Cover Story

Oil-for-food scandal investigator conflict of interest No. 2

by Judi McLeod

December 8, 2004

Paul Volcker’s "Independent" Inquiry Committee into the Oil-for-food program should be cancelled.

Canada Free Press has discovered potential conflict of interest number two against Volcker, the man handpicked last April by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan for the task of investigating the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.

On the payroll as an attorney with Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee is Miranda Duncan. Duncan, who worked for UNICEF, is David Rockefeller’s granddaughter. It was Rockefeller money that built the UN’s Manhattan headquarters.

Volcker, the former chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System, pledged "a thorough inquiry" into allegations of impropriety in the administration and management of the UN Iraq oil-for-food program.

Undisclosed conflicts of interest apparently didn’t stop Volcker from making that pledge.

Potential conflict of interest number one for Volcker is the fact he held a seat on Power Corporation’s international advisory board.

Wealthy Canadian businessman and Power Corporation founder, Paul Desmarais Sr. is a major shareholder and director in TotalFinaElf, the largest oil corporation in France, which has held tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein.

Jacques Chirac’s France has been fingered as one of the chief partners-in-corruption in the oil-for-food scandal. The Times of London calculates that French and Russian companies cashed in on $11-billion worth of business from oil-for-food between 1996 and 2003.

Volcker is also a member of David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission, a super-elite cabal of some 300 international powerbrokers, who practically rule the world, but does not publish its membership list on the Internet.

Has the fox arrived in the hen house?

Given his ties to Power Corporation and to the Rockefellers, how can Vockler deliver as promised "a thorough inquiry" into allegations of impropriety in the administration and management of the oil-for-food scandal?

How can the UN’s secretary general expect the watching outside world to have any confidence in Volcker as a credible independent investigator?

Dithering diplomats trying to rule the world from Manhattan have gone further than bureaucratic foul-ups on a scandal that refuses to remain under the carpet.

Senator Norm Coleman calls it "the most extensive fraud in the history of the United Nations occurring on (Annan’s watch)."

For the more than decade-long life of the oil-for-food program, the UN and member states like France and Russia looked on as Saddam Hussein easily siphoned off at least 20 percent of its $100-billion revenues, much of it for the Butcher of Baghdad’s personal use.

Hundreds of millions of dollars went to rebuilding the Gulf-War depleted Iraqi army; more money was paid out in lucrative kickbacks to Western politicians, governments, political parties, journalists and UN officials (not necessarily in that order) who looked the other way.

Then there is the terrible toll on human life from the tens of millions that financed terrorist training and operations around the world–particularly among Palestinians.

The marble palaces, complete with goldleaf ceilings and pure gold faucets discovered by American troops during the liberation of Baghdad, were paid for from oil-for-food money intended to pay for food and medicine for ordinary Iraqis.

Volcker, with ties to Power Corp. and a Rockefeller on the payroll is leading an independent inquiry?

Who is Kofi kidding?

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com