Oops

I've been following the media stories concerning the UN Oil-for-Food scandal though I haven't posted much on it recently. But I can't resist this. Some members of the GOP have been insisting loudly of late that Kofi Annan should resign over this even though it was actually the Security Council that ran the program. It'll be interesting to see how those same Republicans react to this.

Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned.

Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said.

"We think he was a major player in this ? a central figure," a senior law-enforcement official told The Post.

Investigators are looking into a series of deals that took place in the months after his pardon from Clinton. If criminal wrongdoing is established in these deals, he could be subject to prosecution.

Investigators say they have received information that Rich and Ben Pollner, a New York-based oil trader who heads Taurus Oil, set up a series of companies in Liechtenstein and other countries that they used to put together deals between Saddam and his international supporters in the controversial oil-voucher scheme ? which the dictator designed to win international support against U.S. sanctions at the United Nations.

There's more at the link which is courtesy of Laura Rozen at War and Piece who also passes on the best part:

And for seventeen years, who served as Mr. Rich's attorney? Dick Cheney's chief advisor, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

By all means, let's have a thorough investigation and hold people accountable.