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| International-UN-NGOs |
| If the UN isn’t a terrorist org, I don’t know what is |
| 2004-03-29 |
| Via Lucianne: 3,000 U.N STAFFERS PROBED March 29, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - Investigators probing the United Nations’ Iraq oil-for-food program are taking a close look at allegations the scandal-plagued initiative was filled with spies, terrorists and do-nothing bureaucrats earning exorbitant salaries. The activities of the estimated 3,000 U.N. staffers who were working on the $100 billion humanitarian aid program are emerging as a central focus of the investigations into the mushrooming scandal. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a letter to the U.N. Security Council seeking backing for an independent investigation of the kickback/bribery scandal, said he wants the probe to focus, in part, on whether the U.N. staffers violated procedures established for approving and monitoring contracts and whether U.N. personnel engaged "in any illicit or corrupt activities." So far, the only U.N. figure to be named publicly in the scandal is Benon Sevon, the man in charge of the oil-for-food program. He was on a list of 270 names - published in a Baghdad newspaper - of international politicians and businessmen who were receiving vouchers from Iraq to buy oil at below-market prices so it could be resold at substantial profits. Sevon has denied the charge, but has been put on ice - purportedly "on vacation" - until the end of the month, when he is due to retire. But new questions have surfaced about the presence on the oil-for-food program’s administrative staff of a bureaucrat who was widely known to be an undercover agent for the intelligence service of France, a country that had huge financial interests in the program. Kurdish officials in northern Iraq also made repeated complaints about the fact that Iraq, with U.N. approval, kept Americans, Britons and Scandinavians off the staff that administered the 13 percent of the oil-for-food proceeds earmarked for Kurdish provinces. Only workers from countries perceived to be friendly to Iraq were approved. Howard Ziad, the Kurdish representative to the United Nations, told The Post that Kurdish authorities made repeated complaints to U.N. higher-ups that the staff assigned to his region was riddled with spies working for Iraqi intelligence. In July 2001, Kurdish security forces arrested a Tunisian U.N. employee with a car full of explosives meant for a terror bombing in Erbil. He was held for four months until the United Nations quietly negotiated his release, Ziad said. Geez, bang the meter on the ground, rub the batteries to get more juice and still nothing! |
| Posted by:Anonymous2U |
| #4 In July 2001, Kurdish security forces arrested a Tunisian U.N. employee with a car full of explosives meant for a terror bombing in Erbil. He was held for four months until the United Nations quietly negotiated his release, Ziad said. Uh huh. Terrorist organization, indeed. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-03-29 2:26:54 PM |
| #3 3,000 U.N STAFFERS PROBED Sounds painful. |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-03-29 11:20:18 AM |
| #2 .com you are too generous. Hopefully when Bush gets re-elected and Republicans control both houses the US issues an ultimatum. Reform or we withdraw and set up an alternative which controlled by democracies. Hopefully they choose option 2. Watching the Left tie themselves in knots over this would be serious fun. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-03-29 5:03:46 AM |
| #1 Kofi Annan and the top 2 (or 75) layers of the UN's employees should be fired. The organization is far worse than just imcompetent and grossly inefficient, it will very soon be proven to be hopelessly and terminally corrupt. Can I get a "f**kin Duh" brothers and sisters? If the US Congress gets its teeth into this issue, as it appears it must after the damning GAO report, the UN is toast. Finally. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-03-29 4:43:26 AM |