Watching the UN: the Wall Street Journal has read Paul Volcker's report on Kofi Annan and the now infamous "Oil for Food" scandal, and reaches a verdict.
In the narrowest sense, Mr. Volcker's Committee found "no evidence" that the Secretary General influenced the U.N.'s 1998 selection of Swiss inspections company Cotecna for an Oil for Food contract. It also found that "the evidence is not reasonably sufficient to show that the Secretary-General knew that Cotecna had submitted a bid on the humanitarian inspection contract in 1998."In a broader sense, however, what Mr. Volcker's report reveals is an "adverse finding" against the Secretary General: That is, patterns of willful neglect, conflict of interest and incompetence that would have any business CEO out on his ear.
John Bolton can't arrive soon enough as our new UN ambassador. Surely he will help to expose further the systemic failures of these globe-trotting, diplomatic grifters.
Posted by Alan at March 30, 2005 12:22 PM