THE “UNSCAM” OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL IS GETTING MORE COVERAGE:

Iraqi oil pumped under Sevan’s direct supervision for seven full years was openly sold to whoever lined Saddam and Sevan’s pockets. . . . The former Iraqi oil minister claims that the UN “was stealing money from the Iraqi people,” alleging that as many as 300 UN bureaucrats were employed to administer the programme. “We were not pumping oil to feed Iraqis, but to feed (300) UN bureaucrats in New York.”

Before Sevan’s recent mysterious disappearance into the nether world, facilitated by boss Annan, who shrewdly packed him off on long leave before retirement, Sevan nonchalantly admitted, ” that as much as 10 percent” of the programme’s revenues may have been “ripped off,” telling a TV channel: “Even if 10 percent of the revenue was stolen, 90 percent got to the people it was intended for. Why does nobody report that?” he asked peevishly.

More here:

In the 12 months since the fall of the Iraqi dictatorship, a clear picture has emerged of how Saddam Hussein abused the United Nations’ Oil-for-Food program. The Iraqi Governing Council has begun to release critical information detailing how, in the words of The New York Times, “Saddam Hussein’s government systematically extracted billions of dollars in kickbacks from companies doing business with Iraq, funneling most of the illicit funds through a network of foreign bank accounts in violation of United Nations sanctions.” In effect the program was little more than “an open bazaar of payoffs, favoritism and kickbacks.”

Read the whole thing. And there’s new blog set up to follow the oil-for-food scandal that’ll probably be a must-visit site over the coming months.

UPDATE: Here’s a link to today’s Congressional hearing testimony on UNSCAM, and here’s a story on the U.N. Security Council probe going ahead. I suspect a certain amount of halfheartedness on the part of those UN bureaucrats, however.

Tom Magure has more, with many links. And there’s more here.