"Oil for Food" Insanity

[lord of the mark]

Lets see, if wed complained about Turkeys violations, they might have come down on the Kurds. This would have been a good thing, how exactly?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Lord knows that hell freezes over more often than I agree with GePap (this topic comes close but I'll wait to see his mid- and end-games) but this is an amazing fezzification of what he has posted.

its an act designed ONLY to undermine = cmon, it was an act designed to do several other things, and whatever damage to the UN there was was collateral damage, since clinton was not an enemy of the UN. How do you read "an act designed ONLY to undermine"?

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


its an act designed ONLY to undermine = cmon, it was an act designed to do several other things, and whatever damage to the UN there was was collateral damage, since clinton was not an enemy of the UN. How do you read "an act designed ONLY to undermine"?

I'm not agreeing with GePap's particular comments (and interpretations). I'm simply stating my position and noting that it concurs in a general way with GePaps. Quite frankly, I hadn't even seen that particular comment since I only skim read longer posts.

[Odin]

Funny, we were complaining about UN corruption, and it turns out that WE were one of the UNSC members in the cookie jar.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Odin
Funny, we were complaining about UN corruption, and it turns out that WE were one of the UNSC members in the cookie jar.

Nope, thats not what the article says.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
I think it's clear that the libs are finally abandoning the "UN is pure as the driven snow" argument as unsupportable, so now they're going for the "everyone's a crook" argument instead.

It's clear you're inventing strawmen.

[GePap]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


its an act designed ONLY to undermine = cmon, it was an act designed to do several other things, and whatever damage to the UN there was was collateral damage, since clinton was not an enemy of the UN. How do you read "an act designed ONLY to undermine"?

Chalk one up to bad grammar- its an act that can only undermine the UN system.

If Bill was a friend to the UN system, he would not have taken the cheap and easy route of undemrining one aimt o get other aims done for cheap. I mean, come on, it should have been obvious that sanctions as strict as those on Iraq would have local economic consequences- after i was clear Saddam was not about to fall thanks to those sanctions, if the US wanted to keep them going, then we should have been willing to bear the costs of helping to prop up local economies instead of letting them undermine the sanctions regime.

In the end people like Sevan were corrupting the UN bureaucracy form inside, but men like him can be fired and prosecuted. The states that looked aside as the sanctions regime was undermined even more severely sadly can;t be prosecuted for their actions, yet they did more damage to the UN system overall than someone like Sevan.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Sandman


It's clear you're inventing strawmen.

It's clear you're wearing blinders.

[The Mad Monk]

Iraq Calls for Wider Oil-For-Food ProbeIraq Calls for Wider Oil-For-Food Investigation, Return of Money Into Administrative Account

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS Feb 4, 2005 — Iraq called Friday for a widening of the investigation of the U.N. oil-for-food program and demanded the immediate return of money in the U.N. account that paid for administration of the humanitarian relief effort.

Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie also reiterated the government's demand that the United Nations stop using oil-for-food money to pay for the independent investigation into the program led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

"It is outrageous that Iraqi funds were mismanaged and then we have to pay for finding out about the mismanagement," he told a news conference a day after Volcker issued an interim report saying the program was undermined by mismanagement and political cronyism and that its chief was guilty of serious conflicts of interest.

The oil-for-food program, launched in December 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, quickly became a lifeline for 90 percent of the country's population of 26 million.

Under the program, Saddam's regime could sell oil, provided the proceeds went to buy humanitarian goods or pay war reparations. Saddam's government decided on the goods it wanted, who should provide them and who could buy Iraqi oil. But the Security Council committee overseeing sanctions monitored the contracts.

In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit.

"Saddam used the sales of oil as a political instrument. He awarded millions of barrels of oil to newspaper editors, to ministers of neighboring countries, to opinion formers. People around Iraq and further afield were bought by Saddam for oil," Sumaidaie said. "Gradually the facts will appear."

He said Volcker's report raises serious questions about U.N. credibility and "political influence" on the U.N. Secretariat in the administration of the oil-for-food program.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=473179

[The Mad Monk]

Head of Oil-For-Food Program Disciplined
Oil-For-Food Executive Disciplined Over Scathing Report, Investigators Promise More to Come

By NICK WADHAMS Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS Feb 4, 2005 — The United Nations vowed to discipline two officials implicated in a report that detailed conflicts of interest and flawed management in the U.N. oil-for-food program, while the man leading the investigation warned that more revelations were forthcoming.

The interim report, released Thursday, zeroed in on the chief of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, saying Saddam Hussein's regime awarded oil allocations in his name to a trading company between 1998 and 2001.

It said Sevan had "seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations" and suggested he may have received kickbacks, possibly using an aunt to mask his trail.

Sevan has denied he ever received any money.

Based on the report, Secretary-General Kofi Annan will discipline Sevan and another U.N. official, Joseph Stephanides, who may have "tainted" bidding for an oil-for-food contract, said Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief of staff.

The $60 billion oil-for-food program, which ran from December 1996 to November 2003, allowed sanctions-bound Iraq to sell oil to buy humanitarian supplies. But it allegedly became a way for Saddam to curry favor and push to end sanctions by awarding former government officials, activists, U.N. officials and journalists vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit.

Allegations that the United Nations itself was enmeshed in corrupt practices in the program led Annan to appoint former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to investigate. Several U.S. congressional teams are also looking into it.

Volcker told The Associated Press that the investigation found no "systematic mismanagement" of the oil-for-food program. But he said there were serious problems.

He told AP he hoped that his report, which also detailed investigations into U.N. administrative expenses, internal audits and procurement, will begin to answer serious questions raised by critics of the United Nations.

"There are obviously problems in the institution, and we have identified some of them," he said. "But the end of this should be a reformed and stronger U.N., because I believe and I know the other committee members believe that the U.N. has an important role to play. But it cannot be effective if it is under suspicion all of the time."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=470448

[Berzerker]

MM

Since my thread was locked, lets discuss the implications of someone this close to Kofi being caught red-handed.

How about defending your 2nd post instead?

[The Mad Monk]

"Liberals", not "libertarians".

[The Mad Monk]

For examples, just find any Sandman post on the subject.

[Dinner]

So basically what I'm seeing is Jordan, Syria, and Turkey contiued to smuggle Iraqi oil all during the sanctions period but the US & UK didn't stop it because they wanted help from those countries with Iraq.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
For examples, just find any Sandman post on the subject.

Yes, find a post where I said the UN was "pure as the driven snow". Or words to that effect.

The UN employs corrupt officials, thugs, idiots and child molestors. Like any large organisation. The difference is, American conservatives demand the UN be disbanded whenever there's a whiff of trouble, not a view they take when it's the American government or some church.

Imagine if UN peacekeepers had been behind the Abu Graib prisoner abuse (UN peacekeepers have abused prisoners in the past). They'd be calling for Kofi Annan to be tried as a war criminal, and that the abuse was proof of how rotten the UN really was.

Now, I don't suppose, in amongst all the cries of 'scandal', you could find time to outline what you think should be done to the UN - disband it, sideline it, reform it, what?