Free Republic

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. appeals body ruled that the only employee to be fired over the Iraq oil-for-food scandal did not violate staff rules and should be reinstated with a public apology from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, according to documents disclosed Thursday. The Joint Disciplinary Committee concluded that Joseph Stephanides was fired mostly because of the public scrutiny from an investigation that found the $64 billion program was poorly managed and corrupt. The ruling, obtained by The Associated Press, said the three-judge panel "sympathized with the applicant's argument that he was being made the 'sacrificial lamb' in this matter so...

Kofi Annan must be held accountable for the U.N.'s corrupt Iraqi Oil for Food program "A man I can do business with" - Kofi AnnanLast January, a Baghdad newspaper, al Mada, published a list of U.N. officials who allegedly took bribes from Saddam Hussein under the guise of the Oil for Food program. There were a total of 270 names on the list including that of Benon Sevan, a U.N. assistant secretary-general, who was appointed to administer the oil-for-food program in 1997. The New York Post said that Claude Hankes-Drielsma, a British businessman and adviser to Iraq's Governing Council, claimed...