Former UN Secretary-General Linked to Oil-for-Food Scandal

[TexasLawyer]

The evil Boutros Boutros-Ghali stands accused, and the standard for being "linked" to a scandal grows looser and looser. In fact, we're all now "linked" to the scandal too, since we're reading this article.

From Voice of America, so you know it's right.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-02-05-voa14.cfm

Former UN Secretary-General Linked to Oil-for-Food Scandal By VOA News
05 February 2005

Former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has come under fire for his role in the oil-for-food scandal.

A 219-page interim report issued Wednesday by an independent commission raises doubts over Mr. Boutros-Ghali's selection of the bank that handled the money from the sale of Iraqi oil. Under U.N. rules, competitive bidding to the "lowest acceptable bidder" is required.

The French bank BNP was selected but did not have the lowest offer among four banks that bid for the oil-for-food contract. When asked why he selected BNP, Mr. Boutros-Ghali told the commission it was the bank the Iraqis wanted.

The report was also highly critical of the U.N.'s former chief of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan. His name is linked to AMEP, an oil company run by his friend, Fakhry Abdelnour, who is the cousin of Mr. Boutros-Ghali. The company made $1.5 million under the humanitarian program.

In an interview with the New York Times Thursday, Mr. Boutros-Ghali called commission investigators "ignorant" and the allegations "silly."

[merwin]

1. I bought oil and a candy bar last week. Am I implicated?

[TexasLawyer]

3. That's oil AND food, buddy

You and your traitor a$$ are goin' to Gitmo.

[TexasLawyer]

2. the "lowest acceptable bidder"

"Under U.N. rules, competitive bidding to the "lowest acceptable bidder" is required."


Whoever wrote the article missed the word "acceptable". It is fairly typical for lowest bidders to be rejected for, among other things, insufficient insurance, company resources (enough employees, offices in the right place, etc...), years in the business, reputation, reliability and on and on.

[Robbien]

4. Ha "From Voice of America, so you know it's right."

Thanks, I needed a laugh.

[rainbow4321]

5. U.S. defends knowledge of illegal oil sale

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=e86dc37a8e104376

The U.S. State Department Thursday defended turning a blind eye to the illegal sale of oil by Saddam Hussein's Iraq to its neighbors.

'I think that you can argue ... that these countries are critical to America's interests in the region, and for that reason we need to preserve these relationships,' deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.

Saddam defied sanctions and sold oil to neighbors, including Turkey and Jordan, both U.S. allies.

The comment came after a CNN report Thursday that said Iraq's oil trade was an open secret inside the U.S. government and the United Nations for years despite the sanctions, which were imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.



http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=a04d33877750ab55

Report says U.S. abetted Iraqi oil smuggling


The United States condoned illegal oil sales by Saddam Hussein's Iraq to neighboring countries as part of a regional stability strategy, CNN reported Thursday.

The network obtained unclassified documents showing Iraq's oil trade with countries such as Turkey and Jordan were an open secret inside the U.S. government and the United Nations for years.

'It was in the national security interest because we depended on the stability in Turkey and the stability in Jordan in order to encircle Saddam Hussein,' Edward Walker, a former assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, told CNN.

The justifications came at a time when the United States was a staunch backer of U.N. sanctions on Iraq imposed after it invaded Kuwait in 1990