Annan Responds to Iraq Corruption Charges

[RoyGBiv]

Annan Responds to Iraq Corruption Charges
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) hit back Wednesday at allegations of corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program, saying the world body had no control over Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s oil smuggling and was being blamed unfairly.

Annan pointed out that all members of the U.N. Security Council were on the committee overseeing the program, yet none had come forward and said "we had a role." Instead, Annan said, all accusations of wrongdoing were being leveled at the U.N. Secretariat which he heads.

"Be that as it may, these allegations are doing damage, and we need to face them sternly and do whatever we can to correct them," he said. "And we are beginning to put out quite a lot of information which I hope will correct some of the misinformation that has been put out."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=721&e=7&u=/ap/20040429/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_corruption

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[KoKo]

2. Including the US and GB and "journalists" according to the article.

On the $5.7 billion that the GAO estimates Saddam pocketed through smuggling, Annan said "there was no way the U.N. could have stopped it" but he suggested the United States and Britain could have.

"We had no mandate to stop oil smuggling," he said. "There was a maritime task force that was supposed to do that. They (the Iraqis) were driving the trucks through northern Iraq to Turkey. The U.S. and the British had planes in the air. We were not there. Why is this all being dumped on the U.N.?"

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. Bush and Blair must share in the blame too!

[DoBotherMe]

4. The accusation is

just a deflection away from the real culprits and the benefactors of the "$5.7 billion that the GAO estimates Saddam pocketed through smuggling, Annan said "there was no way the U.N. could have stopped it" but he suggested the United States and Britain could have.


"We had no mandate to stop oil smuggling," he said. "There was a maritime task force that was supposed to do that. They (the Iraqis) were driving the trucks through northern Iraq to Turkey. The U.S. and the British had planes in the air. We were not there. Why is this all being dumped on the U.N.?"

Dana ; )

[sundancekid]

5. the whole story sure seems to have a familiar odor to it

... no doubt the issue needs investigating; BUT, is it just my tinfoil that sees the stylistic choices of "dumping on some fall guy" and "redefining somebody's image for revisionist history" to be the SOP of how neo-cons go about EVERYTHING they wish to smear??? And thus, putting the party they offend on a CONSTANT defensive. Do we really think that BushCo wants the UN plan for Iraq on June 30 to succeed?
I seem to still smell that stink.
:tinfoilhat:

[Frances]

6. If Fox news focuses everyone on UN corruption, then maybe

people will forget about Halliburton's corruption in Iraq