Canada's involvement in the Oil-for-Food scandal

Interesting news about Canada's Prime Minister and a company he owns. From CanadaFreePress:

Saddam invested one million dollars in Paul Martin-owned Cordex
The Canadian company that Saddam Hussein invested a million dollars in belonged to the Prime Minister of Canada, canadafreepress.com has discovered.

Cordex Petroleum Inc., launched with Saddam�s million by Prime Minister Paul Martin�s mentor Maurice Strong�s son Fred Strong, is listed among Martin�s assets to the Federal Ethics committee on November 4, 2003.

And let's follow the money:

Yesterday, Strong admitted that Tongsun Park, the Korean man accused by U.S. federal authorities of illegally acting as an Iraqi agent, invested in Cordex, the company he owned with his son, in 1997.

In that admission, Strong describes Cordex as a Denver-based company. Cordex Petroleum Inc. is listed among Martin�s assets as an Alberta-based company.

And talk about tangled interrelationships:

Two years after taking the Park-through-Saddam one million dollars, Cordex went out of business.

On April 20, 1999, Bankrupt.com, an internet bankruptcy library states Kelly J. Sweeney Esquire of the Office of the Trustee in Denver, Col. as appointing four individuals to serve on an official creditor�s committee in the Chapter 11 case "commenced by Cordex Petroleum Inc."

Strong�s New Age Baca Ranch is located in Crestone, Colorado.

Indeed, according to Marci McDonald in Walrus Magazine, "Cordex Petroleums was formerly known as Baca Resources." (April 21, 2004).

�"Still, Strong has never been far from his prot�g��s side. Over the years, Martin has been a shareholder in at least two of Strong�s companies, including the defunct Cordex Petroleums, formerly known as Baca Resources. But Strong�s chief influence has been in shaping the trajectory of Martin�s career�business first, politics later, the eye on the prize always. 'My basic advice to him was, 'Paul, don�t try to ride two horses at once,' Strong says. When it came time to move to the next horse, Strong was waiting to give him the nod at the starting gate. When Martin was ready to throw in the political towel after (Prime Minister Jean) Chretien made clear he was sticking around for another election, Strong invited the finance minister to his log retreat in the Kawarthas for a weekend of cheerleading. 'I said, 'Paul, you�ve got a big investment in public life,� Strong recounts. 'You�ve come this far, you should stay in there.�"

According to the today�s New York Sun, "the next chapter in the United Nations crisis may erupt over U.N. investigator Paul Volcker�s membership on the board of one of Canada�s biggest companies, Power Corporation, since a past president of the firm, Canadian tycoon Maurice Strong, is now tied to the oil-for-food scandal."

The missing facts are: Not only are Volcker and Strong hooked with the ties that bind to Power Corporation Inc., a company under investigation in the oil-for-food scandal, Prime Minister Paul Martin was launched into the business world with Canadian Steamship Lines by Paul Desmarais�s Power Corporation Inc. and his predecessor Jean Chretien�s daughter, France is married to Paul Desmarais� son, Andre Desmarais.

Interesting -- don't hear much about that down here...