Oil-for-Food Scam
What better way for me to begin my blogging journey here than to write about the world organization whom I view with the most cynicism, the United Nations. Or more specifically, the UN's Oil-for-Food program which not only sustained Iraq's Saddam Hussein from 1996 through 2003, but provided service fees to the UN itself in excess of $1.9 billion. Not surprising, I guess, that the UN would view enforcing its own resolutions and killing its cash cow to be the greater evil than ending the reign of a brutal tyrant. A good primer can be found here.
Claudia Rosset of the Wall Street Journal and other publications has spearheaded this emerging story, with its latest twist found here: Oil-for-Terror.
And this is just the "legally" exported oil. It's not hard to imagine that in addition to the oil that was knowingly exported with UN oversight, some could have found its way to other pipeline destinations, like Syria. Although not one of the official reasons for invading and removing Saddam Hussein from power, ending this program and exposing its abuses may end up being one of the war's most important achievements.
Posted by: CRB