Annan rejects Iraq oil bribe claim

Well, if Annan says it isn't so, then it must not be true.

Particular attention was allegedly given to French and Russian nationals due to the fact that the two countries hold permanent seats on the UN Security Council.

But Mr Annan firmly dismissed the claims: "I don't think the Russian or the French or the Chinese government would allow itself to be bought because some of their companies are getting contracts from the Iraqi authorities," Mr Annan said.

"I don't believe it at all," he added.

BWAHAHAHAHA!! <wipes tears from eyes> Of course not. Just like he wouldn't believe his own son would steal millions (or is it BILLIONS?) from the UN, which is headed by... you guessed it! So, you can choose to take the word of what amounts to a mafia don when it comes to bribery.

This time it isn't cutlery, baked hams and wine-cellar locks that have gone missing, but at least US$11 billion ($17 billion), depending on who is doing the counting - or rather, the guessing, since the UN has been curiously disinclined to investigate where all that money went.

Whatever the sum involved, it vanished from the UN-administered Iraq Oil For Food programme, and unlike last year's petty looting, those at the centre of suspicion aren't lowly bureaucrats but a tight cluster of high-up insiders centred on the office, family and inner circle of Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself.

And the UN 'isn't releasing documents and balance sheets'. Cool eh? You can steal and defraud, AND decide what documents the accountants get to check if your financial dealings can withstand daylight.

...at the end of 1998, the UN appointed a Swiss company called Cotecna to administer the programme, which would supervise the flow of some US$100 billion ($155 billion) in oil receipts, before it was finally shut down last November, when the UN reluctantly surrendered the job to the US-appointed Iraqi governing council in Baghdad.

What was Cotecna? For one thing, the former employer of Kofi Annan's son, Kojo, who was on the payroll until shortly before the contracts were awarded, when he became a contract consultant.

Cotecna's job involved squaring the income from oil sales against the goods that were allegedly purchased.

If Saddam's Iraq wanted to import ambulances from Saudi Arabia, the contract of sale had to be approved and the incoming goods inspected by Cotecna, as did tens of thousands of other items, from Russian hoes to Belarus welding rods.

In the first year alone, Cotecna pocketed $6 million ($9.3 million) for its services. After that, because the UN isn't saying, its share of the bounty is anybody's guess.

Of course that anti-Semitic scum Annan would cover for the Russians and French: They are part of the same criminal organization that HE heads! And this time I don't mean the UN!

Kojo (Kofi's son) has a knack for shady deals, and clearly networks his way thru his fathers contacts. Here's another example of how the Annan family does business:

...It is a bizarre tale involving a wayward nephew of president Robert Mugabe,the son of a former Saudi oil minister, as well as the son of the UN chief.
It is set against the backdrop of a Pounds75 million contract to redevelop Harare International Airport, the little-known Isle of Man-registered company that won it, and Mugabe's new mansion.

Please read the New Zealand News article, as well as the article on corruption in Zimbabwe.