Annan's Son Took Payments Through 2004

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by Big Train
OD,

I apologize. That was one of those weird things where my post was probably being typed at the same time yours was, yet showed up after you (you hit go before me). I felt your Haillburton logic was grasping at straws and found it frustrating we weren't talking about the decade of suffering Kofi caused.

That's cool Train.

I will re-evaluate my positions when new info comes to light. It seems (and should have been obvious) that Saddam used the system to for systematic bribes. This affected the outcome of everything from UN Security Council votes to headlines of major European newspapers.

The question is: who set up a system that could be so easily corrupted? Why was it never audited? You can't get too mad at the wolf when he eats the steak you put in front of him...

[Big Train]

Originally posted by ODShowtime


The question is: who set up a system that could be so easily corrupted? Why was it never audited? You can't get too mad at the wolf when he eats the steak you put in front of him...

I heard that was the closing argument in the Michael Jackson case.....

The UN is a world body and the world body never audited itself as most of it's members were/are on the take. For a heartless conservative, it actually does piss me off that those people suffered for so long for a tool like Kofi.

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by Big Train
I heard that was the closing argument in the Michael Jackson case.....

oh my god you actually made a joke! and it was decent!

[Nickdfresh]

Update:

U.S. senator wants Annan to resign as U.N. leader
Coleman looking into alleged fraud in oil-for-food program run by U.N.
Wednesday, December 1, 2004 Posted: 3:46 PM EST (2046 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. senator leading the investigation into allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the Iraq oil-for-food program is urging U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign, saying the "massive scope of this debacle demands nothing less."

Annan declined to comment on the call, made by Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, in an opinion piece in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal.

"The decision to call for Mr. Annan's resignation does not come easily," Coleman wrote. "But I have arrived at this conclusion because the most extensive fraud in the history of the U.N. occurred on his watch.

"The world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks and under-the-table payments that occurred under the U.N.'s collective nose while Annan is in charge."

Coleman is chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has been investigating the oil-for-food program for seven months.

Coleman said he was not accusing Kofi Annan of anything "other than incompetence and mismanagement."

The program, administered by the United Nations, was designed to allow Iraq, when it was under economic sanctions after the Persian Gulf War, to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food and medicine to mitigate the sanctions' impact on the Iraqi people.

Coleman said the investigation cannot be completed with Annan at the helm of the world body.

"The bottom line is, one man was in charge and if we're going to get to the bottom of this, he's got to step back so that we can have trust and credibility and transparency in sorting out what happened," he said Wednesday in an interview on CNN's "American Morning."

Coleman's committee has charged that Saddam Hussein was able to siphon off $6.7 billion in oil revenues from the program and made an additional $13.7 billion smuggling oil in contravention of international sanctions.

Annan has appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to conduct an internal investigation into the allegations. But Coleman, while calling Volcker a "good and honest man," said that the United Nations "simply cannot root out its own corruption while Mr. Annan is in charge."

"If we're to get to the bottom of this, if there's to be any credibility, the person that was at the helm during the course of this thing cannot be the guy that Paul Volcker reports to, cannot be the guy that we go asking for help and assistance in getting the people we need to talk to," Coleman told CNN. "He needs to step back, step down for the credibility of the organization itself."

Annan's son, Kojo, received money for consulting work done in Africa for the Swiss firm Cotecna, which inspected goods entering Iraq under the oil-for-food program. On Monday, the secretary-general said he was disappointed to learn in news reports that his son remained on the Cotecna payroll until earlier this year, despite earlier U.N. statements that he had stopped receiving money from the firm back in 1998.

No formal charges of wrongdoing have been made against Kojo Annan by any of at least six separate investigations under way into the oil-for-food program. But his father conceded Monday that the latest news creates the perception "of conflict of interests and wrongdoing" at the United Nations.

Kofi Annan also said he had no personal involvement in the granting of contracts to companies that participated in the oil-for-food program.




Sen. Norm Coleman, left, is calling for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to resign.

[ODShowtime]

Coleman said he was not accusing Kofi Annan of anything "other than incompetence and mismanagement."

Yes I love it! We need some more in depth info into what was going on. Any suggestions on sources?

[Big Train]

Obviously, follow the money trail.

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by Big Train
Obviously, follow the money trail.

Well I was thinking Wall Street Journal might have a cool article at some point.

[Nickdfresh]

I believe Kofi's son was working for a Swiss company when the said infractions took place.

[ODShowtime]

I always knew it was the Swiss

[BigBadBrian]

Kofi Annan should be fired. He's in his second term anyway.