All unfounded, I'm sure. 
Posted on 02/13/2005 12:52:57 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
LONDON - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in an interview broadcast Sunday that "concessions" were made to Saddam Hussein to win his agreement to the oil-for-food program because there were concerns the Iraqi people would starve without it.
Annan told British Broadcasting Corp. television's "Breakfast With Frost" program he has no plans to resign over the allegations of kickbacks and bribes in the oil-for-food program.
"It was a political arrangement, it was a transaction that was intended to force Saddam Hussein to comply with the inspection requirements, disarmament requirements, and, in the process, concessions were also made to him," Annan said.
"Saddam had resisted the scheme for several years and there was concern that if something is not done the Iraqi population will starve. And some of these concessions were the price they had to pay to get the scheme off the ground," he added. "In retrospect, one may criticize it. But at the time, because of the urgency and the need to help the Iraqi people, some concessions were made."
Several U.S. congressional committees have been investigating allegations of corruption in the program that allowed the former government of Iraq to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.
Concerns about Annan's leadership deepened with the release of an interim report last week from an investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker which criticized U.N. management of the program.
Annan said he was awaiting the results of the investigation and he expected the full report to show how complex the oil-for-food program was.
"In the meantime I have put forward solid and bold proposals for reform, so resignation is not on the cards for me at the moment," Annan said in the interview.
All unfounded, I'm sure.
Oh, and now the excuses start.
LONDON - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in an interview broadcast Sunday that "concessions" were made to Saddam Hussein to win his agreement to the oil-for-food program because there were concerns the Iraqi people would starve without it.
well, Kofi, they starved with them
Question. How do you force compliance with concessions?
U.N.-think is always flawed.
If you had to give concessions to someone in order to give them something, then it should be obvious that there is something wrong.
If we have to give concessions to a government in order to allow their people to be fed, then obviously the government is not interested in having the people fed. In this case, it should have been considered grounds for removal.
And THIS is when the Baghdad Butcher should have been taken out for the good of all.
Really. Is this the, "We were corrupt and greedy to save the children", excuse.
I don't they were really concerned about the people though ~ sounds more like the money.
I believe he was holding the ordinary people hostage and basically willing and was starving and failing to give proper medical treatment to many of them. So, like other frauds, he'd argue that we needed to do what he wanted - trade deals and other sanction busters - for the children. Now that we have liberated all of those people, though, no one is saying how onerous the sanctions were. It's as if the Saddam appeasers had never tried to tug at our hearts or use the victims of Saddam's brutal social policies as a way to persuade people to let nations trade with Saddam.
Isn't it odd that he doesn't seem too concerned about the starvation in Sudan? Or is he busy making "concessions" to the thugs there too?
Pay him money? ( /sarcasm)
This group isn't competent or ethical enough to run concessions, much less make them.
"Saddam had resisted the scheme for several years and there was concern that if something is not done the Iraqi population will starve. And some of these concessions were the price they had to pay to get the scheme off the ground," he added.
Annan uses the word "scheme" twice in this sentence. What does that tell you folks.
Good catch.
Okay, what were the concessions?
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