HASTA AHORA habíamos oído hablar de Kojo Annan, y por supuesto su padre Kofi, por su implicación en la megaestafa del programa Petróleo por Alimentos.

¡Tacháaaan! démosle la bienvenida en el listado de implicados a Kobina Annan, hermano del secretario general de la ONU y tío del chaval:

THE official investigation into corruption in the £20 billion United Nations oil for food programme is now looking at the brother of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general.

Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be “connected” to an African businessman at the centre of the scandal.

The oil for food programme was set up by the UN in 1995 to provide humanitarian supplies to Iraq, which was at the time prevented from trading normally with the rest of the world because of sanctions.

However, Saddam Hussein subverted the programme by taking kickbacks from companies involved and giving cut-price oil vouchers to influential individuals around the world.

Kobina is the second member of Annan’s family to be drawn into the scandal, which has led to the resignation of several senior UN officials.

The secretary-general has so far escaped censure, but the final verdict on his conduct will not be delivered by investigators until the autumn.

Kojo Annan, the secretary-general’s son who was involved with several companies seeking to profit from the programme, has been criticised and remains under investigation.

Inquiries into Kobina are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed.

However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal.

A source close to the investigation said: “We believe Kobina Annan may be involved with Michael Wilson and Kojo Annan. We know there is a connection between Kobina and Wilson.”

The oil for food programme was the biggest humanitarian scheme undertaken. However, since the fall of Saddam allegations of corruption have surfaced forcing the UN to set up a commission, headed by Paul Volcker, the former head of the American Federal Reserve, to investigate it.

Saddam is alleged to have used valuable oil allocations to influence key figures around the world. Bribes were also demanded in return for oil, which were paid into a network of secret bank accounts.

Se cierra el círculo en torno a Kofi Annan, en el mejor de los casos por incompetencia de tal grado que debería inhabilitarle para montar un kiosco de refrescos en una esquina. Seguro que se sale del asunto alegando que tiene mucho trabajo con la Alianza de Civilizaciones. Deberían cambiar el nombre al plan-engendro y bautizarlo como Alianza de Implicaciones. Están todos los de la megaestafa allí, juntitos.

AYER ERA UN MEMORANDUM, y hoy son dos e-mails los que implican hasta las cejas a Kofi Annan en el timo del barrilito, la corrupción en el programa Petróleo por Alimentos:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan faces new questions over whether he lied to independent investigators probing the scandal-scarred Oil-for-Food program. Those investigators said Tuesday they were "urgently reviewing" fresh evidence.

That evidence, obtained by FOX News, appears to contradict Annan's claim that he knew nothing about the awarding of a major Oil-for-Food contract to a company that employed his son.

Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna Inspection S.A., a Swiss firm that won one of the most lucrative contracts in the multibillion-dollar program.

One of Kojo Annan's supervisors there was a man named Michael Wilson, a lifelong friend of Kofi Annan.

The secretary-general has consistently denied ever discussing the Cotecna contract with any of the company's executives.

"I have no involvement with granting of contracts either on this Cotecna one or others," Kofi Annan said in November.

But Cotecna has given new documents to investigators with the Independent Inquiry Committee, the U.N.-approved panel headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker charged with looking into corruption associated with the Oil-for-Food program.

The documents are e-mails from Wilson, the old Annan family friend, to other executives at Cotecna describing a meeting in Paris just weeks before the Oil-for-Food contract was awarded.

Si seguís leyendo veréis todos los detalles. Por indicios infinitamente más débiles que estos, los impermeables dictaminaron hace tiempo que la guerra de Iraq se hizo por orden de Dick Cheney para que Halliburton se quedara con el petróleo iraquí.

En otro orden de cosas me pregunto cuánto tiempo los medios de comunicación españoles seguirán poniendo su credibilidad al pairo silenciando este escándalo (lo de El Mundo ayer es la excepción que confirma la regla). Ya sé que les duele que el organismo-tótem de las clases biempensantes no sea más que un nido de corrupción, y encima si el feo asunto demuestra la poca honorabilidad de la mayoría de las posturas institucionales en contra de la guerra de Iraq. Además, entiendo que quieran evitarle un disgusto a nuestro amado líder de la Alianza de Civilizaciones, que bastantes problemas tiene ya (príncipe que besa, príncipe que sale rana: Kerry, Schroeder, Chirac, Annan...). Pero más les va a doler cuando la gente les otorgue aún menos credibilidad de la que ya les otorga ahora.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Faltaba un enlace (gracias a JBW por el aviso).

ESTABA LIMPIANDO mi carpeta de spam, y enseguida entenderéis por qué me ha hecho una gracia especial este mensaje que he recibido hoy (background aquí):

From: MR KOJO ANNAN
Date: Sep 20, 2006 5:05 PM
Subject: BE MY PARTNER.
To:

Dear Partner,
My names are Kojo Annan. I am the son of the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan.My motive for contacting you is based on my urgent need of a partner that can assist in securely and investing $47,000,000.00. The source of these funds is my now overtly known participation as a consultant with the Swiss firm Cotecna Inspection S.A, in the Iraqi Oil for Food Program. Though the program has been
discontinued since 2004, the public scrutiny into how the affairs of the program were run has refused to go away.I was on transit in Europe when I was contacted on the phone by my lawyers that a further revelation about two incriminating emails had broken on the said program. I had to immediately re-organize my
immediate travel plans. Coincidentally, I had just taken delivery of the above mentioned funds. Because I knew that the press would be looking out for me, I had to hurriedly seek for a storage company to keep away the trunk cases containing the said funds.Fortunately, a 145 page report released by an independent inquiry committee headed by U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker has exonerated me and my dad of any wrong doing. You can get first hand news on this by visiting
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050329-031329-6020r.htm
Following this good news, I would have since gone back to retrieve the suitcases but I know I am being watched because of the Oil for Food scandal. This is why I require your assistance. You are to proceed immediately to Europe with the relevant claim documents which I will provide you with, to retrieve the suitcases. I have already notified the storage company in writing, of my intention to elect someone that would be coming on my behalf and it is ok with them. They have simply asked me to arm my elected person with a consent letter. The cases where logged in as personal effects.
Before you proceed, ensure that you have perfected modalities to take care of the funds once they arrive your account. Soon after, my attorney would meet with you to sign relevant documentation to evidence our partnership in a profitable venture we will decide on. You are to get 20% for your troubles.if you are interested in my proposal.
Please send me your :
full names
contact address
direct phone number
occupation
I await your urgent response.
Best Regards.
Kojo Annan.
please reply me through this email:kojo1annan@excite.com.

Brutal. Se lo he enviado a Claudia Rosett; seguro que le hará gracia.

Clic para enviarme un correo-e

KOJO ANNAN, hijo del secretario general de las Naciones Unidas, estuvo cobrando hasta febrero de 2004 de Cotecna Inspection Services, una de las empresas implicadas en la estafa en el programa Petróleo por Alimentos (21 mil millones del ala embolsados por Saddam Hussein y los palmeros que recibieron sobornos por cantar las glorias del sátrapa y berrear en contra de la guerra):

The secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, was previously reported to have worked for a Swiss-based company called Cotecna Inspection Services SA, which from 1998-2003 held a lucrative contract with the U.N. to monitor goods arriving in Saddam Hussein's Iraq under the oil-for-food program. But investigators are now looking into new information suggesting that the younger Annan received far more money over a much longer period, even after his compensation from Cotecna had reportedly ended.

The importance of this story involves not only undisclosed conflicts of interest, but the question of the role of the secretary-general himself, at a time when talk is starting to be heard around the U.N. that it is time for him to resign, and the staff labor union is in open rebellion against "senior management."

"What other bombshells are out there being hidden from the public and U.N. member governments?" asked an investigator on Rep. Henry Hyde's International Relations Committee, which has held hearings on oil-for-food.

The younger Annan stopped working for Cotecna in late 1998, but it now turns out that he continued to receive money from Cotecna not only through 1999, as recently reported, but right up until February of this year. The timing coincides with the entire duration of Cotecna's work for the U.N. oil-for-food program. It now appears the payments to the younger Annan ended three months after the U.N., in November, 2003, closed out its role in oil-for-food and handed over the remains of the program to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.

La noticia resumida en español aquí.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Más en Belmont Club.

EL HIJO DE Kofi Annan, el secretario general de las Naciones Unidas, está hecho un campeón. Además de su implicación en la estafa del programa Petróleo por Alimentos, utilizaba el cargo de su padre para hacer todo tipo de negocios:

The son of Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, lobbied for business contacts at gatherings of UN officials on behalf of a company in the same year as it won an oil-for-food programme deal, it has emerged.

The second disclosure in a week about Kojo Annan's role with the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection Services, which secured the $4.8 million (£2.46 million) UN contract to monitor goods entering and leaving Iraq in 1998, has raised embarrassing questions for his father. The details were revealed in Cotecna company documents handed over under subpoena to US congressional scrutineers who are investigating the oil-for-food scandal in which Saddam Hussein is thought to have creamed off more than $20 billion.

In one billing memo, a US investigator told The Telegraph, Kojo Annan, 29, claimed fees and expenses for eight days' work in July 1998, including six days in Abuja "during my father's visit to Nigeria". On another, he claimed expenses and $500 a day for a 15-day trip to New York and the UN General Assembly in September 1998 for meetings on "special projects".

Kojo was working as a consultant on African business deals for Cotecna at the time.

TIENE RAZÓN MANEL, ando atareadísimo (de hecho acabo de regresar a mi oficina), y por eso hasta ahora no he podido recoger esta información sobre la dimisión de dos integrantes de la comisión de la ONU que está investigando la corrupción en el programa Petróleo por Alimentos, en protesta por lo que entienden -y no son los únicos- que ha sido una injustificada exculpación del Papa Negro:

TWO senior investigators in the probe of corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food programme have resigned because they believe a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the £33.5 billion operation was too soft on the secretary general, a panel member confirmed.

The investigators felt the independent inquiry committee played down findings critical of Mr Annan when it released an interim report last month that related to Mr Annan’s son, Kojo, said Mark Pieth, one of three leaders of the committee.

[...] The committee’s interim report last month criticised Mr Annan’s management of the oil-for-food programme, which was set up to help Iraqis cope with UN sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein’s regime after his invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The report also said Mr Annan did not properly investigate possible conflicts of interest surrounding a UN contract awarded to the Swiss employer of Kojo. The investigators criticised Mr Annan for refusing to push his top advisers further after they conducted a hasty, 24-hour investigation relating to his son and found nothing wrong.

But the report cleared Mr Annan of trying to influence the awarding of the $10 million-a-year Swiss contract and said he did not violate UN rules.

Mr Annan said the report exonerated him - something Mr Pieth denied at the time - and the secretary general said he had no plans to resign. The investigation into Kojo continues. Mr Volcker has promised to deliver a final oil-for-food investigation report in mid-summer.

HABLANDO DE Ambiciones Unidas, aquí tenéis un estupendo artículo de Mark Steyn resumiendo con su gracejo habitual lo que ya se sabe de la megaestafa del programa Petróleo por Alimentos. Cuando se atan cabos resulta todo más espeluznante:

How many Annans does it take to change a light bulb? Well, if the replacement light bulb's being shipped to Uday Hussein's Iraqi Olympic Committee recreational basement as part of the UN Oil-for-Food programme, there's no telling how many Annans you'll need.

You'll recall that Kofi Annan's son Kojo - who had a $30,000-a-year job but managed to find a spare quarter-million dollars sitting around to invest in a Swiss football club - has been under investigation for some time for his alleged ties to the Oil-for-Food programme. But the investigators have now broadened their sights to include Kofi's brother Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, who has ties to a businessman behind several of the entities involved in the scandal - one Michael Wilson, the son of the former Ghanaian ambassador to Switzerland and a childhood friend of young Kojo. Mr Wilson is currently being investigated for suspected bribery over a $50 million contract to renovate the Geneva offices of the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation.

The actual head of the Oil-for-Food racket, Kofi sidekick Benon Sevan, has resigned, having hitherto insisted that a mysterious six-figure sum in his bank account was a gift from his elderly aunt, a lady of modest means who lived in a two-room flat back in Cyprus. Paul Volcker's investigators had planned to confirm with auntie her nephew's version of events, but unfortunately she fell down an elevator shaft and died. It now seems likely that the windfall had less to do with Mr Sevan's late aunt and more to do with his soliciting of oil allocations for another company.

Meanwhile, Alexander Yakovlev, a senior procurement officer for UN "peacekeeping" missions - and, if you're on a UN mission in Africa, no, he can't fix you up with a hot-looking eight-year-old from the local village; Mr Yakovlev apparently dealt with the non-child-sex aspects of UN procuring - anyway, Mr Yakovlev salted away just shy of a million bucks in kickbacks in his account in Antigua. He's just been arrested in New York and pleaded guilty to money laundering, wire fraud, etc.

Despite the current investigations into his brother, his son, his son's best friend, his former chief of staff, his procurement officer and the executive director of the UN's biggest ever programme, the Secretary-General insists he remains committed to staying on and tackling the important work of "reforming" the UN.

Unfortunately, his Executive Co-Ordinator for United Nations Reform has also had to resign. Officially, Maurice Strong, Under-Secretary-General, godfather of the Kyoto treaty and chief UN negotiator on North Korea, resigned because he'd put his step-daughter on the payroll - she's also quit - and because of his ties to Tongsun Park, a Korean businessman charged by the US Attorney's office with taking millions of dollars from Saddam to act as an unregistered foreign agent for Iraq. Mr Park allegedly invested a million of those Saddamite greenbacks in a business of Under-Secretary-General Strong's son - a now bankrupt Canadian petroleum company.

By happy coincidence, Under-Secretary-General Strong and Kojo Annan were both appointed, on the same day, to the board of a company called Air Harbour Technologies, a business registered in the Isle of Man and whose directors also included Michael Wilson, the guy under investigation for the UN office renovation contract in Geneva. It's a small world, at least at the UN. AHT was wholly owned by the son of Sheikh Yamani, the former Saudi oil minister. Yamani Jnr was putting together a $60 million oil deal with Saddam, and seemed to think the presence of UN officials and offspring on his board might help him.

But not to worry. To demonstrate his ongoing commitment to "reform", Kofi Annan has now put his Deputy- Secretary-General, Louise Frechette, another Canadian, in charge of the "reform agenda". In a February report by Mr Volcker's committee, Mme Frechette is said to have helped Mr Sevan block efforts to bring details of the Oil-for-Food boondoggle before the Security Council.

Como bien dice Steyn, todo esto se ha sabido únicamente a raíz del hallazgo de documentos en despachos oficiales en Bagdad cuando los baasistas salieron por piernas. Es decir, a raíz de la guerra. No es extraño que Kofi Annan la denunciase; y cuando sepamos la red de sobornados en todo el mundo tampoco no extrañará muchos de los berreos de "No a la guerra". Al tiempo.

¿CÓMO MEJORAR la efectividad de la ONU? Josep Xercavins, coordinador de la Campaña Mundial para una profunda Reforma del Sistema de Instituciones Internacionales, se lo pregunta hoy en un artículo de opinión en La Vanguardia.

El mérito del autor es escribir sobre la fallida reforma, que se quedó en agua de borrajas durante la última Asamblea General, sin hacer ni una sola referencia a lo disminuida que está la autoridad moral del organismo -por decirlo de la forma más suave posible- tras la mayor estafa jamás registrada en la historia de la Humanidad -no exagero-: la del programa Petróleo por Alimentos, en el que estaba implicado Benon Sevan -que lo dirigía bajo el mando directo de Kofi Annan- así como otros funcionarios de la organización-tótem, e incluso Kojo Annan, el hijo del secretario general. Tampoco dedica ni una sola línea a los continuos escándalos sexuales que salpican a los cascos azules en todo el mundo.

Claro que si lo hubiera hecho probablemente los lectores del diario barcelonés probablemente no habrían entendido nada, porque el diario ha estado ignorando completamente estos temas hasta que no le ha quedado más remedio que escribir alguna pequeña noticia que ha enterrado en algún lugar de su edición lo más recóndito que fuera posible.


ACTUALIZACIÓN. Comparad:

Slowly but surely, the investigative circle grows closer to Kofi Annan.

Monday, the former French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Bernard Merimee, was arrested in Paris on suspicion of having taken kickbacks from Saddam Hussein in the form of vouchers from the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program.

From 1999 to 2002, Merimee was Secretary-General Annan's special assistant for European affairs. And there's a possible Oil-for-Food connection to Annan's son, Kojo, and brother, Kobina — themselves under investigation for their alleged involvement in the program.

Merimee's name first surfaced last fall, when an investigative report by Charles Duelfer, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, disclosed that captured Iraqi documents listed him as having received vouchers for 11 million barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein.

Prestad especialísima atención, por la parte que nos toca, a la conexión marroquí. Últimamente Marruecos está en todos lados; parece el perejil de todas las salsas (pun abolutamente intended).

NUESTRO AMIGO Kojo, el hijo de Kofi Annan que no es manko, por lo visto de nezio o de mentekato tampoco tiene un pelo:

In late 1998, U.N. sources say, Kojo, son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, got a $3,000 loan from a friend for a down payment on a sporty green Mercedes ML 320 in Geneva, Switzerland. The friend was Michael Wilson, then a vice president of Cotecna, the firm that not only employed Kojo but also won millions of dollars in U.N. contracts, including one, signed within two months after the down payment was made, to monitor the oil-for-food program in Iraq. About the same time Wilson's wife bought a car from the Swiss dealer, Kojo Annan wound up paying $39,000 for his Mercedes, getting $15,000 in help from his dad plus a $6,000 "diplomatic" discount by falsely claiming that his father was the car's owner. He later shipped the vehicle to his native Ghana, again using his father's diplomatic status to avoid paying $14,000 in customs duties.

(via Roger Simon)

NOVEDADES IMPORTANTES en la megaestafa del programa Petróleo por Alimentos, prácticamente ignorada por los medios de comunicación españoles:

A memo written by someone who was then an executive of a major contractor in the United Nations oil-for-food program states that he briefly discussed the company's effort to win the contract in late 1998 with Secretary General Kofi Annan and his "entourage" and that the executive was told that "we could count on their support."

The secretary general's son, Kojo Annan, was employed by Cotecna Inspection Services, a Swiss contractor based in Geneva, and the nature of that relationship is among the issues being investigated by a panel appointed by the United Nations and several Congressional committees.

Kofi Annan has said several times that he did not discuss the contract with his son and was not involved in Cotecna's selection. A United Nations panel headed by Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, concluded in March that Mr. Annan had not influenced the awarding of the $10 million dollar-a-year contract to the company.

But the memo appears to raise questions about the secretary general's role.

De momento sí hay algo que está claro en la actuación de Annan: que ha estado mintiendo una y otra vez desde que se empezó a investigar el asunto.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Empieza la acción (no os perdáis la foto). Más rápido, por favor.

KOJO, el hijo del secretario general de las Naciones Unidas Kofi Annan, ha reconocido haberse relacionado con la compraventa de crudo estafado en el programa Petróleo por Alimentos:

THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein.

Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme.

The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing calls for his resignation over the management of the humanitarian programme.

Que se vaya ya de una vez.

ES KOJO, PERO EN ABSOLUTO MANKO:

Kojo Annan, son of Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, received at least $300,000 from Cotecna, a Swiss inspection company awarded a contract ultimately worth about $60m under the Iraqi oil-for-food contract.

The amount was almost double the sum previously disclosed, but payments were arranged in ways that obscured where the money came from or whom it went to.

The discovery, in a joint investigation by Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, and the Financial Times, comes as the independent UN inquiry led by Paul Volcker into possible abuses within the oil-for-food programme prepares to publish a new report on this matter.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Visto todo esto en el contexto de las propuestas lanzadas el otro día por el papá del no-manko Kojo para reformar la ONU, resulta llamativo que en ningún lugar de este artículo de Eusebio Val en La Vanguardia se haga la más mínima referencia, no ya a la monumental estafa en el programa Petróleo por Alimentos, sino a la corrupción económica y a los escándalos sexuales de los cascos azules en el Congo y en todos aquellos lugares en los que están desplegados.

ASÍ QUE CHIRAC Y ZAPATERO llamaron ayer a Kofi Annan para mostrarle su apoyo ante las "injustas acusaciones" de Mr Bush y los neocons por la estafa en el programa Petróleo por Alimentos. Pues Annan -además de padre de Kojo- es, como secretario general de la ONU, responsable directo de Benon Sevan, que dirigía el programa Petróleo por Alimentos desde la sede central en Nueva York del organismo-tótem. Y Benon Sevan no sólo recibió sobornos de Saddam, sino que parte de ellos los blanqueó desviando el dinero a familiares en Chipre (de donde él procede) para que pareciera que el dinero lo había recibido como herencia:

Congressional investigators are examining whether the former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program laundered profits from shady oil deals with Saddam Hussein through family businesses in Cyprus to make it look as if his newfound wealth was coming from an "inheritance."

A spokesman for the House International Relations Committee told The Post yesterday the panel is investigating new information that ex-oil-for-food chief Benon Sevan concocted an elaborate scheme to hide profits he received from sweetheart oil deals by diverting money to family members in his native Cyprus.

"The information we received is that he diverted the money [from the deals] to family members in Cyprus," the spokesman said.

"We have been informed that it was set up so that if he were to be put in a room and asked where his money came from, he would say it came from inheritance from his grandmother or an aunt."

The committee is now searching for a money trail through banks in several countries, the spokesman said. Sevan hasn't been questioned by the congressional probers.

Sevan, an Armenian Cypriot, is a career U.N. bureaucrat at the center of the burgeoning oil-for-food scandal, which has thrown the world body into a crisis and threatens to topple Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Sevan, who owns homes in Manhattan and the Hamptons, is alleged to have made millions in profits through a scheme in which Saddam granted vouchers that allowed recipients to buy Iraqi oil at below-market prices and resell it on the open market at profits of up to 50 cents a barrel.

Os recuerdo que la estafa no es una estafa cualquiera; son 21 mil millones de dólares (y subiendo) que debían haber servido para comprar alimentos y medicinas para la población iraquí. Aunque sólo fuera por vergüenza torera, Annan tendría que dimitir, ni que fuera por incompetencia. Por lo menos antes de que se descubra algo peor. Y las llamadas que se le hiciesen deberían ser para pedirle explicaciones de por qué (siendo caritativos) no hizo nada para evitarlo; precisamente quienes defienden (ingenuamente, por desconocimiento, por interés o por dinero, da lo mismo) a la ONU como el único foro para solucionar los problemas entre los países tendrían que ser los primeros interesados en que ese foro fuera impecable.

De otro modo incluso quienes creen en el ideal de la ONU de forma sincera van a acabar pidiendo que se desmantele.

MAÑANA, A LAS 11 DE LA NOCHE, el canal Odisea emite un reportaje sobre el mega-timo del programa Petróleo por Alimentos en Iraq (lista de entradas sobre el tema en este blog, aquí). A juzgar por la nota de prensa, se van a limitar a hablar de empresas, políticos y funcionarios iraquíes. Es una pena, porque se van a dejar lo más "divertido": los centenares de personajes en otros paises de Europa, Oriente Medio, Rusia y Estados Unidos que fueron comprados por el tío Saddam a cambio de oponerse a las sanciones, primero, y a la guerra, después. Entre ellos Hans von Sponeck, que por lo visto sale en el reportaje pero cuya culpabilidad dudo quede clara. Ni parece que vayan a hablar de Benon Sevan ni de Kojo Annan; sí dicen que la ONU estaba al corriente, pero es que es mucho peor. No sólo estaba al corriente, sino que era el primero en poner la mano.

En fin, habrá que ver el reportaje, pero no tengo mucha esperanza --entre otros motivos por el tenor habitual del canal Odisea--  de que sea un relato exhaustivo y sin ambages. Espero equivocarme.

NO FUERON DIEZ MIL, sino 20 mil millones de dólares (esto es, 21.000.000.000, que con ceros se aprecia más la brutalidad) los que estafó Saddam Hussein a través del programa Petróleo por Alimentos. Más del doble de lo que se suponía hasta ahora. Con ellos se enriqueció personalmente, enriqueció a los suyos, y compró voluntades en todo el mundo. Entre ellas las de Benon Sevan, el oficial de la ONU a cargo del programa, Kojo Annan, el hijo del secretario general de las Naciones Unidas, y múltiples políticos, periodistas y figuras relevantes en todo el mundo, incluido nuestro país.

Y queda mucha madeja de la que tirar.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Islero en comentarios aporta un dato que ayuda aún más que escribir la cifra con todos sus ceros: y es que en el año 2000, el PIB de Iraq era exactamente de 20.000 millones de dólares; millón arriba o millón abajo, la misma cantidad estafada a los iraquíes por el tirano, sus secuaces y sus palmeros.

Otro modo de verlo: partiendo de que el PIB de España es de unos 800 mil millones de dólares, la estafa equivaldría aproximadamente a un 2,5% del producto interior bruto español.

Con la de ríos de tinta que corrieron en su momento a propósito de escándalos como Enron, que supuestamente demostraban que el sistema capitalista estaba podrido por dentro. Calderilla al lado de esto; pero sobre el organismo tótem y sobre el segundo tirano favorito de la biempensantía (el primero, por lo menos de la de aquí, es Castro) casi ni una línea, no vaya a ser que se manchen sus reputaciones.

ACTUALIZACIÓN II. Roger Simon se pregunta qué habría ocurrido si la estafa hubiese seguido funcionando, porque no se hubiese interrumpido a raíz de, hmmm, cierto acontecimiento ocurrido en Iraq hace un año y medio.

NOVEDADES, y fuertes, sobre el fraude en el programa Petróleo por Alimentos que puso 10.000 millones de dólares en los bolsillos de Saddam, de varios funcionarios de la ONU y de varios políticos y apologetas del tirano iraquí en todo el mundo:

Congressional investigators say that France, Russia and China systematically sabotaged the former United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq by preventing the United States and Britain from investigating whether Saddam Hussein was diverting billions of dollars.

In a briefing paper given yesterday to members of the House subcommittee investigating the program, the investigators said their review of the minutes of a United Nations Security Council subcommittee meeting showed that the three nations "continually refused to support the U.S. and U.K. efforts to maintain the integrity" of the program.

The program, set up in 1996, was an effort to keep pressure on Mr. Hussein to disarm while helping the Iraqi people survive the sanctions imposed after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The briefing paper was prepared by the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, before hearings scheduled for Tuesday on the scandal-ridden program.

The paper suggests that France, Russia and China blocked inquiries into Iraq's manipulation of the program because their companies "had much to gain from maintaining'' the status quo. "Their businesses made billions of dollars through their involvement with the Hussein regime and O.F.F.P.," the document states, using the initials for the program. No officials of the three governments could be reached for comment.

The paper also accuses the United Nations office charged with overseeing the program of having "pressed" contractors not to rigorously inspect Iraqi oil being sold and the foreign goods being bought. The program office, headed by Benan Sevan, who is also under investigation by a committee appointed by the United Nations, turned a blind eye to corruption charges, the paper says, because it apparently saw oil-for-food "strictly as a humanitarian program."

O quizás miraba otro lado porque en su bolsillo estaban entrando unos tres millones y medio de dólares. Por lo menos.

The briefing paper said the hearing would focus on Cotecna, the Switzerland-based company hired by the United Nations in 1999 to monitor goods shipped to Iraq, and Saybolt International B.V., the Dutch company that monitored Iraqi oil exports.

Also under scrutiny will be BNP Paribas, the French bank that handled oil revenues under the program and which "never initiated a review of the program or the reputation of those involved," the paper says. This "apparent incuriosity," it adds, "raises questions about its internal due diligence and ethical safeguards."

The paper said Mr. Hussein's government had influenced whom Saybolt and Cotecna employed and had made it hard for them to obtain the equipment and supplies they needed. "This slowed the inspection process, making it difficult for the inspectors to carry out their duties and easier for the Iraqis to pressure the inspectors or sneak things past the inspection regime,'' the paper says.

Cotecna, para lo que lo desconozcáis, es la empresa suiza que centralizaba todo el control del programa y en la que trabajaba Kojo Annan, hijo de Kofi. Sí, este señor que sonríe tanto; no creo que sea por la dulzura habitual que se apodera de uno cuando contempla con nostalgia el pasado. Al fin y al cabo, en 1994 él era el máximo responsable de los esfuerzos humanitarios de la ONU, y por tanto quien dio órdenes explícitas de que no se hiciera nada para evitar el genocidio en Ruanda que se llevó por delante 900.000 vidas en pocas semanas. Preguntádselo a Romeo Dallaire.

COMO ESCRIBÍ EN VARIAS OCASIONES en Hispalibertas (podéis empezar aquí y después ir siguiendo los links desde allí), uno de los silencios más ensordecedores en torno a Iraq, y muy particularmente en los medios de comunicación de nuestro país, es el del escándalo del programa Petróleo por Alimentos de la ONU. Teniendo en cuenta los ríos de tinta que han corrido en relación con escándalos financieros como el de Enron o Parmalat (o Gescartera), es doblemente curioso su abandono del tema por mucho que afecte a la institución-tótem de la biempensantía mundial. En algunos de los links de arriba quizás se adivine el motivo; un motivo muy concreto.

Y es que no estoy hablando de calderilla, sino de una verdadera estafa que podría rondar los 10 mil millones de dólares que habrían ido a parar a las arcas del tirano, a personajes e instituciones de medio mundo que abogaban por el No a la guerra, a gobiernos de los países que se significaron en contra de la misma en el Consejo de Seguridad, a varios directivos de la ONU -entre ellos Benon Sevan, el director del programa-, y que salpica incluso a Kojo Annan, hijo del secretario general; quizás a él mismo. Y también hay serios indicios de que una parte acabara en empresas tapadera de al-Qaeda.

Sería redundante repetir aquí todo lo ya tratado sobre esta cuestión, por eso si os interesa os recomiendo -y perdonad la autocita- que leáis los posts que escribí sobre el tema y que podéis encontrar en el link que he indicado más arriba. También os aconsejo visitar el blog Friends of Saddam dedicado íntegramente al tema y, en general, los artículos de Claudia Rosett, la periodista que heroicamente ha estado hincando el diente al asunto prácticamente en solitario y que iré enlazando a partir de ahora a medida que aparezcan. El de ayer está aquí y lo que explica es muy feo, ya que denuncia las maniobras de encubrimiento que están teniendo lugar para tapar la peste del fraude.

Y precisamente en Friends of Saddam podréis leer el capítulo completo de un libro de Kenneth Timmerman en el que aborda este tema en gran detalle. Es largo pero muy, pero que muy jugoso. Aprovechad que es fin de semana; no os arrepentiréis.

OS AVISO de que he actualizado este post con algo que no quisiera que pasara de largo, y por esto lo resalto en una anotación independiente. Cuando lo leáis entenderéis por qué: se trata de la constancia de que varios de los principales caminos de la megaestafa del programa Petróleo por Alimentos (gracias a cuyos 'fondos' Saddam estuvo comprando a cientos de personajes en medio mundo) no llevan a Roma, sino nada menos que a Rabat. Allí es donde está el nexo geográfico que une a los más que dispuestos bolsillos de Kojo y Kobina Annan (respectivamente, hijo y hermano del secretario general de la Organización de las Ambiciones Unidas), así como de Jean-Bertrand Merimée, el ex-embajador francés ante la ONU. Los tres con intereses comerciales e incluso con residencia en Marruecos durante buena parte del año. ¿Ha sido Marruecos el hub, o por lo menos un hub, de distribución de ese dinero que estuvo pagando tantas opiniones y slogans contra las "sanciones genocidas", primero, y contra la "guerra de las cuatro íes", después? Y si es así, ¿a qué lugares pudo haber ido desde alli?

No lo sé, pero siempre habría creído que en nuestro país las salpicaduras del escándalo -que aparecerán antes o después, no tengáis la más mínima duda- iban a venir desde el norte. Ahora ya no estoy tan seguro: empiezo a pensar que quizás acaben llegando desde un punto cardinal muy distinto.

EL TERCER INFORME PRELIMINAR sobre la megaestafa del programa Petróleo por Alimentos mediante el cual Saddam estuvo sobornando a medio mundo, incluido un buen número de funcionarios de la ONU, ha sido publicado; podéis leerlo aquí (aviso: archivo pdf). En esta entrega, el equipo de investigadores por encargo del propio organismo se ha centrado en las "actividades" de Benon Sevan, el director del programa (que ya había dimitido este fin de semana), y su segundo de a bordo, Alexander Yakovlev.

Sevan está acusado de haber recibido 150.000 dólares en sobornos; Volcker ha recomendado formalmente que le sea retirada la inmunidad diplomática de la que aún gozaba. Yakovlev fue algo más allá: se le acusa de haber cobrado casi un millón de dólares. Será por esto que, además de perder sus privilegios procesales, ha sido ya detenido por las autoridades judiciales estadounidenses:

One of the targets U.N. Oil-for Food investigation, Alexander Yakovlev (search), was stripped of his diplomatic immunity Monday and taken into custody by federal authorities, a U.N. spokesman announced Monday.

The U.S. attorney's office took Yakovlev into custody hours after Paul Volcker (search), the man in charge of the U.N.-approved probe into Oil-for-Food, fingered Yakovlev as one of two main U.N. officials involved in the program's corruption.

Sobre Sevan:

The report also accuses Benon Sevan (search), the one-time head of the Oil-for-Food program who severed his ties with the United Nations on Sunday, of taking kickbacks under the multi-billion dollar humanitarian operation aimed at easing the effects of sanctions on Iraqi civilians.

Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, also said in releasing the report that Sevan should also lose his diplomatic immunity so he can be prosecuted for alleged crimes.

For the first time, the report gave a motive for Sevan's actions, saying his finances were "precarious" shortly before his alleged misdeeds.

Some critics have accused the United Nations of squandering millions -- and even billions -- of dollars in its mismanagement of the program. Yet Volcker's team found that Sevan appeared to have received kickbacks of just $147,184 from December 1998 to January 2002.

Volcker said Sevan had not responded to the IIC's efforts to contact him to get possible alternative explanations for that money.

[...] On Thursday, Sevan's lawyer Eric Lewis said the committee would find in its upcoming report that Sevan got kickbacks for steering contracts under Oil-for-Food to a small trading company called African Middle East Petroleum Co. Ltd. Inc. Lewis said it would also accuse Sevan of failing to cooperate with the investigation.

The report largely confirmed that, but went further. It described how Sevan and his wife repeatedly had overdrawn their bank accounts before Sevan first sought to steer oil allocations to AMEP.

It also found that two men helped Sevan: Fred Nadler, an AMEP director and brother-in-law of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali; and Fakhry Abdelnour, the president of AMEP.

Volcker's team recommended that the United Nations assist in their possible prosecution as well.

Y ahora lo mejor:

The report, which Volcker said was intended to tie up some "loose ends" in his panel's investigation, touched on topics other than Sevan. It dealt briefly with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his son, Kojo, and said more would be discussed in the committee's final report, expected in September.

(negritas mías)

A ver cuándo se ponen con las ramificaciones internacionales.

LO QUE KOFI ANNAN calló ante los investigadores sobre lo que sabía de la estafa en el programa Petróleo por Alimentos y sus reuniones con personajes clave implicados, entre ellos pero no únicamente, su hijo Kojo que no es manko. Y todo ello ahora se va conociendo muy a su pesar. Y lo que te rondaré, moreno.