Decision ‘08

Oil-For-Food: Justice Delayed Is Better Than None

Finally, it appears a UN head will roll over the systemic plunder from the people of Iraq known as Oil-For-Food:

U.S. prosecutors have announced charges against the former head of the United Nations oil-for-food program, accusing him of receiving $160,000 in kickbacks from sales of Iraqi oil under the government of Saddam Hussein.

The seven-count indictment, unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York, was brought against Benon Sevan, 69, a Cypriot who served as executive director of the $64 billion aid program from 1997 until mid-2003. He was accused, together with Ephraim Nadler, 79, a U.S. citizen born in Egypt, of taking illegal commissions from an Egyptian oil trader in exchange for helping him secure contracts to purchase Iraqi oil. Both were charged with conspiracy and wire fraud.

Sevan has known for some time that he was under federal investigation. The charges echo an Aug. 8, 2005, report by a commission headed by Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, which found that Sevan had profited from illicit transactions with the trader, Fakhry Abdelnour.

The indictment highlights the lingering corruption scandals at the United Nations in the first weeks of the term of a new secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, a South Korean. The Volcker commission concluded that the United Nations needed “thoroughgoing reform” of its management. So far Ban has not made clear whether he intends to carry out sweeping change.

Nadler is the brother of Leia Boutros- Ghali, the wife of the former secretary general of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

You can see what a nice little payday UN bigwigs arrange for themselves in their selfish service to the ‘world community’…when someone says ‘the sanctions were working’, the first thing to do is examine their finances…