"The U.N. Exposed" by Eric Shawn
Posted by Max Dunn Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:56:00 GMT
I didn’t know anything about the U.N., so when I saw a review of “The U.N. Exposed” by Eric Shawn, I thought it would be interesting to learn more about it. Wow, was I in for more than I realized! While I am sure that there are some good things that the U.N. is doing around the world, this book is focused on exposing their problems, and they have a lot! In specific, it makes a very compelling case that the U.N. actually ended up aiding Saddam and helping him stay in power, which ultimately resulted in the Iraq war.
Here are some interesting points Shawn brings up about how Saddam Hussein benefited from the Oil for Food program:
- Saddam was in control of about $100 billion dollars that came in from the Oil for Food program. Rather than using this money to help his people, he built at least 78 presidential palaces, bought military equipment, paid “reward” money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, and bribed government officials around the world.
- Saddam was able to skim off about $22 billion dollars of this money for himself personally
Why was he able to do this when the U.N. was supposed to be monitoring what the money was spent on to make sure it was used only for humanitarian purposes? A later audit determined that the U.N. needed about 160 auditors to properly monitor the spending to make sure that it was being used properly and there was no skimming. However, at most, the U.N. assigned two auditors!
And why didn’t the U.N. try harder to control improper use of the Oil for Food money? Well, that is the main point of the book which paints a picture of the U.N. as being extremely dysfunctional. But in particular, the U.N. received a fee of 2.2% of the Oil for Food money which was a clear conflict of interest. Not only that, but Saddam successfully bribed key U.N. members including Benon Sevan, the head of the Food for Oil program, who liked received $1.5 million from Iraq and in return, continually requested to increase the amount of money Iraq could pump into its oil industry.
The book also makes it clear why the U.N. continually opposed any military action to enforce its directives against Iraq; three of the five permanent member countries of U.N. Security Council were profiting from Iraq. For instance, in 2002 France controlled 22.5% of Iraq’s imports, and by 2003 French-Iraqi trade topped $3.1 billion through the Oil for Food program alone. Saddam granted Russian firms one-third of the Oil for Food contracts, generating roughly $4b per year. China also benefited from Saddam. So it is no wonder that these three countries were continually opposing any military action against Saddam. Iraqi Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said French and Russians repeatedly assured Hussein they would block a U.S.-led war through delays and vetoes at the U.N. Security Council.
But it is even worse than that. The CIA Duelfer Report found evidence that by 1999 French firms showed willingness to supply spare parts for the Roland II surface to air missile system. So not only were these countries getting money from Saddam, they were supplying him with military equipment and spare parts that would eventually be used against us.
This book also makes an interesting point that debunks the theory that the U.S. invaded Iraq to control its oil, because if America really just wanted Iraq’s oil, they could have ended the sanctions and sliced the pie, just like the French, Russians and Chinese did.
I found this book to be a well documented – and a bit scary – look at the dysfunctions of the U.N. In addition, it provides important background information that is not usually discussed about why we went to war with Iraq