Probe of U.N. Is Being Paid By Iraq Funds

Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samir Sumaidaie, is no U.N.-basher. He responds cautiously to the calls for Secretary-General Annan to resign, saying, “We have no comment,” and he adds that no wrongdoing against anyone at the world body has been proved. But he clearly does not trust Mr. Annan to spend wisely the Iraqi money still under U.N. control.Would you?I went to visit him at the Iraqi mission Friday morning because everybody (with the exception of the U.N. Correspondents Association’s leadership, but more about that later) is talking about the oil-for-food scandal, though few bother with the victims of this alleged very grand theft.Mr. Sumaidaie recently sent a letter to Mr. Annan protesting the fact that the Paul Volcker-led oil-for-food inquiry is financed by oil-for-food funds. The funds for the probe, projected at $30 million, come from an account that in the program’s heyday used 2.2% of its proceeds for U.N. administrative costs.That is Iraq’s money, the ambassador noted in his letter. Mr. Annan answered that he got permission from the Security Council to use the so-called 2.2% Account to finance the Volcker investigation. That did not satisfy him, Mr. Sumaidaie told me, but he suspected from the start that it was going to be an uphill battle.He wrote Mr. Annan, he said, mostly “to preempt” – a dreaded phrase at the United Nations. There is about $300 million left in the 2.2% Account, according to U.N. spokesmen, and the ambassador wants to remind Mr. Annan who owns the money. “At least next time he wants to grab another chunk of Iraqi money he will know that we are in stark opposition,” the Iraqi envoy said.Since presenting his credentials almost two months ago, Mr. Sumaidaie, who organized Iraqi resistance from London during the Saddam Hussein era, has had other run-ins with Mr. Annan.He conveyed his government’s dismay at Mr. Annan’s letter last month, in which the secretary general urged allowing Fallujah terrorists to continue running the show, rather than attacking them militarily.Mr. Sumaidaie is also less than satisfied with the low numbers, a few dozen, of U.N. officials in Iraq, where he said they could help arrange and certify the upcoming elections. “You could not conduct these things from New York, or even from Amman,” Mr. Sumaidaie observed. He said he understood fears resulting from the death of 22 U.N. workers last year, but added: “We have to accept a level of risk. Otherwise, if there is no trouble, why have the U.N. anyway?”After visiting him at the Iraqi mission in the morning, I sat next to his deputy, Feisal Istrabadi, at Friday night’s annual Correspondents Association award dinner. Mr. Istrabadi was dismayed at how partisan the award presenters sounded.The black-tie affair, which at times had an eerie Titanic feel to it, celebrated “serious” journalism, which describes the important work the United Nations does around the world, as opposed to attacks by what U.N. spokesmen now refers to as “certain media,” which uncover less-than-golden qualities in the blue organization.None of the prize-winning work, it was proudly asserted from the stage, dealt with the oil for food scandal. And, as the presenters stressed over and over again, the winners of the print journalism award, a Wall Street Journal team, were not from “that Journal” – the editorial page. (The prize-givers must have skipped a great September 24 story on Kojo Annan by winners Steve Stecklow and Jess Bravin. Oops.)The presenters poured accolades on a crowded field of three “citizen of the world award” winners: Nicole Kidman, who stars in the soon-to-be-released pro-U.N. movie “The Interpreter”; Lakhdar Brahimi, who had negotiated in Iraq on behalf of the United Nations, and former weapons inspector Hans Blix, who spent 2004 in retirement.Along with Mr. Brahimi, Mr. Blix heroically tried to prevent a war in Iraq, the presenters explained. That was the comment that must have infuriated Mr. Istrabadi, who had in recent decades alerted Washington and others, from his exile in America’s Midwest, to how his homeland was being raped by Mr. Hussein. At times, the deputy said Friday night, he felt like screaming at the stage.Mr. Sumaidaie summed it all up neatly earlier. “If it was left to the U.N,” he told me, “we would still be under Saddam Hussein and I would not be here.”Mr. Avni covers the United Nations for The New York Sun.

Probe of U.N. Is Being Paid By Iraq Funds

More from the New York Sun

Alabama Lawmakers Consider Bill That Would Make It a Felony To Intentionally Disrupt a Church Service

‘High Spirits’ Brings a Forgotten Musical Back From the Dead

Former Beauty Queen Booted From White House Religious Liberty Panel After ‘Hijacking’ Antisemitism Hearing

Jobs Surge in January Deals Blow to Trump’s Push for Interest Rate Cuts

New Ransom Note Sent to TMZ as Investigators Experience Progress and Setbacks in 10-Day Search for Nancy Guthrie

House Democrats Announce Plans To Host Field Hearing with Epstein Victims in Trump’s Back Yard

America Plummets to All-Time Low in Global Corruption Index

FAA Abruptly Bans All Flights Around El Paso for 10 Days, Lifts the Restrictions Within Hours