Claudia Rosett has an absolutely essential piece on the UN’s connection to Iraqi funding of terrorism:
Especially with the U.N.’s own investigation into Oil-for-Food now taking shape, and more congressional hearings in the works, it is high time to focus on the likelihood that Saddam may have fiddled Oil-for-Food contracts not only to pad his own pockets, buy pals, and acquire clandestine arms — but also to fund terrorist groups, quite possibly including al Qaeda.
There are at least two links documented already. Both involve oil buyers picked by Saddam and approved by the U.N. One was a firm with close ties to a Liechtenstein trust that has since been designated by the U.N. itself as “belonging to or affiliated with Al Qaeda.” The other was a Swiss-registered subsidiary of a Saudi oil firm that had close dealings with the Taliban during Osama bin Laden’s 1990’s heyday in Afghanistan.
She continues with a detailed exploration into the rampant corruption of the Oil-For-Food program, a program that was used for everything but its original purpose – providing food and medicine for the Iraqi people. Instead, Iraqi oil sales bought Saddam elaborate new palaces, weapons, and possibly money to fund terrorism worldwide.
It is clear that the UN didn’t give a damn about accountability for this program. Kofi Annan himself negotiated a deal in which Iraq was allowed to set up its own contractors for oil-for-food contracts – many of which were front companies set up by the Iraqi regime. Yet the UN seemed entirely unconcerned with the fact that their money was not going to humanitarian purposes but enriching the Hussein regime. If they knew, the UN is an accomplish to genocide. If they did not, they’re unable to prevent being fleeced for hundreds of millions of dollars in aid money.
In any event, this shows why the UN simply cannot be trusted.
I suppose I shouldn’t hold my breath waiting for lamestream media to broadcast and pursue this most grievous offense. And do you think there will ever be enough evidence for charges to be brought against the perpetrators. Sure, it would be nice to have the UN help out in Iraq, but can we ever really trust them be helpful? Farce in progress…
Also, when scrounging for something new to read, I found on grandmother’s bookshelf a novel (c1962) called “A Shade of Difference” by Allen Drury, about the UN during the cold war and racial tensions of the times. Although it is fictional, I found his portrayal interesting in how little has changed in delegates’ self-centered, nationalist ways and how they ally themselves and use every opportunity to embarrass or weaken western democracies.