UN Headquarters Renovation: No Accountability Without Transparency
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Benon Sevan
The Unreality of U.N. Reform
Not to be outdone by his own ruckus-raising deputy, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself is now instructing the U.S. on how to treat t...
Op-eds
How Corrupt is the United Nations?
Recent years have brought a cascade of scandals at the United Nations, of which the wholesale corruption of the Oil-for-Food relief program in Iraq has been only the most visible. We still do not...
Op-eds
I Am Not Running Away’
"Medium or sweet?" asks Benon Sevan. He is inquiring how much sugar I would like in the Turkish coffee he's boiling up for us on his kitchen stove, and I am torn between thanking him for his...
Op-eds
Old Ties Resurface in New Annan Project at U.N.
Coauthored by George Russell NEW YORK — United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has just tabled ostensibly radical proposals for reform, at a proposed cost of mo...
Op-eds
Strong Implications
What the Park arrest portends.
Op-eds
Mr. Sevan, I Presume
At the United Nations, as a year of many scandals draws to a close, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been trying to stuff some big unanswered questions down the memory hole--with mixed results. N...
Op-eds
Don’t Shred on Me
Paul Volcker's findings on Oil for Food have been widely received as the final word on the United Nations relief program for Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Far from it--as Mr. Volcker himself h...
Op-eds
New U.N. Scheme: Alliance of Civilizations
Co-authored by: George Russell NEW YORK — After the epic disaster of Oil for Food, one might imagine the United Nations would tread carefully before launching any ne...
Op-eds
Frenchmen Fried?
France discovers the Oil-for-Food scandal.
Op-eds
The Buck Still Hasn’t Stopped
From the October 3, 2005 issue: The Volcker report on Oil-for-Food is sadly incomplete.
Op-eds
Talking Their Way Out of the Scandal
United Nations talking points avoid taking responsibility.
Op-eds
Exposé, At Last?
Volcker potential.
Op-eds
Oil for Enron
Since the Oil for Food program came to an end in 2003, it has been described--accurately enough--as oil for palaces, oil for terror and oil for fraud. Now it turns out the U.N. relief program in...
Op-eds
U.N. Secretary-General’s Brother Kobina Annan May Have Played a Role in Oil-for-Food Scandal
To the cast of characters caught up in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, investigators have reportedly added another name, that of the secretary-general's brother, Kobina Annan. That m...
Op-eds
Scratching the Surface
"A single dollar lost to corruption is a dollar too much if you're handling international public monies": With this pious utterance did United Nations chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, gre...
Op-eds
Benon Sevan’s Finest Hour
Late in the day, former Oil-for-Food chief demands the U.N. open its books.
Op-eds
U.N. Mystery Man: Who Is Jean-Bernard Merimee and What’s His Oil-for-Food Tie?
As investigations proliferate into the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal, one of the more intriguing mysteries involves a former French diplomat with a direct link to the U.N.’s executive...
Op-eds
All the Secretary-General’s Men: the Tangled Web of U.N. Cronyism
Reforming the United Nations is a tall order at the best of times. Today it stands no chance at all unless it starts by removing the network that during Kofi Annan's more than seven years as...
Op-eds
Was Former U.N. Official Wrongly Accused in Oil-for-Food Probe?
Co-authored: George Russell. UNITED NATIONS — The secretive Volcker inquiry into the more than $110 billion United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal plans to issue a thir...