We all knew oil was the central issue to the Iraq war. But who could have guessed that the very people accusing the United States and those evil people at Halliburton of evil motives were the very people playing footsie with Saddam Hussein at the U.N. Security Council? That's right folks. France, Russia and Germany, the most vocal critics of the Iraq war, were lobbying for the removal of sanctions against Iraq. Additionally, the fraud seems to have reached the highest levels of the United Nations, including Kofi Annan's son, Kojo. In trying to come up with an appropriate name for this group, I decided to use John Kerry's words: the coalition of the bribed and coerced.
The whole scandal started back in April when an Iraqi paper, Al-Mada, came across documents from a government office. Apparently the reporters over at the New York Times were too busy writing press releases for the Kerry campaign to break the story. These documents revealed the names of 270 individuals who were benefiting from the "humanitarian" Oil-for-Food program established to help the citizens of Iraq after sanctions were imposed.
France, that bastion of integrity and nuance, was swimming in Iraqi crude. Some who benefited were French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, who is the leader of President Jacques Chirac's party, and Patrick Maugein, head of the French oil firm Soco International; they received 12 million and 36 million barrels, respectively. France's former ambassador to the United Nations, Jean Bernard Merimee, received vouchers for 11 million barrels of Iraqi crude. Altogether France received 165 million barrels of illegal oil. You won't see that on your grandfather's CNN.
Next up is Russia, which received the most oil at 2.5 billion barrels. The scope of Russia's involvement reached all the way to the "office of the Russian president." President Putin's Peace and Unity Party also received vouchers for oil.
The most damning revelation, however, is that Benon Sevan, administrator of the Oil-for-Food program, was also on the take. Yes, the man at the helm of the U.N. program was given the rights to 11.5 million barrels of Iraqi oil. When this news leaked out Mr. Sevan denied being involved and made a surprise announcement that he would be retiring next month.
When all was said and done, Saddam's regime brought in around $21.3 billion in illegal funds. Even more pressing is the concern that this money could now be in the hands of terrorists ("insurgents" for you liberals out there) fighting against our troops in Iraq today.
This is all very ironic considering the constant harping against President Bush and other world leaders by high, unemployed, trust-funded protestors and others that they were just in it for the oil. But isn't it interesting that the names "George W. Bush," "Dick Cheney," and "Halliburton" do not appear anywhere? Apparently the Coalition of the Willing was also the Coalition of the Honest. Besides, has anyone filled up their tank lately? A buck ninety-nine a gallon sure does not sound like a war for oil to me.
Now, enter Kojo Annan. The son of the secretary-general apparently aided Cotecna Inspection Services of Geneva, in winning oil-for-food contracts with Iraq. While the company denied Kojo's involvement in any company affairs, documents given to congressional investigators show that the young Mr. Annan attended meetings in 1998 in New York and South Africa. Later that year the company won a $4.8 million contract to examine goods being shipped to Iraq. For his services, Kojo received $50,000.
But the relationship did not stop there. It seems that Kojo's aid to Cotecna was a gift that kept giving, with him receiving $2,300 a month from the company until early this year, even though he left the company in 1998.
The unfolding scandal is the largest in both U.N. and world history. But since the only victims were only poor Iraqi citizens, many of them children, and not U.S. retirees, Democrats can rest easy and not bring out the lynch mobs like they did for Ken Lay and Enron.
Now is a time for serious consideration of the United Nations and its role in the world. While it could be a force for good, its makeup is a serious roadblock to the effort. Despotic nations like Libya, Syria and Zimbabwe regularly lecture the United States and others on human rights. The Unted States pays 20 percent of the operating budget but gets zero thanks. We pay the tab for renovating the building just so these "leaders" can feel more comfortable as they twist the knife in our backs.
When addressing the calls for Annan to resign, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said, "A few voices doesn't make a chorus." Unfortunately many voices have been silenced because of certain people at the U.N. who care more about Iraqi oil than Iraqi freedom.
