Posted on 03/27/2005 2:15:25 PM PST by Hawk44
KOFI ANNAN, the United Nations secretary-general, is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future. Colleagues have reported concerns about Annan ahead of an official report this week that will examine his son Kojo’s connection to the controversial Iraqi oil for food scheme.
Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son.
American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and even his supporters have been dismayed by the scandals on his watch, including the sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in Congo.
One close observer at the UN said Annan’s moods were like a “sine curve” and that he appeared near the bottom of the trough.
Kojo, 29, was employed by a Swiss company, Cotecna, but left before it won one of the contracts under the oil for food programme. Last week it emerged he received up to $400,000 from the company. The UN confirmed that Kofi Annan three times met executives of the firm, twice before the award of the oil for food contract and once afterwards.
Mark Malloch Brown, Annan’s British chief-of-staff, said the meetings were brief and had nothing to do with Cotecna’s contract. If some of the allegations against Kojo were confirmed, that would create “a very different situation, but for Kojo — not the secretary-general”.
Kojo and Cotecna insist he had no part in securing the oil for food contract and that his work related to activities in Nigeria and Ghana.
New scandals continue to erupt, however. One revelation last week was that the UN had agreed to pay legal fees for Benon Sevan, the disgraced head of the oil for food programme, out of the funds raised from the Iraqi oil sales.
“Kofi Annan is going to find his position increasingly untenable,” said Nile Gardiner, an expert on the UN at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “There is a strong possibility he will resign voluntarily because of his declining credibility.”
In the end Annan’s feelings may be more decisive than the facts.
Lets bring back the guy with the doulbe first name.
Paving the way for another scandal-plagued liberal, WJC.
BoBo?
Next scandal....Oil for Prozac
Depressed Annan close to quitting over UN scandals....
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Yes, a tragic loss to the fine, honorable, well-meaning body that serves the world so well...once we get rid of Kofi The Kriminal, when does the U.N. move to France ??
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Depressed Annan close to quitting over UN scandals....
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"close" just ain't gonna cut it...
=P
Gee, BJ Clinton must be gleeful. He could slither right into that one if his recovery from the second surgery goes better than the first. Lucky us.
Awwww. He's depressed.
Tell me when he gets depressed enough to drown, shoot, overdose, or hang himself. Otherwise I don't give a crap about his mental state any more than I would that of Saddam Hussein's in his foxhole.
Time to update my resume !!
Anything I can do to help him out? (out the door, that is)
Bbbbbut the New York Times is reporting that the United Nations is populated by Virgin Saints?
ROFLMAO
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