Bush Administration Expresses Confidence in Annan(says Danforth)

[maddezmom]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Bush administration has confidence in U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) and is not calling for his resignation, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said on Thursday.



Annan has been accused by some Republicans in the U.S. Congress of presiding over corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq (news - web sites), administered by the United Nations (news - web sites) but supervised by the 15-nation Security Council.



http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041209/pl_nm/un_usa_annan_dc_1

I'd like to hear it from the chimp and his puppetmaster.

[bullimiami]

1. this is such a load of crap

they are playing both sides. coleman is their stooge and so is powell.

[struggle4progress]

12. Like the Borgias, Bush fakes being nice while planning evil deeds.

[knowbody0]

2. puppetmaster/thug

mayhaps global opinion matters? mayhaps halliburton exposure in this corruption threatens some buddies

[whistle]

3. How about any parties associated with the Bush administration

...can any of then be accused of presiding over corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq, administered by the United Nations but supervised by the 15-nation Security Council? What about the squeaky clean Carlyle Group of which Papa Bush has been enmeshed with? Or Halliburton? God, there must be numerous tentacles from Bushies involved through corrupt corporations around the world. This was no secret to these people I'm sure.

[Sandpiper]

4. Danforth playing Good Cop

To Norm Coleman's Bad Cop.

[CottonBear]

5. See this editorial from Aljazeera RE: neocons & oil for food:

I posted this earlier today in the editorials forum.

<http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/561BE24F-B06B-4CC1-B28A-F6845EA8E469.htm>

[maddezmom]

9. interesting piece thanks for posting....The New York Sun, the new Faux

[msgadget]

15. Thanks! I found this from a link there:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B30BB842-AFD0-4C72-97A3-DD953D9B0615.htm

>Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed an independent investigation of alleged corruption in the UN oil-for-food
programme for Iraq. <

>He suggested the Security Council might want to look at the actions of companies or governments involved in the programme, or possibly ask the committee that monitored sanctions to look into the allegations, or have governments investigate their own national companies. <

See my other post about the companies involved

[flordehinojos]

6. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Annan's unscripted, freely given standing ovation

at the UNITED NATIONS--something that the bush boy envies, and wants to have for himself, cannot and will not have unless it is the applause of a pre-screened, pre-selected audience--has forced the bush boy, for the moment, to pretend that he too applauds Mr. Annan!
But, don't we all know that the pretense will only make the U.S. attacks against Mr. Annan only more frequent, more vicious, and with an increased number of voices.

Phooey! How does that saying go, "you can fool some of the people some of the time ....." Mr. BOOOOOOOOSH doesn't fooooool me!

[maddezmom]

7. AP link: In Shift, U.S. Backs U.N. Leader Annan

President Bush (news - web sites) twice refused to support the secretary-general, stressing that he wanted a thorough, impartial investigation of allegations of fraud and corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq (news - web sites). Danforth took the same position but said Tuesday he had "great confidence" in Annan.


In his statement Thursday, Danforth said, "essentially it is a criminal investigation" and investigators must determine whether anyone is guilty of bribery, payoffs and corruption.


"There is a cloud over the U.N. There is no doubt about that. And the only way to dispel that cloud is let the sunlight in," Danforth said.


"We are not using the whole thing to push out the secretary-general," he stressed.

[AlCzervik]

8. Of course! Becasue Annan will find out which

american companies and their various execs and Bush donaters are involved with oil for food.

[molly]

10. Aren't major oil companies involved in this?

every time some pug brings it up, I hope it comes out soon.

[AlCzervik]

11. yeah, i think most are and we know how many kicked the cash to Chimpoleon

I think Norm Coleman is a huge asshole and his calls for Annan's resignation will come back to haunt him.

[msgadget]

14. This might not be the issue to press

>The U.S. companies -- including Exxon Mobil Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp. and El Paso Corp. or their predecessors -- and individuals were identified in the Central Intelligence Agency's 1,000-page report on the Hussein regime's campaign, though their names were redacted from the publicly released version. While confirming that sanctions had prevented Iraq from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, the report by arms inspector Charles Duelfer, released last week, described efforts by the Hussein regime to manipulate the Oil-for-Food program in its favor, circumventing U.N. mandates, and possibly U.S. law.<
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11569

>But the one company that helped Saddam exploit the oil-for-food program in the mid-1990s that wasn't identified in Duelfer's report was Halliburton, and the person at the helm of Halliburton at the time of the scheme was Dick Cheney. Halliburton and its subsidiaries were one of several American and foreign oil supply companies that helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000 by skirting U.S. laws and selling Iraq spare parts so it could repair its oil fields and pump more oil. Since the oil-for-food program began, Iraq has sold $40 billion worth of oil. U.S. and European officials have long argued that the increase in Iraq's oil production also expanded Saddam's ability to use some of that money for weapons, luxury goods and palaces. Security Council diplomats estimate that Iraq was skimming off as much as 10 percent of the proceeds from the oil-for-food program thanks to companies like Halliburton and former executives such as Cheney. <
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/leopold.php?articleid=3767

[dflprincess]

13. I hope they're double crossing Coleman

couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

[The Judged]

16. Watch my feet! I'm not walking the walk just talking the talk!

Can people really form opinions based on reality still?

Pass me the Soma, so I can agree that everything is getting better every day or already perfect.

[DeadManInc]

17. resignation

Maybe we should make a public request for Bush the inbreds resignation.