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International-UN-NGOs

Kofi Annan's role in oil-for-food scandal

2004-10-24

Kofi Annan's involvement in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal is to be investigated after it emerged the United Nations Secretary-General had a hand in some of the most controversial aspects of the discredited humanitarian program. Mr Annan, 66, the Ghanaian-born head of the UN and Nobel peace prize winner who is due to retire in 2006, is "co-operating" with the independent commission set up to look into the scandal. He has agreed to waive his diplomatic immunity and face legal action if any wrongdoing is uncovered.

Whistleblowers and leaked documents have revealed Mr Annan played a key role in the design and operation of the scheme. Although there is no suggestion he personally benefited from the program, his actions may have helped others, including Saddam Hussein, to defraud the oil-for-food scheme. Set up by the UN in 1995, the scheme allowed Saddam to sell controlled amounts of oil to buy humanitarian supplies. However, it is now alleged that the scheme was abused by the Iraqi dictator to "buy" political influence around the world while pocketing billions of dollars. Iraqi government adviser Claude Hankes-Drielsma said yesterday: "The Secretary-General carries the ultimate responsibility for the scheme and the problems with it were repeatedly drawn to his attention, yet he chose to do nothing. Everyone who allowed this scheme to operate in the way it did is guilty, irrespective of whether they personally benefited."

Mr Annan's involvement in the scheme began more than a decade ago when he was under-secretary-general of the UN and visited Baghdad to "alleviate the humanitarian situation" -- leading to the oil-for-food scheme being established. Throughout his tenure, Mr Annan repeatedly argued for the scope and size of the program to be expanded. Controversially, when the scheme was established, Saddam was allowed to determine who could trade Iraqi oil. This allowed him to "allocate" oil supplies to allies at knockdown prices -- the root cause of the subsequent scandal. After becoming Secretary-General in 1997, Mr Annan continued his close involvement with the scheme. Although it was technically overseen by the UN Security Council, its day-to-day operations were under the jurisdiction of Mr Annan. The man Mr Annan hired to run the program, Benon Sevan, who reported directly to him, is also under investigation for allegedly making more than $US1million ($1.34million) from selling Iraqi oil. He denies the accusations.

Posted by:Mark Espinola

#4
Joshua Micah Marshall: .... Francis Brooke, Ahmed Chalabi's long-time Washington handler, lobbyist and press maven, is the subject of an arrest warrant in Iraq. But he's absconded, if that's the right word, back to Washington.

I don't know quite what to make of this. The charge seems to be that he obstructed the raid on Chalabi's INC headquarters in some fashion. But it's not clear from the article that he did anything more than give the Iraqi police executing the warrant some grief. Nor is it clear, from the context, why that should be a crime.

.... the Washington Post has some follow-up on Brooke's warrant. The real nugget, however, is this passage tucked down at the bottom of the article ...

----- [quote]
Last night, it emerged that on the same day as the raid, computer files belonging to the British consultant investigating the oil-for-food scandal were destroyed by hackers and a back-up databank in his Baghdad office wiped out. Claude Hankes Drielsma, a British businessman and long-time acquaintance of Mr Chalabi, accused America and Britain of mounting a "dirty tricks" campaign to obstruct his inquiry. "I think you have to expect this to happen with events of the magnitude of those we are dealing with," he said.

His report on oil-for-food, written for the international accounting company KPMG, was due to be released in three weeks but its publication has been delayed for at least three months, he said. "This report would have been even more damning than anticipated. This would not sit comfortably with the political agenda in Washington or London. I believe that what Washington wants is to keep the lid on things until after the presidential election. The White House believes that the report will be detrimental to President Bush's re-election campaign.
[unquote] ------

... the charges relating to the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq all stem from documents which Ahmed Chalabi says he has and says are valid, but which none but his political associates have been allowed to see. Hankes Drielsma is a longtime Chalabi crony from the UK who Chalabi brought in to run his own investigation of the documents. .... In any case, basing an international scandal on documents which Ahmed Chalabi assures you he has but for some reason won't show you would seem a rather dubious proposition in the first place. But, if I read that passage from the Telegraph article correctly, Hankes Drielsma seems to be saying, in essence, that both his hard-drives exploded, that for some inexplicable reason it's America's fault, that the report was going to be incredibly damning, but now all the data is gone so it's going to be months, if not longer, till he can pull the evidence back together.

Am I missing something, or is this the dog ate my homework?
.

Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-10-24 11:31:35 PM

#3
Mr Claude Hankes-Drielsma has been Chairman of the Windsor Leadership Trust since 1998. He is currently advisor to Iraq, Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Trustee to St Georgeâs House, Windsor Castle.

Former appointments include: Director for Robert Fleming & Co Ltd and Chairman of the Management Committee of PriceWaterhouse & Partners.

Claude Hankes-Drielsma is an Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and St Georgeâs College, Windsor Castle. He is also Chairman of the Support Group, Greek and Roman Department at the British Museum and a Patron of the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is a member of Getty Villa Council, Los Angeles.

===================

Electric Hermit: The man who started the whole thing is Claude Hankes-Drielsma -- a rather dubious character and close ally of the Bush regime's former favourite to replace Saddam Hussein as dictator, Ahmed Chalabi. On 27 May, 2004 Hankes-Drielsma was interviewed for the BBC by Tim Sebastian. From the outset it is clear that there is nothing whatever to substantiate the allegations that have been made against the UN. Which is not to say there won't be when the official investigation is concluded. But the man who is making the allegations is not someone I would trust. Judge for yourself.
.

Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-10-24 11:17:34 PM

#2 Not only is his middle name of "Atta" suppressed in the UN websites, so is his religion. Wiki however mentioned them, I believe. Why? This ugly man should ne nicely investigated.

Posted by: wits0 2004-10-24 10:15:56 PM

#1 Are Kofi Annan and Benon Sevan Moslems?

Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-10-24 7:42:14 PM

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