Oil for Food IS the UN

"Oil for Food is a story about what the U.N. is. And our conclusion from reading the 847-page report is that the U.N. is Oil for Food."

"Mr. Annan was himself complicit in covering up
Iraqi violations of the sanctions regime. "

"Mr. Annan was aware of the kickback issue from at least February 2001, yet "the Secretary General's
quarterly reports never mentioned the emerging
problem"."

"Why Mr. Annan chose to see no evil on Iraqi sanctions violations, much less use his bully pulpit to denounce it (as he later denounced the Iraq war as "illegal"), is an interesting question."

"Our sense is that the U.N. Secretariat as a whole took the view that the sanctions regime was immoral and that Saddam was within his rights to break free of it."

"Now Mr. Annan wants to use this Volcker report as an endorsement of his "reform" proposals. Only at the U.N. could he dare to think he could get away with this."