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UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday. In a move that provoked fury from officials of the Swiss firm Cotecna, an Australian former inspector detailed a picture of incompetence, indifference and drunkeness among the men acting as the frontline for UN sanctions. Arthur Ventham, a former Australian army officer and customs officer, joined the operation in 2002 and worked at various sites in Iraq and neighbouring states. He said that at Iskendurun in eastern...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - The Senate subcommittee on investigations says it has documents showing that the former head of the United Nations oil-for-food aid program may have made as much as $1.2 million personally from illegal oil shipments by Iraq. The officials said in a briefing on Capitol Hill late Monday that they based the conclusion on documents written by the Iraqi Oil Ministry under Saddam Hussein and on reports prepared for the new oil minister after Mr. Hussein was overthrown in 2003. A subcommittee hearing about the oil-for-food program is to take place on Tuesday. An independent investigation...

THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein. Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme. The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing calls for his resignation over the management of the humanitarian programme. The oil for...

In the scandal over the U.N. Oil-for-Food program in Iraq, Kofi Annan's main line of defense has been that he didn't know. Perhaps he should take a closer look at internal U.N. Oil-for-Food audit reports, more than 50 in all, produced by his own Office of Internal Oversight Services--the same reports he's declined to share with the Security Council, or release to Congress. One of these reports has now leaked. It concerns the U.N. Secretariat's mishandling of the hiring of inspectors to authenticate the contents of relief shipments into sanctions-bound Iraq. (Obtained by a journalist specializing in the mining industry,...

WASHINGTON — Documents seen by FOX News suggest a conflict of interest may exist between Kofi Annan's (search) son, the Swiss company he worked for and the United Nations. Congressional investigators are examining those records and thousands of pages of others as part of their probe into the controversial U.N. Oil-for-Food (search) program. FOX News was permitted to review some documents but not make copies. Kojo Annan (search), the son of the U.N. secretary general, claims he has never been involved directly or indirectly with any business related to the United Nations. And Cotecna Inspection S.A., the company Kojo worked...

January 30, 2005 Kofi Annan’s son admits oil dealing Robert Winnett and Jonathon Carr-Brown THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein. Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme. The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing...

Two years after the charges first surfaced, Kofi Annan has finally admitted that U.N. peacekeeping troops sexually abused war refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "I am really shocked by these accusations," the United Nations Secretary-General told reporters last week. He shouldn't be. Allegations of sex crimes committed by U.N. staff and troops date back at least a decade and span operations on three continents, in places like Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cambodia. But rather than showing the kind of "zero tolerance" toward sexual crimes that Mr. Annan now promises, the U.N. has treated such instances with cavalier...

I only have access to a few English language television stations while I am visiting Israel: BBC News and CNN International. Every quarter hour they recap the top stories. Today’s big story (after the non-stop images of a tidal wave taking out resorts frequented by Europeans and few Americans) is the comment of U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland who said that western nations, particularly the United States, were being stingy with their aid packages offered for victims of the disaster. Without putting into context the fact that the United States provides more funding to the UN than any...

Kofi Annan and Son to Work at Starbucks - Two coffees for the price of one NEW YORK — Kofi Annan and his son, Kojo, have taken jobs at a Manhattan Starbucks. "We have a Latte for Dollars program," said the former UN Secretary General. "You give us the $3.75 and we give you a Grande. “We couldn't have found a better workplace to combine my first name with my motto in life. ‘Kofi’ means ‘coffee’ in Ghana, where I’m from. I am a star. And I like money.” “Our other names needed a little imaginative change to justify our...

A UN-ordered probe into Iraq oil-for-food corruption is being seriously hampered by an elaborate system of ghost firms set up around the world to cover the tracks of bribes to Saddam Hussein as he cheated the 60 billion dollar (£31.4 billion) program, a top investigator said. Some front companies that dealt with Saddam have been liquidated or have hidden ownership, complicating the search for evidence of financial improprieties, said Swiss criminal lawyer Mark Pieth. He’s one of three commission members leading the probe headed by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. Major oil trading companies and individuals – from...

Annan's son decries oil-for food probe UPI - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 Date: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 7:44:29 AM EST LAGOS, Nigeria, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Kojo, calls the inquiries into Iraq's oil-for-food program a U.S. Republican "witchhunt," CNN said Tuesday. In a written statement to the network, the 31-year-old said: "I have never participated directly or indirectly in any business related to the United Nations." The oil-for-food program, administered by the United Nations, was designed to allow Iraq to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food and medicine to offset...

LAGOS, Nigeria, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Kojo, calls the inquiries into Iraq's oil-for-food program a U.S. Republican "witchhunt," CNN said Tuesday. In a written statement to the network, the 31-year-old said: "I have never participated directly or indirectly in any business related to the United Nations." The oil-for-food program, administered by the United Nations, was designed to allow Iraq to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food and medicine to offset the sanctions' impact on the Iraqi people. The younger Annan once worked for Cotecna, a Swiss company that inspects commercial...

Oil-for-food scandal actually pretty dull By Rachel Campbell "First of all, this isn't a movie. Second of all, even if it was, none of us could exactly pass for Tom Cruise; so he would be the one screaming that, not us. We would be lucky to be cast as Mute Juror No. 6." ------------------------------------------------------ The Journal Times has gotten a bit of flak lately for not covering the oil-for-food scandal as prominently as some would like. Personally, I haven't covered it thus far because, frankly, there isn't much to report. But in the name of fairness and balance, here's what's...

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan won a standing ovation from the U.N. General Assembly, a rare public display of support in response to recent calls for his resignation from several U.S. lawmakers. U.S. deputy ambassador Patrick Kennedy joined fellow diplomats as they rose to their feet Wednesday, despite President Bush's refusal to support the U.N. chief pending the results of an investigation into alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.[snip]"In 15 years I've spent at the United Nations, this is the second time that the General Assembly had a standing ovation for a leader," he said. The...

The son of Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, lobbied for business contacts at gatherings of UN officials on behalf of a company in the same year as it won an oil-for-food programme deal, it has emerged. The second disclosure in a week about Kojo Annan's role with the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection Services, which secured the $4.8 million (£2.46 million) UN contract to monitor goods entering and leaving Iraq in 1998, has raised embarrassing questions for his father. The details were revealed in Cotecna company documents handed over under subpoena to US congressional scrutineers who are investigating the oil-for-food...

Veteran Today Show watchers are well aware that the typical 'fair & balanced' lineup consists of guests exclusively from the liberal side of an issue. On the rare occasions when Republicans are permitted to darken Today's door, they are normally of the John McCain variety. When true-blue conservatives appear, they are almost always balanced by liberals. It was thus significant that Republican Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman was given free reign to make his case for the resignation of UN Sec. General Kofi Annan, unbalanced by anyone pleading for Kofi to stay. This surely reflects the fact that it has dawned...

WASHINGTON — The son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan used his father's worldwide connections to wheel and deal with heads of state — at U.N. gatherings — on behalf of a controversial Swiss company that won a lucrative oil-for-food program contract, The Post has learned. The intense lobbying by Annan's 29-year old son, Kojo, was disclosed in a raft of internal company documents — including Kojo Annan's expense reports — that the company recently turned over to congressional committees under a subpoena. The memos provide the most revealing look to date at the business conflicts that are now at...

November 30, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday he was "disappointed" to learn his son Kojo was getting secret payments from a company under investigation for its role in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. Speaking for the first time about the latest bombshell to rock the world body, Annan told reporters he had not been aware his 29-year-old son continued to receive $2,500 a month from the Swiss firm Cotecna until February of this year, when the scandal first became public. "Naturally, I was very surprised and disappointed," Annan said. "I had been working under the understanding...

"He is a grown man, and I don't get involved with his activities and he doesn't get involved with mine."Thus did the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan distance himself at speed Monday from news that his own son, Kojo Annan, had received money right up until early this year from one of the U.N.'s prime contractors under the Oil for Food program. The elder Mr. Annan pronounced himself "disappointed," "surprised" and — lest he look completely clueless — able to understand "the perception problem for the U.N." But at no point did the secretary-general suggest that he himself bore any responsibility...

NEW YORK — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday he was disappointed in his son for accepting payments from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program for more than four years longer than had been previously acknowledged.     Kojo Annan, 31, had been employed from 1995 to 1997 at Cotecna Inspection SA, a Geneva-based firm that had been inspecting humanitarian goods imported by Iraq with U.N.-administered proceeds from its oil sales. He served briefly as a consultant until 1998. But the younger Mr. Annan continued to receive as much as $2,500 a month from Cotecna until February 2003 as part...