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Act of Creation by
Stephen Schlesinger
The
Founding of the United Nations: A Story of Superpowers, Secret
Agents, Wartime Allies and Enemies, and Their Quest for a
Peaceful World See
Reviews. Order
Here.
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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 08 December 2004 -- The
attacks by right-wing Republicans in Congress against UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan over the food-for-oil scandal are less an endeavor to find the
truth behind the program’s wrongdoing and more an effort to cow the UN into
submission to the United States.
If
the conservatives can cripple, if not oust, Annan, they can send a message to
the rest of the UN community that the Washington exercises ultimate control
over the organization and all other members must also fall in line or suffer
the consequences.
Annan
has become the newest symbol of global intransigence to the United States.
Bush
officials now blame him for the Security Council’s failure to back the
American invasion of Iraq, even though it was France and Russia that really
thwarted the Council’s assent on the grounds that there was no real threat
from Baghdad.
They
are also furious with him for calling the Iraqi intervention “illegal”
even though it was certainly done outside of the UN Charter.
They
denounce his recent letter asking for Washington to refrain from striking at
Falluja for fear of killing civilians, even though such a danger did exist.
They
are upset with him for not emplacing more UN observers in Iraq for the
upcoming election, even though there is barely any security for the UN teams.
And
they generally associate him with the support of all of the global treaties
and international obligations that they have wanted the US to repudiate ever
since George Bush first won election.
Now
enters the oil-for-food scam.
Until
now, Annan’s opponents have had difficulty directly besmirching the
reputation of this world-acclaimed moral leader.
But
this brouhaha, which potentially involves bribes, payoffs, illicit dealings,
and kickbacks, has suddenly given Annan’s critics an opening.
Senator
Norm Coleman, the Republican legislator from Minnesota and Chairman of the
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote in the Wall Street Journal
last week that Saddam Hussein had “accumulated more than $21 billion through
abuses” of the program and Kofi Annan should resign because he was the CEO
in charge of the organization when these tawdry events occurred.
Because
Annan was at “the helm”, he should “be held accountable for the UN’s
utter failure to detect or stop Saddam’s abuses.”
The
irony of Coleman’s charges is that, outside of appointing the head of the
oil-for-food program, Kofi Annan has had absolutely nothing to do with the
venture – or with the enforcement of any of the other sanctions on Iraq.
All
the set-ups were entirely created and supervised by the Security Council.
Originally the Council had instituted sanctions against Iraq in 1991 after the
Gulf War preventing it from exporting oil.
But
then the US made exceptions for oil shipments to American allies, Turkey and
Jordan, via annual Congressional waivers. It also overlooked oil smuggled to
Syria.
It
was here that Hussein actually began to skim most of his monies, some $8
billion, according to the recent report by the CIA’s Charles Duelfer, chief
of the US weapons inspectors in Iraq.
But
the US never took any action to prevent Saddam’s egregious
poaching on these trade deals.
Then
in 1996, when the oil-for-food program itself was officially set up to
alleviate hunger among Iraqi children, a more vigorous monitoring team
appointed by the Security Council took over.
This
oversight group, dominated by the United States and Great Britain approved
about 36,000 contracts related to humanitarian needs over the next seven
years.
Of
these, this supervisory unit held up about 5,000 on the grounds that the
imports might have a dual-use technology which could enable Iraq to rebuild
its weapons of mass destruction programs.
As
of July 2002, there were about $5 billion worth of contracts on hold.
Meantime,
on the oil transactions, the committee, including the United States, never
raised a single objection about possible pricing criminality, despite the fact
that junior UN officials brought at least 70 possible breaches to the
attention of the monitors.
What
today gives fresh impetus to the assault on Kofi Annan, though, has been the
revelation that his son, Kojo, in 1998 found employment with one of the firms
that oversaw imports under the oil-for-food program.
In
that year, Kojo Annan obtained a consultantship with the Swiss company,
Cotecna, which lasted until December of 1998, the same month the firm received
a $4.8 million contract from the oil-for-food program. Kojo Annan earned over
$50,000.
Now
it has been learned, Kojo Annan also got a “non-compete” agreement with
Cotecna required by Swiss law that began in April 2000 and ceased in February
2004 which gave him $2500 a month, including health coverage that itself
stopped in June 2004.
Whatever
the particulars of that arrangement, it is not clear how Kofi Annan himself
did anything wrong.
His
son may have used his last name to get the job, but Annan himself had no
influence over the hiring of that company by the UN. That decision was
entirely up to the monitors.
Still
conservatives now smell blood in the water. It is payback time.
Kofi
Anan has taken the most judicious step to investigate the malefactions
involved in the oil-for-food program by appointing Paul Volcker, a paragon of
the American establishment, to investigate – but that is not enough for the
right-wingers in Congress.
They
claim Volcker has no subpoena power, won’t hand over internal audits to
Congress, and, in any case, his panel is “wholly funded by the UN at Mr.
Annan’s control”, according to Senator Coleman.
Annan’s
past achievements in resolving disputes with Republican Senator Helms on US
financial arrears, his settlement of the East Timor crisis, his 2000 Millenium
Report, his willingness to undertake probes of the Srebrenica and Rwanda
massacres where his own role was faulted, his establishment of a commission to
propose major UN reforms, his winning of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize -- none
have had any impact on these vengeful warriors.
Nor
has the public rallying to Annan by almost all the other UN member states at
all hindered their crusade.
Though
there is one distinguished member of the Bush Administration, Secretary of
State Colin Powell, who last week called Annan a “good Secretary General”.
He,
too, is on his way out.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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