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U.S. Shrugs Off Annan On Oil Scandal Blame
Barry Schweid
Associated Press
Apr. 16, 2005 12:00 AM
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0416iraq-oil16.html#
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is brushing off assertions by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the United States and Britain were partly to blame for Iraq pocketing billions of dollars in smuggled oil revenue.
Instead, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a State Department spokesman stressed a need for reform of U.N. management.
"It's going to require that member states are much more vigilant than they were during the oil-for-food episode," Rice said on Fox News Channel. "It really was a terrible scandal. It's a terrible thing that was done to the Iraqi people."
Department spokesman Tom Casey defended the Bush administration.
"We believe we have been playing a positive and important role in overseeing the activities of the United Nations," he said Friday.
On the scandal itself, Casey said that a U.S. maritime force had stopped and inspected thousands of vessels to help prevent smuggling.
Neither Rice, in Thursday's interview, nor Casey responded directly to Annan's allegations that the United States and Britain were in part to blame for the scandal.
Annan said the United States and Britain could have stopped the smuggling but did not, and most of the money that Saddam Hussein made illegally when his country was under U.N. sanctions in the 1990s was from smuggling oil, not from kickbacks under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and several other members of Congress have called on Annan to resign, suggesting that at a minimum he failed in administration of the program.
With strong U.S. support, the U.N. Security Council permitted Iraq under Saddam to sell oil beginning in 1996 despite a U.N. embargo, provided the proceeds were used for food and medicine for hard-pressed Iraqi people.
Saddam's government had authority to decide who would have the right to purchase oil, and it is believed to have extracted kickbacks ranging from an estimated $9 billion to $21 billion. (where is all that money?!)
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, conducting an independent investigation, criticized Annan for not pressing to learn details of his son Kojo's employment by a Swiss company that won a contract under the program. (Where's the money?)
The U.N. chief has taken a tougher stand against his critics in recent weeks, defending himself against American opponents, the media and even member governments.
The depth of his exasperation was evident this week in remarks he made during a reunion of former U.N. spokesmen, an event he thought was off the record. Shedding the diplomatic discretion for which he is well-known, Annan lamented that U.N. opponents had been "relentless" in their attacks and the world body wasn't fighting back enough.
"We are outgunned. We are outmanned," he said. "We need help from outside groups."
The past several months have been extremely difficult for Annan and the United Nations. Several scandals have rocked the world body, and Annan has found himself in the middle of them.
While acknowledging flaws (!!!???) in the oil-for-food program, Annan also has hit back before the media and to staff, part of a larger strategy shift toward taking bolder action, according to U.N. officials and people close to him.
onedomino said:In the spirit of "the best defense is a good offense," Goofy Annan blames the US and the UK for not stopping Iraq Oil for Food smuggling. Astounding! He forgot to mention the smugglers or bribe takers! Annan must go. The UN has no chance for serious reform with the incompetent Annan at the helm.
onedomino said:In the spirit of "the best defense is a good offense," Goofy Annan blames the US and the UK for not stopping Iraq Oil for Food smuggling. Astounding! He forgot to mention the smugglers or bribe takers! Annan must go. The UN has no chance for serious reform with the incompetent Annan at the helm.
Sir Evil said:I don't think the UN has much chance at reform period without a total house cleaning!
Sir Evil said:I don't think the UN has much chance at reform period without a total house cleaning!
April 18, 2005: Oil-for-Food --- The Canadian Connection
Who are the mysterious figures known only as U. N. officials #1 and #2 fingered by the grand jury investigating Oil-for-Food? And more importantly is anybody talking?
According to (who else?) Claudia Rosett in this morning's NY Sun:
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his staff responded to questions about the identities of the mystery officials by saying they have received no information on this from federal prosecutors and are as much in the dark as anyone else. On Friday, Mr. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, told the press: "I wish I knew. I don't think anyone in this building knows."
Maybe Mr. Annan should ask a longtime United Nations undersecretary general, Maurice Strong, special adviser to the secretary-general since 1999 and currently Mr. Annan's personal envoy to the Korean Peninsula.
The New York Sun is not asserting, or even suggesting, that Mr. Strong himself is one of the U.N. officials in question. But Mr. Strong's history indicates he might be especially well-placed to offer insights into at least the likely identity of U.N. official #2, who according to the indictment had family business ties to Canada, and along with U.N. official
#1, met with [the already indicted] Mr. Park sometime around 1996 - the year the flawed terms of oil-for-food took shape.
Mr. Strong is a Canadian tycoon with extensive experience at the United Nations, where he has served as secretary-general of the 1992 Earth Summit, as chief architect of the Kyoto Treaty, and as the world body's guru of governance in the 1990s. Mr. Strong also has abundant connections in both North and South Korea. According to a recent dispatch from the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, Mr. Strong is also said to be acquainted with Mr. Park.
Mr. Strong could not be reached for comment on the indictment, but the Sun spoke with his U.N. assistant, who said Mr. Strong plans to issue a statement today, saying he had no involvement with the oil-for-food program.
In that event, it might also be useful for Mr. Strong to address publicly his former business association with the son of the secretary-general, Kojo Annan.
The Kyoto Treat meets Kojo Annan? Are we in the middle of a Michael Crichton novel?
