http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/foodforoil/ en-us Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:29:42 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2060582/posts At what price will corn be so expensive that the federal government will decide that it is time to stop driving up the price of food? Three years ago, Congress imposed a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate that has forced the gasoline industry to mix massive amounts of corn-based ethanol into the nation's fuel supply. In 2007, Congress nearly doubled that mandate to require nine billion gallons of ethanol be blended into gas in 2008 and even more in 2009. But, as a safety valve, Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to waive the new mandates if... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2060582/posts#comment Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:29:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2005480/posts Will Media Remember Gore's 1994 Tie-breaking Vote Mandating Ethanol? By Noel Sheppard | April 22, 2008 As the international disaster of ethanol begins taking its toll across the planet -- and, maybe more important, as press outlet after press outlet finally begins recognizing it -- will media remember that Vice President Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate requiring this oxygenate be added to gasoline? After all, regardless of recent reports blaming ethanol for world hunger problems, rising food costs, and increased greenhouse gases, it seems highly unlikely green media will want to tie any of these problems... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2005480/posts#comment Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:55:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001300/posts World Bank president calls for action as food prices cause rioting Jenny Booth The president of the World Bank has called for immediate action to deal with rapidly rising food prices that have caused hunger and deadly violence and threatened the economic stability of the world's poorest countries. A doubling of food prices over the last two years was potentially pushing 100 million people deeper into long-term poverty, said Robert Zoellick. “We have to put our money where our mouth is now, so that we can put food into hungry mouths. It is as stark as that,” Mr Zoellick said... Times of London http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001300/posts#comment Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:38:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1724030/posts PARIS, France (Reuters) -- French oil major Total SA's head of exploration and production Christophe de Margerie is being investigated by a French judge in a probe related to the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food programme in Iraq. Margerie, who is due to succeed Thierry Desmarest as chief executive, was put under formal investigation by a French judge on Thursday after being held in custody for 48 hours in Paris and then released. In a statement released on Total's Web site on Thursday night the group said it would like to "reassure Mr de Margerie of its total support". Citigroup analysts said... cnn http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1724030/posts#comment Sun, 22 Oct 2006 23:52:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1591192/posts (2006-03-06) — Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, in a landmark speech Sunday on the global dynamics of terrorism, said a ’strong United Nations’, working with ‘moderate Muslim leaders’ could save the world from terrorism if the West stops propping up Arab kingdoms by purchasing oil. The senator proposed putting the French in charge of U.N. military operations, appointing a member of the Hamas Palestinian government to head the U.N. Human Rights Council, and “transitioning the Arab Middle East from an oil economy to an agricultural one, where lush, green acres replace the sand stretching out so far and wide.” “Some say... Scrappleface http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1591192/posts#comment Mon, 6 Mar 2006 22:56:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1457180/posts BENON Sevan, the former head of the UN oil-for-food program for Iraq, expects to be accused of getting money in oil deals, allegations his lawyer calls "entirely false" and without evidence. In a lengthy statement, the lawyer, Eric Lewis, anticipated a report next Tuesday from a UN-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee, led by Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve Chairman. The panel, Mr Lewis said, intends to say that Mr Sevan received money from a contractor, doing business with the $US67 billion ($86.96 billion) humanitarian program. But the lawyer said, "The charge is categorically untrue and no evidence has been... Herald Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1457180/posts#comment Fri, 5 Aug 2005 00:08:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1402820/posts WASHINGTON, May 13 (AFP) - In a bid to improve ties with France, Iraq's intelligence service sought to influence top French politicians, including former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, a US congressional committee said Friday. The Committee on Energy and Commerce of the US House of Representatives said it had obtained memos and letters from files of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) showing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had personally "ordered the improvement of dealing with France" in early 2002. In a statement, the committee said the documents "reflect a concerted effort on the part of Saddam Hussein's government to influence individuals,... The Tocqueville Connection http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1402820/posts#comment Fri, 13 May 2005 23:25:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1397637/posts UN and our schools--forum What's being taught in our schools about the United Nations? Dick Rush and his committee will present their recent findings to members and guests of the Northern Colorado Chapter of the United Nations Association/USA. Saturday, May 7, at 3:00 p.m. at Fort Collins Main Library. Free and open to the public. For information, call.............. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1397637/posts#comment Fri, 6 May 2005 03:01:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1388471/posts WASHINGTON and TORONTO — Canadian Maurice Strong agreed to step aside Wednesday as a special envoy for the United Nations, but vowed to clear his name after being linked to Tongsun Park, a Korean lobbyist charged in connection with the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. At the same time, new details emerged about a Calgary oil company in which Mr. Strong and his son, Fred, were major investors during the 1990s together with Mr. Park -- whom the younger Mr. Strong described as "a spooky guy." Shareholders in Cordex Petroleums Inc. also included CSL Group Inc., the holding company owned by Prime... Globe and Mail http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1388471/posts#comment Thu, 21 Apr 2005 20:30:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1386226/posts Envoy Admits Ties With S. Korea Business A prominent Canadian businessman and envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan acknowledged ties Monday with a South Korean businessman who has been accused of wrongdoing in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal. Maurice Strong, Annan's special adviser for North Korea, said in a statement that he has "continued to maintain a relationship" with Tongsun Park and that Park invested in an energy company he was associated with in 1997. The statement did not identify the company and Strong could not immediately be reached for comment. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Strong was in the Dominican... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1386226/posts#comment Mon, 18 Apr 2005 23:17:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1355113/posts Canadian coincidences are piling up in the UN’s Oil-for-Food Program. Fox News reported on Tuesday that Annan's #2 Blocks Oil-for-Food Scrutiny. Kofi Annan’s #2 is Canada's Louise Fréchette. Louise Fréchette served under Prime Minister Paul Martin when he held the title of Canada's Minister of Finance. According to Fox News, "Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food program with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Fréchette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the UN Security Council." Born in Montreal, Louise Fréchette has served directly under UN Chief Kofi Annan since March 1998. According... CFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1355113/posts#comment Thu, 3 Mar 2005 16:52:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1353605/posts With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) next up for review by Paul Volcker’s inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal, a crucial question is whether Volcker will expand upon information tying the scandal directly to the U.N. chief’s office — by way of Annan’s second-in command, Louise Frechette (search). Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food (search) program, with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Frechette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the U.N. Security Council. This detail was buried on page 186 of the 219-page interim report Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee released Feb. 3.... Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1353605/posts#comment Tue, 1 Mar 2005 20:22:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1353656/posts BAGHDAD (AFP) - Tareq Aziz, one of Saddam Hussein's jailed right-hand men, was interrogated in Baghdad by representatives of a UN panel investigating corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food programme, his lawyer told AFP. Aziz also made a desperate handwritten and verbal appeal through his lawyer to be allowed to see his family. The meeting with the three investigators lasted almost eight hours and took place at a detention facility near Baghdad's international airport in the presence of US military and government personnel and an Iraqi investigating judge, said defense attorney Badie Aref Izzat. "They had no right to question him like... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1353656/posts#comment Tue, 1 Mar 2005 21:30:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1352611/posts WASHINGTON — Two major American figures in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal worked together to ship humanitarian supplies to Iraq through a charity connected to celebrities, The Post has learned. According to documents recently obtained by the House International Relations Committee, Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt and Saddam Hussein's American oil spy, Samir Vincent, worked together to finance shipments of medicines and baby formula for Iraq in 1997 and 1998 through such charities as the Friendship Force Foundation, a group closely connected to former President Jimmy Carter, his wife, Rosalynn, and other luminaries. NY Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1352611/posts#comment Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:57:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1342935/posts I always love the bit on the big international news story where they try to find the Canadian angle. A couple of months back, every time I switched on The National, there seemed to be no news at all and Peter Mansbridge was in the middle of some 133-part series of reports on “Canadians making a difference in the world,” which at least three nights a week seemed to be an “encore presentation” of the same worthy soft-focus featurette about some guy helping with an irrigation project in Sudan. Once upon a time, it didn’t seem such an effort to... The Western Standard http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1342935/posts#comment Mon, 14 Feb 2005 17:12:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1336861/posts This Washington Post editorial seems to place blame on American and other companies for the UN Oil-for-Food Scandal, revealing an anti-corporate bias. The editorial seems to ignore the role that certain foriegn nations played in the scandal, including France and Russia. The outrage continues as the editorial calls for MORE funding to the UN, since it blames a lack of funding and resources for the failures of the UN - not just in the scandal but in Kosovo and other places in the world where the UN has shown itself a failed institution. The UN has sufficient resources to fulfill... The American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1336861/posts#comment Sat, 5 Feb 2005 22:15:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1335361/posts Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post wrote a story the other day about how MSNBC President Rick Kaplan has put more NBC into MSNBC. Since Rick Kaplan was named president of MSNBC a year ago, Kurtz reported, his colleagues say that one of his main achievements has been "forging a tighter partnership with NBC News." The assumption is that NBC is a valuable resource. But on one of the hottest stories around, the U.N. corruption scandal, NBC has been out to lunch. Why? Its U.N. reporter has been on the payroll of the U.N. lobby. Linda Fasulo, the U.N. correspondent... AIM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1335361/posts#comment Thu, 3 Feb 2005 22:22:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1331728/posts January 30, 2005 Kofi Annan’s son admits oil dealing Robert Winnett and Jonathon Carr-Brown THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein. Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme. The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing... Times (UK) Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1331728/posts#comment Sun, 30 Jan 2005 07:43:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1324854/posts Jan. 19 - Former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp has been questioned by the FBI about his dealings with an Iraqi-American businessman who this week became the target of the first Justice Department criminal indictment in the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal ...Over several years continuing until 2003, Vincent talked to Kemp roughly once a month about his proposal to improve U.S.-Iraqi relations, according to Kemp and Lanny Davis, a Washington lawyer and friend of Kemp’s who discussed the matter with him and offered to speak for him to NEWSWEEK on this matter. ...Davis confirmed that in 2001, Kemp personally approached... MSNBC.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1324854/posts#comment Thu, 20 Jan 2005 19:58:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1323320/posts While barely registering a ripple in the Mainstream Media, several key senior people have been “resigned” by Kofi Annan in the wake of a series of scandals. The sudden departures also follow a Manhattan meeting with liberal friends of Annan’s from the foreign policy establishment, and a meeting between Annan and Bush Administration officials in Washington. There may be more than meets the eye in this sequence of developments. Over the past few decades, the UN has become a playpen for despots and dictators determined to manipulate the organization to achieve their goals: assure their continued rule, frustrate the desires... The American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1323320/posts#comment Tue, 18 Jan 2005 21:26:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1322022/posts Fallen behind on your scandal news lately? Well, don't look now, but the doozy the United Nations has brewed up in its Iraqi oil-for-food program is about to come to full boil. The Treasury Department, the Department of Justice, the Manhattan district attorney's office, five legislative committees, at least three foreign governments, and, oh yes, the United Nations itself are asking who's responsible for the more than $4 billion in illegal kickbacks on Iraqi oil sales and goods from suppliers exporting food, medicine, and other materials to Baghdad. Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, who is heading the U.N.'s... U.S News and World Report http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1322022/posts#comment Sun, 16 Jan 2005 21:34:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1321881/posts Press Release Source: Newsweek NEWSWEEK: Two Related Companies In The Oil-for-Food Business are Believed to Have Handled as Much as $4 Billion in Deals, Reselling Some Crude to Big U.S. Refiners Like Exxonmobil, Says Investigator Sunday January 16, 10:22 am ET # NEW YORK, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Investigative officials in New York and Europe are looking closely at the dealings of numerous companies and individuals involved in the Oil-for-Food business in an attempt to learn who may have helped Saddam Hussein's regime beat U.N. sanctions. Newsweek reports in the January 24 issue (on newsstands Monday, January 17) that one... Prnewswire http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1321881/posts#comment Sun, 16 Jan 2005 15:58:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316068/posts Paul Volcker, head honcho of the "Independent" Inquiry Committee into the Oil-For-Food program, brings new meaning to the term, "conflict of interest". Canada Free Press reported last December that Volcker held a seat on Power Corporation’s International advisory board, that he is a member of David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission and has Rockefeller’s granddaughter, attorney Miranda Duncan on the Inquiry Committee’s payroll. The Trilateral Commission is a super-elite cabal of some 300 powerbrokers with the proverbial finger in every pie that does not publish its membership on the Internet. And, of course it was Rockefeller money that built the UN’s Manhattan... CFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316068/posts#comment Fri, 7 Jan 2005 16:39:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1311032/posts United States President George Bush was tonight accused of trying to undermine the United Nations by setting up a rival coalition to coordinate relief following the Asian tsunami disaster. The president has announced that the US, Japan, India and Australia would coordinate the world’s response. But former International Development Secretary Clare Short said that role should be left to the UN. “I think this initiative from America to set up four countries claiming to coordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the UN when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up,”... scotsman.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1311032/posts#comment Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:19:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1298579/posts Kofi Annan Must Go, headlined Senator Norm Coleman’s December 1st Wall Street Journal op-ed. As calls for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s resignation grew legs, 77 U.S. Senators drafted the ‘United Nations Oil-for-Food Accountability Act,’ legislation designed to deny partial U.S. funding to the UN until they hand over Oil-for-Food documents to U.S. investigators. Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Affairs Department spokesperson Marie-Christine Lilkoff told Canada Free Press "no", Canada is not investigating Oil-for-Food. Canada is the 7th largest United Nations donor and contributed north of $130 million in 2004. Canada Free Press has learned to expect Canada in the "near future" to... CFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1298579/posts#comment Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:40:20 GMT