Bad Faith Actor
In the pantheon of United Nations causes, Africa by many measures occupies a preeminent role. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has described “the African challenge” as “the highest...
Maurice Strong
The U.N.’s Man of Mystery
Is the godfather of the Kyoto treaty a public servant or a profiteer?
Op-eds
Call It the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Dictatorships
With Zimbabwe elected Friday to chair the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, we now have the latest poster-child for the usual U.N. Orwellian abuse of the noble mandate, glorio...
Op-eds
At the United Nations, the Curious Career of Maurice Strong
Before the United Nations can save the planet, it needs to clean up its own house. And as scandal after scandal has unfolded over the past decade, from Oil for Food to procurement fraud to peacek...
Op-eds
The Courtier to Annan
Not so long ago, Kofi Annan was up to his ears in the Oil for Food scandal, and his legacy as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations was on its way down the drain. He was ducking que...
Op-eds
Central Park
While the United Nations frames its next response to crisis in the Middle East, its last grand venture in that region -- Oil for Food -- has finally resulted in a guilty verdict in open court. La...
Op-eds
Guilty!
Oil-for-Food has had its first airing in federal court, and the verdict is in. South Korean businessman Tongsun Park was accused of conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein�...
Op-eds
No Free Parking
The United Nations keeps promising transparency. But for a real window on the U.N., skip the pronouncements of Turtle Bay. The better place to look right now is the federal courtroom in lower Man...
Op-eds
The U.N.’s Day in Court
While United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already dismissed the Oil-for-Food scandal as over and done, within the wood-paneled walls of a Manhattan courtroom it has just come to life....
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
Strong Implications
What the Park arrest portends.
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
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
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
D.A. Pursuing Criminal Probe of Aide at U.N.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office has opened a criminal investigation into the former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, the DA's office has just confirmed for t...
Op-eds
Congressional Team and Volcker Committee Wrangle Over Secret Evidence About Annan
The hottest question right now in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal is who has rights to boxfuls of secret evidence concerning the secretary-general of the world body, Kofi Annan. Congressional inves...