Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility

For those we lost, We will not forget 09/11/2001

“The task of statesmanship has always been the re-definition of these rights in terms of a changing and growing social order.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt (Commonwealth Club Address, 1932)

“Roosevelt was wrong! The principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence are the principles of individual liberty. Our unalienable rights, given to us by God are given to us as individuals. Our rights do not come from society or the government, and they cannot be redefined by politicians. The nature of these rights carries with it the implication of individual responsibility, without which we surrender them.”
— Perri Nelson, November 6, 2008

A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh?

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A scapegoat at the U.N.

Published Wed, Jan 17 2007 6:18 PM
Technorati Tags: Corruption, United Nations, Iraq

Benon Sevan was indicted by a federal grand jury and an Interpol warrant for his arrest has been issued. It's about time... From the Washington Post:

The former executive director of the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq was indicted yesterday by a Manhattan federal prosecutor for taking about $160,000 in bribes.

Benon V. Sevan of Cyprus is the third U.N. official to be charged with or convicted of crimes in a federal probe of corruption at the world body. Sevan had overseen a $64 billion program created in December 1996 to permit Iraq to sell oil to buy food and medicine and repay billions in war reparations over its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
...
Sevan's lawyer, Eric L. Lewis, dismissed the charges as "baseless" and said his client is a "scapegoat and a distraction from the United States' own massive failures and mismanagement in Iraq." Lewis said that Sevan -- who served in some of the world's most dangerous capitals during his 40 years at the United Nations -- had previously disclosed the money as a "family gift."
...
The indictment unsealed yesterday affirms some of Volcker's findings, noting that Nadler is alleged to have helped an unnamed co-conspirator "obtain the right to buy Iraqi oil under the oil-for-food program in exchange for commissions from the oil sales, and then allegedly funneled approximately $160,000 of these oil commissions to Sevan."

Of course, he'll get off. It's obvious he's just a scapegoat. No U.N. Official could possibly be corrupt. The U.N. couldn't possibly need reform.

It's no wonder that so many at the U.N. resisted the liberation of Iraq. After all, once the U.S. took over the program after Iraq's liberation their pervasive corruption became clear.

Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, The Random Yak, The HILL Chronicles, stikNstein... has no mercy, basil's blog, Blue Star Chronicles, Stuck On Stupid, Dumb Ox News, and OTB Sports, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.