May 7, 2004

UNSCAM - Oil for Food

Great link from Ian S. at Inoperable Terran regarding the ongoing Congressional Investigation into the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal. He links to this article in the N.Y. Post: bq. The United Nations has sent a stern letter to an important witness in the Iraq oil-for-food investigation, demanding that he not cooperate with congressional probes of the scandal, The Post has learned. bq. The letter - in the name of oil-for-food program chief Benon Sevan - was sent to a U.N. consultant after it was learned he had been talking to congressional investigators about allegations of wholesale corruption, officials said last night. bq. "This particular individual is someone we have been in contact with for more than a month," said an investigator. "This letter has chilled his willingness to cooperate with the congressional investigation. This individual also appears to be genuinely frightened by the implications inherent in the letter." But of course, this is probably just one isolated incident... bq. It is the third letter to surface this week from Sevan's office to companies that did business with the oil-for-food program that invoked confidentiality agreements and demanded that they not release documents to outside investigators. And was it really Benon Sevan who was sending these letters out? bq. The United Nations has said Sevan, who is on vacation pending retirement, was not the author of the letters. They were drawn up by U.N. lawyers and sent out on his stationery. Still, if you hold an office, you should be responsible for anything that comes from that office. He may be on vacation pending retirement but is he communicating with his office. Why am I not surprised... Posted by DaveH at May 7, 2004 11:20 AM