UNSCAM Update
From the Telegraph (UK):The Telegraph has learned that UN officials are being asked to provide detailed accounts of how the organisation's slice of Saddam's oil money was used and how much went to companies which were supposed to monitor the food and medicines imported by Iraq.
Although the UN Security Council approved the plan to levy a 2.2 per cent commission on each oil-for-food transaction, the huge sums this reaped for the UN have never been fully accounted for.
A senior UN official who is closely involved in uncovering evidence of the scandal admitted: "The UN was not doing this work just for the good of Iraq. Cash from Saddam's government was keeping the UN going for a few years.
"No one knows exactly what sums were involved because an audit has never been done. That is why they are wriggling and squirming now in New York."
Matt's Chat
This may be news to you if you haven't been reading blogs. But here is the latest tidbit:After telling the Congressional committee that the UN programme "provided Saddam Hussein with a convenient vehicle through which he bought support internationally by bribing", Mr Hankes-Drielsma offered Mr Volcker co-operation from the Iraqi Governing Council, including access to the Baghdad oil ministry files which generated the first evidence of corruption.[Emphasis is ours.]
Mr Hankes-Drielsma said: "We have files we can share with Mr Volcker, if in return we can explore UN files for our own investigation."
He said that Iraqi investigators had discovered "memorandums of understanding" suggesting that Saddam could decide which UN officials operated within Iraq. "They were either at his beck and call, or they were sent home," he said. "It seems that we have still only uncovered the tip of the iceberg."
One wonders if Hans "Ignorance is" Blix was on the payroll. There have already been connections made to at least one other former weapons inspector. It would certainly fit the profile: the loudest (legit) anti-war voices appear on the list of the bribed; is it really a stretch to include him?
Curious. Let's see how this one develops. You'll have to count on the blogosphere though, the Partisan Mediatm will not report this: they have their own agenda to attend to afterall.
Mark's Remarks
Did you see that? Saddam COULD DECIDE which UN officials could operate in Iraq? The UN was responsible for keeping tabs on this madman and he is getting to decide who comes in to check him out? This is a travesty! It is a horror, an abomination! And, why isn't the Partisan Press reporting this most ignoble, salacious, and scandalous event? Oh yeah, it doesn't smear GWB. My bad, I forgot their battle plan.
The UN is the real enemy. They, Jaquie boy, and others derided us as we took down a modern day genocidal maniac, while they stood by and said shame? We cannot let them get away with this. Cry out to your elected officials. Don't pay into the UN anymore, until they reorganize and punish those responsible for this malfeasance, and until we get an apology for the betrayal by France, Germany, Russia, and the UN, all of whom get major bucks from one nation called the US of A.
