Decision ‘08

Oil For Food, Part Two - Claudia Rosett

In my first post about Oil For Food, I mentioned Claudia Rosett. The scandal had been brewing slowly, but it was this April article in Commentary that first brought the issue front and center to a lot of people. There was some degree of knowledge that the program was crooked, but the scale was starting to become apparent. Early estimates by Rosett and others had the fraud at a “mere” $11 billion, but most of the storyline was already known. In fact, Ms. Rosett was criticizing Oil For Food as far back as September, 2002, albeit for being basically a UN job program. A quick glance at this link shows just how instrumental Ms. Rosett has been on keeping the fire going on this issue, for which she deserves our thanks this Thanksgiving.

There are huge aspects of this story that I have yet to mention (but will go into soon)…meanwhile, the disgust with the UN seems to be growing by the day. Captain’s Quarters alerted me to a quote from US Amabassador to the UN John Danforth, worth quoting at length:

John C. Danforth, the United States ambassador, assailed the General Assembly on Tuesday, saying its decision to avoid voting on a resolution denouncing human rights violations in Sudan called into question the purpose of the Assembly.
“One wonders about the utility of the General Assembly on days like this,” he said. “One wonders if there can’t be a clear and direct statement on matters of basic principle, why have this building? What is it all about?”

The point: the UN is failing its most basic mission. If the UN cannot stop mass murder in Rwanda and the Sudan, if it can’t enforce a dozen resolutions on Saddam Hussein, if it is a hotbed of corruption, then the time has come to pull the plug.

2 Responses to “Oil For Food, Part Two - Claudia Rosett”

1 Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » Claudia Rosett: Oil-For-Enron Says:
August 18th, 2005 at 7:09 am
[…] If Claudia Rosett doesn’t ultimately write a book about Oil-For-Food, it will be a crime of major proportions. The intrepid journalist has looked under a few more rocks, and out pops - Enron. Just to spice things up a little, under other rock is Houston’s Bayoil engaging in anti-Semitic protocols to get oil from Saddam’s regime: Layered into this scene is collaboration by Bayoil with Saddam in treating democratic Israel as a pariah state. Mr. Hyde’s investigators have discovered a letter, signed by Mr. Giangrandi on Sept. 9, 1999–and duly notarized–which appears to be a document solicited by Saddam’s regime as part of the deal for lucrative rights to buy underpriced oil via the U.N. program. “For and on behalf of Bayoil,” wrote Mr. Giangrandi. “We herewith confirm never to have sold directly or indirectly to Israel and further confirm that this policy will remain permanently in force during the entire validity of our contract.” A fax out of Houston from one of Mr. Chalmers’s associates now under indictment, a Bulgarian, Ludmil Dionissiev, stipulates in reference to a 1998 shipment of Iraqi oil that the vessel used “had never traded in Israel.” […]
2 Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » Pajamas Lands A Big Dog (Part Two) Says:
August 31st, 2006 at 3:31 pm
[…] The other notable newcomer to the Pajamas stable is Claudia Rosett, who did absolutely invaluable work on the Oil-For-Food scandal and was the subject of my praise here. Claudia has taken on the U.N. time and time again, and it is no exaggeration to say that Oil-For-Food would have starved for oxygen without her efforts. Stop on by and pay her new blog a visit, and why not add it to your favorites while you’re at it… […]