a U.S. senate probe into the alleged ties of former U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli to the scandal-ridden United Nations oil-for-food program seems to have legs. Legs that go all the way back to the disgraced Tongsun Park.
Park, a key figure in the 1970s Koreagate scandal, was indicted last april and charged with making as much as $2-million as a liaison between Iraq and the UN in the oil-for-food program. Park is accused of being the catalyst that encouraged the UN to create the oil-for-food program on behalf of Saddam Hussein's regime.
For Torricelli it could be a matter of the company that he keeps.
Nicknamed "the Torch" for his incendiary political style, Torricelli was forced to pull out of the 2002 election after being "severely admonished" by the Senate ethics committee for accepting expensive gifts from David Chang, a Korean-american businessman, found guilty in 2002 of conspiring to violate federal campaign laws and jailed for 15 months (thechurchmilitant.blogspot.com).
Now in the private sector, Torricelli runs his own business consulting firm, remains a powerful figure in New Jersey politics and is a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser.
The probe of Torricelli makes it the first time that a leading U.S. lawmaker has been linked to the controversial UN program that has plagued the world's largest bureaucracy for the past two years.
Torricelli donor, businessman Grover Connell was indicted in 1978 as part of the political corruption scandal that became known as `Koreagate'. Prosecutors accused him of concealing his ties to the central figure in the scandal, Tongsun Park, a rice dealer and Korean government-marketing agent who admitted distributing $850,000 in gifts and cash to 31 lawmakers from 1967 to 1997.
The government ultimately dropped all charges against Connell, who denounced the indictment as an "outrageous miscarriage of justice".
"although not a public figure, Grover Connell is a wealthy businessman with good political connections. On Capitol Hill, he is well known for an unusual $84,000-a-year seminar program, under which members of Congress have been receiving honoraria for visiting Connell headquarters in Westfield, New Jersey. (africa News, Jan. 29, 1990). "according to data compiled by Common Cause, Connell Rice disbursed $2,000 each, the legal limit, to 39 House members and three senators in 1988, the last year for which figures are available.
"The program makes Connell the largest corporate donor of Congressional honoraria, a controversial channel for political contributions. (Under the pay-raise legislation adopted by the House of Representatives in December, members are now barred from accepting honoraria, but the Senate still permits the practice).
"Only four large trade associations, led by the Tobacco Institute, gave more to members of Congress than Connell did in 1988, the last year for which figures are available."
"according to africa News…"earlier this month, four House members who have received Connell honoraria traveled with Grover to Zaire, where his company handles the largest U.S, government food aid contracts under the Food for Peace program.
It seems that Park played starring roles in both the oil-for-food and food-for-peace programs.
Torricelli received $32,000 in campaign donations since 1983 from Connell and his family. Connell also donated $10,000 to Torricelli's current legal defense fund, $5,000 to a prior legal fund and $55,000 to a state political action committee Torricelli once ran.
Democrat Torricelli has been one of Connell's "regular" visitors since the 1980s,
about 40 copies of Torricelli's latest book, Quotations for Public Speakers was on display in Connell's office.
"The oil-for-food allegations against Torricelli are based on Iraqi documents, including diplomatic cables, retrieved after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's former president, The Financial Times and 11 Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, have obtained copies of some of the Iraqi diplomatic cables. a source also described the contents of some of the other Iraqi documents." (FT.com, May 19, 2006).
The Iraqi documents also involve a former Republican congressman, James Courter, who allegedly met with Iraqi officials on behalf of Bright and Bright, Chang's trading and lobbying company.
Meanwhile, Senator Norm Coleman, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate permanent sub-committee on investigations, will leave no stone unturned in probing Torricelli.
"We take these allegations seriously and will continue to investigate in a bipartisan manner allegations of wrongdoing under the oil-for-food program.
"We have investigated the illicit conduct of politicians in Russia, France and the UK. We have a similar interest in preserving the institutional integrity of the U.S. senate, so we take these allegations regarding former Senator Torricelli seriously and will continue our investigation into them and will refer our findings to the appropriate agencies."
When it comes to the UN's oil-for-food scandal, it seems you need a program just to keep up with all the players.
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
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