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April 29, 2004
Oil for Palaces Documents Are Missing
Mamamontezz sent me a link to this NY Post Article is sickening. It seems the records on all those Oil for Food transactions we wanted to see just up and went missing.
April 29, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - The vast majority of the United Nations' oil-for-food contracts in Iraq have mysteriously vanished, crippling investigators trying to uncover fraud in the program, a government report charged yesterday.
What, did we expect the lying thieves to just hand them over? The largest financial scandal in history, centered in the UN, and the documents that might destroy a host of political careers just disappeared. And note that this did not happen in the US or UK. It happened in the very institution that the anti-war types claim confers legitimacy.
The General Accounting Office report, presented at a congressional hearing into the scandal-plagued program, determined that 80 percent of U.N. records had not been turned over.
And they're not going to turn them over, either, which just makes the scandal loom larger.
The world body claims it transferred all information it had - including 3,059 contracts worth about $6.2 billion for delivery of food and other civilian goods to the post-Saddam governing body, the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Now wait, the contracts for food should come to over $40 billion, not $6.2. No wonder those Iraqi children were starving to death. It seems that only $6.2 billion worth of contracts were actually thought legitimate enough to withstand scrutiny.
But the GAO report also found that a database the U.N. transferred to the authority was "unreliable because it contained mathematical and currency errors in calculation of contract costs," the report found.
The thing about made up figures is that they don't tend to be consistent.
The GAO findings, which were aired at a hearing of the House International Relations Committee, raise new questions about corruption and mismanagement in the biggest-ever U.N. aid program - and what has been called the biggest financial scandal in history. An earlier GAO report said Saddam ripped off over $10 billion.
Only the world's largest international body could pull off the largest financial scandal in history, which dwarfs Enron, Tyco, and Worldcom.
Committee Chairman Henry Hyde said the report raised serious concerns - and could have "a potential impact on the reputation and credibility of the United Nations."
"If these charges prove true, some of the obvious victims are those Iraqis who failed to receive needed assistance," Hyde (R-Ill.) said.
Yet we have a hard of moonbats who say the sanctions were working, and that we must immediately turn over Iraqi oil to the same institution that made a living by looting it.
"But the damage extends further. The massive windfall resulting from this organized theft allowed Saddam to maintain his grip on the country, line his pockets and make companies and countries dance to his tune, with consequences we are still trying to contain."
I always said Chirac was one of Saddam's sock puppets. Is it any wonder he opposed the war?
A former oil-for-food program coordinator testified at yesterday's hearing that in the early stages his U.N. superiors were openly hostile to U.S. efforts to contain Saddam.
"For reasons I have yet to fully understand, several U.N. leaders approached the implementation of the oil-for-food program with more distrust towards the United Kingdom and United States than towards the regime of Saddam Hussein," Michael Soussan said.
And that gets to the heart of the problem. Most of the UN is openly hostile to the US, Great Britain, and freedom. It's a finsihing school for tyrant's toadies, where they can polish up on their posturing, pontificating, perjury, and form broad networks of smuggling, corruption, graft, and extortion.
April 29, 2004 in Politics | Permalink
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» Did The *spit* UN *spit* Retain Hitlary's Rose Law Firm? from The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Imperial Font of Knowledgeâ„¢, Sir George, has the scoop on the Hitlary-esque disappearance of the majority of documentation for the... [Read More]
Tracked on Apr 29, 2004 9:11:11 PM
» U.N. crooks destroying evidence from ObnoxiousFumes
New York Post Online Edition: news Well surprise, surprise! The crooks at the U.N. are covering their tracks. Who'd have guessed? The vast majority of the United Nations' oil-for-food contracts in Iraq have mysteriously vanished, crippling investigator... [Read More]
Tracked on Apr 30, 2004 11:59:18 AM
» U.N. crooks destroying evidence from ObnoxiousFumes
New York Post Online Edition: news Well surprise, surprise! The crooks at the U.N. are covering their tracks. Who'd have guessed? The vast majority of the United Nations' oil-for-food contracts in Iraq have mysteriously vanished, crippling investigator... [Read More]
Tracked on Apr 30, 2004 4:31:26 PM
Comments
Fix your initial link.
Posted by: Meep at Apr 29, 2004 8:13:11 PM
Thanks meep! Fixed! I need to be more careful, but I really wish Typepad had a better editor, too.
Posted by: George Turner at Apr 29, 2004 8:21:56 PM
It's not about the OOooooiiiillll, after all!!!! Or - maybe it is...
It's all about the money. Always has been, always will be. Some gets most, most gets nothin'; but the some what gets the most is pretty darned happy with the status quo...
A few connected people, a few barrels of oil; a few shipments of rotten food for a starving population. Ho, hum. Crumpet, m'dear?
Just cracks me up that the left accuses the right of doing what the left has been proven to be guilty of all along. Huh. Yeah, the UN is the answer, as long as you're connected enough. Solve all the worlds problems, indeed. For a price. For a price.
Mayhaps it's time to put an end to this farcical organization? Just - send it out to pasture. Nothing overt, or elaborate. just a little press, please, on this disgusting scandal; a little light shown on the inneffectivieness of this biased and lame organization, please. Won't take too much more than that.
Posted by: rick at Apr 30, 2004 10:39:21 PM
But then how would Andorra, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Djibouti, or Eritrea strut upon the world stage?
Hmm... You're right. Junk it.
Posted by: George Turner at Apr 30, 2004 11:19:39 PM