[Howlin]

Mandatory read ping

This ought to about do you all in for the day.

[Howlin]

FYI.

[Mo1]

FIRST .. do I really want to read this ...

Oh OK .. but let me go get my advil first

[Cold Heat]

Thanks Howlin!

This looks like a jobs program and a fat cash flow.

No wonder they don't want to loose it.

[Cicero]

Much obliged for the ping.

[eddie willers]

Jeeze....what a sweetheart deal.
Things are starting to make a little more sense.

[McGavin999]

Incredible. Time to demand an audit of these funds. This money held in escrow rightly belongs to the Iraqui people and should be used to help rebuild the infrastructure of the country.

I'm sure that Bush has been aware of this for quite some time.

[swheats]

Soviet-style central planning, which by rationing goods and controlling people's livelihoods serves as a powerful tool for political control.

Sounds like the liberals in America. They've been busy.

[Freedom2specul8]

Bookmarked to read..and WILL pass along

Just reading the first two paragraphs tells me that this is going to be ugly.

Hey, is the author of this from wall street journal? IS that was WSJ stands for? (see source at top)

[Mo1]

WHAT THE *** THis is worse then Jesse Jackson

HELLO .. AUDIT THE UN NOW!

[cake_crumb]

LOL...it IS getting kinda late, isn't it? This has been one of those days to drive news and politics junkies nuts.

[Dolphy]

...it is not the U.N. but Saddam who decides what is needed, who in Iraq gets what, and which countries he should contract with. He must submit his proposals to the U.N. Security Council, which can turn them down. But the bulk of his requests are approved. The U.N. then disburses the cash from the "Iraq accounts" and monitors the delivery, trying to ensure it follows Saddam's plan.

The UN is trying to ensure it follows Saddam's plan? No wonder this idea of inspections isn't going over well.

The result is that U.N.-approved aid goes to reinforce Saddam's control over what is already a Soviet-league state-run economy. Part of what helped Saddam rise to power in the first place was Iraq's embrace in the 1960s of Soviet-style central planning, which by rationing goods and controlling people's livelihoods serves as a powerful tool for political control.

This sounds like a page from the Dems tax policy playbook.

[nopardons]

Thanks, Howlin. This really IS MANDATORY reading !

[nutmeg]

This ought to about do you all in for the day.

You said it, Howlin! Thanks for the ping. I'll ping a few more FRiends on this one...

[WaterDragon]

I am so fed up with America lending any credence to an organization as futile, corrupt and deadly to the world's peoples as the United Nations.

[AFPhys]

Ho, boy... What a classic boondoggle... This aspect never occurred to me, I must admit. I've seen a bit recently regarding this junk, but do not recall reading this article, or seeing such a well detailled and explanatory discussion of the UNs cash cow.

Thanks to the author.

Thanks to Howlin - keep me on your mandatory read ping list.

Thanks to Cicero for reposting it --- even if it had been posted in the past, it needed to be reposted currently.

I should have gotten the Advil first, too, Mo1.

[MeekOneGOP]

Incredible ! Thanks for the ping . . .

[MeekOneGOP]

Kofi Annandersen: Enron-style accounting
at the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program

Excerpt:

Today, with private business largely smothered, except in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, the only significant source of foreign exchange is oil. All oil in Iraq belongs to the state. Saddam decides who will benefit from its sale, and who will be deprived. "The government of Iraq has the sole responsibility for allocating the money," says an official of the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program. "We cannot tell them, we only advise them." An author of the Coalition for International Justice report, Susan Blaustein, notes that Saddam has stolen Iraq's oil from his fellow countrymen. She points out that in accommodating this arrangement, "the U.N. is colluding in that theft."

< snip >

In another craven move, the U.N.'s Iraq program even allowed Saddam to dictate in October 2000 that he no longer wanted the Oil-for-Food accounts to be held in the currency of the enemy, meaning U.S. dollars. Obediently, the U.N. switched all Iraq funds from that stage forward to euros, in effect helping Saddam impose his own version of sanctions on the U.S.

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[firewalk]

Mandatory read ping

This ought to about do you all in for the day.

well then....I'm not reading it till later on.....
(-;

[cyncooper]

First thing I read this morning...Thanks, as always for the ping.

BUMP for the morning.