ANOTHER ANNAN IN U.N. OIL SCANDAL

NY Post ^ | Aug 14, 2005 | Anon

[Pharmboy]

August 14, 2005 -- LONDON — The $21.3 billion United Nations oil-for-food scandal has now widened to include the brother of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be "connected" to an African businessman at the center of the scandal.

The probe into Kobina's dealings are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed.

However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal.

A source close to the investigation said: "We believe Kobina Annan may be involved with Michael Wilson and Kojo Annan. We know there is a connection between Kobina and Wilson."

Kobina is the second member of Annan's family — after Annan's son Kojo — to be drawn into the scandal, which has led to the resignation of several senior U.N. officials.

[Pharmboy]

Why is Kofi still walking the halls at the UN?

[mewzilla]

Short answer: Because we permit it.

Sigh.

[gridlock]

Why is Kofi still walking the halls at the UN?

You betray your racism and cultural imperialism by insisting that Colonialist notions of accountability and strict financial scrutiny should apply to transactions in Africa and other Emerging Nations...

[ncountylee]

Kobina...any more at home, Kofi? Hope Bolton is polite and no one cries.

[Pharmboy]

You make a great point...this grand-scale corruption to the tune of $$billions goes on at the UN and all the demonrat socialists can complain about is that Bolton may get a bit testy.

[gridlock]

If they are not reeeeeal careful, John Bolton may be forced to place his hands on his hips IN AN AGRESSIVE MANNER!!!

[kcvl]

Questions Surface About Annan's Nephew

Thursday, March 10, 2005


NEW YORK — Another relative of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) turns out to have ties to a company with U.N. business.

Kobina Annan, nephew of the U.N. chief, worked in the internship program at public-relations firm Ruder Finn until four months ago.

The company represents corporations, foreign governments and U.N. agencies, and also does pro bono work on behalf of the world body. The company's founder, 83-year-old David Finn, is a friend of Kofi Annan and a big U.N. backer.

The story was first reported by The New York Sun.


Ruder Finn denies there was any conflict of interest when Kobina Annan worked there, or that it landed U.N. contracts because of the connection.

"We disagree strongly with the characterization and innuendos that Ruder Finn's pro bono work on behalf of the U.N. was a way to general business," reads a statement to FOX News from Emmanuel Tchividjian, senior vice president at Ruder Finn. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Tchividjian wrote: "Kobina Annan was interested in public relations ... Ruder Finn was not awarded any U.N. contract because of Kobina's employment."

Read the Rudder Finn statement by clicking here.

snip


snip


On another note, Kobina Annan has a book coming out about genocide in the Darfur (search) region of Sudan. The publisher is Ruder Finn Press.


http://tinyurl.com/dvqrh

[Pharmboy]

Funny, but I could not find coverage of this story in the NY Times today. Perhaps tomorrow...

[Pharmboy]

Nice find...thanks for the post.

[kcvl]

H. E. Mr. Kobina Annan on stage

Ghana’s Ambassador to Morocco, His Excellency Mr. Kobina Annan, his wife Ekua Annan and a team from the Ghana Mission in Morocco were part of that evening event that was billed as "Gala Le Corps Diplomatique."

Ambassador Annan and fellow troupers

The Moroccans, especially, were very receptive of the occasion of Ghana's National Day celebration - confirming indeed, and again, as Ambassador Annan put it, that “Ghana has found her place in the Moroccan heart again.”

[backhoe]

Click this picture & go to the "last" for the latest UN scandals:

If you aren't informed about this stuff, you will be made sick. If you are informed, you will be made mad, all over again.

[blue_nova]

Mr. Bolton should point out two things:
1. If oil for 'food' would have not happened then Sadam
would have gone away, and we would not be stuck in Iraq now.
2. If the Clinton admin was not so corrupt then oil for 'food'
would have not turned into the Sadam stays in control of the UN.

[andyandval]

Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco,

What would we do without this highly qualified diplomat in this crucially important position?

[Pharmboy]

Great smug smile on Ambassador Toupee in the middle, eh?

[kcvl]

Adviser to Annan Triggers Concern

BY BENNY AVNI - Special to the Sun
March 9, 2005


UNITED NATIONS - A Canadian tycoon who is a special adviser to Secretary-General Annan yesterday acknowledged that since at least 1997 he has had business and other dealings with Tongsun Park, the Korean influence-peddler who was identified in a federal criminal complaint last week as an unregistered Iraqi agent targeting U.N. officials for bribery.

Maurice Strong was a special adviser to Mr. Annan in 1997, the year Mr. Park made an investment in a company the Canadian tycoon was associated with. Mr. Strong worked as special envoy for U.N. reform in an office located directly across the corridor from the secretary-general on the 38th floor of the U.N. building.

Yesterday, Mr. Strong, who is said to be in the Dominican Republic recuperating from a bout with pneumonia, issued a statement in which he admitted to having had a relationship with Mr. Park since at least 1997. The relationship was formed even though Mr. Park had been found several years earlier to be at the center of a 1970s influence peddling scandal in Washington, known as Koreagate.

The statement by Mr. Strong, who is Mr. Annan's special envoy to the Korean Peninsula, followed the unsealing of a criminal complaint against the North Korean-born Mr. Park last Thursday in Manhattan by U.S. Attorney David Kelley. In the complaint, Mr. Park was accused of targeting two unnamed U.N. officials for bribery.

Mr. Park is also alleged to have told the Iraqis that in 1997 or 1998 he had invested $1 million of Iraqi money in a Canadian company that was set up by the son of one of those officials. The Canadian company later collapsed. The Saddam Hussein regime hoped the bribe money would sway U.N. officials who were in position to influence the sanction regime against Iraq and the formation of the oil-forfood program.


http://tinyurl.com/drne5

[Pharmboy]

If these people involved with this crap were anything but socialist one-worlders, the NY Times and the rest of the media rat pack would be running daily editorials and news items about this.

I detest the MSM more each day...and am totally convinced that ultimately they do more harm by selective coverage than by their editorializing.

[kcvl]

An article published in Wednesday’s New York Sun under the title “Advisor to Annan Triggers Concern” now reveals that David Finn, the chairman of Ruder Finn, has served as a “pro bono” advisor to Kofi Annan since he became UN Secretary General in 1997. Furthermore, the article reveals that Kofi Annan’s nephew Kobina was employed as a paid intern at Ruder Finn – “Kofi Annan asked David Finn if he would give some guidance to his nephew, Kobina Annan,” a Ruder Finn spokesperson is quoted as saying – and that “Ruder Finn's publishing arm is selling Mr. Annan's 2001 Nobel Peace Prize lecture as a hardcover book”. “At the same time that Ruder Finn employed Mr. Annan's nephew,” the article notes,

two senior Ruder Finn officials, Anne Glauber and Dena Merriam, who is Mr. Finn's daughter, were hired as outside contractors by the U.N. Development Program to revamp its communications office. They were paid $30,000 for two months' work, according to a UNDP spokesman, William Orme.

[Bubba]

"Why is Kofi still walking the halls at the UN?"

Because... only a racist would even suggest removal. (humor wide-open)

[kcvl]

Annan's nephew, Kobina, was awarded a job working for the law firm of Ruder-Finn, run by another old friend of Kofi's named David Finn.

At the same time that Ruder-Finn employed Annan's nephew, two senior Ruder-Finn officials, Anne Glauber and Dena Merriam, who is Mr. Finn's daughter, were hired as outside contractors by the U.N. Development Program to revamp its communications office. They were paid $30,000 for two months' work.

Five years ago, Ruder-Finn used the UN and Kofi Annan as the backdrop to a global summit on religion organized by Finn. The Millennium World Peace Summit is a non-profit group.

Its trustees were Finn, his daughter and Ruder-Finn's ethics advisor, Bawa Jain, to whom the UN paid $80,000.

[Malesherbes]

Wake up and smell the Kofi!