# The Oil-for-Fraud Scandal â â€œ the Canadian Connection



## Andyboy (5 Mar 2005)

*Andyboy has removed his posts. It's his perogative. We will continue to try and salvage the thread.

Thx,
recceguy*

Removed.


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## Fishbone Jones (6 Mar 2005)

Here's another one.


From NewsMax.Com â â€œ 10 Feb 05



The Oil-for-Food Scandal â â€œ the Canadian Connection 

Charles R. Smith
Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005 

"Its all about the oil" was the chant issued by a vast army of protesters around the world.

Yes, it may have been "all about the oil" â â€œ but it didn't involve Americans, who did not own any of the oil in Iraq, but rather a horde of rich global fat cats who wanted to make millions in a so-called U.N. humanitarian program. 

One of those who made out like a bandit is a rich Canadian whose bank made millions and whose Paris-based holding companies include the originally French-Belgian oil company TotalFina Elf, which cut lucrative deals with Saddam's Iraq and is currently operating in war-torn Sudan. 

Various congressional committees have launched hearings into what has been described as the biggest corruption scandal in history. Not surprisingly, U.N. officials have refused to cooperate with the congressional investigations. 

The investigations have turned up a number of damning facts that point directly to the incompetence at best, complicity at worst of the most senior U.N. officials and those involved. 

It is now well known, for example, that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's own son was getting big cash payments from a Swiss firm that profited from the program, in return for his "expert" opinions and advice. Recently published evidence shows that Annan's son was paraded as a high-level contact within the U.N. 

The congressional investigations have surfaced preliminary accounting figures that show that Saddam Hussein likely siphoned off as much as $15 billion, almost a quarter of the entire funds transferred. 

While the anti-U.S. critics wailed at the impact of the embargo on the Iraqi people, their attention miraculously centered on the nation that liberated the victims of Saddam's original aggressions â â€œ and not on the Thug in Chief or his numerous continental 'partners'. 

Free to "govern," Saddam did so with a vengeance, and the rest, as they say, is history â â€œ which, thankfully, Congress is now exposing after the U.S. military put an "Out of Business" sign on Baghdad. 

Hussein was not alone in his corruption, and several others involved in the money flow, including government firms and politicians in Europe, are now nervously following the investigations while checking out one-way flights to Paraguay. 

BNP Paribas 

Top among these is the European-based BNP Paribas bank, which the U.N. chose to administer the program and which reportedly received nearly $1 billion for its efforts. Congressional investigators reviewing the bank's actions have discovered broken rules, missing documents and improper transfers by BNP Paribas, which up until now has been assumed to be a French bank. 

In fact, BNP Paribas is actually controlled by Power Corporation, an appropriately named Canadian company that has a shocking track record of 'business' relationships with the worst gangsters and tyrannical regimes in the world. 

BNP Paribas also has one other distinguishing feature: a direct corporate and familial relationship with the persons running the government of Canada for the last 20 years. 

The truth about BNP Paribas and Power Corp. sheds a new light on Canada's seemingly bizarre anti-American foreign policy in the Middle East, in China and elsewhere. 

BNP Paribas bank is part of a holding company, Pargesa Holding, which is jointly owned and controlled by the Frère and Desmarais families. Paul Desmarais Sr. is the chairman of the group, while Albert Frère is the vice-chairman. Gerald Frère, Albert's son, is one of three general managers who oversee day-to-day operations, and Paul Desmarais Jr. is also an officer. 

Pargesa, and thus Power Corporation and the Canadian Desmarais family, holds a controlling significant stake in TotalFina Elf, the Belgian-French petroleum multinational corporation formed from the merger of Total and Petrofina. 

BNP Paribas and TotalFina may have blood-stained corporate histories, but the intimate and intricate connections of Power Corp. to Canada's governing elite raise the truly disturbing questions. 

Power Corporation CEO Andre Desmarais is the son-in-law of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who went out of his way to oppose U.S. intervention in Iraq, where the family's business interests with the Saddam regime would be jeopardized. 

Current Canadian PM Paul Martin is a former Power Corporation employee who made his fortune when he bought Canada Steamship Lines from Power Corp. aided by loans from Power Corp. To this day both CSL and Power are reported to have mutual equity interests in each other. 

The most senior foreign affairs/international trade adviser to current Canadian PM Paul Martin is Maurice Strong, former CEO of Power Corp. and a longtime U.N. and Kofi Annan adviser. 

TotalFina Elf 

So, who is TotalFina Elf? Just an oil company that cut a deal with Saddam to develop and exploit the Majnoon and Nahr Umar oil fields in southern Iraq. These properties are estimated to contain as much as 25 percent of the country's oil reserves. 

With Saddam under arrest, the Canadian-controlled company has expanded its "client base" and now has a deal with the murderous Sudanese regime to quietly extract its oil and funnel profits back to Khartoum for its infamous social programs. 

Disgusted by the lethargic pace and willful blindness of the U.N.-led investigation of itself headed up by Paul Volcker, the U.S. Congress opened its own investigation. Committee investigators found that eight government agencies notified BNP Paribas about "deficiencies" in handling money in the U.N. program. 

No wonder Congress smelled a rat when it watched the deliberately ineffectual U.N. 'review' of the 'Food-for-Oil' program. Thankfully, it followed up on that and launched its own investigations which, if allowed to follow their natural course, will inevitably expose fraud, corruption, sleaze, theft, incompetence and, perhaps in the long run most significantly, the corrupt political and personal motivations of supposedly friendly governments, including Canada, in this entire mess. 

For our Canadian friends and supposed partners, we are left with the disturbing question: Who's really in charge and whose interests are they really serving? 




Wonder if we can get the journalists that lurk here to pick it up for the Canadian press :


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## Fishbone Jones (6 Mar 2005)

If anyone doubts the stories, just Goggle - Paul Desmarais Sr. -. The facts are out there, you just have to find the time to read all the back room deals made by the highest politicians and businessmen in the last 20 years of Canadian history.

And we wonder why Bombardier (owned by Power Corp) got all the sweetheart deals or why the Chinese are buying up all our natural resources, with the sanction of the government, or why we were so adamant about not going to war with Saddam :


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## Fishbone Jones (6 Mar 2005)

I've always seen the CBC as a totally biased news org, with the way they fall all over themselves to avoid taking these guys to task. Now it makes even more sense.

I also saw a story a while back about how the young Trudeau used his mother's money to buy as many low cost shares in PetroFina as possible. The shares were in the toilet at the time. Shortly after his purchase, it became Petro Canada, the shares skyrocketed and his mother became a millionaire. Of course Pierre, being the only son, inhereted it all shortly after this when she died.


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## Cloud Cover (6 Mar 2005)

While I usually have some trouble with circumstantially speculating about the financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest that may be attached to certain public figures without a very strong foundation for so doing, I must admit this one is worth further research. 

Rant on:

At a minimum, these stories provide more impetus for the imposition of three public accountability measures upon crown corporations*:

1. Subjecting all Crown corporations to the Access to Information Act.
2. Imposing regular full and public financial disclosure of the personal holdings of upon the officers, directors and senior managers of Crown corporations and their immediate family members.  
3. A public list showing declarations of conflict of interests between individuals as well as financial issues. The list should apply to all politicians of any stripe or level of government, officers, directors and senior managers of crown corporations. 

The events of the last few years clearly demonstrate that the public interest is not well served by the notion of full faith and trust that is supposed to exist between the government as a fiduciary and the public as beneficiary of tax expenditures. For too long, the leadership of crown corporations have enjoyed the privilege of the corporate veil to shield themselves from liability for their outrageous dealings with their political masters. 

Does this mean that elected or appointed public figures would be subject to more rigorous and invasive measures than their private sector counterparts. The answer is yes, but the measure is justified given the too often abuse of process and privilege that subsists in our political system and method of government. And, unlike public officials, directors., officers and managers can be removed by shareholder revolt. Unless our government would like a similar precedence to take place, it's time to start getting serious about these issues.     

Rant off.

*from hospitals and research foundations to corporations such as the CBC, and perhaps every publicly owned or managed company that operates under parliamentary or legislative letters patent.


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## Glorified Ape (6 Mar 2005)

Andyboy said:
			
		

> Excellent post whiskey. Too bad it will never happen as long as Canadians don't care, which they clearly don't if the underwhelming response to this thread is any measure. I guess if it had been about the US we'd have had our share of passionate debate.



Nepotism and double-dealing in the Canadian government?! *GASP!* If we had any doubts that there's corruption in the government, I would have thought the sponsorship scandal would have removed them. I'm not a huge fan of the Liberals, so I can't say I'm disillusioned by the article. I'm not sure what, exactly, you were expecting me to say...


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## I_am_John_Galt (7 Mar 2005)

More CanCon (this time as part of the coverup): http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,149099,00.html


Annan's #2 Blocks Oil-for-Food Scrutiny
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
By George Russell and Claudia Rosett

UNITED NATIONS â â€ With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan next up for review by Paul Volcker's inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal, a crucial question is whether Volcker will expand upon information tying the scandal directly to the U.N. chief's office â â€ by way of Annan's second-in command, Louise Frechette.

Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food program, with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Frechette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the U.N. Security Council. This detail was buried on page 186 of the 219-page interim report Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee released Feb. 3.

...

Frechette, 58, came to the United Nations following a long career as a Canadian civil servant. The first Deputy Secretary-General in U.N. history, she has served since 1998 as Annan's chief administrator. She also chairs the steering committee on U.N. Reform and Management Policy.

Frechette's actions stand in sharp contrast to the assertions of Annan and his public relations staff that the Security Council â â€œ and not the Secretariat â â€œ supervised the more than $110 billion Oil-for-Food program. Her decision, as documented by Volcker, also places responsibility squarely in the secretary-general's office for obscuring mismanagement of the program from the Security Council.

...

When questioned about the telephone call at a recent press conference, Frechette said she had no recollection of it. â Å“But I'm quite prepared to accept Mr. Nair's recalling the conversation,â ? she told reporters.

...

Frechette had connections to a number of Oil-for-Food figures. She had direct oversight of both U.N. watchdog Nair and Oil-for-Food director Sevan, although both reported to the Secretary-General. She also has an interesting tie to an important member of the Volcker committee's 65-member staff. When Frechette served as Canada's ambassador to the United Nations from 1992 to 1995, her boss during most of that time was Canadian Deputy Minister Reid Morden (search), who is now executive director of the Volcker team.

Asked why Frechette was mentioned only by title, not by name, Morden refused to comment.

... the exchange of notes with Nair's office suggests a sharp difference of opinion on oversight of Oil-for-Food, with the U.N. watchdogs willing to take the case all the way to the Security Council â â€ until they were stopped by Frechette. The exact nature of the differences has been blurred by the Volcker committee's own presentation of the memoranda involved. But the sequence is as follows:

On Aug. 30, 2000, just over halfway through the Oil-for-Food program, Nair proposed to Frechette that full-scale audits of the program should be conducted. Nair's note expressed concern on the part of the auditors that Oil-for-Food was a â Å“high-risk activityâ ? needing thorough examination on a high-priority basis. Later, Nair's auditors decided that an evaluation of Oil-for-Food's program management division was the place to start.

In the same Aug. 30 document to Frechette, Nair also urged that his auditors report directly to the Security Council on anything related to Oil-for-Food. This would, he said, â Å“ensure adequate coverage and visibility of OIOS' audit activities.â ?

The Volcker committee does not disclose any immediate reply from Frechette's office. But a few weeks later, Sevan weighed in, rejecting the idea of full-scale auditing on the grounds that it was not worth spending the money on a program with an uncertain future. Volcker committee members have since highlighted Sevan's reply as evidence that he may have been trying to steer investigators away from further audits of his program.

Sevan, however, did not have the final say. That authority lay with Kofi Annan. And as Frechette recently confirmed at a U.N. press conference, Sevan reported to the secretary-general â Å“through me.â ?

So, after a brief pause, Nair's audit department again raised the issue. In a Nov. 30, 2000, memo, the chief auditor for Oil-for-Food, Esther Stern, told Sevan that despite his objections the audit department intended to send reports to the Security Council starting Jan. 1, 2001.

That never happened. As Nair told it to the Volcker committee, Frechette herself intervened with a telephone call to him â Å“denying this proposal.â ?

According to the Volcker committee's terse summary of the exchange, â Å“Mr. Nair then abandoned the effort to report directly to the Security Council on [Oil-for-Food]-related matters.â ?

... Frechette declared that if her phone call quashing the audit department's initiative did take place â â€ which she said she could not recall â â€ the reason was that â Å“internal audits were considered a management tool that were to be used only by internal managers of the United Nations system.â ?

That was exactly what Nair was proposing to change.

As it happens, the United Nations now agrees with Nair. Last December, with Congress pressing for access to the U.N. Oil-for-Food internal audits, the Volcker committee finally agreed the records should be made public. The U.N. changed its rules to comply.

Among those audits, finally released this past January, was one similar in focus to what Nair had proposed back in 2000. It was finally carried out from February to May 2003 â â€ as Saddam Hussein was being overthrown.

Among other things, that audit found that Sevan had failed to hold any management meetings of his Oil-for-Food team for the previous two years. It remains to be explained how that fact had escaped the attention of Sevan's direct supervisor, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette, or that of Kofi Annan himself.



P.S.> For those who might remember me, "Hi, I'm back!"  ;D


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## Kirkhill (7 Mar 2005)

There's another surprise.  A Canadian bureaucrat opposing public audits.

Whodathunkit. :


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## Kirkhill (7 Mar 2005)

Reid Morden, ex Director of CSIS, Frechette's previous boss, comes out of retirement to act as Executive Director into an Inquiry in which Frechette may be a linchpin.   Curious.



> Canadian oil-for-food investigator says "all this stuff" is imputing UN integrity
> by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
> 
> January 19, 2005
> ...



http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover011905.htm
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2004/cover121504.htm


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## Kirkhill (7 Mar 2005)

Reid Morden, President of AECL, selling CANDU reactors to China for Jean Chretien.

Certainly has a varied and interesting CV.

http://www.ccnr.org/exports_2.html


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## Infanteer (8 Mar 2005)

Andyboy said:
			
		

> It might be interesting to see a flow chart detailing the connection between all these guys. I seem to remember something similar for US corporations, I'll see if I can find it.



Unfortunately, the chart would end up like this....


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## Infanteer (8 Mar 2005)

What, Andyboy has removed his posts!  There is something going on here!!!   :blotto:


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## I_am_John_Galt (8 Mar 2005)

Infanteer said:
			
		

> What, Andyboy has removed his posts!  There is something going on here!!!   :blotto:



Kind of appropriate, given the subject matter ...

Anyway, here's a serious attempt at org charting Power Corp's involvement (BNP Paribas was the bank that was handpicked by Benon Sevan to broker the whole Oil-for-PalacesFood program):
<img src="http://www.torontofreepress.com/images/cover0305p3.gif" />


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## Acorn (8 Mar 2005)

Ask Maher Arar about the dangers of link diagrammes.

Acorn


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## Kirkhill (8 Mar 2005)

Know many other companies that have employed 4 out of 4 current Prime Ministers?


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## Infanteer (8 Mar 2005)

Ha, you could probably stick Maher Arar in that diagram somewhere...Six degrees of Kevin Bacon anyone?


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## Acorn (8 Mar 2005)

Thanks for demonstrating the point Kirkhill. No-where on that diagramme does it indicate any PM or former PM was employed by the company. It's simply a link diagramme - X knows Y who knows Z who has shares in company A etc.

Mis-use of such tools is dangerous, and can cause some people grief they do not deserve. 

Acorn


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## Kirkhill (8 Mar 2005)

You are right Acorn.

Stupidity on my part really.  Of course.


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## I_am_John_Galt (9 Mar 2005)

The diagram might lead to some "guilt by association" conclusions, but this ain't 3rd-cousin's-ex-roommate's-redheaded-stepchild kind of stuff: Power Corp. had the controlling interest in BNP Parabus (and, although not on this chart, what was then TotalFinalElf) & Desmarias controls Power Corp. ... the fact that a former President of Power Corp. (Maurice Strong) had a direct relationship with the guy that is ultimately responsible for the program and whose office tried to kill the audit (Kofi Anan) is just an amusing side-note.  It also interesting, although by no means evidence of guilt, to note that Desmarais son is married to Jean Chretien's daughter  ...

Steyn has written about these relationships a few times ... I'll try to dig-up some articles later today.

Cheers.


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## Cloud Cover (9 Mar 2005)

Acorn said:
			
		

> Ask Maher Arar about the dangers of link diagrammes.
> 
> Acorn



Don't worry, he is about to be asked.


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## Acorn (9 Mar 2005)

Not stupidity Kirkhill. It's a complicated bunch of lines and boxes, bound to cause misinterpretation. That's what link diagrammes do if they aren't handled correctly.

Whiskey - I doubt Arar himself knows what went on to cause his arrest, but something like a link diagramme could well be the cause. I'm certain there are many Canadian Arabs who have had contacts with people in thier community who mean us harm. That doesn't mean all of them do.

Gault - The relationships prove nothing. The rest is speculation, and the same sort of thing that cause Mulroney such grief over the Airbus thing. Tread that path carefully.

Acorn


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## I_am_John_Galt (10 Mar 2005)

Acorn said:
			
		

> Gault - The relationships prove nothing.


Except motive, means and opportunity!



> The rest is speculation, and the same sort of thing that cause Mulroney such grief over the Airbus thing. Tread that path carefully.


Some of it is, some of it isn't: however the relationships aren't purely based upon the oral testimony of an RCMP informant who also happened to be the reporter breaking the story (and having a serious hate on for BMPM).  Then again, I suppose only da poof is da poof and it isn't poofed until it is pooven.





			
				I_am_John_Galt said:
			
		

> Steyn has written about these relationships a few times ... I'll try to dig-up some articles later today.



(full text - long read, but worth it, IMHO)
The Power behind the thrones


Monday, 14 February 2005
Mark Steyn


I always love the bit on the big international news story where they try to find the Canadian angle. A couple of months back, every time I switched on The National, there seemed to be no news at all and Peter Mansbridge was in the middle of some 133-part series of reports on â Å“Canadians making a difference in the world,â ? which at least three nights a week seemed to be an â Å“encore presentationâ ? of the same worthy soft-focus featurette about some guy helping with an irrigation project in Sudan.

Once upon a time, it didn't seem such an effort to find â Å“Canadians making a difference in the worldâ ?--D-Day, say, or even the early years of Pearsonian peacekeeping. But it's a stretch nowadays. In the maple-free zone of the Afghan campaign in fall 2001, several desperate media outlets were driven to rhapsodizing over my old chum from Fleet Street days, Alex Renton, spokesman for the international aid agency Oxfam--or to give him his full honorific, as the Sun chain's Greg Weston liked to put it, â Å“the Toronto-born spokesman for the international aid agency Oxfam.â ? The Toronto-born Alex spent his formative years at Eton--not Eton, Ontario, the agreeable municipality a scenic one-day drive from Sault Ste. Marie, but Eton College, the swanky boys' school for Brit toffs. His father is Lord Renton, a cabinet minister under Mrs. Thatcher. I'm all for celebrating the rich diversity of the Canadian mosaic, but we haven't had a Canuck like this since Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, checked out of Rideau Hall. Still, any oasis in a desert. When I made a couple of cracks about Alex being the designated Billy Bishop of the new world war, I got a huffy e-mail from the Hindu Kush protesting that it wasn't his fault the likes of Greg Weston had decided to anoint him as the Great White Hope of Canadian Global Relevance.

And yet, throughout this period, there has indeed been a Canadian making a difference in the world-and if The National wanted to do a 133-part special report on him, for once they'd have enough material. Most of us know Paul Desmarais as the . . . well, let's hold it there: most Canadians don't know Paul Desmarais at all. You could stop the first thousand people walking down Yonge Street and I'll bet no one would know who he is. But the few who do know him know him as the kingmaker behind Trudeau, Mulroney, Chrétien and Martin. Jean Chrétien's daughter is married to Paul Desmarais's son. Paul Martin was an employee of M. Desmarais's Power Corp., and his Canada Steamship Lines was originally a subsidiary of Power Corp. that M. Desmarais put Mr. Martin in charge of. In other words, Paul Martin's public identity--successful self-made businessman, not just a career pol, knows how to meet payroll, etc.--is entirely derived from the patronage of M. Desmarais.

That in itself is a remarkable achievement. Imagine if Jenna Bush married the chairman of Halliburton's son, and then George W. Bush was succeeded by a president who'd been an employee of Halliburton: Michael Moore's next documentary would be buried under wall-to-wall Oscars and Palmes d'Or. But M. Desmarais has managed to turn Ottawa into a company town without anyone being aware of the company. We're a G8 economy; it would be reasonable to expect a prominent British or American businessman to number prominent political figures among his friends, but to have brought so many of them into his company and even family would surely excite some comment. Power Corp.'s other alumni range from Quebec premiers to Canada's most prominent international diplomat, Maurice Strong. In fairness, you don't have to work for M. Desmarais to reach the top of the greasy pole-Kim Campbell managed it, for about a week and a half.

But this is just the hicksville stuff. What's really impressive is that, when one considers the epic events of the last three years, the truly Canadian content is not Toronto-born aid spokespersons, but the ubiquitous presence of M. Desmarais.

During the Iraq war, for example, I mentioned en passant that Power Corp. is the biggest shareholder in TotalFinaElf, the western corporation closest to Saddam Hussein (it has since changed its name to the Total Group). Total had secured development rights to 25 per cent of Iraq's oil reserves, a transformative deal that would catapult the company from a second-rank player into the big leagues with Exxon and British Petroleum. For a year, the antiwar crowd had told us it was â Å“all about oilâ ?--that the only reason Iraq was being â Å“liberatedâ ? was so Bush, Cheney, Halliburton and the rest of the gang could annex in perpetuity the second biggest oil reserves in the world. But, if it was all about oil, then the fact--fact--is that the only Western leader with a direct stake in the issue was not the Texas oilpatch stooge in Washington, but Jean Chrétien: his daughter, his son-in-law and his grandchildren stood to be massively enriched by the Total-Saddam agreement. It depended on two factors: Saddam remaining in power, and the feeble UN sanctions being either weakened into meaninglessness or quietly dropped. M. Chrétien may have refused to join the Iraq war on â Å“principle,â ? but fortunately his principles happened to coincide with the business interests of both TotalFinaElf and the Baath party.

As I said, I mentioned this curious footnote at the time. Stockwell Day picked up on it. The CBC, CTV, The Globe and Mail, Maclean's and all the rest steered clear. A bland perfunctory 200-word CP story reporting M. Desmarais's denial--â Å“Power Financial Head Refutes Saddam Linkâ ?--was carried by far more media outlets than had bothered going anywhere near Day's original remarks.

Well, okay. Let's take M. Desmarais's word for it. But, getting on for two years later, we're in the middle of the UN Oil-for-Fraud investigation, the all-time biggest scam, bigger than Enron and Worldcom and all the rest added together. And whaddaya know? The bank that handled all the money from the program turns out to be BNP Paribas, which tends to get designated by Associated Press and co. as a â Å“French bankâ ? but is, as it happens, controlled by one of M. Desmarais's holding companies. That alone should cause even the droopiest bloodhound to pick up a scent: the UN's banker for its Iraqi â Å“humanitarianâ ? program turns out to be (to all intents) Saddam's favourite oilman.

I'm not a conspiracy-minded guy, and, if I were, I'd look for a sinister global organization with a less obvious name. If â Å“Power Corp.â ? was the moniker given to the sinister front operation for the latest Bond villain, critics would bemoan how crass the 007 franchise had become. And a â Å“Power Corp.â ? that controlled the â Å“Total Groupâ ? would have them hooting with derision. But it's nevertheless the case that M. Desmarais's bank functioned as the cashier for Saddam's gaming of the global-compassion crowd: if a company agreed to sell Iraq some children's medicine for $100 million, Iraq would invoice BNP Paribas for $110 million, pay the supplier and divert the skim-off into other areas. Everyone knew this was happening. It seems impossible, even with the minimal auditing, that BNP Paribas did not.

So here is a Canadian â Å“making a difference in the world.â ? Suppose Conrad Black controlled a bank that had enriched a brutal dictator with a fortune intended to go to starving children, and that he also had an oil company that had cooked up an arrangement to make billions from the same dictator's oil resources. Think Maude Barlow and the CBC might show an interest? But Paul Desmarais's no-publicity clause is apparently enshrined in the Charter of Rights. So on it goes. Only the other week, M. Desmarais was hosting at his home in Quebec Nicholas Sarkozy, very likely the next president of France. Even after they'd become heads of government, neither Bush nor Blair could be bothered swinging by Ottawa to look in on Chrétien; not for years. But an invitation from M. Desmarais, and France's coming man can't wait to hop on the plane.

M. Desmarais's spectacular rise from an obscure Quebec bus company operator to an obscure global colossus is an amazing story. Instead of struggling to find a local angle on the international scene, why doesn't the CBC just start from the basic premise that whatever the subject--Iraq, oil-for-food, the European Union--somewhere at the heart of it will be the world's least famous Canadian.

Instead, not a whisper. The good news is it's not because Robert Rabinovitch, president of the CBC, is another discreet Power Corp. alumnus. He's not. Rabinovitch's close buddy, John Rae, who ran Chrétien's campaigns, is. And so's Rabinovitch's old colleague Joel Bell, who was Trudeau's chief economic adviser. And so's Rabinovitch's old boss, Senator Michael Pitfield. And so's . . .

P.S. If, by the time of publication, Power Corp. has bought the Western Standard, please disregard all of the above.  http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm?page=article&article_id=542



If you're still reading, and since I'm quoting him at length anyway (I wish I could write just 5% as well as him), you might be interested in an Interview/Call-in Steyn did for C-SPAN a couple of weeks ago: rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter_wj022505_steyn.rm (you have to open RealPlayer and cut and paste the address).

Best regards.


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## Sgt.Fitzpatrick (16 Mar 2005)

recceguy said:
			
		

> I've always seen the CBC as a totally biased news org, with the way they fall all over themselves to avoid taking these guys to task. Now it makes even more sense.
> 
> I also saw a story a while back about how the young Trudeau used his mother's money to buy as many low cost shares in PetroFina as possible. The shares were in the toilet at the time. Shortly after his purchase, it became Petro Canada, the shares skyrocketed and his mother became a millionaire. Of course Pierre, being the only son, inhereted it all shortly after this when she died.



Well isn't everything in the media bias.


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## Cdn Blackshirt (16 Mar 2005)

Sgt.Fitzpatrick said:
			
		

> Well isn't everything in the media bias.



No.   And if you want to read a good online newspaper I'd suggest the Asia Times.   Very in-depth and analytical....

Especially suprising is the hardline look it takes at China even though it is based in Hong Kong.

*www.atimes.com*

By the way, the point of journalism is to present objective facts in context, as opposed presenting only the facts that support the viewpoint of the majority of your editing staff.



Matthew.


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## Kirkhill (21 Mar 2005)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/21/wfran21.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/21/ixworld.html



> Chirac allies go on trial over 'bribes scandal'
> By Henry Samuel in Paris
> (Filed: 21/03/2005)
> 
> ...


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## I_am_John_Galt (1 Apr 2005)

It is getting more interesting ...



> Thu, March 31, 2005
> UN scandal inquiry has Frechette questions
> By GREG WESTON -- Sun Ottawa Bureau
> 
> ...


 http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Ottawa/Greg_Weston/2005/03/31/977488.html


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## 54/102 CEF (1 Apr 2005)

Try a google search on these key words

oil demarais diane francis

Dianer Francis - formerly (still?) with the National Post has done a lot of work on the links to Paris - Gene Cretin - Paul Desmarais and oil

Makes for a real who dun it.


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## I_am_John_Galt (3 Apr 2005)

Another Editorial (Rex Murphy) on Oil-for-Food:



> [Saddam Hussein] took ... billions ... to set up a vast network of bribes and influence-buying operations, involving politicians, journalists, diplomats, and business people in dozens of countries. Saddam was using proceeds of the oil-for-food program either to aggrandize himself or to purchase one gigantic lobby effort on the international stage to rid himself of the sanctions program altogether. [_ed. - or did he have other reasons, too ... hmm]_
> 
> [...]
> 
> ...


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050402/COREX02/TPNational/Columnists


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## a_majoor (3 Apr 2005)

Long story but with lots of details:

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover030505.htm



> *How Montreal's Power Corp. found itself caught up in the biggest fiasco in UN history*
> 
> by Kevin Steel, The Western Standard
> 
> ...



end of part one

Although nothing is (as yet) proven, it is interesting how many connections there seem to be between Power Corp and the various actors and principles in the Oil for Food scandal....


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## a_majoor (3 Apr 2005)

Part two

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover030505.htm



> Add up the facts that Power Corp. appears to be connected to an oil company that would benefit extensively if Saddam remained in power, with the bank appointed by the UN to help broker an Oil-for-Food program that appears to have been directly enriching Saddam, and which is being investigated for irregularities that may have abetted the wholesale corruption that eventually engulfed Oil-for-Food, and that Power's owners have a professional and personal relationship with the man hired by the UN to investigate the corruption, and it's no wonder that more and more questions are being asked about the firm.
> 
> The United Nations has refused to co-operate with the U.S. Congress investigations into the US$67-billion Oil-for-Food program and Security Council members Russia and France have refused to give Volcker the right to subpoena witnesses in the internal UN probe. But the way the scam appears to have worked is that Saddam was permitted to sell oil to customers he selected himself (he favoured French and Russian companies) at below-market prices, by allocating them oil vouchers. The customers could resell the oil at market prices and make a large profit, provided they kicked back a portion of the money to Saddam, who used the money for everything but badly needed food and medicine (the program came to be known by critics as Oil-for-Palaces). It is estimated that Saddam may have skimmed as much as US$2 billion from the aid program. And the fact that Iraqis were suffering while Saddam built up weapons and enriched his own personal wealth, obviously makes this scandal not only bigger, but more heinous than any run-of-the-mill Wall Street book-cooking. Companies implicated in what effectively amounts to crimes against humanity may never recover. And, to be clear, Power Corp. has not been linked in any direct way to the con. As for the fact that Power's name has come up several times in the investigation, Power's vice-president, general counsel and secretary Ted Johnson believes the news reports to be inaccurate and irresponsible. Says Johnson: "The stories coming out of the United States are a bunch of misinformation based on innuendo and half-truths."
> 
> ...



Although nothing is (as yet) proven, it is interesting how many connections there seem to be between Power Corp and the various actors and principles in the Oil for Food scandal....


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## I_am_John_Galt (20 Apr 2005)

Wow, the coincidences regarding these Power Corp. guys never cease ...



> Stale Kofi
> Annan wants to "reform" the U.N. again. He must be in trouble.
> 
> BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
> ...


 http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/cRosett/?id=110006579


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## larry Strong (22 Apr 2005)

Undersecretary-General Maurice Strong.


No relation ;D


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## I_am_John_Galt (22 Apr 2005)

Still more smoke:



> *Adscam, meet UNscam*
> DAMIAN PENNY asks, where are the conspiracy theorists when we need them [http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/004212.html]?
> 
> _Maurice Strong, who had business ties to a Korean businessman caught up in the oil-for-food scandal, also served on the board of Power Corporation, which had ties with TotalFinaElf, an oil company which allegedly profited nicely from the oil-for-food scam. And who else served on the Power Corporation board with Strong? Paul Volcker [http://www.nysun.com/article/12647], the man the UN hired to investigate the program._
> ...


http://andrewcoyne.com/2005/04/blog-post_111420570536912982.php


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## I_am_John_Galt (25 Apr 2005)

Conservatives might yet make an issue of it:



> *Conservatives press government over Strong*
> 
> Foreign Affairs critic Stockwell Day is demanding answers about the relationship between Prime Minister Paul Martin and Maurice Strong. According to a Conservative Party press release:
> 
> ...


 http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2005/04/conservatives_p.html


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## larry Strong (25 Apr 2005)

Gawd, he would not give a straight answer on a lunch date, and this is bigger.


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## I_am_John_Galt (9 Aug 2005)

The saga continues ... I can't imagine why anyone would think that the UN-types opposition to the war was a little disingenuous!   :rage:



> *On the take*
> 
> Paul Volcker's latest report says the head of the UN oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, took thousands of dollars in kickbacks and bribes:
> 
> ...


http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/004681.html


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## Kirkhill (9 Aug 2005)

I wonder when we can expect to see Mo Reeses name turn up again.  That kind of Power play would be a Total surprise.


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## I_am_John_Galt (16 Aug 2005)

Kirkhill said:
			
		

> I wonder when we can expect to see Mo Reeses name turn up again.



How about now? Air Harbour Technologies



> *United in greed, divided it falls*
> By Mark Steyn
> (Filed: 16/08/2005)
> 
> ...


 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=1KTP2DBOPMO3RQFIQMFCNAGAVCBQYJVC?xml=/opinion/2005/08/16/do1602.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/08/16/ixportal.html


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