Money for Blood

Senator Norm Coleman has called for the resignation of UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan for his role in the maladministration of the U.N. Oil-for-Food
program. Coleman, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee charges that Annan allowed the
Oil-for-Food program to become a covert program for subverting the very
sanctions they were intended to enforce. According to a signed article in the

Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Annan was at the helm of the U.N. for all but a few days of the
Oil-for-Food program, and he must, therefore, be held accountable for the
U.N.'s utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses. The consequences of
the U.N.'s ineptitude cannot be overstated: Saddam was empowered to withstand
the sanctions regime, remain in power, and even rebuild his military. Needless
to say, he made the Iraqi people suffer even more by importing substandard
food and medicine under the Oil-for-Food program and pawning it off as
first-rate humanitarian aid.

Since it was never likely that the U.N. Security Council, some of whose
permanent members were awash in Saddam's favors, would ever call for Saddam's
removal, the U.S. and its coalition partners were forced to put troops in
harm's way to oust him by force. Today, money swindled from Oil-for-Food
may be funding the insurgency against coalition troops in Iraq and other
terrorist activities against U.S. interests. Simply put, the troops would
probably not have been placed in such danger if the U.N. had done its job in
administering sanctions and Oil-for-Food.

But Coleman's next argument is properly directed at the very nature of the
United Nations itself. He argues that it lacks the institutional mechanism to
police itself. This is a far more serious shortcoming, one which the resignation of
Kofi Annan will not address.

As a former prosecutor, I believe in the presumption of innocence. Such
revelations, however, cast a dark cloud over Mr. Annan's ability to address
the U.N.'s quagmire. Mr. Annan has named the esteemed Paul Volcker to
investigate Oil-for-Food-related allegations, but the latter's team is
severely hamstrung in its efforts. His panel has no authority to compel the
production of documents or testimony from anyone outside the U.N. Nor does it
possess the power to punish those who fabricate information, alter evidence or
omit material facts. It must rely entirely on the goodwill of the very people
and entities it is investigating. We must also recognize that Mr. Volcker's
effort is wholly funded by the U.N., at Mr. Annan's control. Moreover, Mr.
Volcker must issue his final report directly to the secretary general, who
will then decide what, if anything, is released to the public.

Therefore, while I have faith in Mr. Volcker's integrity and abilities, it
is clear the U.N. simply cannot root out its own corruption while Mr. Annan is
in charge: To get to the bottom of the murk, it's clear that there needs to be
a change at the top. In addition, a scandal of this magnitude requires a truly
independent examination to ensure complete transparency, and to restore the
credibility of the U.N. To that end, I reiterate our request for access to
internal U.N. documents, and for access to U.N. personnel who were involved in
the Oil-for-Food program.

Edward Mortimer, Kofi Annan's Director of Communications maintained that the
UN could not delegate powers it did not itself possess. Nor could it bring
criminal charges against any malefactors within its ranks maintaining only that
it would not protect its staff from prosecution by member countries.

Mr. Annan responded to allegations about the U.N. oil-for-food program in
Iraq by asking Paul A. Volcker to head an independent inquiry. That inquiry
does not have subpoena power, because the United Nations does not have that
power to pass on to Mr. Volcker, but all U.N. staff members have been ordered
to cooperate with the inquiry on pain of dismissal. If the inquiry finds
evidence of criminal acts by U.N. officials or others, national courts with
the right to subpoena will pursue these people. Also, Mr. Annan has said that
any U.N. official found guilty of wrongdoing will not be allowed to claim
immunity from prosecution.

Coleman hints, but does not wholly pursue the idea that the Oil-for-Food
program tacticly served the agenda of some "permanent members" of the Security
Council. That in turn suggests that the Gulf War and subsequent events, far from
being a purely bilateral struggle between the United States and Saddam's regime,
was really the nexus of a great power struggle involving France, Russia and the
US. French policy in the Security Council prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom;
their determined efforts to prevent the 4th ID from deploying through Turkey and
its hostile attitude toward the Allawie government hints that the real bone of
contention with Paris was not over how to topple Saddam but whether or
not to keep him there.