Claudia Rosett is, as usual, at the forefront on UNScam reporting;
At the United Nations itself, heads have already been rolling, as one scandal after another has bubbled up from the oil-for-food morass. Several high-ranking U.N. officials close to Secretary-General Annan have been forced to “step aside” – as U.N. lingo has it. Federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that Saddam sent millions in bribes to two as-yet-unnamed high-ranking U.N. officials to help shape the program in his favor. But all the investigating so far has barely begun to expose the full extent of the corruption and mismanagement involved in oil for food, under which Saddam grafted billions out of more than $110 billion in U.N.-approved oil sales and relief purchases meant to help the people of Iraq.
“Follow the money,” says Mr. Rohrabacher, who adds, “Sometimes it’s easy to miss the fact that the bank is right in the middle of it.”
That bank is the New York branch of the French bank, BNP Paribas (formerly the Banque Nationale de Paris). Asked to answer questions related to BNP’s role in oil for food and its handling of such matters as letters of credit and banking fees, BNP officials responded via a public relations firm, saying they “really don’t want to talk to anybody before the hearing.”
Among questions the subcommittee is likely to pursue is why BNP, straying outside its contract with the United Nations, reassigned letters of credit – meaning that payments from the Iraq escrow account guaranteed to one contractor approved by the United Nations for a given deal were instead sent to an unapproved third party. Under a U.N. sanctions regime, in which the basic aim of oil for food was to monitor Saddam’s deals, such rogue payments, running right through the bank entrusted with the account, should have raised red flags. But the United Nations made no complaint. According to the U.N.-authorized inquiry led by Paul Volcker, the world body did not even bother to review BNP’s handling of the letters of credit. And, like most of the more telling details of oil for food, the specifics of BNP’s activities under the program were kept secret by the United Nations.
Three instances of reassigned oil-for-food letters of credit have already come to light, disclosed last November at a hearing of the House International Relations Committee, where members questioned BNP’s chief executive officer for North America, Everett Schenk, who did not provide an explanation. In all three cases, the letters of credit – totaling millions – guaranteed funds from the Iraq account meant to pay one of Saddam’s U.N.-approved suppliers of relief, the Saudi Arabia-based firm Al Riyadh International Flowers. Instead, BNP reassigned the letters of credit to a Malaysia-based firm, East Star Trading Company. Why?
Information from reader “Brightleaf” about East Star Trading Company reveals it’s registered in the Cayman Islands.
BNP was picked in 1996 for the role of chief oil-for-food banker by the former U.N. secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali. The U.N. inquiry into oil for food led by Mr. Volcker has reported that in choosing BNP, Mr. Boutros-Ghali bypassed U.N. procedure for competitive bidding. Mr. Boutros-Ghali has also been described in a recent Associated Press dispatch as “the subject of speculation” regarding likely targets of the federal bribery investigation. The AP further described him as “good friends” with the accused bagman for Saddam, South Korean Tongsun Park.
Mr. Park has also been revealed to be an associate of Canadian businessman and Kyoto architect, Maurice Strong. BNP Paribas on Oil-For-Food HotseatParibas is controlled by Canadian Power Corporation, of which Strong (and his star pupil, Paul Martin) is an alumni of sorts.
Nealenews:
“Diet hurting Martin’s brain, dietitian says”
Food for thought? Mange la merde (Trudeau).
You are what you eat? Fruits & nuts, Paul?
Pass the butter, please. Those d— farmers in Sask, alberta…… ralf, ralf, ralf…
More gravy, Paul? Sure. Oh, pass it around, willya.
Let’s try this bistro, Paola. OK, Alfonso, but you leave the tip. Ciao. Didya bring the brown paper? Ya, know I always do;it’s the grappa, Duce.
Oh boy.
Holy S**T!
and other exclamations
And I was only speculating about the byzantine double dealing nature of the Liberals. I figured that there was more to the corruption but little did I expect it to here and this deep, this thing is freakin’ worldwide. It _IS_ a grand conspiracy, I’m not sure firing every single questionable civil servant and doing away with all of these thieves is enough. Maybe something more along the lines of the end of fight club would be better.
I am just at a loss for constructive thought about this.
Daryl
Daryl.. you must be new to the blogosphere. If you want to learn more, do a search on “oil for food” using this sit’es search tool. I just tossed in a few tidbits for new readers, but the connections of Jean Chretien, Power Corporation and ruling members of the Liberal party to the Oil-For-Food scandal are too numerous for one post.
kate:
it’s BNP Paribas, thanks to a merger between Paribas and Banque National de Paris.
just picking a nit
I’m always doing that. Thanks for the heads up. Fixed now.
“Kyoto architect, Maurice Strong.”
AHHHHH!!!!
Let me at em!… let me at em!, Please….don’t need more then a few seconds….. just once…. I’ll cure him of his Kyoto obsession by not allowing him to expell any more CO2… I promise, he won’t feel any global warming ever again…..
All the more reason for our good patriotic pal Warren to bring every reporter and every citizen right here to this blog. All the publicity and exposure he can muster will bring more and more citizens right here to these news items, which they are not otherwise getting.
Then we can lay out all the connections for them. Right up into the GG, Privy Council, UN, the OECD, the jucidiary, Adscam outside Quebec, funding of the 13 moon calendar, CIDA (where’s the tsunami money?) etc. etc. etc.
Yes indeed, Warren. Make LOTS of noise. Get everyone curious about these bloggers that are so crazed that you personally have to visit and add commentary rather than just dismiss and ignore.
So how is it that you can assert that Jean did not know? Explain that again?
For anyone wantin a collection of sites laying out the Desmarais/UN/BNP Paribas/Total/Liberal Party connections, visit my site at http://members.shaw.ca/mediaright/
Fuzzy, you did an AWESOME job, thank you! I’ve been googling and, frankly going a bit crazy. Thanks for pulling it all together like that. Have you sent the link to a CPC MP yet???
Okay, forget Ludlum, we are now smack in the middle of “Pelican Brief.” Scary. But an interesting time with Msr. Strong now “safely” recovering in the Dominican Republic. Let’s hope enough sh*t gets stirred to keep him there.
And BrightLeaf, you did some kick-butt research yourself (you, who sent me scurrying through the internet lol).
Sign me,
not-so-naive, not-so-happy-to-be-not-so-naive, but info is power, so much better off…
Cheers
Fuzzy, great work. As I prefer archeology to construction, glad to have someone organize the data.
Suggestion: media links. Ties between CBC and LPC, Torstar, etc. How we live inside the subtle propaganda machine. Ties into academia, especially political science and economics (gotta breed the next generation).
Keep building, and I’ll keep digging.
I am finding “U Kwang Soe” coming up in Paris (Myanmar Embassy) and Eastern Star Trading. Stay tuned, information on its way. Also find this name showing up in some mil intel reports on drug trading in Southeast Asia. Stay tuned.
U Kyaw Soe and Eastern Star Trading associated here
heroin on board trawler owned by U Kyaw Soe
U Kyaw Soe may have a government job too
Kofi helped release U Kyaw Soe from prison
U Kyaw Soe listed as politician in German site
son of U Kyaw Soe busted for heroin trafficking
Not sure what this is. Google translation from Chinese. Some interesting names show up
here.
Includes U Kyaw Soe, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
a trial
Deputy Minister
arrested, but using alias of U Kyaw Soe
Several hits for U Kyaw Soe, probably 3 different people. Wonder which one is associated with Eastern Star Trading. And is the same Eastern Star Trading of note?
announcement found at Paris embassy website
Al Riyadh International Flowers
BNP and Letters of Credit
If you want to inspect some of the details of the Oil for Food Plan at the UN
distribution plan site, you will find that they have been busy cleaning up the site.
Oil For Food Termination Status of Funds
For those who wish to follow along more closely, read transcripts of the US Congressional Hearings investigating Oil For Food.
Outbreak of ornithophobia at UN! Officials panicked!
International Relations Committee discovers that UN will not allow access to audit of PNB Paribas.
Chretien, Desmaris, CITIC (China)
Ever thought of starting your own blog? Seriously – this isn’t the best way to pull information together for an audience.
Kate: Speaking of blogs, I’m up and running at:
http://www.mediaright.com
For the time-being I am concentrating on the incredible influence Desmarais and Power Corporation of Canada have over Canada and the UN. A lot of people seem to be throwing around pieces of the puzzle, but nobody is compiling it in one location. The media seems afraid of the topic, except a handful of editorialist. Every place Oil for Food comes up, Demarais and prominent Canadian Liberals, seems not too far away.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali was appointed Secretary General of La Francophonie after he left the UN. Could this have been a reward for services rendered to his francophone friends?
I’ve had a few people sending me links to new blogs. I’ll do a quick and dirty post soon to get your names out.
Hey fuzzy, I can pull up your page but can’t seem to make the url work. send me a direct link or put it up again.
D.
I mean of course that I can pull it up in this little window but thats a pain to veiw a full size web page.
Daryl