Iraqi Blames UN For The Corruption In Iraq

[Annie]

Wow! Could it be?


http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQTm6yw87Ln6ml-rVzqcyc6H3NzA

Iraq deputy PM blames corruption on UN

1 day ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's culture of corruption stems from the actions of the international community and the controversial UN oil-for-food scheme, the deputy prime minister Barham Saleh said on Thursday.

Speaking at a new anti-corruption forum in Baghdad, Saleh said that the programme, run between 1996 and 2003 while Iraq was under UN sanctions, and what he charged was the body's wasteful use of money were to blame for the rampant corruption that bedevils Iraq.

"A large responsibility for the outbreak of corruption in Iraq lies on the international community," said Saleh.

"The scandals of food-for-oil and the wasting of public riches by the UN... is evidence of the serious damage that has deepened the problem in the country."

For seven years before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the oil-for-food programme allowed Baghdad -- which was under a punishing trade embargo since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 -- to sell oil in return for cash to buy food and medicine.

In 2000, then president Saddam Hussein began making the right to purchase its oil under the UN programme conditional on the buyer's willingness to pay kickbacks.

The regime diverted about 1.8 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros), an independent probe found in 2005.

"The Iraqi people want a clear statement on how this money was administered in the past, to take back the stolen money, and to chase and call into account those who played with the public's money," said Saleh....

 

[Gunny]

Wow! Could it be?


http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQTm6yw87Ln6ml-rVzqcyc6H3NzA

Seems like a reasonable request by Saleh. Wonder if the UN can stand the light?

 

[midcan5]

Let me see if I have this logic correct, humanitarian help in the form of food and monetary help was given to the administrative staffs and others in power in Iraq and that made them all corrupt....... is that right.... does not compute - does not compute - does not compute - does not compute - does not compute....

Sorry, but I seem to have a short circuit in my logic switch, somethings are just too illogical even for ....

 

[Annie]

Let me see if I have this logic correct, humanitarian help in the form of food and monetary help was given to the administrative staffs and others in power in Iraq and that made them all corrupt....... is that right.... does not compute - does not compute - does not compute - does not compute - does not compute....

Sorry, but I seem to have a short circuit in my logic switch, somethings are just too illogical even for ....

You really must get informed. UN is not necessarily equal to good.

 

[trobinett]

You really must get informed. UN is not necessarily equal to good.

Sorry to correct you Kathianne, but the UN is SELDOME even in the same room with good.

But, we do have our dreamers, and those that worship at the shrine of the United Nations.

 

[DeadCanDance]

Wow, the lengths Bush lovers will go to absolve Dubya of any culpability.

Yeah, the 5 years of rampant and unprecedented corruption, first under Bush's Coalition Provisional Authority and then under the US-backed Iraqi government, is all the UN's fault.

 

[Gunny]

Let me see if I have this logic correct, humanitarian help in the form of food and monetary help was given to the administrative staffs and others in power in Iraq and that made them all corrupt....... is that right.... does not compute - does not compute - does not compute - does not compute - does not compute....

Sorry, but I seem to have a short circuit in my logic switch, somethings are just too illogical even for ....

I wouldn't expect it to compute in your narrow little mind. It doesn't accuse Bush or Cheney of anything.

 

[Gunny]

Wow, the lengths Bush lovers will go to absolve Dubya of any culpability.

Yeah, the 5 years of rampant and unprecedented corruption, first under Bush's Coalition Provisional Authority and then under the US-backed Iraqi government, is all the UN's fault.

Ahhh ... here we go .... I knew one of you left-wingnut parrots would get it right and invoke the evil, Darth Bush's name. So predictable.

In case you missed it Einstein, the Oil for Food scandal was news BEFORE the US invaded Iraq. An irrelevant little detail to a Bush-hating parrot like you, I know, but fact nonetheless.

 

[Psychoblues]

Thank God they didn't blame the US for the corruption in Iraq!!!!!!!!! We certainly don't need that albatross around our necks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[midcan5]

You really must get informed. UN is not necessarily equal to good.

I do, I suggest the same for you and I realize no organization is perfect but the UN is the whipping boy of the right wing's propaganda effort to always blame others. It soothes and supports your prejudices and those like GunnyL but it hardly tells the full story. But that is the problem with much biased conservative media, it serves only the purpose of political or corporate propaganda.

Iraq and Oil-for-Food: The Real Story By Joshua Holland

"Estimates of the number of children who died of malnourishment and disease under the program range to over a million. In 1996, that tragic scandal was bathed ever so briefly in the light of day when Leslie Stahl asked Secretary of State Madeline Albright on 60-minutes: "We have heard that a half-million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" Albright responded, "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it.""

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/iraq1/oilindex.htm

 

[Gunny]

I do, I suggest the same for you and I realize no organization is perfect but the UN is the whipping boy of the right wing's propaganda effort to always blame others. It soothes and supports your prejudices and those like GunnyL but it hardly tells the full story. But that is the problem with much biased conservative media, it serves only the purpose of political or corporate propaganda.

Iraq and Oil-for-Food: The Real Story By Joshua Holland

"Estimates of the number of children who died of malnourishment and disease under the program range to over a million. In 1996, that tragic scandal was bathed ever so briefly in the light of day when Leslie Stahl asked Secretary of State Madeline Albright on 60-minutes: "We have heard that a half-million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" Albright responded, "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it.""

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/iraq1/oilindex.htm

Sorry if you take offense to my taking offense to impotent bureaucracies. I fault the UN for being the toothless paper tiger it is.

Do try to make note of the fact I only agreed that Saleh's request for an investigation and/or accounting of a financial program than affected his nation.