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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Geoff Altman who wrote (22328)	8/30/2007 12:50:47 PM
From: sandintoes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

That's why they were defending the Oil for Food debacle.

To: Geoff Altman who wrote (22328)	8/31/2007 2:00:38 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

I don't perceive Volker's limits as being the problem. The problem that I perceive is Kofi's ability to squash the release of any information that does not reflect well upon him, his cronies, and the UN. Volker signed a deal with Kofi saying he would keep all info secret, and that he would report only to Kofi. The best we can hope for is that he or a staff member will become a Deep Throat. Most contracts had secrecy clauses, and Kofi is sitting on the other parties very hard. The UN knows this is a powder keg, and Kofi does not want it to blow while he is in the hot seat. Message 20776120 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = The Oil for Food scandal yields its first conviction. Message 22641381 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Congressional investigators find an Oil for Food figure hiding in plain sight. BY CLAUDIA ROSETT Wednesday, December 28, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST At the United Nations, as a year of many scandals draws to a close, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been trying to stuff some big unanswered questions down the memory hole--with mixed results. No, I'm not talking only about the files Mr. Annan's former chief of staff shredded during the Oil for Food investigation, or the discounted duty-free Mercedes allegedly shipped to Ghana in late 1998 by the secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, under false use of his father's name and diplomatic perquisites. Hanging over all this is another mystery that despite the magnitude of the question seems of strangely small concern to the secretary-general: What has become of the former head of the U.N. Oil for Food program, Benon Sevan? In the matter of the shredded U.N. files, which Paul Volcker's probe into Oil for Food described as being of "potential relevance," ... Message 22055366 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >"He.., No"--He's Not Exonerated From the April 11, 2005 issue: Kofi Annan and the Oil-for-Food investigation. by Claudia Rosett 04/11/2005, Volume 010, Issue 28 IN THE EPIC UNITED NATIONS Oil-for-Food scandal, we now have a moment of high farce, with what will surely be remembered as Kofi Annan's "Hell, no" press conference--named for the secretary general's belligerent answer on March 29 to a reporter who, quite appropriately, wondered if Annan shouldn't think about resigning sometime soon. The U.N.-authorized inquiry into Oil-for-Food wrongdoing, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, clocked in last Tuesday with its second interim report on a program now infamous as the biggest fraud in the history of humanitarian aid. That same afternoon, Annan summoned the media to the blue-curtained U.N. briefing room to announce ... Cotecna, coincident with its U.N. labors, kept paying Kojo Annan from 1999 through early 2004, five years after he had quit. ... ... Annan's former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, approved a request from his secretary to shred some files covering precisely the period under investigation in this interim report, from 1997 to 1999. ... Annan took precisely three questions before announcing he had "lots of work to do," and departing the room at speed. How much more of this man's work can the U.N. survive? Message 212184980 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Divided UN Security Council finally votes to create Hariri tribunal JOSHUA PUNDIT By Freedom Fighter Well, it's taken months,but the UN Security Council finally voted to establish the Hariri tribunal to investigate and try the assassins of ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Only took `em close to two years. Rafik Hariri was murdered, along with 22 other anti-Syrian Lebanese political figures in a bomb blast in Beirut back in February of 2005. After a preliminary investigation by the UN's investigator Detlev Mehlis, a report was issued back in October of 2005 implicating major figures in the Syrian regime as complicit - a report which none other than Kofi Annan promptly edited to remove the names of five senior Syrian officials from the published version the report, including Syrian Thug-in-Chief Basher Assad's brother Maher and General Assef Shawqat, the president's brother-in-law and military intelligence chief. The other three were General Roustum Ghazali, head of special external intelligence and former Syrian military intelligence chief in Lebanon, General Hassan Khalil, liaison between the various Syrian intelligence bodies, and Colonel Mohsein Hamoud, a former military intelligence officer who served in Lebanon. Since the edited report came out, there's been a stalemate. The Lebanese government couldn't try anyone because of Hezbollah's influence...so finally President Siniora asked the UN to move forward and conduct a trial. That didn't even begin to happen until Kofi Annan was safely out of the building. ... Message 23585855