U.N. Procurement Scandal: Ties to Saddam and Al Qaeda

Fox News ^ | Friday, October 21, 2005 | By Claudia Rosett and George Russell

[MNJohnnie]

NEW YORK — The scandal engulfing the United Nations Procurement Department (search) now appears to be bottomless. It also shows signs of growing more sinister, especially where it involves a mysterious private company called IHC Services (search), which did big business with the procurement department until it was removed from U.N. rosters in June.

New details of how dark the scandal could prove to be have emerged from the private sale of IHC on June 3, 2005, just as the procurement scandal was about to break. It now appears that while doing business with the U.N., IHC had links both to Saddam Hussein’s old sanctions-busting networks, and to a Liechtenstein-based businessman, Engelbert Schreiber, Jr., known among other things for his ties to a figure designated by the U.N. itself as a financier of Al Qaeda (search).

Registered in New York State, with offices in New York City and Milan, IHC has been involved in possibly hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of business with the U.N. since the mid-1990s, serving both as a direct supplier and as a go-between for a wide variety of other contractors. This work has included IHC’s signing or helping to broker contracts for supplies ranging from portable generators to rations for U.N. peacekeeping troops in such trouble spots as West Africa and the Middle East.

IHC came under public scrutiny this summer, after FOX News broke the story on June 20 that IHC had maintained especially close ties with Alexander Yakovlev (search), a Russian official in the U.N. procurement department, who while handling an IHC contract with the U.N. had obtained a job for his son with the company, and had also been channeling funds to a secret offshore bank account.

[MNJohnnie]

I know this probably breaks the new all Miers/Plame all the time Freeper Code but thought people MIGHT like to know there are OTHER things going on.

[kimosabe31]

Thanks for posting this.

[MEG33]

Thanks!

[Just mythoughts]

Got to wonder at what level the Clintons squeezed out a few dollars, could the library founded upon the little rock have been a beneficiary?

[q_an_a]

good for you. there is great news in the world - Al Jezzera read the entire 53 page UN report ON THE AIR to tell the ARAB world Syria is a rogue state. The price of oil AND natural GAS have dropped during the past week. Calif. lost 27,000 jobs due to their stupid tax and regulation policies - good news never stops for conservatives.

You sir have seen that there is more to being a conservative than one issue. Thanks for the post and your humor.

[not2worry]

Hmmmmmm, I now wonder what Sandy Berger really had hidden in his pants.

[MNJohnnie]

Got to wonder at what level the Clintons squeezed out a few dollars, could the library founded upon the little rock have been a beneficiary?

Well I do not know but considering the Clintons did take money from just about anyone, it IS possible.

[Just mythoughts]

"Hmmmmmm, I now wonder what Sandy Berger really had hidden in his pants."


Personally, until evidence shows to the contrary, I will always believe that what Sandy the Burglar took was any identifying paperwork that had a HRC (hillry) initial(s) connection upon it.

[Wuli]

Alexander Yakovlev (search), a Russian official in the U.N. procurement department

Russian officials?, Russian KGB-mobsters?, Sadaam/Iraqi-intelligence units?, money and material "laundered" around the world??? The links and common threads have been ongoing since the 1980s; and unchanged after the fall of the USSR.

Democratic nations need to start "off loading" from the United Nations the legitimate international efforts they want to work with each other on and leave the UN to its useless public forum of rogue states, for the press to have something to "report" about.

[gpapa]

If I were conspiracy minded I might think those papers referred to Able Danger.

[Just mythoughts]

"If I were conspiracy minded I might think those papers referred to Able Danger."


I would not disagree on the specific topic, however, one does have to wonder who knew and when did they know, and for what purpose was the data complied used. This "Able Danger" seems little different in the data ordered via FBI files directly at the White House, and what better method of data collection than using the military to snoop on perceived political enemies.

I always think of clintons in the vain of what they had planned under an algore administration and hillry leading the charge in the senate.

[painter]

"IHC has been involved in possibly hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of business with the U.N. since the mid-1990s,"

I wonder how much money they donated to the Clinton/Gore reelection campain???

[mickie]

Great article......

The reporters did quite a job digging out the facts.

[phillyfanatic]

Note only Fox and JLo of National Review is following this story. The MSM won't touch it. Freepers should be posting this on every site it can. Letters should be flowing. This is a huge story which will fade if the Dems, the MSM and other UN flackers have their way. The USA under Bolton should also be explaining this in the Security Council as well as the GA. It should be pounded into our reality as much as the DeLay-Ronnie Earle indictment!!!

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=oilforfood

===
===

ON THE NET...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173039,00.html
"U.N. Procurement Scandal: Ties to Saddam and Al Qaeda"
Friday, October 21, 2005
By Claudia Rosett and George Russell
NEW YORK

===
===

ON THE NET...

http://www.memri.org/bin/search/search.cgi?nocpp=1&p%3Ats_udav=0&sort-method=3&Match=1&Terms=%22oil+for+food%22&Realm=All
---

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA20505
Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 205
February 9, 2005 No.205
"MEMRI Senior Analyst's Testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations about the Volcker UN Oil-for-Food Report"
---

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA19304
Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 193
October 27, 2004 No.193
"Saddam's Oil Vouchers Revisited"
By Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli*.
---

http://memri.org/bin/media.cgi?ID=83004
"April 26, 2004, Federal News Service, 'The Iraq Oil For Food Program: Starving For Accountality'."
---

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA17204
Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 172
April 21, 2004 No.172
"MEMRI Analyst's Testimony Before Congress on the U.N. 'Oil for Food' Scandal"
---

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA16404
Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 164
February 20, 2004 No.164
"The Saddam Oil Vouchers Affair"
By Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli*.
---
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA16004
Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 160
January 29, 2004 No.160
"The Beneficiaries of Saddam's Oil Vouchers: The List of 270"
---

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=countries&Area=iraq&ID=SP38202
Special Dispatch Series - No. 382
May 20, 2002 No.382
"Iraq Buys and Smuggles Its Way Out of UN Sanctions"

[mseltzer]

Thanks