Posted on 09/19/2004 5:10:13 PM PDT by ArmyBratproud
I have seen some preview spots on this show. It should be good. They supposedly speak of the connection between the UN Oil For Food scandal and the possible funding of terrorism.
Lets see... Saddam got 10.1B from this scam yet he didn't buy one WMD? Riiiiight!
Forget Iran, I say we make a pre-emptive strike against the UN.
But amid all this, two features stand out, and it is to these that I would like to call your attention. The hallmarks of Oil-for-Food were:
1) Privilege
2) Secrecy
These are features usually associated not with open, honest systems, but with secret societies, closed systems, dictatorships. In combination, they tend to incubate corruption. And they did not originate with Oil-for-Food; they are also inherent to the current arrangement and practices of the UN itself.
Privilege was first and foremost what Oil-for-Food accorded to the tyrant Saddam himself. The U.N. allowed Saddam to pick his oil buyers and relief suppliers. The U.N. let Saddam draw up the shopping lists. The U.N. deferred to him as he assembled rosters of contractors that included, among the first 50 oil buyers, a full dozen based in Switzerland. The UN deferred as he added to the list a multitude of what clearly had to be middlemen in places such as Panama, Liechtenstein, and Cyprus, as well as oil-buyers from such oil-rich countries as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and especially Russia. The surcharge-kickback scam, which made these choices all the more questionable, was by the year 2000 well known among those close to the program. The UN’s response was not to shut down Saddam’s sales, but to haggle with him. Indeed, it was Saddam who bargained by cutting off oil sales, leaving the UN desperate to continue the program—which was also paying the salaries of some 1,000 international UN staff, and another 3,600 in Iraq.
The UN’s eagerness was in principle based on desire to provide for the needs of the Iraqi people. But under UN terms of Oil-for-Food, Iraq’s 26 million citizens did not enjoy the kind of privileges the UN granted to the tyrant, Saddam. The Iraqi people had no say in who bought or sold goods for the program, in what was procured, or how it was distributed. They had no say in anything. Oil-for-Food was structured by the U.N. as a deal between Saddam and the U.N. The people of Iraq were treated merely as wards of this privileged partnership.
In fact, what we actually had here was the biggest venture in central planning launched in at least a generation or two. As far as I know, there was at no point any attempt by the U.N. to bargain for a greater say for the Iraqi people. Instead, it was considered an achievement—one boasted about at the end of the program by Mr. Annan and Mr. Sevan—that 60% of the population came to depend on the rationing cards of a totalitarian state. The U.N., in affirming and monitoring this arrangement made no visible attempt to push for greater freedom or latitude for the Iraqi people; the sole concern was to try to somewhat channel the prerogatives accorded to Saddam’s regime.
For itself, the UN dipped a cup into Saddam’s oil flows, apparently indifferent to the glaringly obvious conflict of interest that the Secretariat was getting paid by Saddam—on commission, no less—to monitor Saddam. This was Arthur Andersen monitoring Enron – with the difference to date that those who ran Arthur Andersen and Enron have been in one way or another held accountable.
Repeat on FOX NOW!
Thanks! Gotta go watch.
This was so sickening. I hope Fox News keeps digging!
Thanks.
Right out the gate...they blast 'em!
Hey, HuntsvilleTXVeteran,
I though about ya on Saturday.
They showed the Sam Houston State game on FSN.
Thery are impotent in the respect they are not performing in the manner they were intended. They are a totally corrupt organization and not only should be kicked off American soil, but disbanded in total. When people are allowed to conspire among themselves to defraud unsuspecting people and allow innocent children to die as they are doing in the Sudan and do all this without fear of prosecution for their crimes... well I sure as hell don't think they should receive one dime of financial support from this country.
POW! Right in the kisser!
Check THIS out. This is the FIRST in a series...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132832,00.html
Fox program
It used to be the MSM (TV/ Radio news/ most wire services} was dominated by leftists, but not so much now.
A) Newspapers have always had a partisan bent of some degree, with the left-justified side prevailing over the past 25 - 70 years.
B) Hollywood is overwhelmed by leftists.
C) Talk Radio is overwhelmed by rightists.
D) Pure-internet based media has the right-justified side prevailing.
E) Television FNC vs CBS NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC.
Since a Right perspective is becoming more and more prevalent in the media as a whole, perhaps descriptors such as "Left" or "Right" could be utilized when describing a media source.
Such as: The Leftist partisan Media organ CBS
"MSM" denotes too much respectability to the DNCBS
just my $0.02
Corruption in UN programs...say it isn't so. Just a minute, I'm choaking on my tongue.
I sure wish Fox would spend a bit of time working the "global warming"/Kyoto Treaty scam, too.
If the average American had any idea how the UN has worked to undermine US interests, empowered and supported anti-US dictators, and cooperated quietly and "unknowingly" with terrorists, there would be an uprising in the streets to shut that snake pit down.
Holy Crap,
That UN Oil for Food administrator , Savaan(sp), looks to have made 3.5 mill off of this.
Fox sent Johnathan Hunt out to question him.
Hunt is bloodhound. He is a great investigative reporter.
They should sic Hunt on Rathergate.
OH WOW....Hunt went after Annan for an interview...but Annan would not speak with him.
Please--someone PING me with a replay of this (after the current 9pm-10pm showing.)
I must tape this. Can't WAIT for Rush tomorrow.
Thanks for posting this!
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