Congressman Chris Shays held hearings today into the UN Oil-for-food scandal. Here is the link to witness testimony.
We are also very intrigued by the ABC News "smoking memo", and want to connect it to this timeline of diplomatic activity in Iraq (this is even better).
ABC News tells us that the payment to the U.N. undersecretary general Benon "Lucky" Sevan was dated August 15, 1998. From the timeline, we see that the UN was engaged in a serious and (remembering Desert Fox in December 1998) ultimately futile effort to gain Saddam's compliance with UNSCOM.
In related news, the Security Council has given Paul Volcker his resolution to run an independent investigation. We remember the eminent Mr. Volcker fondly from the Swiss banks/Holocaust investigation, but we are (as usual) open to new information.
And do visit Stephen Sherman, who is devoting a blog to this and is gathering source material.
MORE: If you read just one document from the Congressional hearing, the Staff Briefing Memo would be it. And lest you doubt that they have grasped at least some of the politics of this:
It also is noteworthy that prominent citizens of Security Council members, especially permanent Security Council members such as Russia, France, and China, were allegedly involved in the oil voucher scandal. If some of the allegations prove true, it is quite possible those citizens were able to exert some influence on the decisions of their governments to reject additional controls on Iraq and to oppose the Iraq war.
UPDATE: No news is bad news - the Paul Volcker angle gets mentioned in the NY Times World Briefings; the WaPo buries a more comprehensive story in the want ads on A25.
Here is a round-up of British reaction, where they seemed to have been more interested. The really big issues get addressed in his comments.
This story broke big in the UK today - here's how the press over here is addressing it:
UK Media Roundup - Oil-For-Food
Posted by: Scott Burgess | April 22, 2004 at 06:10 AM