Posted on 12/02/2004 3:03:15 AM PST by Mia T
Americans' Role Eyed in U.N. Oil Scandal
Were American Oil Brokers Involved in Iraq Oil Kickback Schemes?
By BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
Dec. 1, 2004 -- Former American fugitive Marc Rich was a middleman for several of Iraq's suspect oil deals in February 2001, just one month after his pardon from President Clinton, according to oil industry shipping records obtained by ABC News.
And a U.S. criminal investigation is looking into whether Rich, as well as several other prominent oil traders, made illegal payments to Iraq in order to obtain the lucrative oil contracts.
"Without that kind of middleman, the system would not work because the major oil companies did not want to deal with Iraq because there was a mandated kickback," said human rights investigator John Fawcett.
Another broker was New York oil trader Ben Pollner, head of Taurus Oil, who investigators say handled several billion dollars worth of the transactions now under investigation.
Pollner told ABC News he paid no bribes or kickbacks to the Iraqi regime.
Rich is still living in Switzerland and unavailable for comment.
The roles of several American oil companies, including ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil, are also under investigation. ChevronTexaco received subpoenas requesting information for two separate grand jury proceedings, and said they were cooperating fully with both investigations.
The U.N. oil-for-food corruption scandal only continues to grow in scope. Today, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who is leading the congressional investigation into the program, said that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan should resign because the scandal occurred on his watch.
"I think there's a terrible stain on the credibility and the reputation of the United Nations, there's no doubt about that," said Coleman. "If we're ever to get to the bottom, how can you get there if the guy who was in charge during the course of this fraud and corruption is the guy now who is supposed to be ferreting it out?"
Top officials of the U.N., including Annan, are accused of looking the other way as some $21 billion meant for humanitarian aid was stolen by the Saddam Hussein regime.
Uncovered in the federal criminal investigation were previously undisclosed payments to Annan's son, Kojo, from his employer Cotecna. The Swiss company had been specifically hired to monitor the oil-for-food program.
Annan's son left the company in 1998 but received payments until this year.
Secretary-general since 1997, Annan said this week he was unaware of the payments. "Naturally I was very disappointed and surprised, yes," he said.
Also under criminal investigation is the U.N. official Annan put in charge of the program, Benon Sevan.
Documents discovered by U.S. forces in Iraq suggest Sevan received payments in the form of oil contacts from the Hussein regime, although Sevan has denied any wrongdoing. |
pro-islamofascist-terrorist radical chic
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Q ERTY2bump
THE INTERMINABLE clintons
It's time to take out the trash...
A Senate en passant capture is THE MOVE...
"Brian and Steve had been energetic questioners of Coleman. IT was easy to tell that they are both very much in favor of Kofi going. So, the first question they asked Danforth was if he agreed with Coleman's statement."
"Now, he'd been sitting in the green room, watching Coleman's segment. He had to know the question was coming, and had ample time to prepare his response. He's surely been asked the question before, privately at the very least, by other countries at the UN. He gave a completely weak, insipid, non response...along the lines of " we shall have to see"..etc, etc, but then for no apparent reason, he started comparing the "difficulties of investigating the UN to the problems that he, Danforth had, in investigating Waco."
"He repeated this several times, that his Waco investigation was very, very "difficult, very hard" He used those words several times over. It took me by surprise, and it also stunned the hosts, Brian and Steve. They didn't know what to make of it."
"Danforth is also, at best, not an exciting speaker. He has an especially dull, monotonal voice, and he seemed, well, out of it, to an extent..He sat somewhat hunched in his chair, stared straight ahead, vacant look on his face. It was very painful to watch."
"Something is obviously not right with him. Then this afternoon, the surprise announcement that he's resigning. Ask yourself, who goes on national TV in the morning to talk about the UN..then quits that same afternoon?"
"Nope, the WH did a rapid assessment, and IMHO, Danforth was told to resign immediately. Even more telling was the statement from the WH that he is NOT being considered for any other position."
"I hope he's OK...that he's being well taken care of. He's served his country well and ably for these many years, and his presence at President Reagan's national funeral service was commensurate with the dignity of the occasion.:
"But also not how fast the WH was on top of it, and how quickly they acted. This episode, while sad for Danforth, speaks well for the second term of the Bush Administration. They're at the top of their game."
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Strange......... any thoughts?
excellant job on "King of The Ho's (Road)", Mud!
THE DEMOCRATS ARE GONNA GET US KILLED (kerry, clinton + sandy berger's pants) SERlES 2
CLINTON-KERRY-DEMOCRAT CONTEMPT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY[annotated]
WHY JOHN KERRY IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA
[Kerry Advisor] Berger's contempt for US national security [annotated]Scott Jordan
In particular, the Washington Post reports1 that Berger purloined all draft revisions of a key critique of the government's response to the millennium terrorism threat, a document that detailed Administration knowledge - and inaction - regarding al Qaeda presence in the U.S. in 1999 and 2000. Stolen were crucial notes in the margins of these drafts which reveal the thinking and agendas of the Clinton Administration relating to the mounting terrorist threat. Cui bono? And when the losses were discovered, why did the Archives staff notify Bruce Lindsey? Lindsey, whom Time Magazine called Clinton's consigliere, is the brilliant legal tactician both Clintons can thank for their continued freedom. Berger has an impressive resume, but not one that obviously qualified him as NSA. He entered White House service a millionaire lawyer and lobbyist with a career centered on expanding trade with China.3 Former FBI Director Louis Freeh opined that "he was a public-relations hack, interested in how something would play in the press."4 Indeed, Clinton's brilliant poll-meister, Dick Morris, noted Berger "seemed to work overtime at opposing tough measures against terror",5 advising vetoes of legislation aimed at crippling Iranian terror funding and working to block antiterror sanctions. It was Berger who repeatedly rebuffed Sudanese offers to hand Osama bin Laden to the United States in a deal brokered by a $900,000 contributor to Democrat campaigns.6, 7 It was Berger who allowed bin Laden and his top lieutenants to escape to Afghanistan.8 It was Berger whose calls Bill Clinton ducked in 1998 when bin Laden was briefly vulnerable to missile attack.9 It was Berger who was singled-out by former UN Inspector Scott Ritter for the collapse of UN inspections efforts in Iraq.10 It was Berger who helped broker the farcical antinuclear treaty with North Korea. It was Berger who ultimately admitted that the Clinton Administration had failed to develop a war plan to fight al Qaeda.11 At the same time, it was Berger who was the go-to man in the Administration on matters regarding China policy in the years when Communist Chinese money was being funneled into Democrat Party coffers in exchange for policy concessions and strategic nuclear technology.
It was Berger whom DNC Chairman Don Fowler approached for favors for George Chao-chi Chu, a Chinagate-linked John Huang crony described as having "unusual access to high-ranking Communist officials in China" who, like the just-exited chief-foreign-policy-advisor Berger, has current ties to John Kerry.12 And it was Berger who the Energy Department approached with warnings of Chinese spying in Los Alamos, and who stonewalled the matter for three years.13 virtualclintonlibrary.blogspot.com hillarytalks.blogspot.com demmemogate.blogspot.com hillarytalks.us hillarytalks.org fiendsofhillary.blogspot.com fiendsofhillary.us fiendsofhillary.org fraudsofhillary.com missus clinton's REAL virtual office update johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com The list goes on and on14: Berger was not just the malfeasant, poll-driven, cowardly hack at the helm of our national security apparatus who enabled the global metastasis of bloodthirsty jihad; he was not just one of the key people who roadblocked cooperation between law enforcement and foreign intelligence, stacking "Gorelick's Wall" ever higher. In fact, as bagman for the Communist Chinese, Sandy Berger was himself likely one of the key beneficiaries of Gorelick's Wall. Viewed against his record, Berger's theft and destruction of "code-word"-level secret documents - and "The Consigliere's" stealthy involvement - is all too readily understood. 1TIME, Adam Cohen, The Ubiquitous Mr. Fix-It
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THE DEMOCRATS-ARE-GONNA-GET-US-KILLED (kerry, clinton + sandy berger's pants) SERlES1
(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com COPYRIGHT MIA T 2004 |
Look, Larry... [W]e were... not at war in the 1990s... and young Americans were not deployed... under President Clinton. What American would not trade the movement in the right direction that we had under President Clinton? John Kerry (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com |
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HOW CAN YOU PUT YOUR CHILDREN'S LIVES IN ITS HANDS? (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) |
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(Why America Must NEVER AGAIN Elect a Democrat President) (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com |
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WHY JOHN KERRY IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com |
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(viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE) COPYRIGHT MIA T 2004 |
- Q ERTY6 utter failureBUMP
- Lib Author Regrets Voting (TWICE!) for clinton
"Sickened" by clinton's Failure to Protect America from Terrorism- MUST-READ BOOK FOR DEMOCRATS:
How clintons' Failures Unleashed Global Terror
(Who in his right mind would ever want the clintons back in the Oval Office?)- The Man Who Warned America
(Why a Rapist is Not a Fit President)- UDAY: "The end is near this time I think the Americans are serious, Bush is not like Clinton."
and organizers have promised not to sidestep even Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones. [What? No Juanita Wing?]
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center, a metaphorical "bridge to the 21st century" cantilevered out over a bank of the Arkansas River,
opens Thursday as the highlight of a week of programs, exhibits and symposiums. The week will include an Aretha Franklin concert and a reception to which Whoopi Goldberg [has] been invited. HOW CAN YOU PUT YOUR CHILDREN'S LIVES IN ITS HANDS? At Thursday's grand opening, speakers will include [you know] Clinton['s] wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton....
November 15, 2004 |
;) depends if it's hunger... or appetite.
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Cato Blasts Danforth Waco Report This story was originally found at Virtual New York. Tuesday, 10 April 2001 17:05 (ET) All rights reserved.
Cato Blasts Danforth Waco Report
By DANIEL KAGAN, Managing Editor, UPI Think Tank Desk
WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- A new study by the Cato Institute says that
the final official government report on the 1993 Branch Davidian disaster in
Waco, Tex.-- which exonerated federal officials from wrongdoing-- is "not
supported by the factual evidence."
In "No Confidence: An Unofficial Account of the Waco Incident," criminal
justice scholar Timothy Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato's Project on
Criminal Justice, analyzes the legal implications of certain undisputed
events and concludes that the official investigation into the incident --
led by special prosecutor former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri -- was "soft
and incomplete." According to Lynch, many obvious crimes have gone
unprosecuted.
For example, says Lynch, ATF agents were caught on tape assaulting a local
television cameraman after he had filmed their retreat from the initial raid
on the Branch Davidian complex. Lynch says that ATF agents also lied to
federal investigators -- a federal offense -- but were never prosecuted
despite recommendations by U.S. Marshals.
More seriously, he says, FBI agents exhibited a gross disregard for human
life when they indiscriminately fired "ferret" rounds at the Davidian
residence and used tanks to ram its walls. "Since at least one child was
struck by a ferret round, second-degree murder charges may be appropriate,"
Lynch writes.
Also, the involvement of certain FBI officials in the Waco operation
"should have set off alarm bells with Special Prosecutor Danforth's
investigators," Lynch writes. Those officials were suspended by the
Department of Justice for their involvement in the controversial "Ruby
Ridge" incident, in which the wife of white separatist survivalist Randy
Weaver was killed by an FBI sniper during a nine-day standoff with agents in
Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992. One of these officials was eventually sentenced
to 18 months in prison for destroying evidence and lying to investigators
about his role in that cover-up.
Lynch points out that the involvement of those officials in supervisory
positions at Waco was not even mentioned in the special prosecutor's report.
"Danforth should have hauled those individuals before a grand jury and
questioned them about missing Waco evidence," Lynch says. "He did not."
If the crimes chronicled in his study go unpunished, Lynch concludes, "the
Waco incident will leave an odious precedent-that federal agents can use the
"color of their office" to commit crimes against citizens."
The report is available as Policy Analysis no. 395 at the Cato Institute
website:
.
--
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
Fittingly, oil-for-food unifies the seemingly disparate unctuous elements... and links them all with terrorism. Watch them slide.
about looking the other way.....
"mustn't confuse form with substance" -- so true
Danforth's smooth monotone and measured, adult, reasoned, seemingly honorable demeanor seems to cloud some people's impressions of him. There were folks on another thread who personally worked for him, seemed to know him well, and proclaimed that he was a "great Senator" and very honorable man. (I think he became a convenient and adroit government functionary.) When I asked the posters, very sincerely because I was not real familiar with Danforth's senate career, what Danforth did that made him a "great Senator" there were NO answers to that. That does not mean that he wasn't a good senator, I just got no answers to the question.
I have lived in a part of society for decades where I have become familiar with the type of person that I believe Danforth is. He comes across as spotless, and because of that he is called upon by his government to smooth things over. He did it for Waco I believe, and now with the U.N., I just believe that his remaining decency would not allow him to continue at the U.N. as he saw the total and overwhelming filth and fraud.
That is the only thing I can figure.
Thanks for the Cato report.
*****
DANFORTH, John Claggett, a Senator from Missouri; born in St. Louis, St. Louis County, Mo., September 5, 1936; graduated, St. Louis County Day (High) School 1954; graduated from Princeton University 1958, Yale University Law School and Yale Divinity School 1963; admitted to the New York bar in 1963, and commenced practice in New York City; ordained clergy, Episcopal Church 1963; attorney general of Missouri 1969-1976; unsuccessful Republican candidate for nomination to the United States Senate 1970; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1976 for the term commencing January 3, 1977; subsequently appointed on December 27, 1976, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Stuart Symington for the term ending January 3, 1977; reelected in 1982 and again in 1988, and served from December 27, 1976, to January 3, 1995; was not a candidate for reelection in 1994; chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (Ninety-ninth Congress); resumed the practice of law; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 2004-; is a resident of St. Louis, Mo. (Waco not mentioned)
virtualclintonlibrary.blogspot.com
hillarytalks.blogspot.com
missus clinton's REAL virtual office update
johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com
unfitforcommand.blogspot.com
compleatjohnkerry.blogspot.com
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Rampant '60s liberalism was not the underlying rationale for The Gorelick Wall. Rather, The Gorelick Wall was the underlying rationale for--The Gorelick Wall was (insofar as '60s liberalism was the Wall's apparent impetus) a cynical cover for --the willful, methodical malpractice and malfeasance that was the product of the virulent clinton strain of rampant '60s liberalism. While it is true that The Gorelick Wall was the convenient device of a cowardly self-serving president, The Wall's aiding and abetting of al Qaeda was largely incidental, (the pervasiveness of the clintons' Nobel-Peace-Prize calculus notwithstanding). The Wall was engineered primarily to protect a corrupt self-serving president. The metastasis of al Qaeda and 9/11 were simply the cost of doing business, clinton-style. Further confirmation of the Wall-as-cover-for-clinton-corruption thesis:
Conversely, that it never occurred to anyone on the commission that Gorelick's flagrant conflict of interest renders her presence on the commission beyond farce calls into question the commission's judgment if not its integrity. Washington's mutual protection racket writ large, I suspect. The Gorelick Wall is consistent with, and an international extension of, two essential acts committed in tandem, Filegate, the simultaneous empowering of the clintons and disemboweling of clinton adversaries, and the clinton Putsch, the firing and replacement of every U.S. attorney extant.
Allegations of international clinton crimes swirling around the White House in 1995 and beyond support The-Wall-as-cover-for-international-clinton-crimes thesis. Once the clintons' own U.S. attorneys were in place, once the opposition was disemboweled by the knowledge that their raw FBI files had been in the possession of the clintons, once domestic law enforcement was effectively blinded to foreign data by Gorelick's Wall, the clintons were free to methodically and seditiously and with impunity auction off America's security, sovereignty and economy to the highest foreign bidder.
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Danke ........... six times!
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