Yamani or ya life! The UNSCAM GUBU
The hunt is hotting up. The media beagles are in full flight now, their noses filled with the corruption scent. It's not just their baying that makes this so exciting, although that is a thrilling sound, it's the hope that in catching smaller fry a much bigger prize will fall the way of the relentless pursuers — namely, Daddy-o. That's right, we're talking about the Annans, son and father.
Suddenly Kojo, the lesser Annan, is everywhere. He was forced into the open last Friday by Caludia Rosett of The New York Sun in a gripping piece of investigative journalism headlined "Annan's Son Took Payments Through 2004". Key graph: "Now comes this latest information that Kojo Annan continued to receive payments until February 26 of this year — more than five years longer than the U.N. initially implied, four years longer than the U.N. confirmed to the press this September, and for the entire duration of Cotecna's U.N. oil-for-food contracts."
Trusty Hans Blix, he of the arms inspections, took a swipe at the scam hunt on Monday in, where else, The Guardian. "The Iraq war wounded the UN, but it won't be fatal" said the jolly old Swede. The subhead on the article was a gem: "The UN and the security council can survive the US campaign of vilification". Here's Hans on the search for the looted billions:
"The fraud, although widely suspected and estimated at about a billion dollars a year in the media, was not easy for the programme administration to track down and prove. The council and its members saw it with open eyes just as they saw the billions that flowed to Saddam from oil exports to neighbouring states. The programme functioned as a reasonably effective break against the import of weapons and dual-use items, which was its major objective. Today it serves as a campaign platform against the UN."
THE THEFT OF A BILLION DOLLARS a year "was not easy for the programme administration to track down and prove"! Hey, maybe those Enron accountants weren't so bad after all? I mean, once sums exceed seven figures it seems that the numbers people are just like you and me — totally confused. Or were they party to the racket? Either way, why is an investigation into a scandal of almost unfathomable proportions described as a "a campaign platform against the UN"? Interestingly, on the very same day that Hans Blix was excusing daylight robbery, William Safire was shining a harsh light on the Annans in the New York Times. In "My Son, My Son", he reveals the rot:
"Of course, in a $20 billion ripoff, $125,000 to the boss's son for doing nothing is chump change. But it should lead to questions for the son: what are his associations with families in the oil industry? (Yamani or ya life!) Did he lie to his father about four years of fees from Cotecna, or did Kofi fail to ask him? Did Kojo inform Sevan about the fees, or know about any lucrative oil vouchers given by Saddam to Sevan?For the father: Will he now share with Congress, which supplies 22 percent of the U.N. budget, his 'thorough investigation' of his son's Cotecna connection? Did he learn of the 'nothing illegal' fees only last Tuesday, as his aides say? Has he since asked his Absalomic son if the secretary general can stand by his April 'nothing to do with' statement about Cotecna?"
SO GREAT ARE THE WAVES being stirred up by the scandal that they're now even washing the shores of those islands where the UN Secretary General is regarded as a kind of multilateral Pope. One such place is Germany. Even there it's getting difficult to ignore the stench and so that virulently anti-American newspaper, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, was forced to address the matter on its front page. In a classic example of denial, however, it managed to place the piece under the blatantly dishonest headline: "Dollarsegen aus der Schweiz" (Dollar blessing from Switzerland). Yes, those evil Swiss and that accursed greenback. Time to get Mr Blix on the job. He'll find the missing $20 billion for sure. That nasty Herr Hussein probably buried the money in Basel and trapped little Koja into pocketing a trifle. While we're waiting, and we might be waiting for a while as Hans prefers to be paid by the hour, Rainy Day suggests you keep up to date on UNSCAM by visiting the Friends of Saddam, who are busy burrowing deeper and deeper into this GUBU. The abbreviation there, by the way, comes from the days of Charles J. Haughey, an Irish prime minister who put the "Mac" into Machiavellian and who called the discovery of a serial killer hiding in the flat of his attorney general "grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented". Conor Cruise O'Brien, the PM's nemesis, pounced on this Grand Guignol scandal and coined "GUBU", which came to sum up Haughey's putrescent reign. Maybe "UNSCAM" will be the GUBU of our time.
Comments
Here we go again, Eamonn trying to bring up the subject of the alleged Oil-for-Food "scandal" (still notably without any mention of involvement by US companies). Yawn again. Ah well, Eamonn's still stuck so far up the Yanks' ass he deserves an honorary Green Card. Still waiting for the job offer for 'News Anchor' at FoxNews, Eamonn?
It reminds me of FoxNews's Jonathan Hunt's "report" [comment: I deliberately put "report" in quotes, because Hunt doesn't so much "report" as run around ranting with a mike, talking in a breathless tabloid voice & trying desperately to look important] on the alleged Oil-for-Food "scandal" [comment: quotes here for a similar reason -- it isn't a scandal, it's a bunch of allegations that are being investigated both by the UN & by various Congressional committees]. This time Hunt snagged an interview with Pascua (former French Interior Minister), whom he described as a "poster boy" for corruption, linked to a "series of scandals" but "protected" by [French Pres] Chirac. Part of the interview was included in Hunt's report, complete with Hunt talking over some of it & the translator talking over Pascua so loudly I could not verify whether the translation was accurate. Hunt claimed that Pascua at first appeared "unconcerned" but that later in the interview his "calm facade appeared to crack" [comment: I wish the whole interview had been aired, & with subtitles rather than voice-over translation, because I'm sure Pascua was simply fed up with Hunt's inane repetition of inane questions.
Pity Eamonn doesn't pay as much attention to the cahoots of Halliburton in Eye-rack: "Audit: Halliburton lost track of property"
Posted by: Ted | December 1, 2004 9:22 AM
So Eamonn's a Neo-Con! It's official! According to this Inter Press Service article (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1130-21.htm), the other 'journalists' trying to drag the story of this 'scandal' into the media are the Rupert Murdoch-owned FoxNews television channel, the 'New York Post', another Murdoch-owned media outlet, 'Wall Street Journal' and and the 'National Review'. Wow Eamonn, seems you're keeping great company here!
The article goes on to say: "Of course, right-wing hostility to the U.N. is not new. The extreme right in the United States has sought Washington's withdrawal from the world body -- and the U.N.'s departure from U.S. territory -- from its very birth, believing it to have been a plot by communists, socialists, and, in some versions, Jews and Freemasons, to create a world government that would destroy U.S. sovereignty and the freedom of its citizens, beginning with their right to bear arms."
Aw, the big bad UN, that debating society on the Hudson, how dare it tell us Yankies, God's chosen people what to do! Iran anyone?
As I am against the American empire, I am happy that George W. Bush won the election, whatever frauds there might have been.
The U.S. seems to be going the same way the U.S.S.R. did. If, hopefully Bush will be followed by psychos like Perle or Cheney, it will not take very long.
It is only sad to see all the ones tortured and murdered in Iraq, Palestine and other places, but hopefully the U.S. regime will attack Iran and Syria, so the empire can fall in less then a decade.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 1, 2004 11:27 AM
TED
Why do you insist in equating everything in a morally/intellectually obtuse fashion? To ignore the point here that there is theft and corruption on an unbelievable scale by a body chartered in the spirit of helping improve the human condition is unconscionable.
Halliburton to date has not been proven guilty of anything, despite many baseless charges.
What exactly are you so blinded by that you cannot even stand up for truth and what is right?
The UN and France were willing to erect obstacles against any effort to confront Saddam and terrorism worldwide and now we know the reason, does that bother you?
Where are you from?
Posted by: andrew2 | December 1, 2004 11:32 AM
To the mystery imbicile above, you will get your wish when your country becomes a part of the enlightened 'Palestian'- like society in the near future. Islam will win because self hating dhimmis like you support hatred of anything remotely Western, Christian, conservative and traditional.
spit.
Posted by: andrew2 | December 1, 2004 11:38 AM
andrew2 = conservative and traditional. Yawn. Oh my God.
"there is theft and corruption on an unbelievable scale by a body chartered in the spirit of helping improve the human condition is unconscionable" writes über-patriotic über-traditional and Christian andrew2. Well, I guess I just get suspicious when it's only the likes of wannabe-journalists from the gutter media of NYPost and FoxNews who are pathetically doing their utmost to turn this 'scandal' into a news scoop. Sad really. But andrew2 wallows in it.
Posted by: Ted | December 1, 2004 1:10 PM
It's a form of damage control: as long as people like Eamonn and the other wannabe journalists keep harping on how "evil" Kofi Annan is and how those rotten Europeans dealt with the arch evil-doer Saddam Hussein, they're hoping people will forget the picture of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Hussein and will ignore the fact that the weapons, intelligence and other support that Reagan & Poppy Bush provided to Iraq all through the 1980s killed millions of people. I wish they'd apply the same "zeal" to covering any of the many criminal investigations of Halliburton currently underway.
Suffice it to say that Eamonn & co. fail to mention any of the US companies (e.g. Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco, Coastal Corp) or individuals involved, or that Condi Rice was on the board of directors at Chevron during this programme, or the fact that the entire programme was devised by the US & UK, or the fact that without the programme they'd have killed far more Iraqi kids than they actually did with UN sanctions ("only" tens of thousands over the course of 12 years), or ...
Jesus, the ignorance of the likes of andrew2 knows no end...
Posted by: Ted | December 1, 2004 2:25 PM
bigoTED
You are seriously imbicilic. Where do you live, in Jordan? What did you learn in school, obvioulsy not much as you are seriously bigoTED.
I wish there were other more reasonable people who post here, but it seems that many (not all,) are a lot like you. I hope the good people of Ireland are not all as defected as you clearly are.
You are a CREEP.
Occupied Europe out.
Posted by: andrew2 | December 1, 2004 7:05 PM
NIPPON,
Lets talk about a new party. Email me.
Posted by: andrew2 | December 1, 2004 8:29 PM
"Alleged" scandal, Ted says, despite what we know for a fact. Then again, Ted still believes the tired old canard about "AMERICA ARMED SADDAM! WAH!" in spite of being beaten into submission with reality and the long-debunked Lancet report, which the very left-leaning Amnesty Int., HRW, and IraqBodyCount (a favorite among the "peace" activists) cannot figure out resoundingly reject (its pretty sick, however, that so many "anti-war" creeps seem to WANT the Lancet report to be true). Give us more, Ted, before you're banned, it fine-tunes our ability to fisk more intellectually challenging left-creeps.
Posted by: Patrick | December 1, 2004 9:07 PM
The proposals delivered to Annan yesterday by a committe charged with reforming the UN are proof that it is time to change the structure and direction of the organization. It has become inflexible and the corruption allegations are well founded. The UN can be saved, must be saved, but all who wish it well have to be honest and frank about where its limits lie.
The Annan "scandal" is just a sign of the times. All organizations that lose their way end up riddled with nepotism, cronyism and decay.
Posted by: Stephen Lemay | December 1, 2004 11:08 PM
Forgive me for interrupting this intellectual discourse, but would someone kindly explain to me how a personal attack on Eamonn addresses the issue of the Annan financial fiasco? Do flame wars enlighten and clarify?
I liked Stephen Lemay's comment and thought it hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head.
Posted by: Sarah | December 2, 2004 3:43 AM
andrew2: What drugs are you on?
"bigoTED" - ooh, I'm impressed. Definitely sounds like a headline taken fresh out of the gutter-press. Give me more!
"You are a CREEP." - easy now, andrew2. Calm down.
"Occupied Europe out." - make sense please. Now I see where the NYPost gets its readership.
I'll say this, andrew2, a Yank with a passport's got to be admired for its courage. Well done!
Posted by: Ted | December 2, 2004 8:58 AM
I notice that the BBC link in Eamonn's post of 23.11 (that's November 23 for andrew2) has been altered.
Eamonn states: "The final four paras of Mark Gregory's story are priceless; the last sentence is a classic: "Dealing with smuggling was mainly the job of the American navy, not the UN."" This last sentence seems to have been removed. Strange. If you read http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4025057.stm again, the last sentence now reads "And it is often forgotten that most of Saddam Hussein's illicit income came from oil smuggling, not kickbacks on UN contracts.".
The name Cheney comes to mind (http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/02.03E.Hallib.Iraq.htm). Oops, I've got andrew2 frothing again! Take some pills, andrew2.
Posted by: Ted | December 2, 2004 9:41 AM
bigoTED,
You deserve a good bop right on da nose, or better yet, in that hot-air vent you call a mouth flapping incessantly like the spout of a balloon held gently between thumb and forefinger as air is allowed to exit.
You know the noise it makes? That's what you sound like you CREEP.
Now put an egg in your shoe and beat it.
Posted by: andrew2 | December 2, 2004 11:16 AM
I see andrew2 has no intelligent mature arguments to make today either. Just the usual mindless drivel you'd expect from a cretin. FoxNews are so lucky to have gullible muppets like you to aim their talkingheads at. And people like you have the right to vote. Jesus!
Posted by: Ted | December 2, 2004 11:23 AM
Sad to see a yank abroad, still totally and utterly brainwashed by his regime at home. Well, one consolation, the boy andrew2 still drinks Augustiner. And has a passport. There's hope for us all yet yet...
Fair and balanced. I must get up off the floor and stop laughing... Poor andrew2, he probably voted for the gorilla as well...
Posted by: Ted | December 2, 2004 2:09 PM