The Neo-Conservative Oil For Food Scam

The attacks on the United Nations and Kofi Annan have very little to do with reality. There was some mismanagement, but Oil-for-Food was a huge and complex program. That mismanagement needs to be studied and learned from, a process that is already underway. The Oil-for-Food program was also, to the chagrin of those who would destroy the UN, successful. It was put in place to provide food and medicine to the Iraqi people and it did. It was expanded to repair and replace infrastructure that was damaged in the Gulf War, and it did.

There was corruption and the UN knew about it. They pointed that corruption out to the Security Council’s 661 Committee that had the power to address the corruption. That committee included the United States and oversaw every contract. The committee members, including the US, chose to do nothing because of domestic and international political concerns.

The neo-conservatives who back the Bush White House would have us believe that the UN was secretive and that the United States and other members of the Security Council did not know about the corruption, but that is simply not true.A UN document, dated January 10, 2005, states clearly, “Although the UN has been accused of secrecy, all Oil-for-Food contracts had to be submitted to the UN for approval via the national authorities of each supplier. All details of every contract were known not only by the national authorities of each supplier but also by the members of the Security Council 661 Committee who had the power to approve or hold any contract.”

Trying to place fault for the corruption inherent in dealings between Saddam Hussein, foreign governments, and independent suppliers with the United Nations is beyond reason. Never the type to let the truth get in the way, the neo-cons continue the attack. They place blame for smuggling to Jordan and Turkey on Kofi Annan as well. The smuggling began long before the Oil-for-Food program did, though, and knowledge of the smuggling was widespread. American officials tacitly approved the sales of the smuggled oil because of political concerns. Again, there was nothing the UN could do beyond informing the 661 Committee of the Security Council that approved all transactions.

Kofi Annan has fully acknowledged that there was mismanagement in the program and asked Paul Volcker, best known for his previous post as chairman of the Federal Reserve, to investigate. The final results from Volcker’s investigation aren’t out yet, but the preliminary results clear the United Nations and its employees of corruption charges.

The sole exception is Benon Sevan who, US officials claim, had his name on a list and was implicated in a letter as taking either oil vouchers or money from Hussein. This documentation is rumoured to have been provided by Ahmad Chalabi who has been discredited as a source. Sevan was in charge of the Iraq program, but did not directly oversee the Oil-for-Food program. His was a position of senior management. Sevan denies all charges. In a statement made to CNN in December Sevan’s lawyer said, “Mr. Sevan is cooperating fully with the Independent Investigative Committee. He has provided all the information that they have asked for, and he is confident that he will be fully vindicated.” The charges against Mr. Sevan should and will be fully investigated, but even if he is guilty the actions of one person do not indicate a pattern of corruption in an organization the size of the United Nations.

The other individual being singled out is Kojo Annan, Kofi Annan’s son. Kojo is suspect, the right-wing pundits claim, because he took money from a former employer. The employer, Cotecna, became involved in the Oil-for-Food program in 1998. Kojo Annan left Cotecna in 1997. The only real link between Kojo Annan during the period that Cotecna had a contract with the UN for the program is that Kojo was receiving payment for a non-competition agreement from Cotecna. Such agreements are not illegal and are quite commonplace in the corporate world. Like Sevan, Kojo Annan should be investigated and, if he did indeed break the rules, charged accordingly. There is no evidence that he had anything to do with Iraq or the Oil-for-Food scandal, though. There is no evidence that Kofi Annan was influenced to give Cotecna a contract. The evidence is confined to Kojo Annan’s relationship with a former employer and a perfectly legal contract.

So why are those on the right in the USA trying to create a scandal in the UN? They see the UN as a threat to the United States’ ability to control the world. It greatly offends them that there is an agency that gives voice to dissenting opinions and acts to curb their imperialistic actions around the world. What has made them the angriest lately is Annan’s assertion to the BBC that the invasion of Iraq was illegal. Annan pushed them a little further when he criticized the attack on Fallujah, and the neo-cons cranked up the heat. In other words the radical right that has taken over the press and the government in the United States don’t like Kofi Annan because he refuses to be just another sycophant of the Bush regime.

Fortunately, the US stands almost entirely alone in their dislike of Kofi Annan and their attacks on the United Nations. Largely in response to the neo-conservative assault, Annan received a standing ovation in the General Assembly in December and world leaders, including Bush ally Tony Blair, made a point of expressing their support for him. The outpouring of support for Annan eventually caused the White House to send to the UN their ambassador, John Danforth--a man who has been largely hamstrung by Bush’s policies--to express support as well. It was a wasted attempt to make amends, with most seeing the overture for what it was, a cynical offer of conciliation for political reasons.

While it is fortunate that the US does not have international support in its attempts to undermine the United Nations or to attack the integrity of a Secretary-General that is willing to stand up to them, these constant attacks do take a toll. Time and resources spent defending the UN and its staff from the onslaught of half-truths and outright lies put forth by neo-conservative pundits and their political allies would be better spent on working toward real reforms. The infighting and accusations lead the UN to be much less effective than it could be, overly cautious in some areas and unable to speak efficiently in others. The constant character assassinations make cooperation in any meaningful way much less likely.

The UN needs to be reformed. Nobody doubts that. Kofi Annan has expressed a great interest in carrying out reforms and has been working toward that goal since he became Secretary-General. The need for reform is unlikely to be properly addressed in any forum where one of the major players is actively agitating for the virtual destruction of the United Nations. While the Bush White House is not overtly involved on the attacks on the Annans and the UN over Oil-for-Food, it is clear that their political allies in the press and Congress have the interests of the Bush administration in mind when they make their assaults through the media.

The attempts to undermine the United Nations are backfiring. Support for US initiatives continues to shrink even as the Bush regime is forced to seek the aid and legitimacy of the UN time and again. The blood the radical right smell is their own; they just haven’t realized it yet.