Volker Clouds Oil-for-Food Issue
Former Fed Chair Paul Volker says the $10-$20 billion figures being tossed about in MSM and the blogsophere as the price tag for Saddam's exploitation of the UN oil-for-food fromgram -- under the UN's "watchful" eyes -- is an overstatement. (here)
"Without question, (there were) problems in the oil-for-food area," Volcker said. "But when you look at those US$10 billion figures, or US$20 billion figures, most of those numbers are so-called smuggling, much of which was known and taken note of by the Security Council, but not stopped."
Volcker refused to speculate on why the council didn't stop the smuggling, but indicated the issue would likely be addressed in his reports. An initial report is expected in January and a final report in the summer, he said.
Volcker stressed that his inquiry is focused on "what went wrong or right inside the U.N." in managing the oil-for-food program.
If this is true, it raises two questions: First, why did the UN allow the smuggling to go on, even though the Security Council was aware of it?
And second -- much more important for the long term -- if Volker knows this now, why isn't the scope of his study being expanded to include both oil-for-food and smuggling? What good will it do if he focuses on only half, and possibly the smaller half, of the overall scandal?
"Without question, (there were) problems in the oil-for-food area," Volcker said. "But when you look at those US$10 billion figures, or US$20 billion figures, most of those numbers are so-called smuggling, much of which was known and taken note of by the Security Council, but not stopped."
Volcker refused to speculate on why the council didn't stop the smuggling, but indicated the issue would likely be addressed in his reports. An initial report is expected in January and a final report in the summer, he said.
Volcker stressed that his inquiry is focused on "what went wrong or right inside the U.N." in managing the oil-for-food program.
If this is true, it raises two questions: First, why did the UN allow the smuggling to go on, even though the Security Council was aware of it?
And second -- much more important for the long term -- if Volker knows this now, why isn't the scope of his study being expanded to include both oil-for-food and smuggling? What good will it do if he focuses on only half, and possibly the smaller half, of the overall scandal?
posted by Laer at 10:04 AM
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