Oil-for-Food Programme:
--The 55 OIOS internal reviews, or audits, of aspects of the OFF program;
--All bank statements for the OFF escrow account at BNP-Paribas;
--All Oil Overseer reports previous to October 2001;
--Copies of all Customs Reports from the UN's Office of Iraq Programme (OIP) to the 661 Committee that contain pricing reviews with notes of concern about possible overpricing.
Please provide these documents by 14 May 2004. If this is not possible, please provide a written explanation, including when we might expect to receive such documentation.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
PATRICK KENNEDY.
--
UNITED NATIONS
INTERNAL OVERSIGHT SERVICES,
New York, NY, May 12, 2004.
Reference: OUSG-04-370
Ambassador PATRICK F. KENNEDY,
Representative for United Nations Management, United States Mission to the United Nations, New York, NY.
DEAR AMBASSADOR KENNEDY: I refer to your letter to me of 10 May, as well as your previous letters of 20 April and 4 May, seeking documents relating to the Oil-for-Food Programme.
As you know, the Secretary-General has established an independent inquiry into allegations relating to the Programme, chaired by Mr. Paul Volcker. You would also be aware that Mr. Volcker has asked the Secretary-General to ensure that all relevant documents are secured solely for the Inquiry's use, and that, on 6 May, Mr. Volcker issued a statement saying that the Inquiry Committee believes non-public documents related to the Programme should not be released during the current preliminary stage of the Inquiry--though it will ``consider appropriate disclosure'' at a later stage, as the investigation proceeds.
As the internal reviews and audits of the Programme carried out by this Office, bank statements of the escrow account and letters sent to contractors, come in the category of ``non-public'' documents, these cannot be disclosed at the moment. On the other hand, the reports of the Oil Overseers and of the Customs Reports have already been provided to the United States government in its capacity as a member of the 661 Committee.
Yours sincerely,
Dileep Nair,
Under-Secretary General.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia is recognized.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may proceed for no more than 3 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
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Without objection, it is so ordered.
10:00 a.m.: Convene and proceed to executive session to begin consideration of Executive Calendar numbers 715 and 731, the nomination of John C. Danforth to be United States Representative to the United Nations.
Thereafter, begin consideration of S.2559, the Department of Defense Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2005.
I'm still waiting for the Dems to show outrage of Americans being beheaded
But Nope .. all I hear from them is outrage that we are torturing terrorists by making them stage for 4 hours straight and not letting them sleep
The dems priorities are F'd up big time
Biden up now saying Danforth (the new UN guy) will need to do more w/ regards to Sudan.....
Biden is up taking about the UN and their scandels
For the life of me, I cannot help but wonder why Kerry even bothered to show up for a vote he knew was going to pass anyway, aside from the political oppurtunism angle.
Just so he could say "I'm helping veterans"
Pretty much.
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