Kofi Annan's Oil-For-Food Corruption/Oil, Food and a Whole Lot of Questions

The EIB Network ^ | 2-22-03 | Rush Limbaugh/Claudia Rosett

[jmstein7]

My [wife] caught a report by Fox News Channel's Eric Shawn about the U.N. oil-for-food program. This hasn't been picked up anywhere, but it will come as a blockbuster revelation for anyone wondering why the French, Germans and Russians stood in the way of liberating Iraq. This program was supposed to help the starving Iraqi people. Instead, it was a cash cow.

This is why I always tell you: follow the money. Kofi Annan personally oversaw this program, and okayed requests under this program for things like laser light show equipment and cartoon making apparatus for Baghdad Bob. The United Nations also reaped a tidy 2.2% windfall off every drop of Iraqi oil sold.

Annan operated in secret, accountable to nobody. He's refused all requests to make records of this sweet deal public. The UN thinks of itself as unaccountable to anyone, but who keeps watch on whether they're helping the people where they deploy? Claudia Rosett's New York Times column which you can hear me read below - "Oil, Food and a Whole Lot of Questions" - reports that this program put "a veil of secrecy over tens of billions of dollars in contracts is an invitation to kickbacks, political back-scratching and smuggling done under cover of relief operations."

Rosett: "I found nothing that would seem to contradict General Tommy Franks's comment that the system should have been named the 'oil-for-palace program.'" This is why we don't want Hans Blix or Koffi Annan anywhere near Iraq. The US is pushing to lift 12-year-old sanctions while the same Russians and French who wanted to lift the sanctions they blamed for Iraqi suffering under Saddam want to keep them in place! Reuters reports that Annan is at the Security Council talking about getting oil flowing again. There is no way Annan wants this embargo to end, because that would end the oil-for-food cash pipeline. This is a huge, huge untold story.

[Glenn]

I hadn't listened to Rush in a year but happened to get the opportunity yesterday to hear his case. Pretty convincing. This story won't grow legs, however. It'd be too much like work for the media to actually dig into a story.

[CDHart]

"I wonder how Clintoon(s) will figure into it - when it all shakes out. "

Good question. I bet they're in there somewhere.

Carolyn

[hellinahandcart]

Bigger than Gallowaygate?

All part of the same thing.

This is a scandal with a "cast of thousands", Galloway's just one. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be juicy. It's going to take months if not years for it all to shake out.

It's better than anything Hollywood has put out in decades.

[thegreatbeast]

For the life of me, I can't remember where but I read a much more detailed account of this chicanery at least a month ago.
The next question to be asked is: What is it that causes the strange little man Hans Blix to see what he sees and fail to see what he fails to see? Is there a fiduciary reason for his lapses in judgement? He appears and he disappears with a will o' the wisp. What's up with that?
Inquiring minds want to know.

[gridlock]

Thanks for the Rosett piece. Somebody asked about this, and I had absolutely no idea! Not that I am a bit surprised what happens when you give a bunch of UN bureaucrats access to billions of dollars. The number of cleptocracies in the world far exceeds the number of societies that have transparent accounting practices. The UN reflects that fact. They are, at root, a backscratching society more than a debating club.

[KSCITYBOY]

bump

[backhoe]

This is a scandal with a "cast of thousands", Galloway's just one. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be juicy. It's going to take months if not years for it all to shake out.

Let me agree, and amplify that a bit- one reason the Left, the Media, Hollywood, and all their camp-followers are going so nuts is that they have lost the lock the used to have on the dissemination of information- and they can't figure out what to do about it...

As recently as the clinton era, they would have ignored, spun, name-called, and laughed at this information- but now that the internet and talk radio are working together to pass along all this new news to the public, they have gone into full panic mode. It's very gratifying to observe after all the years of Spin Cycle...

[hellinahandcart]

Your instincts and mine are obviously in agreement regaarding this scandal, since you've already gone into File Mode. ;D

My only worry is that I will die of a schadenfreude overdose before I hear the entire story.

As recently as the clinton era, they would have ignored, spun, name-called, and laughed at this information-

Yep. I firmly believe that, without the internet, Cynthia McKinney would still be in Congress enbarassing your state.

[hellinahandcart]

make that "embarassing".

[GailA]

Useless Nations oil for food scam Master list

[backhoe]

Yep. I firmly believe that, without the internet, Cynthia McKinney...

Ahh! Who can forget Jihad Cindy?

-Jihad Cindy? McKinney won't go quietly... indeed, she may not go away at all... --

[PhiKapMom]

This was on Rush's show yesterday and something that should be covered by all the networks. The UN and Annan need to be kept totally away from anything to do with Iraq.

Please write your Senators and Congressman and tell them you are against the UN having a say in Iraq along the countries that have been on the take from Saddam -- France, Germany, Russia, Syria, and others!

Time for us to give support to the Administration and their policy of not allowing UN Inspectors headed by Blix and Company into Iraq as well so Blix cannot whitewash the weapons program of Saddam! We need the truth and the UN and truth do not go together.

This morning it was reported on Fox that the Iraqi's knew where the Inspectors were going to inspect and thus had the scientist take the ingredients home with them.

[nicmarlo]

I would take you up on your advice if it weren't for the fact that Hitlery and Schumer are worse than Annan or Blix. : )

[Dog]

Hi Mom!

Thanks for the ping.

[Wphile]

Oil for food is totatlly corrupt as is anything the UN gets its dirty hands in. Kofi Annan makes me sick with all this pompous sanctimony all the while turning a blind eye to the corruption that is so obvious. The Weekly Standard had a terrific article about the oil for food and the misappropriation of money to Sadaam's coffers and nonessential projects, all approved by the UN!

If the UN goes into Iraq, the Iraqi people are doomed.

[hope]

"I wonder how Clintoon(s) will figure into it - when it all shakes out."

I have wondered about this for years. All of their global excursions while being president surely must of paid off. And the biggest payolla was that Saddaam got a pass by that administration.

[Grampa Dave]

Actually, Galloway Gate is part of this whole rotten and very evil mess. If not for the UN creating the so called oil for food program, these opportunity to mug and pillage the poor of Iraq would not have been ther.

[going hot]

I wonder how Clintoon(s) will figure into it - when it all shakes out.

Small wonder the slimeball wishes to be the next UN IG.

[PhiKapMom]

I see your point! Those two are absolutely worthless!

[MeekOneGOP]