UNScam today
Roger L. Simon, Friends of Saddam, Safire, and Claudia Rosett are on the story.

Friends of Saddam has a link to a Telegraph article on Michael Soussan, a program co-ordinator for the Oil-For-Food program from 1997 until 2000, when he resigned, who recently testified before a US congressional panel investigating the scandal, one of several probes under way in Washington, New York and Baghdad.

The UN recently claimed it "learned of the 10 per cent kickback scheme only after the end of major combat operations" in 2003.

A lie, said Mr Soussan, recalling the hapless Swedish company that called in 2000, seeking UN help after being asked to pay kickbacks. The Swedes' plea was quickly lost in red tape and inter-office turf wars. After a "Kafka-esque" flurry of internal memos, the Swedes were told to complain to their own government.

It did not help that, inside the Security Council, France, Russia and China openly opposed sanctions, threatening doom for any UN official tempted to blow the whistle on Saddam's cheating.

"Most high level UN employees need to be on good terms with key countries in the Security Council if they want to have a career."

And where is the MainStreamMedia? Silent.