November 26, 2004

Kofi's son and his link to Oil For Food

Claudia Rosett has another article up at The New York Sun and it's a doozy: bq. Annan's Son Took Payments Through 2004 One of the next big chapters in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal will involve the family of the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, whose son turns out to have been receiving payments as recently as early this year from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program. bq. The secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, was previously reported to have worked for a Swiss-based company called Cotecna Inspection Services SA, which from 1998-2003 held a lucrative contract with the U.N. to monitor goods arriving in Saddam Hussein's Iraq under the oil-for-food program. But investigators are now looking into new information suggesting that the younger Annan received far more money over a much longer period, even after his compensation from Cotecna had reportedly ended. bq. The importance of this story involves not only undisclosed conflicts of interest, but the question of the role of the secretary-general himself, at a time when talk is starting to be heard around the U.N. that it is time for him to resign, and the staff labor union is in open rebellion against "senior management." bq. "What other bombshells are out there being hidden from the public and U.N. member governments?" asked an investigator on Rep. Henry Hyde's International Relations Committee, which has held hearings on oil-for-food. Really... There is more. This nest of corruption needs to be cleaned out now if it intends to retain any shred of credibility. Some of the smaller agencies associated with the U.N. are doing good work but the top leadership is amoral and indifferent to the real problems of the smaller nations. Why do you think they dragged their feet on going into Iraq. Posted by DaveH at November 26, 2004 6:13 PM