Oil For Food: UN Scandal

[Annie]

Perhaps this WON'T go away:

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Mr. Volcker's panel is focusing its initial efforts on allegations that United Nations officials benefited illegally from the program. Mr. Morden said there was no timeline for when the United Nations inquiry would be done.

Mr. Hyde said Mr. Volcker's inquiry must determine how the relief program "degenerated into the corrupt morass that it had become by 2003 and learn whether or not that corruption reached into the upper ranks of the U.N. Secretariat." But he said his committee's investigation would "continue to make inquiries" while the United Nations investigation was under way.

Senator Norm Coleman, the Minnesota Republican who is chairman of the Permanent Investigations subcommittee that issued one of the Paribas subpoenas, said the United Nations would be making "an unfortunate mistake not to cooperate with the U.S. Congress."

"We fund 25 percent of the U.N.'s general operating budget, not counting peacekeeping," Mr. Coleman said.