NEW YORK -- The committee probing the Oil-for-Food scandal says it will correct omitting the name of a U.N. official involved in the international controversy who has a close relationship with the executive director of the panel.It's well known that the Volcker commission's executive director, Reid Morden, and Louise Frechette have had a "longstanding professional relationship" for 30 years, according to the Independent Inquiry Committee -- dubbed the "Volcker commission" after its chief, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
[...]
Committee officials admit that Morden discussed working on the U.N.-commissioned investigation with Frechette before he took the job with Volcker but they insist the friendship has not influenced Volcker's work at all and that the investigation is being conducted in a thorough and impartial manner.
But in the interim report released by the Volcker commission last month, which highlighted abuses and mismanagement of the Oil-for-Food program, Frechette is treated discreetly. Her name is nowhere to be found -- the report mentions only her job title -- even when declaring that she stopped U.N. auditors from telling the U.N. Security Council (search) about Oil-for-Food irregularities. That detail can be found on page 186 of the 219-page interim report. She later claimed she was just following U.N. rules.
Congressional critics like Rep. Tim Murphy, who also is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that is investigating Oil-for-Food, has accused the investigation of having an unreported conflict of interest.
"One of the things that occurs when one is part of an investigation is, you disclose in the first page what your relationships are so it's very clear -- it's very clear -- if there's any potential conflict of interest," said the Pennsylvania Republican.
"The fact that in this report, they didn't even refer to her by name or by title, and it seems to be that there is some attempt here to hide that there is any link or relationship there, I think only heightens or magnifies the concerns here that there's a potential for a conflict of interest."
Frechette, 58, came to the United Nations following a long career as a Canadian civil servant. The first deputy secretary-general in U.N. history, she has served since 1998 as Annan's chief administrator. She also chairs the steering committee on U.N. Reform and Management Policy.
FoxNews seems to be the one-stop shopping mart for developments on the Oil-For-Food investigations, complete with background links.
Meanwhile, on the Canadian beat..
cbc.ca :Your search - frechette + volker - did not match any documents.
ctv.ca: Your search has returned no results
thestar.com: Your search for "volker + frechette"�did not match any articles.
canada.com: 0 to 0�results out of�0
Yes, you won't find a mention of that anywhere here in Canukistan. I run into this constantly, mention Iraq, and you get "it was all about oil". Then put forward some of the facts being unearthed about the UN Oil for Food scam, and the blank looks follow. I get fooled into thinking I have a captive audience, but what they really think is I'm some kind of right wing conspiracy nut (aren't we all?).
The Liberal plan to "ignore it, it will go away" seems to be incredibly effective.
Yes, total despair here...
for the moment anyways.
Aside from Canada Free Press reporter Judi McLeod, who writes about the story on a regular basis, the only source of information on this in Canada is the blogs.
The Canadian mainstream media is strangely silent. Keep up the good work Kate.
I honestly can't recall reading a thing about the Oil for Food scandal at all in the Canadian media. Though I do often hear the "it's all about the oil" rant.
My retort is generally "then why wouldn't they just take over Canada, or maybe just Alberta".
The Western Standard has it as their cover story this month. Do them a favour and buy a subscription! All that and Mark Steyn, too.
Well, it WAS "all about the oil" - assuming you're talking about the un and the french position on the war.
And Volcker of course was an adivisor to Power Corp., which controlled BNP and Total Elf, which are both in turn linked to oil-for-food and Saddam Hussein.
So at the epicenter of the world's biggest financial swindle you have Canadian politicians and a Canadian company -- but no Canadian media.
Can old media die soon enough?
I've got a subscription. When I passed off some copies to a good friend of mine (he was the only one willing to read it), all I got back was "that Mark Steyn writes a lot of unsubstantiated crap!". Unsubstantiated, because people don't see it anywhere else. and then he passes me Gwynne Dyers book. I had to read the whole thing as punishmnet for trading a couple of copies of the Western Standard. It's hard to keep friends when stuff like this happens.
That was bad. At one point, within two pages, Gwynny says that Rwanda, Kosovo, Somalia were some bad things that happened to some innocent people, unfortunate, but, BUT, the United States military power is something very nasty to the world, and must be stopped! Nope, no consience there.
Other people here in Saskatoon refused, refused, to read the Western Standard. Because, dontcha know, its a bunch of right wing nazi stuff. People who read that are like, white supremists, or something.
Ah well, everthying will change after the revolution.
We can only hope, boink.
I'll make a correction note here - in my search I had spelled Volcker incorrectly. (pointed out in the crosspost at the Shotgun). However, the results are the same with the error corrected, so I haven't bothered to fix it.
dredded boink wrote:
"Other people here in Saskatoon refused, refused, to read the Western Standard. Because, dontcha know, its a bunch of right wing nazi stuff."
Which only proves that most people in Saskatchewan are sophistocated politically speaking. They certainly know right wing crap when they first see it.
You have to admit however, that Kate and her "dog and pony show" is unique. Where else do you get to see a miniature poodle that answers to the name of Ezra.