Annan: The U.S was bad, too

U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan claimed today that the billions made by Saddam, through corruption in the U.N. Oil for Food program, was actually the fault of the U.S.
Mr. Annan thought he was speaking off the record.

Never mind that the entire program was administered by the U.N. Please pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Annan's assertion is based on the fact that most of the smuggling was fenced through Turkey and Jordan. Both allies of the U.S. He says that only the U.S. had the type of interdiction force necessary to stop the smuggling.

The U.N. never asked for interdiction support for smuggling being facilitated by its own officers, and EVERY attempt by the U.K. and the U.S. to bring the smuggling before the Security Counsel was blocked by the Russians and the French, both of whom had massive oil contracts in place with Saddam.

The charge seems to assert that the U.S. turned a blind eye to the smuggling, which was providing money with which Saddam bought (among other things) anti-aircraft weapons being used to attempt to shoot down the planes that the U.S. and the U.K. provided in order to police the no-fly zones over pre-war Iraq. We did this because the U.S. apparently likes the Jordanians more than their own pilots. This does not seem to conform with the other U.N. complaints claiming that the U.S. is too militaristic and aggressive. Here the U.S. decided to give a little cash to Saddam and a few corrupt U.N. officials and their foreign friends and family, rather than increase safety for it's pilots.

To be sure, the U.K. and the U.S. knew about the smuggling. Both brought the issue before the U.N. security coulsel more than once, and the U.N. failed to allow any action against it. I can only imagine that Mr. Annan's point is that bringing issues before the U.N. is a bad idea, and that the U.S. should have acted (wait for it) unilaterally.

It's about time Mr. Annan came around to the merit of "unilateral action."

Hmm. Sounds like somebody is nervous about the final U.N. audit due out in a few months. Sounds like Mr. Annan has some info that will make him look very weak at the very least. Hold onto your hats...