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| International-UN-NGOs | |
| U.N. Procurement Scandal: Ties to Saddam and Al Qaeda | |
| 2005-10-22 | |
| The scandal engulfing the United Nations Procurement Department now appears to be bottomless. It also shows signs of growing more sinister, especially where it involves a mysterious private company called IHC Services, which did big business with the procurement department until it was removed from U.N. rosters in June. New details of how dark the scandal could prove to be have emerged from the private sale of IHC on June 3, 2005, just as the procurement scandal was about to break. It now appears that while doing business with the U.N., IHC had links both to Saddam Hussein’s old sanctions-busting networks, and to a Liechtenstein-based businessman, Engelbert Schreiber, Jr., known among other things for his ties to a figure designated by the U.N. itself as a financier of Al Qaeda . Registered in New York State, with offices in New York City and Milan, IHC has been involved in possibly hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of business with the U.N. since the mid-1990s, serving both as a direct supplier and as a go-between for a wide variety of other contractors. This work has included IHC’s signing or helping to broker contracts for supplies ranging from portable generators to rations for U.N. peacekeeping troops in such trouble spots as West Africa and the Middle East. IHC came under public scrutiny this summer, after FOX News broke the story on June 20 that IHC had maintained especially close ties with Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian official in the U.N. procurement department, who while handling an IHC contract with the U.N. had obtained a job for his son with the company, and had also been channeling funds to a secret offshore bank account.
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| Posted by:lotp |
| #6 Drop the seven degrees of separation, all the middle east terrorists have a two degree separation from Saddam. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-10-22 20:24 |
| #5 Assuming the Pulitzer hasn't gone the way of the Tranzi Moonbat of the Month Award that the Nobel has become, and there's serious debate suggesting it already has, she sure as hell deserves it. Simply outstanding work - she and a very few others, such as Michael Yon - another deserving of such recognition, bear the entire weight of the investigative tradition of the fourth estate. She an her peers are so far apart and above the rest that we really should come up with a definitive moniker for the massive ranks of failed, agenda-driving, liars currently representing the MSM. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-10-22 20:17 |
| #4 Does Claudia Rossett have a Pulitzer prize yet? |
| Posted by: ryuge 2005-10-22 20:06 |
| #3 Claudia Rossett. |
| Posted by: Hupanter Greager3894 2005-10-22 15:02 |
| #2 antiqities - go away - none of your biz.... People have a right to own stuff... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-10-22 14:51 |
| #1 The Nov/Dec Biblical Archaeology Review has an article about Marine Colonel Bogdanos' recovery of looted Iraqi artifacts funding the insurgency. He is a prosecutor in private life in NY, and even had some loot delivered to him there. The museum is still missing priceless antiquities from thousands of years ago but some were recovered, stored in the Central Bank of Iraq's vaults. Obviously stolen by Baathists who knew what they were doing, some antiquities have been tracked to New York, Italy, the UK, and Jordan. "The wealthy Madison Avenue and Bond Street dealers who believe they are engaged in benign criminal activity are actually often financing weapons smuggling. In the last year, some of that money has also funded the insurgency in Iraq. Second, many in the mainstream art community are complicit in antiqities smuggling, often making the sale before the theft." The article also says the smugglers make no distinction between the goods, whether weapons, antiquities, or currency and explain why many countries are not interested in stopping this, as open borders are profitable borders. Others generate fees from customs and do not want to impose inspection fees or hinder the sheer volume of trade through international ports and free-trade zones. Sniffer dogs and security devices do not detect ancient alabaster and other gemstones, either. All this connects Iraqi thugs and wealthy collectors further. Hats off to FOX for their own exclusive investigation, and hope they keep at it, as they are doing the world a humonguous favor in tracking down these crooks that have hidden behind diplomatic immunity and passed through customs unchecked. |
| Posted by: Danielle 2005-10-22 10:49 |