...Thanks to Liz
Posted on 02/15/2005 6:14:33 PM PST by saquin
UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday.
In a move that provoked fury from officials of the Swiss firm Cotecna, an Australian former inspector detailed a picture of incompetence, indifference and drunkeness among the men acting as the frontline for UN sanctions.
Arthur Ventham, a former Australian army officer and customs officer, joined the operation in 2002 and worked at various sites in Iraq and neighbouring states.
He said that at Iskendurun in eastern Turkey, some officials had refused to work.
When he asked one of his bosses why, he was told: "They were friends or relatives of potential clients, and are only in the mission so the company could secure future contracts in Nigeria, Comoros and another African country.
"When I said that this was unfair on everyone else, I was told that it was general practice in Cotecna."
Other inspectors had spent most of the day in hotel rooms while others drank beer and talked to the local people.
Inspectors were supposed to check lorries to make sure the UN sanctions regime was being enforced.
At another monitoring site where the UN was supposed to check humanitarian aid supplies, Mr Ventham noticed "the team leader and his fellow countrymen [the nationality is unstated] spending the majority of their time in each other's rooms drinking vodka as opposed to managing and leading the team".
There he noticed small vessels and barges moving to a small island each night.
"I mentioned this to a number of other inspectors saying there was plenty of scope for smuggling and what were the UN doing about it.
"I was extremely surprised by the response that it was common knowledge smuggling was going on at Um Qasir [and that] the oil was being sold on the black market to augment the regime."
Cotecna officials said the unheralded release of Mr Ventham's allegations was unfair and that they would respond in detail at a later date. They said Mr Ventham had been dismissed and was a disgruntled former employee.
The UselessN...who would have thought? They need to move out of NYC......NOW!
It doesn't do one any good to get drunk at Iraqi temperatures. Or maybe it was in winter?
Would they prefer a heralded release? Actually, I'm rather pissed that Ventham didn't inform his home country and that the information was not in the hands of the coalition. I hope his status is "perp" and that we're learning this under a plea agreement.
My sister works for the UN... in one of the few worthwhile missions (UNMISET). She says people there also drink all the time and work little.
I must be a UN inspector and never knew it........LOL....
UNable to do the job
Sounds like what Scott Ritter must have done while "looking for weapons." Maybe "looking for weapons" is code for "drinking vodka."
The incompetent, lazy, irresponsible, slack-assed UN. Who would have guessed?
What's with the reluctance of the press to name the "other African country?"
bttt
ping
Thought I saw some WMD at the bottom of that bottle!
What annoys me is that the U.N. sits in judgment of what the U.S. is doing in Iraq.
no doubt.....seems like they put in 2 hours more than the aforementioned inspectors....I'll be looking for chemical weapons in the flower beds though
H.R. 1146 will WITHDRAW the USA from the United Nations' madhouse/cesspool
Go to: http://www.getusout.org/un/index.html . Then go lobby at http://www.conservativeusa.org/megalink.htm .
The United Nations is a corrupt disgrace and it is time for the USA to WITHDRAW from and defund the United Nations. Please tell your senators, congressmen and everyone you know to support Representative Ron Paul’s bill H.R. 1146 which would WITHDRAW the USA from the United Nations, prohibit US funds going to the UN and prohibit US troops serving under UN command. H.R 1146 is the American Sovereignty Restoration Act.
The whole mission of the UN is to take power, money and national sovereignty from the USA. Thus the United States must withdraw from and defund the UN and if we go, if we are lucky, the whole thing will implode.
Some nerve....who did they think they were, Ted Kennedy?
We need to stay in the UN, just so we can keep an eye on those bastards and veto them every time they try to do something.
We should cut off their funds though, and charge them rent.
That does seem to happen a lot, doesn't it?
Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna. Small world.
Iraq UN scandal ping .... phew, the UN crew wasnt chasing women and letting genocide happen?!? definitely an 'above-average' unit.
Those who kept saying that we should keep giving more chances to the UN inspectors, need to be reminded of this.
These were the UN's customs inspectors - not weapons inspectors.
Oh,I got that wrong!!!
Let's by all means get the UN inspectors involved in Iran and N Korea...
This article is about UN customs inspectors not UN weapons inspectors.
"Cotecna officials said the unheralded release of Mr Ventham's allegations was unfair and that they would respond in detail at a later date, that is - as soon as they sober up. They said Mr Ventham had been dismissed and was a disgruntled former employee who did not drink or take bribes and as such, could not be trusted."
Ahhhhh, that's better :-)
Yeah, but they do BOTH.
I have a relative at the UN who says she wishes every department would be investigated. The pressure tactics, especially from the African and Middle Eastern people, are rampant - bullying, keeping women down, "taking care" of family and friends, etc. These are standards accepted in their home countries, and they simply bring them into the UN with them.
Hmmm, what nationality is Kofi Annan again?
You're right, but I don't think that makes a difference. The point being, it's the attitude, corruption and general incompetence of any and all so-called U.N. 'inspectors'.
These 'inspectors' got drunk. The weapons 'inspectors' were led by Hans Blix who was hand picked by Saddam and 'looked' where and when they were allowed by Saddam. Then we have the U.N. nuclear 'inspectors' who couldn't find "Jack" in NK or Iran.
So what's the difference?
Answer -- NONE.
Sorry - the UN weapons inspectors were mostly Americans and Brits with military experiance - and Hand Blix was priven correct by the CIA's own final report on Iraq's WMD - as painful as that is to read.
Swiss firm denies guilt in oil-for-food scandal
AFP: 2/15/2005 , http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=37402
WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (AFP) - Swiss trade inspection firm Cotecna rejected Tuesday any charges of negligence or impropriety on its part in the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Speaking at a tense hearing in front of a panel of US senators, Cotecna chief executive Robert Massey denied wrongdoing in the corruption scandal surrounding the largest-ever UN aid program.
"Cotecna enabled greatly needed humanitarian goods to reach the Iraqi people when Iraq was under UN sanctions," said Massey.
"Cotecna performed its job well and fully in accordance with its mandate," he said.
The Swiss firm defended its role in the 64-billion-dollar program, which was designed to help Iraqis cope with international sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
A former Cotecna employee told the Senate panel, however, that the company was lackadaisical in performing its duties under the program and allowed smuggling, which strengthened Hussein's regime.
The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was plagued with scandal. The Senate panel on Monday accused former program chief Benan Sevan of pocketing 1.2 million dollars through suspect allocations of oil from Hussein's regime.
Massey and Cotecna senior vice president Andre Pruniaux were questioned by senators over the company's hiring of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's son prior to obtaining a contract to inspect program shipments.
Massey said that Kojo Annan had been hired in 1995 and had nothing to do with the oil-for-food program. "He worked on African business exclusively" for the company, said Massey.
Arthur Ventham, a Cotecna inspector at Iraq's Um Qasir port for the program, told the hearing that the company's loose inspections permitted Hussein's regime to smuggle oil out.
"It was common knowledge that 'smuggling' was going on at Um Qasir, that oil was being sold on the 'black market' to augment the regime in Iraq, the UN supposedly knew of this but had decided not to do anything," he said.
Republican Senator Norm Coleman, head of the Senate subcommittee examining the program, said that their investigations "revealed a disturbing pattern of information gaps and memory lapses."
Coleman has asked Kofi Annan to resign and criticized him for allowing the scandal to flourish on his watch. He also chided Annan for his lack of candor on the activities of his son.
Kojo Annan later released a statement repeating his denial of involvement in the oil-for-food program and insisting he had cooperated with the Senate's investigation.
He said Coleman's comments "were politically motivated and intended to harm my father and the United Nations."
02/15/2005 23:45 GMT - AFP
Um Qasir is one of the sites the left was all a-twitter over because the population there supposedly had a very high incidence of leukemia and other deformities.
Hmmm
If spending you day drinking is how you qualify to be a UN inspector then I guess I qualify.
The bigger question is how much money were these UN inspectors paid to drink beer and look the other way?
Disban the U.N. finally!!! I've been hearing this since I was a small child. DO IT.
What and incediable bunch of idiots!
Contracts Chief Shown To Be Annan Son's Main Cotecna Tie
...the Cotecna staff generally were well aware of Kojo Annan's paternal connection to the UN On November 17, 1997, one Cotecna official based in Niger, where Kojo ...
www.nysun.com/article/6076 - Similar pages
Thank you piasa for the ping.
I don't have a subscription to the NY Sun.
Does he even drink?
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:GTxrWT9iziUJ:www.defenddemocracy.org/in_the_media/in_the_media_show.htm%3Fdoc_id%3D252534+%22sent+an+email+in+french+to+Mr.+Pruniaux+in+Geneva,+noting,+%22It%27s+important+that+KA+respect+the+hours+and+rules%22&hl=en
In mid-1997, Kojo Annan proposed that Cotecna create a post of regional marketing director in West Africa and appoint him to the job.
In an inter-office memo, in French, Mr. Pruniaux wrote to a colleague in Geneva, "I am not at all in favor of the creation of a post of 'marketing regional' in Lagos."
There are various signs that the Cotecna staff generally were well aware of Kojo Annan's paternal connection to the U.N. On November 17, 1997, one Cotecna official based in Niger, where Kojo Annan was staying at a company guest house, sent an email in French to Mr. Pruniaux in Geneva, noting, "It's important that KA respect the hours and rules of the liaison office" because "laxity on his/our part" would lead the local staff, given his background, to ask, "Why him and not us?"
Looks like Koja Annan was in Niger in a Cotecna guest house on November 17, 1997 when a Cotecna official emailed Pruniaux complaining about Kojo Annan dropping in on them at odd hours, etc.
IRAQ UPDATE: November 19-27, 2003
Kathie Namphy, Cliff Kindy and Matt Chandler went with the delegation to al Mansour pediatric hospital in Baghdad. They met with an administrator who explained the extreme difficulties suffered by their hospital and the medical system in Iraq. The hospital has only about 10% of the medication it needs, and most of this is supplied by NGOs. They also are struggling with shortages of staff, doctors, equipment, computers, and files. The hospital has seen a sharp rise in the number of leukemia and other cancer cases in recent years, but they lack the research capacity to determine the cause of these cancers, particularly regarding whether they are related to the depleted uranium used by US militar.
SNIP
Slater, Milne, and Montgomery leafleted at the Iraqi Assistance Center and the gate of the Coalition Provisional Authority compound. A New York Times reporter interviewed them about the action and CPT Iraq's Campaign to Ensure Justice for Iraqi Detainees.
SNIP
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations. Supporting violence-reduction efforts around the world is its mandate. Contact CPT, POB 6508 Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253 Fax: 773-277-0291; e-mail: guest.903627@MennoLink.org.
A while back I read a thread debating similar claims about depleted uranium in Bosnia (Radioactivity Detected in Bosnia Where NATO Used Depleted Uranium Shells). When I read that thread I thought I'd get an opinion on the subject from a friend of mine who used to teach nuclear physics at the CERN lab. Here's his reply, which I pass on as a note of interest:
There is no radioactive risk to speak of from depleted Uranium. . .The risk is far greater with the hundreds of radioactive cesium canisters "misplaced" by Russia and that can be used to make dirty bombs. That's my biggest fear for Al-Qaeda attacks. I think that all Islamic countries should be told that we would retaliate in kind in the event of dirty bombs or biochemical attacks.
Bwa ha ha ha...
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