For those who adore and hang upon every resolution from the place, NOTHING ever written will convince you otherwise. Fine. I understand your intent and will never as long as I live, accept your authority to do anything about anything except ... WHO is a somewhat useful organization. UNICEF has also done some good. There are 2-3 other entities within and of the UN which provide some usefulness and assistance. Those few positive contributions do not negate my claim nor is my support for those entities contradictory given my opposition to the UN as an entity. The benefit derived from those organizations could be absorbed by other private groups without the UN hanging over every issue.
The UN is an impediment to peace. It is an accessory to murder. It is and has been complicit in the deaths of millions. If the UN was a person, they would be in prison for life for the crimes they have committed.
Beyond Rwanda - which will stare at them for eternity, there is the little matter of the corruption at the UN over oil for food.
This cannot be under stated. Between 1996 and 2003, the UN controlled how much oil Saddam could sell. It was sold, the UN collected the money, put it in a bank, and would send him a check for the amount the UN deemed necessary to take care of 25 million Iraqis - from food to health or all needs.
Therein was the corruption!
100 barrels sold for $100 a barrel = $10000.
$10,000 is placed in a bank.
The bank pays interest.
The UN does not give the interest away.
Who gets to be the bank? Where is the bank located and how was the bank selected?
FRANCE gets the bank and the son of the president of France is on the board of directors of the bank (or similar functionary position). Hmm.
Still not stressing anyone. Well, instead of 100 barrels, make it 1,000,000 barrels and then multiply it by months and by years. Saddam didn't get all that money, only that which the UN determined was needed to take care of his people.
Saddam didn't use 20% for his people. It all went to weapons. The UN knew this yet continued the process.
The UN was aware he was buying weapons and the weapons would be and were used against his people and possibly others (UN responsibility for the crimes established).
None of that is really very important - just stick with the billions in the French banks. And the millions in interest.
Who gets the interest? How much is the bank paid? How much are the individuals involved paid? And more importantly, did any of this money or the wealth generated by this corrupt scheme, play a role in French opposition to the war in Iraq? The answer is yes. The same with the UN. They would lose their cash cow. Billions at stake. Enough to do everything possible to save Saddam, or support Iraqi troops when the US invaded.
The evidence is there - go find it. Indict Kofi Annan for crimes against humanity, and his co-defendant will be the UN.
You may wish to begin with the following articles. There are 4 - none are the best nor the most comprehensive, but I did have them sitting around. Claudia Rosett has done great work on the issue of oil/food/corruption/UN.
Article 1:
April 18, 2004, 11:36 p.m.
Oil-for-Terror?There appears to be much worse news to uncover in the Oil-for-Food scandal.
By Claudia Rosett
Beyond the billions in graft, smuggling, and lavish living for Saddam Hussein that were the hallmarks of the United Nations Oil-for-Food program in Iraq, there is one more penny yet to drop.
It's time to talk about Oil-for-Terror.
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.
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Article 2:
AFTER THE WAR
The Oil-for-Food Scandal
The program was corrupt. The U.N. owes the Iraqis--and Congress--an explanation.
BY THERESE RAPHAEL
Thursday, March 11, 2004 12:01 a.m.
"If there is evidence, we would investigate it very seriously," Kofi Annan insisted last month when presented with allegations that U.N. officials knew about and may have benefited from Saddam Hussein's corruption of the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program. Fortunately, Saddam appears to have been a stickler for record-keeping.
A letter has come to The Wall Street Journal supporting allegations that among those favored by Saddam with gifts of oil was Benon Sevan, director of the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program. As detailed on this page on Feb. 9, Mr. Sevan's name appears on a list of individuals, companies and organizations that allegedly received oil allocations or vouchers from Saddam that could then be sold via middlemen for a significant markup. The list, compiled in Arabic from documents uncovered in Iraq's oil ministry, included many of Saddam's nearest and dearest from some 50 countries, including the PLO, pro-Saddam British MP George Galloway, and French politician Charles Pasqua. (Messrs. Galloway and Pasqua have denied receiving anything from Saddam.) According to the list, first published by the Iraqi daily Al Mada in January, Mr. Sevan was another beneficiary, via a company in Panama known as Africa Middle East Petroleum, Co. Ltd. (AMEP), about which we have learned quite a bit.
Mr. Sevan, through a U.N. spokesperson, has also denied the allegation. But the letter, which two separate sources familiar with its origins say was recovered from Iraqi Oil Ministry files, raises new questions about Mr. Sevan's relationship with Iraqi authorities.
The letter is dated Aug. 10, 1998, and addressed to Iraq's oil minister. It states: "Mr. Muwafaq Ayoub of the Iraqi mission in New York informed us by telephone that the above-mentioned company has been recommended by his excellency Mr. Sevan, director of the Iraqi program at the U.N., during his recent trip to Baghdad." The matter is then recommended "for your consideration and proportioning" and the letter is signed Saddam Zain Hassan, executive manager of the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), the Iraqi state-owned company responsible for negotiating oil sales with foreign buyers. A handwritten note below the signature confirms the request was granted "by his excellency the Vice President of the Republic [presumably Taha Yassin Ramadan, now in U.S. custody] in a meeting of the Command Council on the morning of Aug. 15, 1998." Scrawled below that to one side is another note stating that 1.8 million barrels were allocated to the company two days later, on Aug. 17.
A second document shown to the Journal is a chart in Arabic with the heading "Quantity of Oil Allocated and Given to Mr. Benon Sevan." The Oil-for-Food program was divided into 13 phases in all, representing roughly six-month periods from December 1996 through June 2003. Under phase four (during which the letter was written), the chart shows 1.8 million barrels as having been allocated to Mr. Sevan and 1,826 million barrels "executed." In some phases the chart indicates that an oil allocation was approved but no contract was executed for some reason, so that the total allocation awarded to Mr. Sevan in phases four through 13 is 14.2 million barrels, of which 7.291 million were actually disbursed, according to the document.
Mr. Sevan could not be reached for comment on the letter, but did issue a denial in response to our Feb. 9 article. "There is absolutely no substance to the allegations . . . that I had received oil or oil monies from the former Iraqi regime," he said through a spokesman. "Those making the allegations should come forward and provide the necessary documentary evidence." The denial notwithstanding, the documents raise enough questions to warrant an investigation by the U.N., as well as by outside investigators, including the U.S. Congress. (A U.N. spokesman said yesterday that Mr. Sevan is on extended vacation until late April, after which he retires at the month's end.)
[To read the rest of the article click on the title link]
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Article 3:
Saddam's illicit profits more than $21 billion
Deseret News (Salt Lake City),
Nov 16, 2004 by Pauline Jelinek
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Over more than a decade, Saddam Hussein's government raised more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting U.N. sanctions against Iraq including the humanitarian oil- for-food program, congressional investigators estimated Monday.
That's double the $10 billion the Iraqi president previously was alleged to have siphoned off. The earlier estimate included only the oil-for-food program. The new, higher number includes illicit profits from efforts like the illegal smuggling of oil in the years of sanctions that preceded the humanitarian program that began in 1996.
"The magnitude of fraud perpetrated by Saddam Hussein in contravention of U.N. sanctions and the oil-for-food program is staggering," Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said Monday as his Senate Government Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations began a hearing on the subject.
"This is like an onion -- we just keep uncovering more layers and more layers," he said.
New figures on Iraq's alleged surcharges, kickbacks and oil- smuggling are based on new documents obtained by the committee's investigative panel. The documents illustrate how Iraqi officials, foreign companies and sometimes politicians allegedly contrived to bring vast illicit gains to Saddam's government and how he tried to buy support abroad for a move to get the United Nations to lift sanctions, officials said.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the humanitarian program was that it allowed Saddam to decide who would get oil contracts, said Charles Duelfer, the last chief U.S. arms inspector in Iraq who also studied Saddam's efforts to subvert sanctions.
[To read the rest of the article, click on the title link]
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Article 4:
Saddam's illegal oil profits higher than estimated, U.S. says
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein's regime made billions of dollars more than originally estimated from the United Nations' Oil for Food program and smuggling, the General Accounting Office said Thursday.
Saddam reaped $10.1 billion in illegal oil revenues from 1997 to 2002, GAO Director of International Affairs and Trade Joseph Christoff told a House Financial Services subcommittee Thursday. Originally, GAO had estimated the Iraqi regime acquired only $6.6 billion.
Christoff said $5.7 billion was from oil smuggled out of Iraq and $4.4 billion came from illicit surcharges on oil sales and after sale charges on suppliers involved in the Oil for Food program.
The program, which was set up after the 1991 Gulf War, allowed Iraq to sell specific quotas of oil, with the proceeds earmarked to pay for food and medicine for the Iraqi people. Other oil sales were barred under a U.N. embargo.
[to read the rest of the article, click the title link]
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The UN has damned itself more times than one can count, although everytime we begin counting, the UN redefines what counting is and everytime we get to 10 or 12, the UN determines we should count by 10s and every ten would be equal to 1. So they say that they have only screwed up once by their count. Absurd.
USELESS NATIONS
UN
KOFI
OIL
IRAQ
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