Cheat-Seeking Missles

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Kofi Lied

It's been a bad week for Kofi, forcing him to retreat from earlier statements that the Volcker report had exonerated him from blame in the oil-for-food scandal. The week is well summarized by the WashTimes:
Mr. Annan's retreat became inevitable after Paul Volcker told Fox News on Tuesday that the Independent Inquiry Committee report "criticized [Mr. Annan] rather severely," adding, "I would not call that an exoneration." Asked point blank whether Mr. Annan had been cleared of wrongdoing in the scandal, the former Federal Reserve Board chairman said: "No." Yesterday, Mr. Annan's lawyer, Gregory Craig, claimed that the secretary-general was misquoted, and that he had never claimed to have been exonerated.
Misquoted? Did Annan and his attorney forget that transcripts of all UN media briefings are available online to anyone who wants them? Here's the text of Annan's statement to the UN press corp on the day of the release of Volcker's last interim report, March 29:
“I have this morning received from Mr. Paul Volcker and his colleagues the second interim report of their independent inquiry into allegations concerning the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq. I thank them once again for their investigation.

“As I had always hoped and firmly believed, the Inquiry has cleared me of any wrongdoing. On the key issue of the award of the contract to inspect humanitarian goods entering Iraq under the oil-for-food programme, the report states clearly that ‘there is no evidence that the section of Cotecna in 1998 was subject to any affirmative or improper influence of the Secretary-General in the bidding or selection process’."
Misquoted? It seems to me the statement says, "the Inquiry has cleared me of any wrongdoing." Oh, and that's a period at the end of that sentence, as in, "the Inquiry has cleared me of any wrongdoing period."

Annan did not stay to answer questions at the March 29 briefing, so the statement stands alone, in flat rebuttal of Annan's attorney's claim that the Sec. Gen. never claimed exoneration.