Kofi Annan's Army

In Annan's defense, Heinbecker makes two points, echoed by several others. First, he cites the report of former U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer that stated in October that the oil for food program benefited Iraqi civilians hurt by economic sanctions imposed after the end of the first Gulf War.

"To ease the suffering of ordinary Iraqis, the OFFP [Oil for food program] permitted the sale of Iraqi oil but required that the proceeds be paid into a U.N. escrow account. Those monies were then used to pay for foodstuffs, medicines, and infrastructure materials, including eventually sewage systems, for Iraq. … The OFFP worked. Caloric intake rose dramatically, malnutrition of Iraqi children decreased by 50 per cent and disease drastically eased."

Second, Heinbecker notes that the United States knew the details of every contract granted by Iraq under the oil for food program during both the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

"The point is that while the U.N. secretariat administered the OFFP, Washington was hardly ignorant about it. In fact, secretariat warnings to the Security Council of oil smuggling and of suspected kickbacks were not acted on," he writes.

But Heinbacker acknowledges that, "the apparent scale of the kickbacks and other fraudulent activities is disturbing."

Coleman found a few allies overseas. He won the implicit support of a columnist for the Baghdad daily al-Bayan who complained that Iraq had contributed $30 million to the U.N.'s investigation into the oil for food program. But besides Coleman's call, he says, "no other reactions have been heard from the international community." A columnist for the Scotsman in Edinburgh, says Coleman's blast was overdue. Canada's National Post declares: "Kofi must go."

There was noticeable reticence to pursue certain leads in the story. Annan is the most recognizable figure to catch heat for the scandal that occurred on his watch. But according to the Duelfer report, former French Interior Minister turned businessman, Charles Pascua, received oil vouchers from the Hussein regime that enabled him to sell more than 10 million barrels of oil on the international market. If you enter Pascua's name in the French language version of Google News, the search engine is unable to find a single mention of Pascua's name in the French press in the last 30 days.

The online version of the Duelfer report (PDF document, requires Adobe Acrobat), issued in September, contains a list companies that received allocations of Iraqi crude oil under the oil for food program. Annex B of the report's second chapter, "Regime Procurement and Finance," shows that in the first year of the program, five of the top 25 recipients of Iraqi oil allocations were American firms. They earned a 15 to 20 cent profit on every one of the millions of barrels of oil that Hussein sold them. Citing the U.S. Privacy Act, the Duelfer report omits the names of all of them.

Coleman did not identify these beneficiaries of Saddam Hussein's largesse. Nor did any of Kofi Annan's defenders.