Posted on 04/27/2005 7:00:20 AM PDT by Valin
UNITED NATIONS: Oil-for-food investigator Paul Volcker yesterday denied UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s claim that he had been cleared of wrongdoing by Volcker’s enquiry into the scandal-ridden programme.
The embattled Annan, facing calls for his resignation over a string of scandals that have badly damaged the UN’s image, said last month that an interim report from Volcker’s commission had “exonerated” him.
“I thought we criticised him rather severely. I would not call that an exoneration,” Volcker told US network Fox News in an interview broadcast yesterday.
“I would not have used that word,” Volcker said. Asked directly if he thought Annan had been cleared, Volcker replied: “No.”
Fox also reported that Volcker, the former head of the US federal reserve banking system, said that he could ask for time to keep investigating the mounting allegations of fraud and corruption.
It said the probe was “still wide open” regarding Benon Sevan, the Cypriot national who headed oil-for-food and was already found by Volcker to have steered Iraqi oil to an acquaintance in a serious conflict of interest.
Annan’s claim to have been cleared has been part of the UN strategy to try to turn the page on the oil-for-food scandal, amid initial reports that Volcker would wrap up the investigation in the coming months.
Revelations about wrongdoing in the $64bn programme, which oversaw oil sales by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein between 1996 and 2003, have led to repeated calls for Annan’s resignation.
“Hell no!” Annan said when asked if he would resign hours after Volcker’s latest report in March found that the UN chief had carried out an “inadequate” look into a possible conflict of interest regarding his son Kojo.
The report said there was “not sufficient evidence” that Annan had used his influence to award a lucrative contract to Cotecna, the Swiss company that employed Kojo.
But it did find that the UN boss’s then chief-of-staff shredded three years of internal documents, covering the time when the company first won the contract, just one day after the formal order for Volcker’s probe was given.
It also found that Kojo Annan, after leaving the firm, continued to receive hidden payments for years.
“When he found out that his son was employed by Cotecna, and continued to be employed, there was no real investigation,” Volcker told Fox.
Within hours of Volcker’s last report in late March, Annan said:
“This exoneration by the independent enquiry obviously comes as a great relief.”
The Volcker enquiry itself has lately become embroiled in scandal after two top investigators resigned, reportedly because they believed the report had been too soft on the secretary general.
But in his interview with Fox, Volcker denied that was the case.
“We are not meant to be soft or hard. We are out to get the facts, and I’ve said from the beginning our responsibility is to follow the facts wherever they lead,” he said.
“There should not be and has not been any question as to whether the report itself reviewed all the investigative leads in some considerable detail,” he said.
The UN chief has insisted he will not step down and, in an interview with New York magazine this week, said he was the victim of a “lynch mob” out to “destroy” him.
Captains Quarter
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004369.php
Volcker: Annan Not Cleared At All
Contrary to Kofi Annan's claims to the contrary, the Volcker Commission did not clear the UN Secretary-General of wrongdoing or incompetence in its written report last month. That comes directly from Paul Volcker himself, who found himself rather amazed by that statement from the head of the United Nations:
In an interview aired yesterday with Fox News, Mr. Volcker took direct issue with Mr. Annan's insistence that he had been exonerated by investigators probing both his role in overseeing the Iraq aid program and conflicts of interest involving a key contract awarded to a Swiss firm that employed Mr. Annan's son.
"I thought we criticized [Mr. Annan] rather severely," Mr. Volcker said of his panel's interim report, released March 29. "I would not call that an exoneration."
Asked point-blank whether Mr. Annan had been cleared of wrongdoing in the $10 billion scandal, Mr. Volcker replied, "No."
Perhaps Volcker was naive enough to think that Annan appointed him to "find the truth," as Volcker describes his mission later in the interview. However, Annan's spin of Volcker's interim report -- the investigation continues to this day -- should clearly show Volcker that Annan used him and his reputation to hide his culpability behind a series of ambiguous findings, and claim that as exoneration. Annan created the Volcker Commission as a reaction to investigations spinning up in the US, which have subpoena power that Volcker lacks. He deftly used Volcker to capture jurisdiction and ensured that subpoenas could not be put into play, making it easier for people to hide documentation and refuse to assist with the investigation.
If Volcker is surprised that such an arrangement leaves the field wide open for Annan to play spin doctor, then he is more foolish than previously thought. That may explain why two of his three lead investigators quit in protest this month, after being overruled on the strength of language in the report that allowed Annan to spin it the way he did. Volcker should reconsider his efforts on behalf of Annan, to whom he reports, and contemplate marrying his efforts to that of Senator Norm Coleman and his investigation, which does have subpoena power and could actually find the corruption Volcker says he seeks.
Posted by Captain Ed at April 27, 2005 07:16 AM
Oil-for-food investigator Paul Volcker yesterday denied UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s claim that he had been cleared of wrongdoing by Volcker’s enquiry....
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Nice try Kofi. Why this arch maggot is still in his job is incomprehensible. Honor amongst theives?? And so is why the U.N. is still on U.S. soil --
"..it did find that the UN boss’s then chief-of-staff shredded three years of internal documents, covering the time when the company first won the contract, just one day after the formal order for Volcker’s probe was given.
It also found that Kojo Annan, after leaving the firm, continued to receive hidden payments for years."
Does this sound like an exoneration? Did Kofi even read the damn thing? And then he comes out with this comment: "said he was the victim of a “lynch mob” out to “destroy” him."
One comment: this smacks of a thinly veiled race card - SMOKESCREEN. You can't hide from facts and truth Kofi.
"..it did find that the UN boss’s then chief-of-staff shredded three years of internal documents, covering the time when the company first won the contract, just one day after the formal order for Volcker’s probe was given.
It also found that Kojo Annan, after leaving the firm, continued to receive hidden payments for years."
Does this sound like an exoneration? Did Kofi even read the damn thing? And then he comes out with this comment: "said he was the victim of a “lynch mob” out to “destroy” him."
One comment: this smacks of a thinly veiled race card - SMOKESCREEN. You can't hide from facts and truth Kofi.
How Clintonesque of Mr. Annan. A damning report comes out and he quickly labels it as "exonnerating." Then he bites his lip, so to speak, and announces that he "did not have sex with that oil for food program."
Honor amongst theives??
More like he know who's got what skeletons in who's closet.
Volker is as tied into the corruption as Annan.
Its past time for the U.N. "gang of thieves" to pay for their corruption. That includes the slickster Kofi who delights in his little bom mots.
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