You remember – the one in which former Oil-for-Food head Benon Sevan’s aunt had the unfortunate accident. In her latest WSJ opinion piece, Claudia tells us for the incredible visit by Hyde Committee investigators to Cyrprus where they met Mr. Sevan himslef. [Time to go back to mystery writing.-ed. You couldn't make anything like this up. You don't have to.]
But to such sketchy accounts, investigators for Rep. Henry Hyde’s International Relations Committee are now prepared to add some illuminating details–starting with their encounter with Mr. Sevan himself, less than three months ago, in Cyprus. As it happens, they were not expecting to find Mr. Sevan in person. They went to Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, trying to track down details of the case, including the fate of Mr. Sevan’s deceased aunt, Bertouji Zeytountsian. By Mr. Sevan’s account to Mr. Volcker, this aunt, while living in Nicosia as a retired government worker on a pension, had sent him funds totaling some $160,000 during the last four years in which he was running Oil for Food, 1999-2003. The day after the U.N. investigation into Oil for Food was announced, in March, 2004, Zeytountsian fell down an elevator shaft in her Cyprus apartment building. A few months later, she died.
Mr. Hyde’s investigators decided while in Nicosia to have a look at the elevator shaft. On Oct. 14, a Cypriot police official showed them the way to the building. There, printed plainly on a mailbox at the entrance to the apartment block, was the name not of Mr. Sevan’s aunt, but of Benon Sevan himself. After shooting the picture shown nearby, the investigators went up to the eighth-floor apartment where the aunt had lived. They knocked, and the door opened.
There stood Benon Sevan. As one of the investigators describes it, Mr. Sevan came to the door “in shorts, no shirt, and sandals, smoking a cigar.” Apparently everyone was surprised to come thus face-to-face. Mr. Sevan was polite but did not invite them in. They chatted across the threshold. He told the congressional investigators to address all questions to his lawyers, saying, “My conscience is clear.”
The investigators turned to go, and, as one of them recounts, as they headed for the stairs, Mr. Sevan told them, “You can take the elevator. It’s fixed now.”
Glad to hear it.
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17 Comments
1. In Vino Veritas:See, here’s the thing with this Oil for Food thing: nobody cares. It’s boring. I know you really, really want this to be Watergate or something, but the average American couldn’t care less.
Ms. Rossett (and you, Mr. Simon) have sure hitched your star to a clunky wagon.
Dec 28, 2005 - 8:56 am 2. beautifulatrocities:I agree. Who gives a rat’s ass if billions of UN dollars meant for suffering Iraqis were siphoned into bribes & kickbacks – including to the UN Sec General’s own son – to prop up a criminal regime that had abrograted the Gulf War ceasefire terms in the first place? The important thing is VALERIE WHOZZIT!
Dec 28, 2005 - 10:28 am 3. Bostonian:I’m not too interested in whether Sevan’s aunt met with foul play, and I don’t see how we can possibly know the truth.
But the Oil For Food scandal itself is fascinating. If nothing else, giant financial scandals are always eyepopping. The press usually covers them with lots of detailed diagrams showing who paid off whom when & so on.
The fact that the MSM has not done this for this scandal says far, far more about the MSM than about anything else.
I will not take any news outlet seriously that has ignored Oil For Food.
Dec 28, 2005 - 10:41 am 4. Bruce Wechsler:In Vino:
Are you solely expressing your observation about less than enthusiastic major media attention to the story or do you think it a story that really ought not be covered?
Personally, I think the lack of current attention is a sad commentary on the state of humanity overall (rather than an opportunity to suggest that the brave and defiant few who continue to push the issue have hitched themselves unwisely).
Dec 28, 2005 - 10:50 am 5. tgmayra:Well, the latest Rasmussen poll (Dec. 15) shows that 54% of Americans are following the Food for Oil scandal very or somewhat closely. It also shows that 37% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the U.S., and 63% feel Annan should resign. This goes along with every other poll taken this year. They all show positive perceptions of the U.N. have nosedived throughout 2005. So I don’t think it’s true that nobody cares or nobody is paying attention.
Dec 28, 2005 - 11:20 am 6. byrd:In Vino is right. I don’t care either. Where’s the Bush bashing angle? For what reason could we possibly give a crap if we can’t shout “BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED!!” any time we want?
Dec 28, 2005 - 11:55 am 7. ras:Meet the new media, same as the old media.
–In Vino Veritas, Oct 28, 2005
Apparently not. Thx Roger.
Dec 28, 2005 - 11:59 am 8. beautifulatrocities:I Roger check his website stats, & apparently ‘In Vito Veritas’ is really Barbra Streisand
Dec 28, 2005 - 12:06 pm 9. jedrury:Vino is merely reacting to the UN way of graft; pfffft ….who cares.
If truly an American scandal, the FBI would have Benon dragged out of East Side high rise in his pajamas, his hair disheveled, his mistress, spaghetti straps down around her arm pits.
Nothing is more emblematic of the European attitude to crime than Kofi’s reaction to Jim Bone the other day. “I am appalled by you.” US criminals have to learn that the best defense starts with the European “pfffft. . . more cafe.”
Dec 28, 2005 - 12:11 pm 10. ras:Vino is merely reacting…
Yes, reactionary is a good description.
Dec 28, 2005 - 12:24 pm 11. Mark Poling:Well, for the set of people who claim the United States should have acquiesced to the will of the United Nations regarding how to deal with the threat from Iraq, the whole Oil-For-Food thing is a major embarrassment. (Forget that the Emperor has no clothes; take a look at that nasty rash!)
So yeah, all the “will of the world community” folks would really rather look the other way….
Dec 28, 2005 - 12:31 pm 12. johnnymac:Mr. Sevan should be careful. If he starts talking to investigators, there could well be another nasty elevator accident.
More seriously, I am appalled at how carefully the major news media have averted their gaze from the whole culture of corruption at the UN.
Dec 28, 2005 - 5:53 pm 13. Steven Mitchell:Bostonian: “The fact that the MSM has not done this for this scandal says far, far more about the MSM than about anything else.”
Echoed for truth and emphasis.
Dec 28, 2005 - 6:13 pm 14. Patrick Tyson:Great story and, in my view, the current highlight to the aftermath of the whole enterprise.
I was reminded of this subject while watching Transcontinental Railroad on PBS last night. One of the reasons I’ve never found OFF of more than passing interest is that there is nothing not of history about it. A desired short term result is obtained by putting a lot of money where a lot of connected individuals can get a significant share of it, which later leads to investigations, reports, a scapegoat or two, and something to obsess about for those who don’t like or can’t accept that, well, “It’s Chinatown.”
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here
Dec 28, 2005 - 8:59 pm 15. Patrick Tyson:Great story and, in my view, the current highlight to the aftermath of the whole enterprise.
I was reminded of this subject while watching Transcontinental Railroad on PBS last night. One of the reasons I’ve never found OFF of more than passing interest is that there is nothing not of history about it. A desired short term result is obtained by putting a lot of money where a lot of connected individuals can get a significant share of it, which later leads to investigations, reports, a scapegoat or two, and something to obsess about for those who don’t like or can’t accept that, well, “It’s Chinatown.”
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here
Dec 28, 2005 - 8:59 pm 16. Fenrisulven:“…for the set of people who claim the United States should have acquiesced to the will of the United Nations regarding how to deal with the threat from Iraq, the whole Oil-For-Food thing is a major embarrassment.”
It goes beyond even that, although its good to know that those Euros who stood against us were on the take – their opposition was based in greed, not principle.
But whats even more telling is that the Left and Legacy Media want us to ignore the largest financial scandal in the history of humankind. They fantasize of a world united under one government [socialist] with the UN as power broker, but ignore the typical devolution into corruption and then tyranny. Worse than the Oil for Food scandal is the coverup, the lies, the propaganda – shape of things to come if we submit to their ICC & Kyoto hoaxes.
Reform or perish.
Dec 29, 2005 - 2:32 am 17. Former CNN Watcher:In other news, the head of the UN’s elections monitoring group was sacked for sexual harassment, reminiscent of the head of the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees being forced out for the same issue earlier this year.
http://noonshadow.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-sexcapades-from-our-sophisticated.html
Dec 29, 2005 - 4:07 am