Wednesday, April 28, 2004

More UNSCAM

From the Opinion Journal:
It's looking more and more as if one of the best reasons to get rid of Saddam Hussein was that it was probably the only way to get rid of Oil-for-Food. The problem wasn't simply that this huge United Nations relief program for Iraq became a gala of graft, theft, fraud, palace-building and global influence-peddling--though all that was quite bad enough. The picture now emerging is that under U.N. management the Oil-for-Food program, which ran from 1996-2003, served as a cover not only for Saddam's regime to cheat the Iraqi people, but to set up a vast and intricate global network of illicit finance.

And though much debate has focused on the list published this past January in the Iraqi newspaper Al Mada--cataloguing some 270 individuals and entities world-wide alleged to have received illicit oil vouchers worth millions from Saddam--the Al Mada list may be the least of it (apart from the last name of the executive director of the Oil-for-Food program himself, Benon Sevan). Dwarfing the Al Mada list for size, scope and menace was the U.N.-piloted mothership, the entire $111 billion U.N. Oil-for-Food program. Supplied by Iraq's oil wells, the sums involved in Oil-for-Food's transactions were so enormous that even the routine rounding errors of a few hundred million here or there easily rivaled, for example, the $300 million or so in family money believed to have given Osama bin Laden his terrorist start.

Matt's Chat

NO WAR FOR OIL!

For the love of...

Why isn't this on the news? This is bigger than Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, and Martha Stewart all rolled in to one. Why doesn't the Partisan Mediatm care about this story?

I DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION! BIG MEDIA! LIE AFTER LIE AFTER LIE AFTER LIE!

Get with it people...

14:30 UPDATE:

Spoons has a handy chart to explain why there is little to no Partisan Mediatm coverage.

Mark's Remarks


So now the UN wasn't just cheating Iraqi people out of food, they were setting up Saddam (and possibly al Queda's?) global network of money. The UN is nothing more than an Italian laundromat or casino, nothing more than money launderers. How shameful, how sad....

Even sadder is the lack of coverage given by the Partisan Press(tm)! They love to talk about scandal, but only when it involves sex, a Republican, or a combination of both. Where is the journalistic spirit? Even better, where is the integrity? Sadly, both have been subjugated to not bring out the truth. And why?

The reason is one of John Kerry's big points is that France and other nations did not join us. The UNSCAM scandal shows the reason they didn't want to join us in Iraq wasn't philosophical, it was financial. This blows a gaping hole in Monsuier Kerry's idea that we need to reconcile with noble allies who acted out of 'conscience,' or knowing that the war was a bad idea, whatever Kerry spouts out of either side of his mouth each day. The REAL REASON was they did not want to lose a cash cow. This shows Kerry as not getting it, George W. Bush as right to ignore France and go in, and could turn the election.

The Press, not wanting a President who actually takes action over giving flowery speeches and photo ops hand wringing, is seeking to control the flow of information. In other words, they think the American people are too stupid not to find other sources of information. How does it feel to be thought of as stupid, fellow citizens? Hold Big Media and their pals on the Left here and abroad accountable.

CREPES SUZZETTE! LIE AFTER LIE AFTER LIE.....I DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION! SACRE BLEU!