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UN oil for food chief faces inquiry into property deals

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  • UN oil for food chief faces inquiry into property deals

    American prosecutors are preparing charges against Benon Sevan, the former head of the United Nations oil for food programme, who has been accused of accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks from Saddam Hussein's regime.

    Congressional investigators examining alleged corruption in the programme disclosed that Mr Sevan's diplomatic immunity would not prevent an indictment being issued. Mr Sevan has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

    "We have tried to find out what part he had and we've been working to lift the lid on what he did," said one official on the US Congress International Relations committee. "My understanding is that we can indict him without lifting diplomatic immunity. That's what we did with Noriega."

    Gen Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian leader, was indicted in 1988 by a federal grand jury in Miami for drug trafficking. He had allowed the Medellin cartel to launder money and build cocaine laboratories in Panama.

    Former officials in Iraq's state oil company, Somo, have alleged to investigators reporting to the International Relations committee that Mr Sevan was "sacked" on Saddam's orders in 2001 for failing to keep promises to campaign on ending sanctions.

    "The basic understanding of these officials is that Saddam felt short-changed by this guy who took the money but did not deliver," said one committee staffer.

    Mr Sevan had been due to retire this year until a committee was appointed to investigate allegations that he had taken kickbacks from Saddam's regime. In his native Cyprus last week, he denied that he was running away from his accusers.

    "These people are digging, digging. That's nothing to do with me," he said from his five-star hotel. "Cyprus is my home. I'm here because I want to be here. I've made my statement and stand by it. It's not for me to comment on anything else."

    A spokesman for the Southern district of Manhattan's federal prosecutor's office said it was "too early" to comment on its indictment efforts over Mr Sevan. Officials are, however, examining the diplomat's extensive property portfolio in the United States.

    According to records, properties registered in his name include a flat in Manhattan, a house in the Hamptons on Long Island, a house in the nearby district of Rye, and a house on New Jersey's "Gold Coast". The Congressional official said: "It's an issue that he has property in the Hamptons and Manhattan."

    A second Congressional official said that the US hoped to recover some of the funds allegedly siphoned off from the now-defunct oil sales programme, which was designed to alleviate shortages of basic goods in Iraq as a result of sanctions.

    He said: "Our priority is to recover as much money as we can for Iraq, for various reasons, because they need the money and every dollar they have is a dollar we don't have to put in there."

    A CIA report published earlier this month claimed that Mr Sevan was allocated vouchers by Saddam to sell 7.3 million barrels of Iraqi oil through a Panamanian-registered company. Quoting "high-level sources", the report said: "Sevan never received his oil allocation in person. Sevan's vouchers were always picked up by Fakhir Abdul Noor, an Egyptian now residing in Switzerland and connected to the African Middle East Petroleum Co, who would sign documents on Sevan's behalf and pick up his allocation."

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../ixportal.html

  • #2
    Good!
    No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
    I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
    even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
    He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

    Comment


    • #3
      ...and we were supposed to get UN aproval for the war in Iraq?! Good luck when this crap is going on. If Kerry gets in, nothing like this will happen though, and France will send troops to Iraq Nov. 3rd!
      Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman.

      -- Larry Elder

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by smilingassassin
        ...and we were supposed to get UN aproval for the war in Iraq?! Good luck when this crap is going on. If Kerry gets in, nothing like this will happen though, and France will send troops to Iraq Nov. 3rd!
        I would like to advice you that the biggest battle the Canadians had fought since the end of the Korean War, ie Medak Pocket, was with the FREBAT (ie French Battalion attached to UNPROFOR) protecting our right flank.

        France also destroyed the Lybian Army when they ventured into Chad and this was during the Ronald Regan years.

        The French also bombed the terror base that suicide bomb their and American troops in Beiruit, Lebenon.

        The French lost people in Afghanistan.

        I can understand the American emotion of betryal a the French for their lack of support but let's not blame everything on the French when they have done far more than their share in supporting the US.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by smilingassassin
          ...and we were supposed to get UN aproval for the war in Iraq?! Good luck when this crap is going on. If Kerry gets in, nothing like this will happen though, and France will send troops to Iraq Nov. 3rd!
          I think smilingassassin watches too many Bush campaign trail speeches. He's starting to sound just like him.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Officer of Engineers
            let's not blame everything on the French
            We can certainly blame them for this...
            No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
            I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
            even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
            He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Confed999
              We can certainly blame them for this...

              Hating the French is one of the worlds favorite pastimes. It's almost cliche now. It's not like they stood alone in opposition to Bush's war on Iraq! They sit comfortably in the majority of world opinion for this issue.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Fonnicker
                Hating the French is one of the worlds favorite pastimes
                Show me where I've ever said "I hate the French". You are taking what I say to extremes again.
                No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Confed999
                  Show me where I've ever said "I hate the French". You are taking what I say to extremes again.

                  Misunderstanding. I was not aiming that at you or any individual, my apologies if you took it that way. It is popular american sentiment to hate the french, some goes for the british. Take the big hoopla about changing the name "french fries" to "freedom fries". I know it was a joke, but a pervasive attitude nonetheless.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Fonnicker
                    my apologies if you took it that way.
                    If you quote me, I'm going to think you are talking to me.
                    Originally posted by Fonnicker
                    It is popular american sentiment to hate the french
                    I don't actually believe the majority of Americans hate the French.
                    No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                    I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                    even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                    He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      My point is France never will go to Iraq, they never were, Kerry can't change their minds. Julie you seem to have run out of snappy put downs, the record is broken!

                      I never said I hated the French either, but as usual if we don't agree with the French we must hate them.

                      "They sit comfortably in the majority of world opinion for this issue."

                      Besides France and Germany, which major nation can you name that dosn't support the U.S? This should be interesting.......
                      Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman.

                      -- Larry Elder

                      Comment

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