Annan defiant over his son's links to oil-for-food scheme

[emad]

Independent
By David Usborne in New York
30 March 2005


Kofi Annan's position as secretary general of the United Nations was further undermined after investigators said he failed to take sufficient action in 1999 when he found out that a company that had employed his son for several years had been awarded a big contract to oversee the oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

In its latest interim report yesterday, the committee investigating claims of corruption in the programme said it had found insufficient evidence to show Kojo Annan's connection to the firm in question, Cotecna Inspections, had skewed the bidding process that led to it being awarded the contract.

"There is no evidence that the selection of Cotecna in 1998 was subject to any affirmative or improper influence of the secretary general," Paul Volcker, former US Federal Reserve chairman, said. Mr Annan released a statement last night saying the inquiry had "cleared me of any wrongdoing".

But the cloud that the affair has cast over the secretary general will not be easily dispersed. Mr Annan was fully aware his son was working for Cotecna. What the investigators could not prove was that he knew the firm was competing for the oil-for-food programme in late 1998. He told investigators he only learned that Cotecna had sought and indeed won the contract from press reports in January 1999.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=624673

[Kagemusha]

1. That's damn thin grounds to condemn him.

I mean, just on the idea that because he found out his son worked for the company that meant that the company traded on his son's (and therefore his own) name to get that contract. How would he know this? Paranoia? Well, yes!

In an ideal world that would be enough but, those are thin grounds indeed to demand Annan's head. Big disappointment for the kill-the-UN crowd.

[hector459]

2. Annan learns well. Takes a page out of Bush/Rove book! It's called

by the RW being "strong" "confident" "consistent" "firm" and even being a "great leader."

Now all he has to do is tell them to go "f**K themselves and he will gain the admiration that Cheney gained on the Senate floor.

Boy, are American hypocritical, or what?

[KittyWampus]

3. The "Cloud" Was Fabricated By Unseen Evidence That Halabi (The Spy)

supposedly had on his computer but refused to divulge.

That's right- this all started from words out of the mouth of that upstanding Iraqi citizen Ahmed Chalabi.

[gratuitous]

4. Well, if this is the new standard for corruption . . .

Then what are we to make of no-bid government contracts handed out to a corporation that isn't competent to deliver the goods and services called for in that contract, which was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy before the fortuitous event of a trumped-up war, and one of whose former executives just happens to be the Vice President of the United States, who continues to receive compensation from that company, and that same company is shown to have overcharged recklessly for the services it has performed as well as charged for goods not delivered and services not performed?

I know, I know. Off to Gitmo with me for rememberin' stuff and askin' questions. No turkee for gratuitous.