Posted on 07/03/2004 10:14:28 AM PDT by idkfa
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi official heading the investigation into alleged corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food program was killed in a bomb attack earlier this week, officials familiar with the probe said on Saturday.
Ihsan Karim, head of the Board of Supreme Audit, died in hospital after a bomb placed under one of the cars in his convoy exploded on Thursday, the officials said.
Iraq's former U.S. Governor Paul Bremer gave the board independence from the executive branch of government and appointed Karim as its head in April.
The board appointed international accountants Ernst and Young in May to investigate commissions Iraqi and foreign companies paid to former President Saddam Hussein and his government for securing billions of dollars worth of contracts under the 1996-2003 oil-for-food program.
The investigation undermined a separate probe initiated by the now dissolved Iraqi Governing Council and led to tension with former financier Ahmad Chalabi, who holds documents alleging that some international suppliers paid at least 10 percent of the value of contracts to Saddam.
Zaab Sethna, a spokesman for Chalabi, said the audit board was poorly equipped to handle the investigation.
"The assassination of Mr Karim is very worrying. Bremer appointed the audit board and left them on their own," Sethna told Reuters.
"The investigation was the highest profile probe the board was handling. It is impossible to speculate who killed Mr Karim, but the oil-for-food corruption involved very powerful people inside and outside Iraq," he added.
The U.S. General Accounting Office has said Saddam and his circle raised $4.4 billion in illegal revenue by imposing oil surcharges and commissions on suppliers of goods to Iraq under the oil-for-food program.
Billions of dollars of goods flowed through the program, which the United Nations administered from New York through French bank Paribas.
Under U.S. pressure, the United Nations is also investigating alleged corruption in the program, which was set up to use Iraqi oil revenue to provide Iraqis with food, medical supplies and essential equipment under U.N. supervision so that U.N. sanctions on Iraq were not violated. .
Ugh...
Look towards Chirac
Does Kofi have an alibi? Oh that's right he was rushing off to Sudan to protest the massacres there.
Predictable. None of them want their gravy train stopped, so they will cover their butts in any savage way they can. Savages cannot be tamed.
I saw that he had been killed but somehow I missed the fact that he was connected (in fact, in charge of) this investigation. Good find!
Very powerful and corrupt people. I wouldn't trust France, Germany, or especially the UN as far as I could throw my computer monitor.
I'm looking forward for all the dirt to come out on this. Like anything will happen to these criminals...
Very powerful and corrupt people. I wouldn't trust France, Germany, or especially the UN as far as I could throw my computer monitor.
I'm looking forward for all the dirt to come out on this. Like anything will happen to these criminals...
I wonder who ordered the hit. Wouldn't be surprised if Chirac and the Surete were behind it. France, Germany, and "Old Europe" in general are not our friends and seek the demise of this country and of Israel. The sooner folks in this country realize it, the better. We certainly don't need panderers like Kerry and Mr. Peanut in the mix. This thing is about to get real serious real soon
Very powerful and corrupt people. I wouldn't trust France, Germany, or especially the UN as far as I could throw my computer monitor.
I'm looking forward for all the dirt to come out on this. Like anything will happen to these criminals...
I'm sure the UN would be happy to take over the investigation after this unfortunate incident!
The links are well worth revisiting. Russia's contribution to this mess is very interesting.
It really reminds me of Mom catching a bunch of little kids who've raided the fudge tray- brown stuff all over lips & hands, but "the other guys did it!"
I have a really nasty feeling about Bremer's complicity in a cover-up in order to buy some support from the un. If that's the case... he should hang from the tree next to Chirac's.
The Oil for Terror criminal conspiracy is what all the fighting was/is all about. All the UN deceit and the international outrage and the foreign "insurgents" and the sloppy WMD inspections.
Iraq was the foundation of international terror.
Finally heard it on Fox. Have they released any more info on that plane crash of the 22 UN workers?
No way is Bremer involved. This is a Gambino family type labyrinth, and it would be equally difficult as that organization to unravel, understand and discover specific criminality.
That's secondary. The fact is, we've broken up the black market funding mechanism that sustained Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Jordan, Lebanon and who knows who else. We broke up the phony economic payoffs from Saddam to France, Russia and Germany to protect him in the UN SC.
Things have changed in the last year.
Have you noticed that Saudi Arabia is suddenly finding and killing terror mutts? General Musharaff is sending his hit squads into the Osama loving tribal Abyss? Jordan is breaking up plots? Khadafi is sweet as pie? Nothing brewing in Indonesia, Phillippenes or India? Sudan is now a U.N. trophy candidate? Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad are in hiatus, yet provide weekly kill fodder for the IDF?
The money well is dry. All that smuggled Iraqi oil loot is a distant memory.
Everybody is going to start co-operating and betraying, because the spigot of Kofi/Saddam money is shut forever. And Arabs will always be Arabs. They're historic survivors, and they'll start turning on each other - and turning towards us.
Bush misunderestimated strategery. The guy's like a moral Michael Corleone.
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