Posted on 02/15/2005 6:14:33 PM PST by saquin
UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday.
In a move that provoked fury from officials of the Swiss firm Cotecna, an Australian former inspector detailed a picture of incompetence, indifference and drunkeness among the men acting as the frontline for UN sanctions.
Arthur Ventham, a former Australian army officer and customs officer, joined the operation in 2002 and worked at various sites in Iraq and neighbouring states.
He said that at Iskendurun in eastern Turkey, some officials had refused to work.
When he asked one of his bosses why, he was told: "They were friends or relatives of potential clients, and are only in the mission so the company could secure future contracts in Nigeria, Comoros and another African country.
"When I said that this was unfair on everyone else, I was told that it was general practice in Cotecna."
Other inspectors had spent most of the day in hotel rooms while others drank beer and talked to the local people.
Inspectors were supposed to check lorries to make sure the UN sanctions regime was being enforced.
At another monitoring site where the UN was supposed to check humanitarian aid supplies, Mr Ventham noticed "the team leader and his fellow countrymen [the nationality is unstated] spending the majority of their time in each other's rooms drinking vodka as opposed to managing and leading the team".
There he noticed small vessels and barges moving to a small island each night.
"I mentioned this to a number of other inspectors saying there was plenty of scope for smuggling and what were the UN doing about it.
"I was extremely surprised by the response that it was common knowledge smuggling was going on at Um Qasir [and that] the oil was being sold on the black market to augment the regime."
Cotecna officials said the unheralded release of Mr Ventham's allegations was unfair and that they would respond in detail at a later date. They said Mr Ventham had been dismissed and was a disgruntled former employee.
The UselessN...who would have thought? They need to move out of NYC......NOW!
It doesn't do one any good to get drunk at Iraqi temperatures. Or maybe it was in winter?
Would they prefer a heralded release? Actually, I'm rather pissed that Ventham didn't inform his home country and that the information was not in the hands of the coalition. I hope his status is "perp" and that we're learning this under a plea agreement.
My sister works for the UN... in one of the few worthwhile missions (UNMISET). She says people there also drink all the time and work little.
I must be a UN inspector and never knew it........LOL....
UNable to do the job
Sounds like what Scott Ritter must have done while "looking for weapons." Maybe "looking for weapons" is code for "drinking vodka."
The incompetent, lazy, irresponsible, slack-assed UN. Who would have guessed?
What's with the reluctance of the press to name the "other African country?"
bttt
ping
Thought I saw some WMD at the bottom of that bottle!
What annoys me is that the U.N. sits in judgment of what the U.S. is doing in Iraq.
no doubt.....seems like they put in 2 hours more than the aforementioned inspectors....I'll be looking for chemical weapons in the flower beds though
H.R. 1146 will WITHDRAW the USA from the United Nations' madhouse/cesspool
Go to: http://www.getusout.org/un/index.html . Then go lobby at http://www.conservativeusa.org/megalink.htm .
The United Nations is a corrupt disgrace and it is time for the USA to WITHDRAW from and defund the United Nations. Please tell your senators, congressmen and everyone you know to support Representative Ron Paul’s bill H.R. 1146 which would WITHDRAW the USA from the United Nations, prohibit US funds going to the UN and prohibit US troops serving under UN command. H.R 1146 is the American Sovereignty Restoration Act.
The whole mission of the UN is to take power, money and national sovereignty from the USA. Thus the United States must withdraw from and defund the UN and if we go, if we are lucky, the whole thing will implode.
Some nerve....who did they think they were, Ted Kennedy?
We need to stay in the UN, just so we can keep an eye on those bastards and veto them every time they try to do something.
We should cut off their funds though, and charge them rent.
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