The Oil-for-Food Scandal – the Canadian Connection

[JBG]

For a related topic concerning a skunk at a recent UN garden party in Montreal <b><a href="http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=49422"target="_blank">check this link out</a><b>.

[styky]

http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewt ... 096#577096


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http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgu ... l#comments

Covering the bases
Power Corp Proxy Michael Ignatieff is off to a rocky start as the National Post reports: Ignatieff 'coronation' protested in riding. Recall Adam Daifallah's June 29 post on this site. I noted in comments that Ignatieff is an old friend of the Rae family, having gone to university with Bob Rae and even organized pro-China seminars with him in the 1960s. Bob Rae is the brother of John Rae, who sits on Power Corp's board of directors. (In testimony at the Gomery Commission, you will recall Benoit Corbeil testified that when the Liberal Party in Quebec was in dire financial straits, he would call up John Rae at Power Corp and get a quick loan guarantee.)

btw check out the bottom paragraph of this story in Saturday's Globe and Mail:.

Meanwhile, a long-time friend of Mr. Ignatieff, former NDP Ontario premier Bob Rae, announced he would not run. The initial plan was to have Mr. Rae run in Oshawa, Ont.

On Saturday, it was noted on this site by Paul Tuns that Conservative Peter MacKay was seen with Sophie Desmarais, daughter of Power Corp head Paul Desmarais. I wouldn't be too hard on Peter. In my view, this is just Power Corp trying to cover all the bases, as they did with Mulroney whose association with Paul Desmarais dated back to the early 1970s. These guys are Canada's kingmakers, having put Pierre Trudeau in office. No doubt MacKay is going to get a lot of "What are you doing with those Luddites, you're so much better and smarter than they are, and pretty good looking to boot. You should be leader..." etc.

Power Corp probably convinced Ignatieff to run with the with that hoary old Plato saying that Pierre Trudeau would often repeat ""One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." Always good to appeal to the ego.

Addendum: It has been put to me by China watchers in the United States that one of the reasons Power Corp may dread a Harper victory is because of the potential he might appoint Conservative foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day as foreign affairs minister. They tell me that though Day may get ridiculed in this country, apparently the opinion of him in the Chinese dissident community abroad is very high because of his concern for human rights in Communist China. Power Corp has of course spent years kissing Communist Chinese butt and was rewarded for this by being allowed to purchase a substantial interest in CITIC. See "Puppets of Beijing”

Posted by Kevin Steel on November 28, 2005 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
_________________

[rbacon]

The Desmarais family of Canada and the Frere family of Belgium effectively control Imerys through Pargesa Holding SA. The families have been linked to more than a few scandals in recent years and have a global reach.

Iraq and Oil
1. The New York branch of the Banque Nationale de Paris-Paribas, or BNP Paribas, was the sole bank for administering the $64 billion U.N. Oil for Food program and did not have adequate checks on whether money was being funneled to terrorists, a House International Relations Committee probe found in November 2004.

BNP Paribas was the bank chosen for the Oil for Food money to flow through, for which the bank would receive tens of millions of dollars, essentially for cutting checks. BNP Paribas has a wealth management arm, called Pargesa (Paribas-Geneve S.A.). Pargesa was formed in Switzerland, when Mitterand nationalized Paribas in the early 80’s, and when Paribas was re-privatized by Chirac, in the late 80’s, the two principal officers of Paribas (Frere and Desmarais) joined the board of Pargesa.

"We have uncovered what appears to be serious malfeasance on an international scale," said Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and chairman of the committee. "There are indications that the bank may have been noncompliant in administering the oil-for-food program. If true, these possible banking lapses may have facilitated Saddam Hussein's manipulation and corruption of the program." Investigators now think Saddam was able to skim off $10 billion or more during the period from secret oil sales and kickbacks on oil-for-food contracts.

Committee investigators uncovered evidence that BNP Paribas made payments without proof that goods were delivered and sanctioned payments to third parties not identified as authorized recipients, Mr. Hyde said at the hearing.

Mr. Hyde said investigators think the bank "facilitated improper payments to companies that were shipping illegal goods to Iraq." Investigators estimate that the bank received more than $700 million in fees under the U.N. program that began in 1996 and ended after the ouster of Saddam in March 2003.

2. TotalFinaElf

The Western oil company with the closest ties to the late Saddam is France's TotalFinaElf. Paul Desmarais Jr., sits on the Total board. A seperate investigation into corruption at TotalFinaElf has been going on for over eight years. French Magistrates have filed a report that names close to 40 executives, politicians and middlemen that were part of a network that took nearly three billion francs in kickbacks from Elf in the early 1990s.

* Vancouver Olympics Scandal

Many individuals are accused of conflicts of interest in relation to the 2010 Olympic Bid. Reports indicate that there may be intimate connections between special interests and the mega projects associated with the Games. Andre Desmarais’ wife, France Chretien, the daughter of former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, is on the Bid Committee

* China Connections

Power Corporation of Canada is a partner with Li Ka-shing in CITIC Pacific Limited (China's largest diversified Hong Kong-traded company. Its activities are concentrated in four main areas: infrastructure, trading and distribution, real estate and industrial manufacturing). Andre Desmarais is also a Director of CITIC Pacific Ltd.

In addition, Andre Desmarais is Honorary Chairman of the Canada China Business Council. His father, Paul Desmarais Sr. is the group’s founding Chairman. Member of the International Advisory Council of CITIC. Member of the Hong Kong Chief Executive's Council of International Advisers (The CECIA advises the Chief Executive from an international perspective on strategic issues pertinent to the long-term development of Hong Kong).

* Pargesa Holding S.A

Established in 1990 by Albert Frere and Paul Desmarais, this business partnership now controls or influences dozens of industrial, financial and media companies that operate globally and have assets of more than $100-billion. Desmarais and Frere decided to extend their 11-year partnership agreement, originally set to expire in 2001, to 2014.

Interests include Imerys, the French-based industrial conglomerate; Groupe Bruxelles-Lambert, the Belgium-based banking and investment group; TotalFinaElf, the French-based oil and petrochemicals group (it absorbed Belgium's PetroFina); Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, the water utility.

The Frere-Desmarais alliance has also formed a partnership arrangement with Bertelsmann, the big German-based media group. This links it in some ventures with British-based media giant Pearson.

Desmarais Family

Paul Desmarais has allowed his sons Paul Jr. and Andre to takeover Power Corporation Holding Company as Co-CEO’s, (although he remains on the Board). Power is the largest non-bank financial conglomerate in Canada.

Powers Corporation’s New Holdings:

In 2003 Power used its treasury for $800 million to buy 21.3 million Great-West Lifeco shares in a move to help the Winnipeg company finance its $7.3-billion friendly bid to acquire Canada Life. Such a purchase won't hurt the Montreal financial giant much; at the time it had $2.7 billion in cash available for such opportunities.

Power Financial also owns Canada's largest mutual fund company, Investors Group, as well as Mackenzie Financial and London Life. Investors Group paid $2.8 billion for 100% ownership of Canadian rival Mackenzie Financial Corp. in January 2001.

Power Financial Corp.'s Great-West Lifeco Inc. life and health insurance unit, its biggest profitmaker, is actively scouting takeovers in the U.S., This would follow up Great-West's three recent U.S. acquisitions in the same field,' 'We may later take part in further Canadian insurance industry consolidation, but the pressure now is to lower costs in a fiercely competitive market.

Power Financial owns 70.4% of Great-West and 56.0% of Investors' Group Inc., both publicly traded. Great-West, which in turn owns 100% of London Life Insurance Co., is Canada's biggest life and health insurer and Investors is the biggest mutual fund distributor and a big mortgage market player.

Analysts say Power is seeking an alliance for its main print unit, Montreal's La Presse. It recently sold its Ontario and Quebec broadcasting units to Corus Entertainment Inc., but has not said whether it is interested in newspapers put on the block by Thomson Corp. and Hollinger Inc.
Frere Family:

Baron Albert Frere of Belgium, $1.6 billion estimated wealth, Age: 73. Former scrap iron worker, now one of Europe's most influential (yet low-profile) financiers. Through Geneva-listed company Pargesa, he's the largest shareholder in French utilities giant Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, and partners with Germany's Bertelsmann in TV and radio empire CLT-UFA. What's new: Sold Belgian insurer Royale Belge stake to AXA-UAP, reaping a reported $465 million. Time off: Bought a Bordeaux vineyard with French pal Bernard Arnault.

"My son, Gerald, aged 53 years, has worked at my side since 1972 - he is more and more present in the important files and occupies key posts," Frere said. Gerald’s presence on many Pargesa Holdings as a Director or Executive has increased.

Frere said his son is "surrounded and supported" by a team of faithful, competent, and dynamic colleagues, such as Cie Nationale a Portefeuille SA managing director and Electrafina SA managing director Thierry de Rudder (Imerys Director).

Compagnie Nationale a Portefeuille S.A. New Holdings:

Groupe Bruxelles Lambert owns 25.1% of the German media group Bertelsmann. The concept is to create a dominant media group in Europe. Pargesa has an equity interest of 54.6% in GBL. GBL acquired the stake in exchange for 30% of broadcaster RTL in 2001. GBL has the right to sell the stake, or float it in an IPO, in 2005. GBL also owns 7.2% of Suez, 3.6% of TotalFinaElf, and 26.4% of Imerys.

The new European TV, radio and Internet powerhouse with projected annual revenues of $6-billion, put together with the Desmarais family's Belgian partner Albert Frere, Germany's Bertlesmann AG and Britain's Pearson PLC, has designs on North America. 'It's entirely Europe-oriented,' he said.

Frere bought a majority stake in the British retailer Joseph for an initial investment of $48.9 million (47 million euros).

Frere, linked up with Bernard Arnault of LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy to buy Chateau Cheval Blanc, bought the 54 percent stake in Joseph through his private holding group Compagnie Nationale a Portefeuille in Brussels. The total purchase price eventually could reach $ 111.3 million (107 million euros) depending on Joseph's performance, Frere said in a statement.

[styky]

I don't know who owns this blog but the info is pretty decent

http://acepilots.com/unscam/archives/cat_canada.html

[styky]

Congressional report calls for investigation of Maurice Strong's role in Oil-for-Food scandal
By Judi McLeod
Friday, December 9, 2005

A draft congressional report has called for the investigation of Canadian Maurice Strong’s role in the United Nations Oil-for-Food program.

Page 35 of the 54-page report, written by Republicans on a House International Relations subcommittee states: "Maurice Strong should be examined for his role in the OFFP."

Strong is a long-time advisor to both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

On Sept. 7, 2005 it was revealed by the Independent Inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal that Strong had received a $1-million cheque from North Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park for the acquisition of shares in Cordex Petroleum Inc.–a Maurice Strong company.

Cordex Petroleum was also on the listing of assets of Paul Martin in his declaration of assets while he was Minister of Finance.

The $1-million, invested in the now defunct Cordex by Tongsun Park, originated from the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Following the path of the Saddam-to-Park-to-Cordex money trail tells a tawdry tale.

Park, allegedly an influence peddler for Saddam Hussein, reportedly took cash in a plastic bag to a Jordanian bank where he deposited it before writing "Mr. M. Strong" on a cheque in the amount of $988,885. The money was used by Strong to purchase a stake in Cordex Petroleum Inc., which was run by Strong’s son, Fred.

Cordex’s main investments were in oil properties in Chile and Argentina. In Argentina, the company was involved in a joint venture with Enron until it went bankrupt.

Strong maintains he knows nothing of the origin of the funds, and claims he has no ties to Oil-for-Food.

Strong admitted that he sometimes took advice from Park in his job as the UN special envoy in North Korea.

On July 6, 2004 Strong had requested a Canadian contribution of $400,000 over two years for a $2.2-million trust fund to support his special envoy activities in North Korea.

In July 2005, Strong’s contract with the UN as Special Envoy to North Korea was not renewed, and he seems to have since faded from public.

Canadian members of parliament voted against investigating whether Canada had any role in the UN Oil-for-Food scandal.

On April 21, 2005, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said, "We note Mr. Strong’s very public statements about the nature of his dealings with Tongsun Park which he notes were related to Mr. Strong’s work in North Korea for the United Nations secretary general."

Conservative Foreign Affairs critic Stockwell Day asked, "Can the Prime Minister assure us that Canadians are not involved in the scandal surrounding the UN’s oil for food program, yes or no?"

Pettigrew responded: "Mr. Speaker, clearly the answer is no, they are not, We have noted the public statements by Mr. Strong concerning the nature of his dealings with Tongsun Park, in which he indicated that these were connected to his work relating to North Korea on behalf of the Secretary General of the UN."

While environmental leaders attending this week’s UN climate conference in Montreal expected to hear from Strong--who is generally accepted as the architect of the Kyoto protocol--they heard from Prime Minister Paul Martin instead.

Strong is rarely heard from since allegations of his ties to the oil-for-food scandal became public. Martin, who took time out the Canadian election campaign, did what Maurice Strong does best: criticize the United States of America.

The criticism Martin leveled against the U.S. coincided with the day the draft report of the House International Relations subcommittee became public.

Martin called on all nations to join the global effort to fight climate change, adding: "To the reticent nations, including the United States, I say there is such a thing as a global conscience, and now is the time to listen to it." (Toronto Star, Dec. 8, 2005).

At the time of writing, no Canadian media had carried the story that the subcommittee indicated that Strong’s role in the Oil-for-food scandal "should be examined".

Meanwhile, many Canadians do not recognize the name of Maurice Strong, let alone his alleged ties to the UN Oil-for-Food scandal.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover120905.htm

[styky]

Seems that they are contect to talk of study after study but nothing ever happens. Here we go again they call to look into Maurice Strong. THey did the same think last April. Remember this.....

Tue. Apr. 19 2005 11:34 PM ET

UN special adviser Maurice Strong

UN studying Maurice Strong's business ties
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS — The UN is studying whether it was appropriate for its envoy for North Korea to maintain business ties with a South Korean businessman accused of wrongdoing in the oil-for-food scandal, officials said Tuesday.

Continued..... <a href=http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1113961328740_9/?hub=World>source</a>

[styky]

Oh what a tangled web ...
Sunday, December 11, 2005


WASHINGTON - Let us begin this Sunday with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, formerly the vice president's right-hand man, now facing spurious charges in the case of Valerie Plame Wilson.
We know Mr. Libby is an attorney and remember that in 1983 he defended Marc Rich, indicted by then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani for evading $48 million in taxes, 51 cases of fraud and illegal trading with Iran.

Rich ran to Switzerland before his court appearance and remained on the FBI's Most Wanted List until January 2001, when he received a presidential pardon from Bill, just hours before the Clintons left office.

There were contributing factors. Among them -- heavy donations from Denise Rich, his New York socialite wife.

Marc Rich resurfaced in October in Paul Volcker's investigation of the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program. The report said Rich & Co. covertly financed at least $932,630 in oil purchases from Saddam Hussein by using a front company, Masefield, of Zugin, Switzerland.

Reading the Volcker report leads to the conclusion that big payments were made to the son of a French member of parliament and an Indian Cabinet member, who created "shell companies" to enrich Saddam.

As Winston Churchill once said, "I'd rather be right than consistent." So, given the history of the past 20 years, it can be anticipated that Marc Rich will continue to run free in Switzerland while Libby fights off felony charges. Once again, justice seems hard to find.

However, there are some hopes for the Volcker investigation. The British MP George Galloway -- who thinks he is untouchable because of his anti-war-in-Iraq stance and the toadying of the liberal media -- may be the first to fall. Galloway made false and misleading statements to the U.S. Congress this year and, with his wife, probably made more than $596,000 from Saddam. Galloway now remains cozily in London. But there is no reason why he shouldn't be extradited to Washington as a probable felon.

There is another person who should be questioned -- the Canadian privy councilor Maurice Strong. Strong, whose extensive estates in Canada are now up for sale, had not been heard from until very recently -- since his signature was found on a $1-million check from Saddam Hussein to Cordex Petroleum, a Canadian company once run by his son, Fred Strong, that also involved Tongsun Park as the fall guy.

Park, who seems now to work for North Korea, paid a check to "Mr. M. Strong" into a Jordanian bank account for nearly $1 million. It quickly was used by Strong to buy shares on which he had an option. And, of course, Chairman Mo knew nothing about the check when first questioned by investigators.

Strong, now 76, has been a senior adviser to Kofi Annan, a senior adviser to the president of the World Bank, chairman of the Earth Council, the World Resources Institute and the World Economic Forum. In 1997, he was overseeing U.N. reforms. A lifelong socialist, Strong was and is a first-rate influence-peddler who never missed an opportunity to enrich himself.

Extradition to the United States should be a possibility for Strong, too. But as one of China's biggest boosters, he believes Beijing will shield him long enough for his dreams to come true and China replaces us as the world's superpower. Using the memory of his cousin, Anna Louise Strong, Mao Tse-Tung's close and dearest Western lady-friend, Strong now has a luxury apartment in Beijing and often is in his office in the nearby town of Taiyuan, where he is a familiar figure in the four-star Shanxi Grand Hotel.

Strong is using the Earth Council Alliance, which he invented in 1992, to peddle a Chinese-invented clean coke technology, which, they believe, will curb coke pollution. Yet Maurice Strong may be hauled back to Canada before next month's election.

Recently defeated Paul Martin, Canada's ultra-liberal prime minister, was hired by Strong in 1974 to work for Paul Desmarais, a major shareholder in the French energy company TotalFinaElf. Martin was made president of Canada Steamship Lines by Desmaris. He then bought the company from him, which is now worth $424 million. When he became prime minister, Martin gave Canada Steamship to his three sons, who have prospered enormously since from government contracts.

Meanwhile, the front-runners for the presidency of the United States -- Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry -- and a host of their friends are involved in these shenanigans.

Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer.

<a href=http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/datelinedc/s_402535.html>source</a>

[rbacon]

Hopefully the US will indict some of our Liberal crooks here in Canada.

[styky]

Hopefully the US will indict some of our Liberal crooks here in Canada.

One can only hope

Here we're lucky if they get speaking tours for punishment.

I really hope that the U.S. throws the book at them and they get to find out what a real criminal Justice system can do. Might be nice for them to get a full understanding of what consecutive sentencing is all about to

[styky]

Panel Pushes Probe of Oil-For-Food Program

By LAURENCE FROST
AP Business Writer

December 16, 2005, 5:45 PM EST

PARIS -- An anti-bribery panel urged governments Friday to do more to investigate evidence of kickbacks and corruption in the U.N.-commissioned report on Iraq's oil-for-food program.

Only 11 of some 40 countries whose citizens or companies were implicated by the inquiry have requested the evidence unearthed with a view to possible prosecutions, said Mark Pieth, panel chairman at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"The working group encourages its members to follow up by obtaining this information," said Pieth, who also was a member of the independent inquiry headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

The United States and France have begun their own criminal probes into possible sanctions busting and bribery. Pieth declined to identify the nine other countries whose authorities have requested access to the Volcker inquiry evidence.

An official close to the investigation said the nine other governments that sought additional information were Australia, Britain, Switzerland, India, Italy, Germany, Thailand, Jordan, and Sweden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the names of the countries have not been released.

Many of the states most implicated by the report's findings, such as Russia, China, Vietnam and Thailand, are neither OECD members nor signatories to a broader 1997 anti-bribery convention.

Pieth spoke at the end of a three-day meeting of the organization's bribery and corruption working group. The panel is responsible for monitoring enforcement of the 36-country convention, which requires corruption by foreign public officials to be treated as a criminal offense.

In its Oct. 27 final report, Volcker's 18-month inquiry into the U.N.'s Iraq oil-for-food program identified kickbacks and other illicit payments totaling $1.8 billion, as well as evidence of involvement of about half the 4,500 participating companies.

Besides payments made to Saddam Hussein's regime in breach of international sanctions, some 270 individuals -- including a long list of well-known politicians in several countries -- appear to have received lucrative oil "vouchers" from the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

Although prosecutors can consult the catalog of evidence gathered by Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee, they have to reapply for its disclosure by the authorities in the country of origin before it can be used in court. Bank account details, for example, "are protected by client confidentiality in most cases," Pieth said.

Meanwhile, Louise Frechette, the U.N.'s first deputy secretary-general who was strongly criticized for tolerating corruption in the oil-for-food program, will join the Center for International Governance Innovation, a leading Canadian international relations and policy research center, in April, the center announced Friday. A U.N. official confirmed that Frechette would be leaving the world body at that time.
<a href=http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/sns-ap-france-oil-for-food,0,1406694,print.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines>source</a>

[styky]

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette to leave UN in April

Louise Fréchette
16 December 2005 – United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette, appointed to the newly created post in 1998, will be leaving the United Nations early next year to become Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Canada, the UN spokesman announced today.

Ms. Fréchette, who was Deputy Minister of National Defence of Canada from 1995 to 1998 and also served as her country’s Permanent Representative to the UN from 1992 to 1995, will remain at the UN until April to coordinate preparations for Mr. Annan’s plan on implementing comprehensive management reform as requested by last September’s World Summit.

The proposals are due for submission to the General Assembly by the end of February.

“The Secretary-General warmly congratulates Ms. Fréchette on her forthcoming appointment,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “He has always valued her professional support and friendship and looks forward to continuing to work closely with her on the UN reform agenda over the coming months.”

In her new job, Ms. Fréchette will chair a two-year research project on nuclear energy, ranging from political, economic and environmental implications of increased nuclear energy use to the risks of proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“The Secretary-General is particularly pleased to note that she will be devoting her future time and energy to an issue that he regards as critical unfinished business for the UN and the international community,” Mr. Dujarric said.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?N ... Cr1=reform

[styky]

Let There Be Light . . .
. . . in the murkiest recesses of the United Nations.

BY BRET STEPHENS
Saturday, December 3, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

NEW YORK--Paul Volcker is at ease. Sitting behind the desk of his Rockefeller Center corner office--which seems much too small for his 6-foot-8 frame--the former chairman of the Federal Reserve has the half-weary, half-satisfied look of a writer who's just inked the last sentence of an unexpectedly long and tangled tale. Which, in a sense, is what he is. Taken together, the five reports of his Independent Inquiry into the U.N.'s Oil for Food scandal--which took 18 months and $34 million to complete--run to some 2,000 pages.

And what a story they tell.





Thanks to the reports, we know that Oil for Food administrator Benon Sevan, French Senator Charles Pasqua, British MP George Galloway, Indian Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh, Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky and dozens of other notables likely took bribes from Saddam Hussein in the form of lucrative oil "allocations." We know that as many as 2,253 companies, including heavyweights such as Siemens and Volvo, are listed in Iraqi records as having paid kickbacks in order to do business in Iraq. We know that Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his deputy, Louise Frechette, were incompetent administrators (at best) who failed to disclose corrupt U.N. practices of which they were fully aware. We know that Saddam manipulated the program to enrich himself to the tune of $1.8 billion (at least) while steering some $100 billion to his preferred clients, who then did his bidding at the U.N. Security Council. And we know exactly how he did it: by applying surcharges billed as "inland transportation" fees; through the use of multiple middlemen; via loopholes in the handling of the Oil for Food escrow account; with scads of cash carried in the diplomatic pouch.
We know all this to be true and--what's equally important--so does the rest of the world, thanks mainly to Mr. Volcker's reputation for independence, probity and seriousness. So it only seems appropriate for me to ask him why so many people, particularly in the U.S. Congress, seem convinced that he's Kofi Annan's water boy.

"There's a certain amount of confusion--allegations--that somehow we changed our standard of proof," when it came to judging Mr. Annan, says Mr. Volcker in his thick New Yorkese. "We looked as hard as we could for evidence. We criticized him severely. . . . [The critics] don't understand all the procedures we went through, the thoroughness of the investigation. For all the pages of the report, they have only seen one little part of the investigation."

The severe criticism to which Mr. Volcker refers is an "adverse finding" contained in his second interim report released in March. The report found there was not "reasonably sufficient" evidence that Mr. Annan knew that the Swiss inspections company Cotecna, which employed his son Kojo and whose owner had met privately with Kofi Annan on at least two previous occasions, was bidding for a lucrative Oil for Food contract. Instead, it faulted Mr. Annan for launching an "inadequate" internal investigation into the process that improperly awarded Cotecna the contract. As a result, Mr. Annan claimed in a press conference to have been "cleared of any wrongdoing" by Mr. Volcker's committee.

Mr. Annan's self-exoneration plainly irritates Mr. Volcker. A related irritant has been his relations with Congress. Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays, who chairs one of three congressional committees investigating the U.N., described Mr. Volcker's findings on Mr. Annan as "oddly muted and almost purposefully vague." Reports have suggested that Mr. Volcker made last-minute changes in the language of his report following a meeting with Mr. Annan and his lawyer. To make matters worse, two of Mr. Volcker's investigators, Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan, resigned in protest of what they believed was a weak finding against the secretary-general. In April, Mr. Volcker had to obtain a restraining order from a U.S. district judge to prevent the investigators from testifying to Congress.

Mr. Volcker physically waves away the suggestion that Mr. Annan interfered in the investigation or altered the report's conclusions. As for the dispute with Congress, he makes the sensible point that sharing material with leak-prone congressional committees would not only have betrayed the assurances of confidentiality given to his sources but in some cases put their lives at risk. "Some Iraqis talked to us about things that went on in the previous regime . . . and sometimes they only talked outside Iraq itself. There was no doubt that some of these people felt their lives were in jeopardy, absolutely no doubt about it."

But Mr. Volcker is on shakier grounds in his reading of the evidence against Mr. Annan. One such piece of evidence is a luncheon Mr. Annan had in the summer of 1998 with his son Kojo and Kojo's business partner Pierre Mouselli. Mr. Mouselli claims to have briefed the elder Annan on their proposed ventures, including possible deals with Iraq, to which the secretary-general reportedly gave his "blessing." In interviews with Mr. Volcker's committee, the secretary-general initially denied ever meeting Mr. Mouselli, then recalled a "brief encounter" after his memory had been refreshed by the committee.

Mr. Parton and Ms. Duncan came to the conclusion that Mr. Annan was simply not being forthcoming with the committee. Mr. Volcker has a different interpretation. He treats Mr. Mouselli as an unreliable witness, going so far as to quote an Iraqi ambassador's characterization of him as "not quite stable." (I have interviewed Mr. Mouselli and found him to be a credible and consistent source.)

By contrast, Mr. Volcker seems oddly inclined to credit Mr. Annan's dog-ate-my-homework defense. "There are a lot of events, happenings, meetings where it would appear that [Mr. Annan] could have known about [Cotecna's bid for an Oil for Food contract] . . . and he denied that it came up in any of these meetings, and we did not find sufficient evidence to reach a conclusion that he knew," he says. "In the first interview where he did not recall one of those meetings we rather had the impression that he wasn't well prepared. He gave the impression he hadn't reviewed any of his records and he had no legal assistance at that point. When he came back later, [he realized] this is serious business."

Yet whatever the faults with Mr. Volcker's findings on Mr. Annan, the full report ultimately presented more than enough evidence from which the Bush administration could have hung the secretary-general out to dry, had it so wished. Instead, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gushes that "I've never had a better relationship with anyone than I've had with Kofi Annan." One can only hope she was being diplomatic.

It's also true that in the broad sweep of Mr. Volcker's report, the secretary-general's nonfeasance seems trivial next to the malfeasance of the organization he leads. There is no serious evidence that Mr. Annan profited personally from Oil for Food. By contrast, Mr. Volcker found en passant that a relatively low-ranking procurement officer named Alexander Yakovlev took nearly $1 million in bribes from $79 million in U.N. contracts. How much more of that might be going on? Nor is there any indication that Mr. Annan personally impeded the investigation. But Iqbal Riza, his chief of staff, ordered the shredding of thousands of documents potentially of relevance to the Oil for Food inquiry. Who else might have been silently obstructing the inquiry?





Reviewing this record, most people would probably describe the U.N. as pervasively corrupt. Mr. Volcker prefers to talk about "an environment of failure to take responsibility." "Why," he asks, "didn't the 661 Committee [the Security Council task force that monitored Iraqi sanctions] react more forcefully? Why didn't Kofi react? Why didn't Louise Frechette act? Why, during the quote-unquote [internal U.N.] investigation into this question about Cotecna's bid, why was there not a more forceful response by the lawyers, by the investigators? Why did Mr. Connors, an American put in there years ago to provide administrative discipline, why didn't he put his foot down?"
Mr. Volcker puts these questions rhetorically. Yet the very form in which they are asked reflects Mr. Volcker's proposed solutions to the problem. A U.N. that is corrupt is an organization the U.S. ought to shun, or at least penalize. A U.N. that suffers from a "culture of inaction," as Mr. Volcker called it in a congressional briefing, is merely one that requires reforms, some of which are suggested in one of Mr. Volcker's reports. "There's a lot to be done to strengthen their personnel practices, their conflict-of-interest rules, their financial rules and so forth," he says.

Above all, he recommends creating the position of Chief Operating Officer, someone "who's there to administer the place." Yet, as Mr. Volcker acknowledges, it isn't as if something similar has not been tried before. Ms. Frechette's position was created explicitly to relieve Mr. Annan of some of his day-to-day administrative duties. There's an undersecretary-general for management position, currently filled by former Bush administration official Christopher Burnham. There is a BOA, or Board of Auditors, and a JIU, or Joint Inspection Unit, and an OIOS, or Office of Internal Oversight Services, and an ACABQ, or Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. None of these acronyms did anything to prevent the corruption of the Oil for Food program. In fact, the head of the ACABQ, Vladimir Kuznetsov, was arraigned in September on charges of money-laundering, suggesting that the reason so many U.N. officials fail to "take responsibility" is because they are actively seeking to undermine it.

Of course there's always room for hope, and as reform proposals go, Mr. Volcker's are certainly sensible. But as Mr. Annan himself noted, his real service lies in having shone a lantern into what had hitherto been the U.N.'s most unsightly corners. Critics may charge that the light did not illuminate everything. For most of us, it illuminated enough. "Tall Paul" Volcker has been a lighthouse in a storm.

Mr. Stephens is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial ... =110007630

[styky]

We appear to have many newbies that may not have read this

[styky]

FBI arrests businessman in UN oil-for-food scandal
Philip Sherwell in Washington
(Filed: 08/01/2006)

A South Korean businessman accused of receiving millions of dollars from Saddam Hussein's regime to bribe top United Nations officials over the controversial oil-for-food programme has been arrested by FBI agents in Houston, Texas.

Tongsun Park is expected to co-operate with the US authorities in a deal that could throw fresh light on rampant corruption surrounding the UN-administered programme.

The indictment, released on Friday, refers to attempts to buy the influence of two unnamed UN officials. A separate investigation - led by Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman - into the scandal concluded that Mr Park and another accused man tried to pass $1 million to the former UN secretary-general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The report said there was no evidence that Mr Boutros-Ghali received or agreed to receive the money. The Volcker commission also found that in 1997 Mr Park invested $1 million in a Canadian company linked to the son of Maurice Strong, a close aide to Kofi Annan, the current secretary-general, in an attempt to secure his help for Iraq. The report found no evidence that Mr Strong was involved.

"Park's arrest is an important step in the federal government's efforts to bring to justice those who broke US law in undermining the humanitarian purpose of that programme," said Michael Garcia, the US attorney in Manhattan.

He said Mr Park arranged meetings in 1993 between himself, a UN official and another co-operating witness, including one at the official's Manhattan apartment. Mr Park and the other witness also allegedly arranged a meeting in 1993, in Geneva, between the official, identified as "UN Official No 1", and two Iraqi representatives.

The FBI said in a court document that at a New York restaurant in 1996 the government witness met Mr Park, an Iraqi official and another high-ranking figure (referred to as "UN Official No 2"), who left the meeting early.

Mr Park told the government witness in 1997 or 1998 that he had invested about $1 million he had received from Iraq in a Canadian company, established by the son of UN Official No 2.

Mr Park, who was allegedly paid $2 million, was first indicted for his role in the programme last April. His whereabouts have not been publicly known since then, but he is thought to have been negotiating a possible deal with US officials.

Mr Annan had been hoping that the Volcker report, in which he was sharply criticised, would put an end to the scandal, but federal prosecutors are determined to pursue the bribery allegations.

<a href=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/08/wun08.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/08/ixworld.html>source</a>

[JBG]

Maybe the connections with Power Corp. will emerge in public attention. Just in time for a Harper minority government to seek a majority.