Article

2004-10-13 Iraq-Jordan

Bandits in Iraq's 'oil for food' deal By William Safire

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Posted by Mark Espinola 2004-10-13 8:30:39 PM|| || Front Page|| [12 views since 2007-05-07] Top

Those stupid Americans have no idea how much money we made lolol)

Who is laughing now ?

Posted by Mark Espinola 2004-10-13 8:38:31 PM|| 2004-10-13 8:38:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]

Posted by Cromorong Chomble7321 TROLL 2004-10-13 8:48:50 PM|| 2004-10-13 8:48:50 PM|| Front Page Top

#3
Mr Annanâs sonâs relationship with Cotecna, the UNâs see-no-evil âmonitorâ

Kofi Jr left his Contecna job 13 months before Contecna won the UN's contract to monitor the food-for-oil program. Cotecna won the contract by submitting the lowest bid.

No wrongdoing by Cotecna or Kofi Jr (or Kofi Sr) has been proved or even detailed. The insinuations about these relationships are just a smear.
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Posted by Mike Sylwester 2004-10-13 9:42:29 PM|| 2004-10-13 9:42:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Boris is an anti-American Serb who ought to be deported immediately to Zagreb--and Mr Anti-Censorship thinks he should be allowed to shit on others' private property. However, he has provided incalculable laughter to Rantburgers with his simpleminded "theories."

Posted by BMN 2004-10-13 10:13:34 PM|| 2004-10-13 10:13:34 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 To 'Cromorong Chomble7321' otherwise known as The Spin Schmuck.

The truth hurts concerning the French oil and cash, but more incredible revolations concerning the phoney coverup reasons why Jacques Chirac & Dominique de Villepin refused to assist in the overthrown of Saddam & his Ba'athist goons. The reason was $$$$$$$$$... sack fulls!

Let us continue opening this can of Frogs.

Posted by Mark Espinola 2004-10-13 10:14:13 PM|| 2004-10-13 10:14:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 IIRC, Steven DenBeste had this possibility of bribes nailed. He was looking at why France was so adamant in their threat and use of their UNSC veto for the resolution. Steven looked at all the possibilities with his logic and things pointed to France and Co on the take.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2004-10-13 10:43:29 PM|| 2004-10-13 10:43:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Turtle Bayâs Carnival of Corruption
A spokesman in Kofi Annan's office has now offered in Kojo's defense that Kojo was no longer in the pay of Cotecna on the day the company won the U.N. contract. But the timing was close: Kojo had resigned from a consulting job for Cotecna earlier that same month. According to Annan's spokesman, Kojo held a staff job at Cotecna in a junior position from December 1995 through February 1998. Just two months later, Kojo reappeared on Cotecna's payroll as a consultant, via a firm called Sutton Investments, from April 1998 to December 1998, resigning from that consultancy just before Cotecna clinched the U.N. contract on December 31, 1998.

It might all be mere coincidence. Kojo's recent statements, relayed to me last Friday by Kofi Annan's U.N. office, convey that Kojo's consulting work for Cotecna was limited to projects in Nigeria and Ghana, unrelated to Oil-for-Food. But given the U.N.'s tendency to take several months to process contracts, and considering that the U.N. had to review several competing bids, the dates here suggest that Kojo resigned from Cotecna's staff only to return as a consultant during precisely the period in which Cotecna would most likely have been assembling and submitting its bid for the U.N. job, and the U.N. Secretariat would have been reviewing the bids. That certainly warrants attention by an independent panel.

Posted by ed 2004-10-13 10:45:21 PM|| 2004-10-13 10:45:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#8
Will you be satisfied, Ed, if an independent panel shows no wrongdoing -- or will that just be more proof of corruption?

Kojo worked in a company that did consulting work for Cotecna. So what? Here's some questions that ought to be answered:

What exactly was Kojo Annan's position in Cotecna when he worked in the company, 13 months before the UN contract? Did his work in that position have anything to do with the UN contract?

What exactly was Kojo Annan's position in the consulting firm? Did his position there have anything to do with the UN contract?

What exactly did the consulting firm do for Cotecna? Did the consulting have anything at all to do with the UN contract?

What exactly did Cotecna do wrong in performing its UN contract? Does any such wrongdoing have anything at all to do with Kojo Annan?

Does Kojo Annan's relationships with Cotecna and with the consulting firm have anything to do with Kofi Annan? Did Kojo Annan profit personally from the relationship? Did Kofi Anna profit?

So far, this all looks like nothing but a baseless but vicious smear of the Annans. There is absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Annans AT ALL!
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Posted by Mike Sylwester 2004-10-13 11:06:18 PM|| 2004-10-13 11:06:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 BMN, this "private property" is a snake pit of hate that incites violence against Americans on US soil, and we salute anyone who stands up against it.

Posted by Glons Thalet1575 2004-10-13 11:09:05 PM|| 2004-10-13 11:09:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 All of this doesn't even mention the overt bribery that took place in late 2002: the massive, multi-billion $$$ sweetheart oil deals Saddam signed with France and Russia's national champions, TotalFinaElf and LUKoil.

TotalFinaElf's deal was for exclusive rights to develop the W Qurna oilfields that contain 1/3 of all of Iraq's proven reserves, or 20 BILLION BARRELS!

Of course, no oil company, certainly not TFE, is large enough to handle such a project by itself, and certainly a consortium would have been formed, but this is by any measure the biggest deal of the last twenty years. I'm not an oil analyst but if one can expect a 5% return on sales over the life of the deal, at an average price of, oh, let's say $30 per barrel this deal equates to 5% X $30/bbl X 20B bbl = $30 billion.

A $30 billion deal for a nation with only a $1.5 trillion dollar economy?! That's breathtaking. OF COURSE France was bribed by Saddam. Ditto for LUKoil's nation (and Russia's economy is about 1/4 the size of France's). Talk about a "coalition of the bribed"!

France and Russia were determined to spring Saddam from the containment box that sanctions (plus no-fly zones and, for a while, inspections) had put him in. In short, by the time TotalFinaElf signed the W Qurna deal (Nov '02), sanctions had collapsed.

In other words, containment too was collapsing, leaving the only remaining alternatives as a) doing business with Saddam (the oilmen's preferred option); and b) overthrowing him by force. Outrageous that this, the crucial angle of the story, is being buried by the MSM.

Posted by lex 2004-10-14 1:11:12 AM|| 2004-10-14 1:11:12 AM|| Front Page Top

#11 Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]

Posted by Cromorong Chomble7321 2004-10-13 8:48:50 PM|| 2004-10-13 8:48:50 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]

Posted by Cromorong Chomble7321 2004-10-13 8:45:48 PM|| 2004-10-13 8:45:48 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]

Posted by Cromorong Chomble7321 2004-10-13 8:45:48 PM|| 2004-10-13 8:45:48 PM|| Front Page Top

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