The Second Interim report of the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme is now available on line here. I’m getting more coffee and starting to read.
UPDATE: I have been reading the report. So far I can say this much — anyone who thinks Kofi Annan is the man to reform the United Nations has the intelligence of a gnat or the morals of Saddam Hussein.
MORE: Reading the report, you come to the conclusion that in a normal (non-UN) situation many of the people involved would quite simply go to jail, but here there is no apparent jurisdiction. An example is the former UN Chef de Cabinet S. Iqbal Riza who directed his assistant to shred many documents concerning Oil-for-Food. His assistant wondered if she should be doing this with so many documents but Mr. Riza told her to go ahead and scrawled his gratitude on the memorandum: “Fine. Thanks. (A heavy task!)” Besides being hugely corrupt, Mr. Riza is evidently something of a nitwit for leaving a paper trail. Riza destroyed three years’ worth of documents!
MORE: Those who will still defend Kofi will have explain why the Sec’y General lied or “misspoke” to the committee when he said he had never met Elie Massey, the head of Cotecna, before that rather ethically-challenged company got the Oil-for-Food contract. According to the interim report,(p. 45 and thereabouts) Kofi’s own personal computer recorded two such meetings. The Sec’y General is evidently a forgetful man. He forgot he had lunch with his own son and Mouselli in Durban (also documented). Is this a case of like son like father or the other way around. Or is just the son really corrupt? Perhaps we will never know. But does it matter? What matters is change at the UN. Immediate change. I don’t care if Kofi Annan is depressed. He doesn’t get my sympathy. The innocent people of Darfur get my sympathy. Those Iraqi children who didn’t get the Oil-for-Food money that was skimmed get my sympathy.
BTW: The report indicates that Kojo Annan is no longer cooperating with the committee. According to my sources… and you know who they are if you have been following the posts below… this has been true since November.
UPDATE: Special praise must go to the London Daily Telegraph whose reporting seems to have driven many inspects of this investigation.
OBVIOUSLY: The report will doubtless be spun in a number of ways. But there is sufficient meat here for any enterprising investigative reporter to go much further. It will be interesting to see what our major publications do. Many of them seem to think that to write too much about this would tarnish the image of the UN, but in actuality the reverse is true. The UN is already tarnished. Only reform will save it. And reform will only come from a full airing. I can already see a few things that were left out from my small knowledge. You can be sure they will appear in the days to come.
PJM Home
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
26 Comments
1. Kevin P:Roger:
You have just described the intellectual and moral status of the editorial boards of the LA Times and the NY Times. It will be interesting to read their Johnnie Cochran style defense of Kofi and the UN.
Mar 29, 2005 - 9:39 am 2. nickpicker:Only slightly OT:
http://slashdot.org/articles/05/03/29/1626210.shtml?tid=95
“People realize today that the governments worldwide have to play a role. People say the Internet flourished because of the absence of government control. I do not agree with this view. I argue that in any country, if the government opposed Internet service, how do you get Internet service? If there are any Internet governance structure changes in the future, I think government rules will be more important and more respected.”
Says Houlin Zhao, UN’s ITU Director.
I guess we ain’t seen nothing yet. The baddest days are yet to come.
Mar 29, 2005 - 9:43 am 3. jedrury:Granted the self-evident culpability of Kofi Annan is a hard case to make but if you look at the activities pre-award in September 1998, there are meetings by the Secretary General with Massey which smell especially when the Secretary first denied them and then when confronted with logs changed his denial to a “it was a brief meeting. . . I can’t recall.”
The doggedness and thoroughness of Volcker’s report is admirable; it reads like a good mystery in parts. But I do agree with Roger; this is not the man to rebuild the UN.
Mar 29, 2005 - 10:13 am 4. RBMN:The UN should have purchased one of the new and improved “Rose Law” shredders. It shreds the paper and erases any memories of paper-handling in the mind of the machine’s operator, all at the same time. Slick.
Mar 29, 2005 - 10:25 am 5. Bucky Katt:It’s not just the meetings Kofi Annan and Massey that cause this to smell. From a contracting standpoint it stinks on several other counts:
(1) Selection of a company that was under an investigation for illegal payments to Bhutto.
(2) Selection of a company that was *admittedly* in financial straits.
(3) Selection of a company in which Kofi’s son was *still* on the Cotecna payroll as a consultant at the time of contract award.
Phew! One and two are bad enough. Honest proposal evaluators would have put Cotecna into the non-competitive bin for this RFP.
Mar 29, 2005 - 10:33 am 6. Fausta:All this comes down to one thing: The UN is beyond redemption. There will be no reform at the UN — in fact, making Kofi quit will only enhance the continuation of corruption.
The club of petty villains, corrupt bureaucrats, and common criminals should be disbanded.
The NY Sun proposed this morning,
Here the way to lead is not by inclusion of the despots and bigots and envoys of hate. The way is to appoint a lower-level working group to plan the breakup of the United Nations and the salvage of some of the useful constituent parts, and a higher-level working group to plan for a new incorporated body of democratic governments committed to common principles.
Beyond that, there’ll be no reform at the UN.
Mar 29, 2005 - 10:47 am 7. pdq332:One of the most important and frequently pointed out functions of the UN is thier role in peacekeeping. The overt part of this comprises troops stationed all over the world in various hotspots to keep a lid on civil unrest or to serve as a buffer between warring factions. The implicit role is to serve as a guarantor of sorts of cease fire agreements, sanctions, and monitoring arrangements. The latter role has been severely undermined by the OFF scandal. Not only were sanctions that the UN imposed being circumveted by the UN’s own implementation of those sanctions, but the strategic position cruel dictator was being strengthened regionally while serious people outside of the region were able to argue that he was ‘contained’.
However, it also begs the question about those other more overt peacekeeping arrangements. Besides the pedophilia scandals and the general low quality of many UN peacekeepers, are there also shady business dealings and outrigth corruption that goes along with all of these operations? Maybe this is like “The Mouse That Roared” except that it is the UN coming in with development aid, and it is UN bureaucrats and local despots who divide the loot. Maybe it is the cash that really keeps the peace, and the blue helmets are just there for window dressing. It explains how in many cases a bunch of untrained louts can function as soldiers: because there isn’t any soldiering to do.
Is ‘peacekeeping’ a 21st centruy racket?
Mar 29, 2005 - 10:50 am 8. Hermie:With each tick of the clock. With each line of the report you read, you see the remaining credibility of Annan and his co-conspirators trickling away.
It’s not any help to Annan’s victims (by ignoring genocide and aiding corruption, he is just as guilty as those who took the bribes or fired the guns.). We can hope that those who continue to support Kofi the Krook will have nervous breakdowns while trying to come up with new excuses not to blame him for the UN’s crimes.
Mar 29, 2005 - 10:52 am 9. Rick Ballard:“in a normal (non-UN) situation many of the people involved would quite simply go to jail”
In many UN member nations they would quite simply be shot.
However, this is the UN so retirement to the south of France (where they will feel quite at home) is the worst to be suffered by anyone concerned. I fail to see why they should suffer any more than the peacekeeping child rapists that they employ.
It is quite clear that the UN exists apart from any moral, ethical or legal order and suggestions for reform are completely out of place. Perhaps some counseling on concealment tactics is in order and certainly, suppression of negative reports by the press (unnecessary for the vast majority of the MSM) seems indicated, but reform? These are people of the highest calling, willing to serve mankind for their entire lives, how can you possibly suggest that these dedicated servants to the noble ideal of one true world government be constrained in their efforts?
Read the original charter, it admits to no possible need for checks or balances. Look at all that has been accomplished in the more than fifty years since the UN was founded. Why impede such wondrous advancement with the shackles of oversight over mundane matters concerning mere money? These people are dedicated to becoming the gentle governors of humankind and I fail to see how anyone can suggest the hindrance of such pure idealism and retain any claim to being a true progressive. Courage!
Mar 29, 2005 - 11:04 am 10. Eric Blair:Oh my.
Look at what the BBC is saying:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4391747.stm
Are they reading the same report that Roger is reading?
Mar 29, 2005 - 11:16 am 11. Swede:Roger,
I knew I’d have to see your post to get the real news on this issue. If you listen to MSM radio reports, you’d get the impression that Kofi was absolved of all wrong.
Mar 29, 2005 - 11:43 am 12. Kevin P:Roger:
The BBC reaction will be the blueprint for the UN lackeys of the MSM.Just as they use the CBS internal investigaton to argue that the forged documents might be accurate they will use the Volcker report to excuse Kofi. The will ignore the fact that without the power to supeona witness or have them swear under oath Volcker was dependent on the honesty of the peole he was investigating to tell the truth. People who commit billion dollar frauds rarely turn themselves in. The will use the fact that there was massive shredding of documents not as a damning fact but as a reason to say since those records are destroyed there is no way we can know what was on them. The bi-coastal Times, The Washington Post and the bulk of the “quality” news outlets will put their blinders on and point to Kofi’s wonderfull new reforms are the important things to focus on. Your wise request for some form of transparent handling of UN funds will never come to pass. They will do a one or two day story on the Volcker report, give Kofi a mild scolding, and get on wih the push for Kofi’s reforms and accuse you and reporters like Rosett to “move on” and stop your UN bashing.
Mar 29, 2005 - 11:53 am 13. truepeers:God we need more Eric Blairs.
Mar 29, 2005 - 12:24 pm 14. mojo:Check out the clulessness on this baby:
“A stronger UN would be able to prevent unilateral military action by powerful nations like the United States or China. I am glad the report clears Annan’s name so that we can return to examining his reform package and strengthening the UN.”
Eric, Victoria, Canada
Eric seems to think the UN has a military wing or something.
Mar 29, 2005 - 12:26 pm 15. utron:While it may be true that “…any enterprising investigative reporter [could] go much further,” the MSM’s refusal to give this story the attention it deserves has made you the go-to guy, and you’ve done a spectacular job. Thanks for rendering all of us a hugely important service.
Slightly OT, several commenters have already pointed out the factors (lack of jurisdiction or accountability, etc.) that make serious reform of the UN unlikely bordering on impossible, IMHO. Nor do I think it’s going to be abolished any time soon. I do think it could be marginalized by the nucleus of a more effective organization, something like the way the Allies in World War 2 marginalized the League of Nations.
In the meantime, let’s not tarnish the reputations of good people like Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, or Aung San Suu Kyi by dragging them into this farce. Kofi’s successor should be a middling honest diplomat/bureaucrat for whom being Secretary General will be a capstone to his/her career, not a demotion.
Mar 29, 2005 - 12:32 pm 16. jacksamuel:UN apparatchniks & simps can see their way out of the oil for lining their pockets imbroglio. Candies & gummie bears are being distributed @the NYC UN headquarters @ this very moment. Volckers’report, like the CBS report looks @ the facts & concludes nothing at all. In these 2 cases the facts are not enough;standard evidentiary tests do not cut it. The man is unassailable as he is protected by the UN family of consorts,cyprians & thugs that walk this earth governed by laws only Nasrallah could abide by.
Mar 29, 2005 - 12:44 pm 17. Terrye:When asked if he would resign Kofi said “Hell no”.
spunky isn’t he?
The idea that the UN could stop the US or China is almost as silly as the idea that it can end poverty and bring peace to the world.
Mar 29, 2005 - 1:50 pm 18. TigerHawk:The destruction of documents in this context will not be viewed negatively in most of the world. Preservation of evidence is largely an Anglo-American value, and even most other common law countries do not have our far-reaching rules of discovery. In most European countries, destruction of documents is essentially expected. Even in France [I can't believe you're giving us France!] there is no real legal risk or social opprobium in destroying evidence. Just a couple of months ago I was shooting the breeze with a French lawyer in a Paris conference room, discussing French rules of discovery. He said that while it was theoretically possible that various internal documents would be produced in a hypothetical case, they wouldn’t in practice because the custom in France is just to destroy damaging documents. If this is true in France, which like it or not has a fairly respectable system of justice [ Non! L'affaire Dreyfus!], then we can’t expect a bunch of bureaucrats extracted from substantially lawless countries to behave any better.
Not apologisin’, just explainin’, is all.
Mar 29, 2005 - 2:28 pm 19. R C Dean:In many UN member nations they would quite simply be shot.
Sadly, this is not so. In many UN member nations, they would be promoted.
And therein lies the root of the problem. You cannot expect an organization that is composed primarily of illegitimate kleptocrats to be anything other than corrupt.
Mar 29, 2005 - 2:54 pm 20. TigerHawk:R C Dean nailed it. For all the sanctimony attending our own corporate malfeasance, the United States has standards of institutional propriety unmatched in any country with a population bigger than, say, Chicago. This is to our credit, but it makes it very hard for us to deal with institutions such as the United Nations.
Mar 29, 2005 - 2:59 pm 21. TM Lutas:UN reform is simple and easy to do. It also can be done unilaterally. The key is history. Many of the organizations that do good work in the UN (and create a lot of support for the system) at one point were independent and joined the UN as a convenience. Others were rolled into the UN from the League of Nations. What was independent before can be independent again. You simply take the US contribution, divert it to the Council for a Community of Democracies. Offer every organ of the UN the ability to become part of the Council and make membership in the Council conditioned on the ability to pass regular audits for honesty and transparency.
How are you going to argue against the requirement to prove honesty and transparency and responsibility, especially if the US offers to pay for the audits? I don’t have a doubt that the ITU (founded in 1865) would pass such audits and do so quickly. Lots of other UN bits would do so as well. What would be left unfunded would be the corrupt bits, the bits that have been hiding behind the functional ones.
Reform is possible.
Mar 29, 2005 - 3:20 pm 22. gekkobear:Well, as for the BBC…
“Are they reading the same report that Roger is reading?”
I can’t tell. Roger linked the document so I can see what he is reading and form my own opinion.
Apparantly the BBC doesn’t believe this is something I should be doing, so they don’t show their sourcing of the document.
Big surprise there, fortunately the MSM has all those editors and procedures to avoid making mistakes…
Mar 29, 2005 - 3:33 pm 23. index:Sorry, but Kofi won’t get any Johnnie Cochran defense since O.J.’s lawyer died today.
Mar 29, 2005 - 4:44 pm 24. richard mcenroe:Riiiiiiight… and it all stopped with Haldeman and Ehrlichman, too…
Mar 29, 2005 - 6:19 pm 25. Charlie Quidnunc:Roger,
Great initiative and reporting!
I read parts of this post and played parts of the Kofi press conference in my Podcast today. Give it a listen if you get a minute. I play some of his opening remarks, and include the question about his resignation (answer: “Hell no”). Some fisking, too. Give it a listen if you get a minute.
Charlie
Mar 30, 2005 - 9:37 am 26. ThatManJack:Okay, let’s reveiw.
Official records released by the State Department identify the men listed below as the key U.S. planners for the global criminal cabal known as the UN. Each of the 16 was subsequently identified in sworn testimony before U.S. government agencies as a secret communist.
Alger Hiss
Nathan Gregory Silvermaster
Harry Dexter White
Harold Glasser
Virginius Frank Coe
Victor Perlo
Noel Field
Irving Kaplan
Laurence Duggan
Solomon Adler
Henry Julian Wadleigh
Abraham George Silverman
John Carter Vincent
William K. Ullman
David Weintraub
William H. Taylor
Postwar Foreign Policy Preparation, 1939-1945, U.S. State Department
Of thes 17 US men responsible for the creation of the United Nations, the only one not identified as actively an agent of the Communists was Dean Acheson; and his law firm represented the Soviet Union before the Bar in America. Go figure.
I fail to see how anyone is astonished at the criminality, the vile and utter debasement that flows from the United Nations and all that is unHoly and wrong in humaan experience when its very founding was undertaken by men loyal to that most anit-God theology ever formed…Communism.
How is it we should be surprised?? Fruit of the poisoned tree, as it were.
Mar 30, 2005 - 2:55 pm