Coleman Is On the Case
After less than two years in the Senate, Minnesota's Norm Coleman is rapidly becoming one of the most influential members of that body, on account of his extraordinary talent and his equally extraordinary capacity for hard work. Among other things, he is the Chairman of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Norm is putting that position to good use by investigating the U.N.'s Food for Oil program, under which the U.N. collaborated with Saddam Hussein's regime in a massive fraud that enriched Saddam, U.N. officials and their relatives, and innumerable politicians and journalists worldwide. Check out this press release:
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) has scheduled a hearing entitled, “How Saddam Hussein Abused the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program.” The hearing is set for Monday, November 15, 2004, at 12:00 p.m. in Room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. This hearing will be the first of several hearings the Subcommittee intends to hold on this matter.Today, Chairman Coleman and ranking member Senator Carl Levin also sent a letter to Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, reiterating a request for access to UN internal audit reports as well as key personnel knowledgeable about the abuses of the UN OFF program. The Subcommittee also objected to the recent actions of the Independent Inquiry Committee (“IIC”) headed by Paul Volker, that are “affirmatively preventing the Subcommittee” from receiving key documents relevant to its investigation.
The Subcommittee’s first hearing on the Oil-for-Food Program (“OFF Program”) will lay the foundation for future hearings on how the OFF Program was exploited by Saddam Hussein. The Subcommittee is scheduled to hear from Charles A. Duelfer, author of “The Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD.” Mr. Duelfer will testify as to how Saddam Hussein manipulated the OFF Program to erode United Nations sanctions, generated billions of dollars of illicit funds, and procured conventional weapons.
Also scheduled to testify is Juan Carlos Zarate, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Executive Office for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the Department of the Treasury. Mr. Zarate will discuss the extent to which funds illicitly procured under the OFF Program may have been used by Saddam Hussein for illicit purposes, including whether monies pilfered from the OFF Program are being used to fund the Iraqi insurgency or terrorist groups. The Subcommittee will also examine specific transactions in which the former Iraqi regime procured illicit funds and peddled influence by granting vouchers for oil deals, demanding kickbacks on contracts for humanitarian goods, and exacting surcharges on oil sales.
This is potentially great news. We're all used to seeing inept, windbag Senators attempting to question witnesses, while mostly delivering incoherent speeches. Not so with Norm, who, among his other talents, was a first-rate trial lawyer in the Minnesota Attorney General's office before he began his political career. If there is anyone who can shed some light on the U.N. scandal, it's Norm Coleman. Stay tuned.
