IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM THE AP (No link yet):
UNITED NATIONS_Investigators of the U.N. oil-for-food program said Tuesday they are “urgently reviewing” new information suggesting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have known more about a contract awarded to the company that employed his son.
START MAIN STORY:
Maybe Howard Dean and Vladimir Putin were separated at birth because they both have habit of putting their foot in their mouth. Of course, their motivations may not be the same – Dean’s seems to come from an uncontrollable narcissistic impulse to hog the limelight (at the expense of his party) while Putin’s appears to stem from an atavistic impulse to bring Russia back to the time of tsars.
But as we know, Russia may never have left it as the latest Oil-For-Food piece in the WSJ indicates:
The alleged role of the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow in helping Baghdad exploit the United Nations’ oil-for-food program has emerged as a new flash point in already rocky U.S.-Russian relations.
In the three years before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, say former employees of the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow and American investigators, cash deliveries were funneled through the embassy as part of an elaborate kickback scheme to Saddam Hussein’s government, paid in return for lucrative oil contracts under the U.N.’s oil-for-food program.
The main question facing investigators is whether the scheme took place with the active cooperation of the Kremlin or was simply part of the murky and often corrupt business climate that has flourished in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. The intermingling of Russia’s government and business spheres — many companies are either formally state-owned or under the unofficial control of powerful political or military figures — is making the issue more difficult to resolve.
Clear evidence that the Kremlin subverted U.N. sanctions, or that Russia’s opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq was financially motivated, would undermine Moscow’s credibility with Washington at a time when the U.S. is already wary of President Vladimir Putin and what many consider his backsliding on democracy and economic change. The Kremlin’s critics in the U.S. say the scandal proves Russia is an unreliable partner in international affairs and has worked actively to undermine U.S. interests.
There’s more in the WSJ article, including some interesting info on activities at the crumbling IRaqi Embassy in Moscow before the war. Meanwhile, the NYT has news of a memo that links Kofi Annan to the OFF contract of his son Kojo’s company Cotecna.
Kofi Annan has said several times that he did not discuss the contract with his son and was not involved in Cotecna’s selection. A United Nations panel headed by Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, concluded in March that Mr. Annan had not influenced the awarding of the $10 million dollar-a-year contract to the company.
But the memo appears to raise questions about the secretary general’s role.
Asked for comment, a consultant for the company who is familiar with its role in the oil-for-food program said that on Monday Cotecna provided copies of the e-mail messages and other documents that were recently discovered in company files to investigators of three Congressional committees. The committees have been looking into fraud and abuses in the $65 billion program.
The consultant said the memo was found by accident three weeks ago in a search of company archives as part of an effort to account for all of Cotecna’s payments to Kojo Annan.
“No senior Cotecna officials initially had any memory of the e-mail or of such a meeting, and the memo appears to contradict what the company has said,” said the company’s consultant, who declined to be identified.
A copy of the memo was provided to The New York Times, and the consultant confirmed that it was authentic.
I told you I buried the lede! But so did the NYT. This article is on page 10 of their newspaper. Imagine if it was about Guantanamo.
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.
14 Comments
1. Jamie Irons:Roger,
I’m so glad you’ve come back to OFF; I was afraid even you had missed that page 10 article!
OT but not entirely so: I want to recommend to everyone’s attention a superb blog by Steven Vincent, In the Red Zone, with vivid first-hand reporting on what’s going on in Iraq.
Jamie Irons
Jun 14, 2005 - 8:10 am 2. chuck:Jamie,
It’s a bit dated but you might enjoy reading Steve Mumford’s Baghdad Journal
Jun 14, 2005 - 8:34 am 3. Kyda Sylvester:Now, see, here’s what we’re always talking about. The NYT describes the memo, characterizes the memo, makes selective quotes from the memo, but nowhere (at least online) does it reproduce the memo so that we can read it and draw our own conclusions. Maybe there wasn’t enough space on page 10?
Jun 14, 2005 - 9:40 am 4. David Thomson:ìDean’s seems to come from an uncontrollable narcissistic impulse to hog the limelight (at the expense of his party)î
This is not entirely accurate. Howard Dean is essentially only hurting the red state Democrats. The blue staters are being greatly helped by his over the top rhetoric. Dean is firing up their troops and securing their place within the Democratic Party. The national Democrats are, for all practical purposes, telling senators like Ben Nelson to go to hell.
The future is not for us to know. Still, the odds are that we will never see another Democrat in the White House during our lifetimes. The same is probably true for both the US Senate and House of Representatives majority. President Bush is also getting most of his judges approved. The blue staters realize this and are focussing on whatever is best for them in their own backyard. Howard Dean is doing exactly what they want.
Jun 14, 2005 - 9:43 am 5. Jamie Irons:David,
Here’s an interesting view of what might happen on the Republican side in ‘08…
Jamie Irons
Jun 14, 2005 - 10:39 am 6. Kyda Sylvester:what might happen on the Republican side in ‘08…
In E. J. Dionne’s dreams perhaps. A McCain candidacy would be interesting to watch in one respect: McCain’s face the day he finally understands that MSM are dumping their favorite maverick to worship at the alter of Hillary.
(Jamie–how did graduation go? Did you get a decent address or a typical leftist screed?)
Jun 14, 2005 - 11:44 am 7. Kevin P:Roger:
McCain has swallowed the kool-aid. He refuses to face the fact that he can’t make the press love him and win the republican primary at the same time. He keeps trying to straddle the moderate -conservitve divide and pretend that he is both. Kerry tried the same thing. Hillary can do it. But she is smart enough to avoid the Sunday shows and the press that will draw her out and make her explain the occasional flip flop in rhetoric. McCain can’t stay away from the limelight and the sychophantic bootlicking of the press. Yet if, by some miracle, it comes down to a Hillary vs. McCain battle they will dump him like a venearial disease. They will say, Well McCain is a great guy but he is still a Republican and we hate the rest of his party so they can not be given power. McCain has confused good press with good government. He is star inside the beltway but he will never get the White House.
Jun 14, 2005 - 12:36 pm 8. chuck:If McCain ran on a platform of repealing McCain-Feingold I might be more interested. His main appeal at the moment is that he is a staunch supporter of OIF.
Jun 14, 2005 - 12:53 pm 9. Kyda Sylvester:From Powerline: But my favorite moment of the evening occurred when someone asked Cheney how the White House defines excellence in journalism. The Vice President’s answer: “I’ll know it when I see it.”
My goodness, it’s a little difficult to believe that Vice President Cheney in all these years has never seen a copy of the NYT, or the WaPo. Oh, wait…
(I love Dick Cheney’s sense of humor–dry as the Mojave. He’s easily my favorite member of the administration.)
Jun 14, 2005 - 2:33 pm 10. richard mcenroe:David Thomson — That’s true only if you buy that the states are solid red and solid blue just like the neato map says.
I suspect there are a lot of Congressional districts in blue states, particularly the ones that don’t have universities in them, where the Dem incumbents would really rather Dean stopped insulting their marginal voters who still go to church on Sunday and can’t afford melanin…
Jun 14, 2005 - 5:29 pm 11. Rick Ballard:Dean is definitely not helping Nelson (NE) and Nelson (FL) in their Senate races. He is also not helping 11 out of the 14 most contested House races. He will also change his tune to the extent that he will seem an entirely different species of bird by September.
By this time next year all the jabber that he has engaged in to this point will never be mentioned in the MSM and it will be up to the New Media to continue to remind people of just how big a jerk he really is.
Jun 14, 2005 - 6:30 pm 12. Rick Ballard:Mike DeWine’s son Pat just finished fourth in a primary for a safe Republican seat in Ohio.
Pat was way ahead in the polls right up ’til dad caught spaghettispinitis wrt the filibuster.
Payback is such a bitch.
Kucinich for Senate!
Jun 14, 2005 - 7:31 pm 13. Omaha1:In my humble opinion as a Nebraska voter, Ben Nelson, as a Democrat, has more credibility than the idiot McCain wannabe Chuck Hagel. At least Nelson attempts to be a good representative of the conservative majority of Nebraskans. Hagel, on the other hand, seems determined to oppose the Bush administration on just about every important issue. I will never vote for him again. Especially if he runs for president.
Jun 15, 2005 - 4:23 am 14. Rick Ballard:Ben Nelson is a very good Senator. I can think of at least 10 Rep senators less deserving of being reelected. Hagel and McCain are certainly on that list.
That’s why Howlin’ Howie is going to become Dear Dr. Dean fairly soon. If he continues in the same vein through next year he’s going to wipe out not just the Dem centrists but the soft libs that Richard McEnroe mentions. What’s left of labor is coming apart at the seams on this very issue and Howie ought to study the AFL-CIO split to see what schism looks like. If he keeps it up he’ll be king of 15% of the vote.
Jun 15, 2005 - 5:53 am