The UN’s Continuing Comedy
Another revelation has occurred in the Oil-For-Food scandal. Kofi Annan has done his best personification of incompetence over this scandal. However, that is not what he needs. Nor did he need this.
THE official investigation into corruption in the £20 billion United Nations oil for food programme is now looking at the brother of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general.
Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be "connected" to an African businessman at the centre of the scandal. ...
Inquiries into Kobina are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed.
However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal.
A source close to the investigation said: "We believe Kobina Annan may be involved with Michael Wilson and Kojo Annan. We know there is a connection between Kobina and Wilson."
Whoops. We thought the family affair ended with Kojo, Kofi’s son. Now, we see that Kobina is involved as well. And yes, the investigators are well aware of the connection of Wilson and Kofi. Two memos popped up a couple months ago on Captain’s Quarters. It was reported by the AP, and part of that story is cited below. This comes from a June news report through Yahoo News:
The committee probing the UN oil-for-food program announced Tuesday it will again investigate Secretary-General Kofi Annan after two e-mails suggested he may have known more than he claimed about a multimillion-dollar UN contract awarded to the company that employed his son.
One e-mail described an encounter between Annan and officials from Cotecna Inspection S.A. in late 1998 during which the Swiss company's bid for the contract was raised. The second from the same Cotecna executive expressed his confidence that the company would get the bid because of "effective but quiet lobbying" in New York diplomatic circles.
If accurate, the new details would cast doubt on a major finding the U.N.-backed Independent Inquiry Committee made in March — that there wasn't enough evidence to show that Annan knew about efforts by Cotecna, which employed his son Kojo, to win the Iraq oil-for-food contract. The Associated Press obtained the e-mails Tuesday.
Through his spokesman, Annan said he didn't remember the late 1998 meeting. He repeatedly has insisted that he didn't know Cotecna was pursuing a contract with the oil-for-food program.
And, of course, the report goes on to connect Wilson to Kofi Annan on a level other than professional.
The document is a memo from Michael Wilson, the vice-president of Cotecna Inspection SA, which employed Mr. Annan's son Kojo. ... The Associated Press last night reported that a second memo from Mr. Wilson had come to light expressing his confidence Cotecna would get the bid because of "effective but quiet lobbying" in New York diplomatic circles.
Mr. Wilson is a childhood friend of Kojo Annan's and reportedly refers to Kofi Annan as "uncle". His memo was dated December 4 1998. A week later the company won the contract.
The revelation of Kobina, his direct connection to Wilson and Cotecna, and all of this connected to Kojo must make Kofi Annan feel like the noose is tightening. And it should. This man—through this organization—defrauded the US government, and other participators, of billions of dollars. All of it on the cover that we were helping the starving people of Iraq; people that would not have been starving had the US been given the approval to remove Saddam Hussein in 1991. The sanctions that were put on Iraq were a direct result of the policy that madman had. The world was not starving the people of Iraq. Saddam Hussein was.
And, apparently, so was the UN when they were skimming the money off the top for themselves, and funneling money to fuel Saddam’s weapons programs directly to him. The people never saw a dime. The money Saddam reaped from the program went into his military, and more monuments and palaces dedicated to himself. This program was supposed to do something for the suffering in the world. The UN, at it’s heart, is a humanitarian organization.
But we have seen their idea of "humanitarian." Let us take a look at the genocide that the UN opted not to address.
The Degars in Vietnam are being hunted into extinction, even to this day. Nearly two-thirds of the Degars have been slaughtered, and well over half of the male population.
Need we remind anyone of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge? One-point-seven million Cambodians were massacred by Pol Pot’s regime in four years—1975 to 1979.
In 1994, the UN turned a blind eye to over 930,000 Rwandans being killed by the Hutus.
From 1983 up to now, over two million Sudanese have been murdered by the Sudanese government, and the Janjaweed militias. (Those would be the nomadic Arab shepherds, which operate at the approval of the Sudanese government.) Millions more are displaced, thrown off their land and out of their homes by the government, and famine and disease are rampant.
Iraq, itself, was at the heart of genocide. Both during the Iran/Iraq war, and after the First Gulf War, Saddam Hussein unleashed a campaign of genocide against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Even today, the death toll is not fully calculated, but is inching toward hundreds of thousands. There was already enough evidence showing murder of imprisoned civilians at his behest, and at times, even by his own hand.
And we are watched Mugabe force the whites in Zimbabwe off of their land to give it to the blacks there. Now, he is doing the same to the blacks. Tens of thousands go hungry daily because Mugabe uses food as a weapon in his twisted war. The UN claims there is nothing wrong in Zimbabwe.
So much for the UN caring about the suffering of others. And it is no more evident than in the Oil-For-Food scandal as the fat-cats at the top of the food chain got their pound of flesh from the program while those suffering were given nothing but blood and terror. It is time to hold those accountable for their actions. Kofi Annan's resignation should be demanded, and if there is enough evidence to prosecute all those involved in this scandal, they should be, and to the fullest extent of the law.
The Bunny ;)
Another revelation has occurred in the Oil-For-Food scandal. Kofi Annan has done his best personification of incompetence over this scandal. However, that is not what he needs. Nor did he need this.
THE official investigation into corruption in the £20 billion United Nations oil for food programme is now looking at the brother of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general.
Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be "connected" to an African businessman at the centre of the scandal. ...
Inquiries into Kobina are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed.
However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal.
A source close to the investigation said: "We believe Kobina Annan may be involved with Michael Wilson and Kojo Annan. We know there is a connection between Kobina and Wilson."
Whoops. We thought the family affair ended with Kojo, Kofi’s son. Now, we see that Kobina is involved as well. And yes, the investigators are well aware of the connection of Wilson and Kofi. Two memos popped up a couple months ago on Captain’s Quarters. It was reported by the AP, and part of that story is cited below. This comes from a June news report through Yahoo News:
The committee probing the UN oil-for-food program announced Tuesday it will again investigate Secretary-General Kofi Annan after two e-mails suggested he may have known more than he claimed about a multimillion-dollar UN contract awarded to the company that employed his son.
One e-mail described an encounter between Annan and officials from Cotecna Inspection S.A. in late 1998 during which the Swiss company's bid for the contract was raised. The second from the same Cotecna executive expressed his confidence that the company would get the bid because of "effective but quiet lobbying" in New York diplomatic circles.
If accurate, the new details would cast doubt on a major finding the U.N.-backed Independent Inquiry Committee made in March — that there wasn't enough evidence to show that Annan knew about efforts by Cotecna, which employed his son Kojo, to win the Iraq oil-for-food contract. The Associated Press obtained the e-mails Tuesday.
Through his spokesman, Annan said he didn't remember the late 1998 meeting. He repeatedly has insisted that he didn't know Cotecna was pursuing a contract with the oil-for-food program.
And, of course, the report goes on to connect Wilson to Kofi Annan on a level other than professional.
The document is a memo from Michael Wilson, the vice-president of Cotecna Inspection SA, which employed Mr. Annan's son Kojo. ... The Associated Press last night reported that a second memo from Mr. Wilson had come to light expressing his confidence Cotecna would get the bid because of "effective but quiet lobbying" in New York diplomatic circles.
Mr. Wilson is a childhood friend of Kojo Annan's and reportedly refers to Kofi Annan as "uncle". His memo was dated December 4 1998. A week later the company won the contract.
The revelation of Kobina, his direct connection to Wilson and Cotecna, and all of this connected to Kojo must make Kofi Annan feel like the noose is tightening. And it should. This man—through this organization—defrauded the US government, and other participators, of billions of dollars. All of it on the cover that we were helping the starving people of Iraq; people that would not have been starving had the US been given the approval to remove Saddam Hussein in 1991. The sanctions that were put on Iraq were a direct result of the policy that madman had. The world was not starving the people of Iraq. Saddam Hussein was.
And, apparently, so was the UN when they were skimming the money off the top for themselves, and funneling money to fuel Saddam’s weapons programs directly to him. The people never saw a dime. The money Saddam reaped from the program went into his military, and more monuments and palaces dedicated to himself. This program was supposed to do something for the suffering in the world. The UN, at it’s heart, is a humanitarian organization.
But we have seen their idea of "humanitarian." Let us take a look at the genocide that the UN opted not to address.
The Degars in Vietnam are being hunted into extinction, even to this day. Nearly two-thirds of the Degars have been slaughtered, and well over half of the male population.
Need we remind anyone of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge? One-point-seven million Cambodians were massacred by Pol Pot’s regime in four years—1975 to 1979.
In 1994, the UN turned a blind eye to over 930,000 Rwandans being killed by the Hutus.
From 1983 up to now, over two million Sudanese have been murdered by the Sudanese government, and the Janjaweed militias. (Those would be the nomadic Arab shepherds, which operate at the approval of the Sudanese government.) Millions more are displaced, thrown off their land and out of their homes by the government, and famine and disease are rampant.
Iraq, itself, was at the heart of genocide. Both during the Iran/Iraq war, and after the First Gulf War, Saddam Hussein unleashed a campaign of genocide against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Even today, the death toll is not fully calculated, but is inching toward hundreds of thousands. There was already enough evidence showing murder of imprisoned civilians at his behest, and at times, even by his own hand.
And we are watched Mugabe force the whites in Zimbabwe off of their land to give it to the blacks there. Now, he is doing the same to the blacks. Tens of thousands go hungry daily because Mugabe uses food as a weapon in his twisted war. The UN claims there is nothing wrong in Zimbabwe.
So much for the UN caring about the suffering of others. And it is no more evident than in the Oil-For-Food scandal as the fat-cats at the top of the food chain got their pound of flesh from the program while those suffering were given nothing but blood and terror. It is time to hold those accountable for their actions. Kofi Annan's resignation should be demanded, and if there is enough evidence to prosecute all those involved in this scandal, they should be, and to the fullest extent of the law.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 1:03 PM
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