Annan Cleared in Oil-for-Food…
…MSNBCdotCom is reporting, from a AP flash. Can’t wait to read the whole thing. I’ll link when available.
*Update: Here it is. He’s the teflon secretary, so far. Damn! It’s good to be king…
NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators probing the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq will criticize U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his son, and the Swiss company that employed him but will not accuse the U.N. chief of corruption*, officials said.
The report to be released Tuesday will fault Annan for failing to take aggressive action to deal with possible conflict of interest in the awarding of a U.N. oil-for-food contract to Cotecna Inspection S.A., which employed his son, Kojo, in Africa, the officials said.
It will also be highly critical of Kojo Annan for concealing information about his dealings with Cotecna and for deceiving his father, and it will blame the Swiss firm for failing to make information public about the secretary-general’s son, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
*emphasis mine
**Update: Today’s Wall Street Journal Opinion Page says Annan is a schmoo. Ya think?!
And you take MS-LSD’s word for it?
No, the Appropriate Purveyors of such information’s word for it. Pffft.
I love Kofi’s “I was cleared of all wrongdoing” comment. The night is young, sir. Naturally he couldn’t just come right out and say the truth: “My good friend Jacques Chirac sent me a singing candygram congratulating me on my impeccable technique. I cut him the standard 15% in exchange for burning all of Hussein’s receipts.”
What’s that Bullwinkle always says?
“Nuthin’ up ma sleeve!”
“Mr. Annan, here are your winnings…”