The U.N. hits bottom, starts digging...

The United Nations is issuing a report this Monday critical of the United States and the Coalition that helped free Iraq. The issue here is that the Coalition spent money that Saddam stole from the Oil-For-Food swindle and the Coalition used it to help rebuild the falling-down infrastructure that would not have been falling down if Saddam had cared about his people. [set RANT=OFF] BC at the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler has the story: bq. Time To Nationalize The Rope-making Industry (Note: Remove all loose objects from the room before reading any further.) bq. Words can't truly describe the feeling of being trapped in the dank, dark far reaches of the Idiotarian Parallel Universe� upon reading this. bq. Seeing the headline, we at first thought "That's gotta be a typo. "........

U.N. Audit Panel That Criticized U.S. Spending of Iraqi Oil-for-Food Monies Will Issue Report Monday

bq. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be a typo.....

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A U.N. panel critical of how the U.S.-led coalition authority in Iraq spent billions of dollars from the U.N. oil-for-food program and other sales of Iraqi oil will issue its report Monday, an official with the world body said.

bq. Go back and read that again...... bq. The body responsible for the single most corrupt deal in the history of deals on this planet, allowing a known mass-murdering, state-sponsored rape squad-employing madman to continue his reign of terror, has the swingin' jollies to actually bitch about what was done with the leftovers of the spoil that they allowed said murderous thug to accumulate, upon his removal from his throne? bq. Call the hippies and tell 'em to start growing all the hemp they can from the seeds in their stashes, because we're gonna need more rope than all the US factories can currently produce. bq. Read the rest if you've duct taped your head sufficiently. Here is a bit more from the news article: bq. The U.N. Security Council set up the Iraqi Development Fund to help the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority administer Iraq. The CPA administered Iraq from March 20, 2003, invasion to its dissolution June 28, 2004, when it handed the reins to the Iraqi interim government. bq. The development fund consisted of money from CPA sales of Iraqi oil, millions of dollars remaining from the U.N. Iraqi oil-for-food program and Iraqi assets that were dispersed worldwide. bq. A panel created by the Security Council - the International Advisory and Monitoring Board for Iraq - has accused the CPA of poorly managing Iraqi money and failing to stem corruption quickly enough. bq. In all, the CPA said it spent $20 billion from the Iraq Development Fund, and none from an $18.4 billion allocation from Congress. bq. Of the $20 billion the CPA spent, $11.1 billion came from oil sales. bq. The auditing panel also said the CPA gave $1.8 billion to Halliburton, a Houston-based oil services conglomerate, in no-bid contracts. It also said the ruling coalition authority was unable to track the money coming in or going out. bq. The U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.N. auditing panel will issue a report Monday. These moneys were in the form of swiss bank accounts, cash hoards in Bank Vaults, Gold Bullion in tanker trucks. Here is a picture of some of the Gold: Link to story here The United Nations has not released *any* accounting information at all of its entire Oil For Food program so to grouse about the Halliburton no-bid contract is Mr. Pot meeting Mr. Kettle... As for the no-bid process, this is something that is heavily audited and renewed (I'm quoting from memory here) every six months. It's a way to be able to get stuff done NOW without dealing with the competitive bid cycle and its inherent delays. The results of the transactions are checked later and if the company gouges, they get dropped from the program. Darn - the RANT mode got turned on again, didn't it...