WSJ: Agents and Ambassadors -- Too bad John Bolton wasn't at the U.N. in the 1990s.

Wall Street Journal ^ | May 13, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

So on the day the Senate Foreign Relations Committee finally tossed John Bolton's nomination for U.N. Ambassador to the full Senate for confirmation, the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations issued a 20-page report, "Oil for Influence: How Saddam Used Oil to Reward Politicians and Terrorist Entities Under the United Nations' Oil-For-Food Program." Let there be no doubt these two events are related.

The report focuses on allegations that Charles Pasqua, a former French Interior Minister and a member of the French Senate; Bernard Guillet, an aide to Mr. Pasqua; and George Galloway, a British Member of Parliament, were granted lucrative oil allocations by Saddam Hussein in exchange for their political support....

As it was, by the time Oil for Food got started, in 1996, the sanctions were already beginning to crumble, to the point that the program was sold by the Clinton Administration as the only way to keep the broader regime in place.

We now know the effect was the opposite: Oil for Food allowed Saddam to use his oil as a giant lever of political influence, propping up his own regime at home and weakening support for sanctions abroad. Only the intercession of 9/11 and President Bush's determination prevented the dictator's rehabilitation....

Here's a thought: The Oil for Food scandal is not just the product of Saddam's manipulations, or of the corruptibility of a few officials. Rather, it is what happens when America's diplomats choose to "be diplomatic," to speak softly, to defer to the U.N. consensus....

[OESY]

Mr. Voinovich may think we need more of the same. But we are reminded of the words of another Senator, who also knew something about the U.N. "It is time that the American spokesman came to be feared in international forums for the truths he might tell." That was Pat Moynihan, writing in Commentary in 1975, and John Bolton is his heir.

[conservativecorner]

POS senator Sonovitch!

[mewzilla]

What did Congress know and when did it know it?

There were rumors floating around, even in print, about Oil For Food back in the late 90's.

Did Congress suddenly become illiterate, deaf, dumb, and blind? No-one thought to follow up? So much for Congressional oversight.

[woofie]

BUMP