I just spoke with Claudia Rosett who, in a Commentary for the Wall Street Journal, provides background and explanation on Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt’s guilty plea conspiracy to defraud the United Nations’ former Oil for Food program for Iraq. Wyatt worked with and paid off Saddam Hussein for years and was part of the UN and global corruption that allowed that tyrant to grow rich and hang onto power.
It is a sordid, disgusting story of how the nihilistic greed of a few condemned so many to death but supporting the tyrannical and murderous regime of Saddam Hussein. Claudia’s article gives you the background and makes it all clear. It is also a real-time lesson on how useless sanctions can be, as we make decisions about what to do with Iran.
Having stood trial for almost a month in a Manhattan federal courtroom, 83-year-old Texas tycoon Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. struck a deal Monday. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United Nations’ former Oil for Food program for Iraq. Brushing past me on his way out of the courtroom — he’s clearly familiar with my writing on the subject — he shot a remark: “You ought to be happy.” […]
Wyatt’s trial also underscored the vitality and ingenuity with which private players can drive, fly, haggle and connive their way past embargoes — especially those enforced by the murky, politicized and largely unaccountable bureaucracy of the U.N…
Messrs. Khudair and Yacoub described a system corrupt to the core. Their duties inside Saddam Hussein’s bureaucracy consisted largely, and officially, of handling and keeping track of kickbacks. That included who had paid and how much, and via which front companies. When Saddam’s regime systematized its Oil for Food kickback demands across the board in 2000, keeping track of the graft flowing into Saddam’s secret coffers became a job so extensive that the marketing arm of Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, known as SOMO (State Oil Marketing Organization) developed an electronic database to track the flow of the “surcharges,” as they were called.
People willing to work to be informed have known the UN was a corrupt organization for 50 years. Since Talk Radio we need not work nearly as hard to be informed.
But most people do not know that while Kofi and his faminly made hundreds of millions in bribes hellping Sadam get around the UN’s own restrictions – it was Butros “Good Golly miss Molly” who desinged the program and made *BILLIONS* helping Sadam cheat!
The UN has been lead by shysters and gangsters for 50 years. And as Jean Kirkpatric (Ronnie’s UN Ambassador)said at the UN – America’s actions in the 60’s and 70’s were largely the cause of the graft and corruption that permeate the UN. She was right 22 years ago and she is still right. Which is why GWB stabbed Bolton in the back; and does not take real action against the UN’s support of gangsters, crooks and *terrorists*! Talk is cheap George!
The U.S. is ensnared in this repulsive relationship with the U.N. by treaties and popular (intellectual left) opinion. Beginning with laudable motivations last century, the organization has since degenerated into a corrupt forum for reprehensible political movements, dictatorial regimes, and criminal hangers-on. Most honest commentators on the U.N. will admit that we are now a victim of unintended consequences. The problem with treaties is that it is almost impossible to honestly extricate yourself without a mutual agreement of all parties not to mention the dreamy, well meaning intellectuals. We can forget about ever getting out of the U.N. because almost all the parties want us there. The best we can do is to continue what Bush, Clinton and Bush have done in recent years: do an elaborate dance to try to minimize the negative consequences of our relationship with these less than desirable “partners” in the world organization. Remember in the future, if it sounds like Utopia or Shangri-La, run away as fast as you can.
I have to admit, stories like this depress me. Yes, in this case the bad guy is brought to justice. But seeing the breadth, length and depth of corruption here there and everywhere just overwhelms me. I read about it; I don’t have to comment on it. I’d start drinking martinis, too, if I did what you do, Tammy.
I’ve been waiting to hear more about this. Getting it form Rosett, is of course, definitive.
But wait, there’s more.
He’s a Dem.
He was a “critic” of the war.
He probably funds MoveOn.Revolution!
Tammy and Claudia Rosett are two of the smartest ladies I know out there in the media. Too
smart for The View or The Oprah, and more on the ball than most men.
…and, prior to PLEADING GUILTY is saw him (outside the court room in response to a CNBC reporter) vow to fight to the end because…it was a political prosecution by the Bush administration.
Democrats: When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.