Oil-for-Food scandal:
The French Connection
by Judi McLeod
oil for food
In the hidden-behind-the-Iraqi-prison-abuse-story oil-for-food scandal, the
plot, as they say, thickens.
First came the shock that United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's son,
Kojo was connected to the ill-fated program. According to the New York Post
On-Line edition, family members of former UN Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali are officers of a Panamanian-registered company in which Benon
Sevan, a UN assistant Secretary General, appointed to administer the
oil-for-food program, had a connection.
The Post said it got its information about the Boutros-Ghali connection from
Claude Hankes-Drielsma, a British businessman and advisor to the Iraqi
governing council.
The oil-for-food program could totally annihilate the credibility of the
world's largest bureaucracy, the United Nations.
Iraq sold $47 billion worth of oil in this program, giving Saddam Hussein a
$4.7 billion personal profit.
Kicked off eight years ago as a UN plan to feed hungry Iraqis with Iraq's
legendary oil revenues, it ended last year in a stunning quagmire of alleged
bribes, kickbacks and billions lost to "The Butcher of Baghdad".
Vouchers given to Sevan and other politicians, businessmen and political
parties on the list enabled them to serve as middlemen and flip the contract
to another oil company making between 10 cents and 60 cents profit on each
barrel of oil.
The oil-for-food tap has never been turned off. The Post says there are
"several hundred million" from the program sitting in three banks in Jordan.
Someone is drawing the money from these accounts, but "no one knows whom."
Just weeks ago, Boutros-Ghali was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada.
Only nine foreigners have been so honoured, and even as the former UN
Secretary General was receiving the award, some Canadian officials were
calling it "strange" because the Rwandan genocide happened under his watch
as UN Secretary General.
It was under Boutros-Ghali's direction that the UN 420-page Our Global
Neighbourhood, which produced the blueprint for global governance, was
published.
When Boutros-Ghali left the UN, he went on to head the Francophonie, the
organization of French-speaking nations.
It gets worse.
Canadians are also said to have made oil deals with Saddam, and ties with
the Canadian Company involved go all the way up to Prime Minister Paul
Martin's office.
A man called Benon Sevan may be the UN kingpin in the oil-for-food program.
In the Canadian connection, it's a man called Paul Desmaris. Desmaris is the
largest shareholder and director of TotalFinaElf, the largest corporation in
France, which held tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the deposed
regime of Saddam Hussein.
Martin replaced Prime Minister Jean Chretien last December. Chretien's
daughter, France is married to Andre Desmaris, son of Paul Desmaris.
Martin maintains powerful UN connections through Annan's special UN advisor
Maurice Strong. In fact, Strong, who also happens to be the architect of the
Kyoto Protocol, hired Martin in the 1960s to work for Paul Desmaris Sr.
According to respected Financial Post columnist Diane Francis, "In 1974,
Desmaris made Martin president of Canada Steamship Lines and then in 1981,
he made him spectacularly rich by selling the company to him and a partner
for $180 million. Martin's shipping company is estimated to be worth about
$424 million, making him the 63rd richest person in Canada."
Shortly after his arrival in the Prime Minister's office, Martin gave the
company to his three sons.
Canadian columnists have lamented that Canada Steamship Lines has been the
recipient of hundreds of thousands from the Liberal government in Ottawa.
In order to escape Canadian taxes, ships operated by Canada Steamship lines
fly flags of convenience rather than the Canadian flag.
At the United Nations, it's not only a global world; it's the proverbial
small one.
Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist
with 25 years experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist,
she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard and the former Brampton Daily
Times. |
