Oil For Food News…
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php
LGF is a great site. And the "flying monkeys from the dark side picked up on something today. Charles runs one of the foremost sites we have used to keep track of the investigations of the UN Oil-For-Food (OFF) scandal. As my other half pointed out yesterday, Mr. Volker had not—despite the media’s claims, and those of Mr. Annan—assured everyone that his report did not exonerate Mr. Annan from culpability in this scandal. But Mr. Annan is not the only one that has to worry.
German companies are also involved in the kickback scandal looming over the oil for food program. United Nations investigators recently requested exports files on 50 German firms from the Foreign Ministry.
Saddam Hussein’s affection for the Swiss financial metropolis Geneva had a long-running history and tradition. Many times over the past decades, Iraq’s former dictator used the fancy and glitzy banking hub on the shores of Lake Geneva as a hiding place for his illegally earned billions. In the late 1980s, Saddam even sent his half-brother to Switzerland, ordering him to protect the money personally.
Bankers in the city along the Rhone River did brisk business with Saddam, even during the United Nations embargo. Saddam’s followers secretly demanded their piece of the pie: those "pieces" were shares of inflated bills issued to corporations planning to supply goods to Baghdad as part of the oil-for-food program. As one of several channels, one account held at the tony Geneva private bank Safdie could be used to transfer these kickbacks.
The wheeling and dealing that took place between industry and the toppled Saddam clan has been under investigation since late 2003, when a high-profile commission started examining the matter. Paul Volcker, former head of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, South African judge Paul Goldstone and Swiss criminal law professor Mark Pieth are currently trying to find out how massive amounts of money could disappear through the Saddam regime’s dark channels, even as the UN closely monitored the Iraqi dictator.
Claudia Rosett, of The Wall Street Journal fame, has further on the issue. Below is an excerpt from it that I have linked to.
http://www.nysun.com/article/12872
Next up in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal is a trip down the money trail, by way of the French bank tapped by the United Nations - in cahoots with Saddam Hussein - to handle the main escrow account of the graft-laden U.N. program. Tomorrow, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing delving into some of the oil-for-food banking details. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican of California who will lead the hearing, expects that with some of the material due to be disclosed, "heads will turn."
The UN has been exposed; sliced from head to toe and laid bare for all to see. What we have in this organization that has lost it’s way from it’s own mandate. They do not stand for peace. They stand for control. The peacekeepers sent into most countries are a joke, unless it is our forces, and even then they are thanks to the handcuffs that the UN slaps on them. Somalia was a glaring example of it. It is time that the organization is reformed, or we withdraw from it. I can only speak for myself, but I would like to see us depart it.
We stand for freedom and democracy. We always have, and we always will, at least I hope we will. Our Founding Fathers believed in that, and those two important concepts have been passed down from generation to generation. Yes, my brother was the same type of guy in his mid-twenties that was just going to school to make something of his life. Then 9/11 happened.
Despite the fact that I knew that my brother loved this country, and believed to his core in the ideals of the Framers (He did tutor me in many subjects.) I never expected him to do what he did. He left school—and a prominent future career in law—and signed up. He wanted to stand up against the animals that attacked this nation. He believes in the freedom and democracy that we stand for, but he said he would end his tenure with the military should he ever come under the command of the UN. He does not trust them, and their recent history proves his point.
Raping children in the Congo? Disavowing any genocide being carried out in Sudan? Refusing to recognize terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as such? Purposefully hiding their support of a man like Saddam Hussein under the UN OFF scandal? Uh huh. Sure they are legitimate, and able to be trusted.
He left me and my very dysfunctional, yet unique, family behind. (Anyone who knows me knows the case of my "family".) He followed the call. I respect that. I respect him, and I love him. But he would not have to do this had the UN done their damned job in the first place, and held Saddam accountable. But they do not hold people like him to account. They never do. They embrace men like him.
They played patty-cake with Saddam. They are doing the same with Iran, and "Crazy" Kim Jong-Il in North Korea. This organization does not stand for peace, freedom, and democracy. They give far too much respect and friendship to tyrants and dictators. Much like the obstructionist party in this nation right now in our own Senate.
The Bunny ;)
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php
LGF is a great site. And the "flying monkeys from the dark side picked up on something today. Charles runs one of the foremost sites we have used to keep track of the investigations of the UN Oil-For-Food (OFF) scandal. As my other half pointed out yesterday, Mr. Volker had not—despite the media’s claims, and those of Mr. Annan—assured everyone that his report did not exonerate Mr. Annan from culpability in this scandal. But Mr. Annan is not the only one that has to worry.
German companies are also involved in the kickback scandal looming over the oil for food program. United Nations investigators recently requested exports files on 50 German firms from the Foreign Ministry.
Saddam Hussein’s affection for the Swiss financial metropolis Geneva had a long-running history and tradition. Many times over the past decades, Iraq’s former dictator used the fancy and glitzy banking hub on the shores of Lake Geneva as a hiding place for his illegally earned billions. In the late 1980s, Saddam even sent his half-brother to Switzerland, ordering him to protect the money personally.
Bankers in the city along the Rhone River did brisk business with Saddam, even during the United Nations embargo. Saddam’s followers secretly demanded their piece of the pie: those "pieces" were shares of inflated bills issued to corporations planning to supply goods to Baghdad as part of the oil-for-food program. As one of several channels, one account held at the tony Geneva private bank Safdie could be used to transfer these kickbacks.
The wheeling and dealing that took place between industry and the toppled Saddam clan has been under investigation since late 2003, when a high-profile commission started examining the matter. Paul Volcker, former head of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, South African judge Paul Goldstone and Swiss criminal law professor Mark Pieth are currently trying to find out how massive amounts of money could disappear through the Saddam regime’s dark channels, even as the UN closely monitored the Iraqi dictator.
Claudia Rosett, of The Wall Street Journal fame, has further on the issue. Below is an excerpt from it that I have linked to.
http://www.nysun.com/article/12872
Next up in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal is a trip down the money trail, by way of the French bank tapped by the United Nations - in cahoots with Saddam Hussein - to handle the main escrow account of the graft-laden U.N. program. Tomorrow, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing delving into some of the oil-for-food banking details. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican of California who will lead the hearing, expects that with some of the material due to be disclosed, "heads will turn."
The UN has been exposed; sliced from head to toe and laid bare for all to see. What we have in this organization that has lost it’s way from it’s own mandate. They do not stand for peace. They stand for control. The peacekeepers sent into most countries are a joke, unless it is our forces, and even then they are thanks to the handcuffs that the UN slaps on them. Somalia was a glaring example of it. It is time that the organization is reformed, or we withdraw from it. I can only speak for myself, but I would like to see us depart it.
We stand for freedom and democracy. We always have, and we always will, at least I hope we will. Our Founding Fathers believed in that, and those two important concepts have been passed down from generation to generation. Yes, my brother was the same type of guy in his mid-twenties that was just going to school to make something of his life. Then 9/11 happened.
Despite the fact that I knew that my brother loved this country, and believed to his core in the ideals of the Framers (He did tutor me in many subjects.) I never expected him to do what he did. He left school—and a prominent future career in law—and signed up. He wanted to stand up against the animals that attacked this nation. He believes in the freedom and democracy that we stand for, but he said he would end his tenure with the military should he ever come under the command of the UN. He does not trust them, and their recent history proves his point.
Raping children in the Congo? Disavowing any genocide being carried out in Sudan? Refusing to recognize terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as such? Purposefully hiding their support of a man like Saddam Hussein under the UN OFF scandal? Uh huh. Sure they are legitimate, and able to be trusted.
He left me and my very dysfunctional, yet unique, family behind. (Anyone who knows me knows the case of my "family".) He followed the call. I respect that. I respect him, and I love him. But he would not have to do this had the UN done their damned job in the first place, and held Saddam accountable. But they do not hold people like him to account. They never do. They embrace men like him.
They played patty-cake with Saddam. They are doing the same with Iran, and "Crazy" Kim Jong-Il in North Korea. This organization does not stand for peace, freedom, and democracy. They give far too much respect and friendship to tyrants and dictators. Much like the obstructionist party in this nation right now in our own Senate.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 3:23 PM
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