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Canadian coincidences are piling up in the UN’s Oil-for-Food Program. Fox News reported on Tuesday that Annan's #2 Blocks Oil-for-Food Scrutiny. Kofi Annan’s #2 is Canada's Louise Fréchette. Louise Fréchette served under Prime Minister Paul Martin when he held the title of Canada's Minister of Finance. According to Fox News, "Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food program with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Fréchette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the UN Security Council." Born in Montreal, Louise Fréchette has served directly under UN Chief Kofi Annan since March 1998. According...

UNITED NATIONS, March 19 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Friday for a broad independent probe into the U.N.-administered Iraq oil-for-food program, saying it was "highly possible" there had been a lot of wrongdoing. Annan, in his first comments on the burgeoning allegations, has been under pressure to conduct an investigation into corruption from Iraqi leaders as well as the U.S. officials searching for former President Saddam Hussein's hidden assets. The United Nations has begun an in-house probe of its own staff but Annan stressed a wider, independent investigation was needed to cover outside firms and individuals. This...

With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) next up for review by Paul Volcker’s inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal, a crucial question is whether Volcker will expand upon information tying the scandal directly to the U.N. chief’s office — by way of Annan’s second-in command, Louise Frechette (search). Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food (search) program, with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Frechette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the U.N. Security Council. This detail was buried on page 186 of the 219-page interim report Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee released Feb. 3....