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Witness Testimony
Mr. Jed Babbin
United Nations Oil for Food Program Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. I am Jed Babbin, author of "Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are Worse than You Think." I greatly appreciate this opportunity to appear before you today. The subcommittee's continuing inquiry into the UN Oil for Food Program will, I'm sure, uncover further evidence of UN malfeasance and the comprehensive corruption of that program. Today, I wish to accomplish two things. First is to raise serious concerns about the various investigations being made into the Oil for Food program. These concerns arise because the UN is engaged in actively thwarting the investigations of this body and others, and because the investigations that should continue have been sidelined by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Second, I wish to point out to the Subcommittee some of the other - even more important - aspects of UN corruption. As I have documented in "Inside the Asylum," the UN is today the handmaiden of terrorism, the errand boy of despots and dictators, and a diplomatic quagmire that is the antithesis of our policy to preempt terrorist attacks. The Oil for Food Investigations I understand that the Subcommittee has heard, in its earlier hearing and from other witnesses today, of many of the problems that burdened the Oil for Food program and deflected it from its intended purpose. There are many within the UN, and among the nations and people that apparently profited from the abuse of the program, who are working hard to prevent the truth from being uncovered. The UN asks that Congress and the Iraqi people subordinate their investigations to that of the UN. In fact, it should be the UN that subordinates its investigation, and makes its people and records available to the independent investigations being conducted here and in Iraq. The UN's so-called "independent" investigation has little or no chance of determining what happened, and is not even tasked with the proper goals. As I explain briefly in "Inside the Asylum", what was then the Iraqi Governing Council commissioned an investigation of the Oil for Food Program in late 2003. The IGC engaged the Roland Berger Strategy Consultants firm of London, UK to conduct it. In my researches, I have spoken to a number of people including Claude Hankes-Drielsma, the chairman of Roland Berger. By March 2004, when my manuscript was finished, that investigation was reasonably well-positioned. The Roland Berger firm had been succeeded by the KPMG firm which was to work with the British law firm of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, (later succeeded by the Patton, Boggs firm of Washington, DC) to pursue a full and complete investigation, and - most importantly - to take whatever legal actions may be possible to recover the stolen and embezzled funds. On April 21, 2004, appearing to bow to the pressure from the Security Council members, Secretary General Annan commissioned former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to investigate the corruption in the Oil for Food program. At about that point, Coalition Provisional Authority head Ambassador L. Paul Bremer decided to sidetrack and forestall the Iraqi investigation in favor of the UN investigation. It is puzzling to see the CPA and Mr. Bremer effectively block an investigation which - according to Mr. Hankes-Drielsma - they were fully aware of and had approved. Worse still, Mr. Bremer's decision to cooperate with the UN and to block the Iraqi's own investigation may effectively prevent the truth from ever being uncovered. In Mr. Hankes-Drielsma's words, Bremer "pulled the rug out from under" the KPMG/Patton-Boggs investigation. There are obstacles to both the Iraqi investigation and the UN investigation. First and foremost is their common inability to subpoena documents and testimony from government officials, banks and individuals who were involved in the Oil for Food program. Most of the money which resulted from oil sales in the program passed through French and Jordanian banks. Specifically, BNP (the Bank of France) and Jordanian banks including the Jordan National Bank, Arab Bank, and Housing Bank. None of those banks, nor their respective national governments, are under any obligation to cooperate with the investigations. (I note, however, that one source told me there was - in the New York branch of BNP - a considerable number of documents related to the Oil for Food Program. These are, I believe, within the reach of American judicial or congressional subpoenas). Despite the obstacles they suffer in common, there is a fundamental difference between the Iraqi investigation and the UN investigation which, I believe, makes it imperative that we support the Iraqi investigation. Unlike the UN investigation, the Iraqi investigation is tasked not only to determine whether and how the corruption took place, but also to recover the many billions of dollars apparently stolen from the people of Iraq. The UN's limited goal of determining how the theft occurred will necessarily be accomplished as a preliminary step toward recovering the stolen billions. The UN should be required to support the Iraqi investigation, and subordinate its own to that of the Iraqi people. Mr. Bremer's action in sidetracking the Iraqi investigation should be reversed immediately, and the Iraqi government encouraged to proceed at its best speed. The UN investigation is creating a grave and unnecessary danger to the success of the Iraqi investigation. The Saddam regime, for whatever reason, was comprised of obsessive bureaucrats and record-keepers. They operated under instructions which one source told me were "very significant and detailed." They are among the records that are - or were in March of this year - still in the Baghdad ministries. The records of the Oil for Food program transactions kept in Baghdad were very detailed. They existed in - at least -- the Oil Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the Trade Ministry. Given access to them, investigators could make enormous progress, and would probably find sufficient proof of wrongdoing that many of the guilty parties could be identified, and public pressure on governments, banks, companies and individuals could be marshaled to demand cooperation in the investigation. According to Mr. Hankes-Drielsma, to whom I spoke two days ago, Mr. Volcker is insisting that all of the documents in the Iraqis' possession be gathered together in one location. This is an amazingly bad idea. Records can be lost or destroyed in any move, and consolidating them in one place makes them a valuable target for a terrorist strike aimed at destroying them. As is demonstrated by the recent assassination of the head of the Iraqis' Board of Supreme Audit, this is not a fanciful concern. The UN's rules - and the UN always plays by the UN's rules, not anyone else's -require that all the documents in the possession of the Iraqi government be made available to the UN. But the UN is refusing to allow any KPMG/Patton, Boggs access to UN documents. And thanks to Mr. Bremer's intervention, the KPMG/Patton, Boggs investigation has been put on hold indefinitely. I respectfully suggest to the Subcommittee that it should consider seriously using its influence to ensure that the United States chooses between these competing investigations, and does so in favor of the Iraqi investigation. America should do all in our power to ensure that the Iraqi investigation goes forward and is given access to the UN, its records, employees and officials, without interference from or undue deference to the Volcker investigation. The UN as Handmaiden of Terrorism As serious as the Oil for Food scandal may be, it is - after all - only about money. There is a corruption in the UN and its agencies that is far more important to every American. It is not financial corruption. It is a moral corruption, a decadence of thinking and reasoning that tolerates terrorism. No, it is more than tolerance: it is acceptance of terrorists and the nations that support them evidencing a moral bankruptcy that is unimaginable to most Americans. Let me give you a few examples: . Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that has more American blood on its hands than any other terrorist organization except al-Queda. They murdered 241 Marines in the infamous 1983 Beirut barracks bombing. They kidnapped, tortured and murdered Marine Col. William "Rich" Higgins, as well as CIA Station Chief William Buckley. On page 155 of "Inside the Asylum" there is a picture of a "UN peacekeepers'" position on the Israel-Lebanon border. A copy of that picture is attached to this statement. In it, you see two flags flying side by side. One is the UN flag, the other the flag of Hezbollah. While in Israel last November, I spoke to an Israeli soldier who had been stationed at an IDF post on the Israeli side. He told me how the UN "peacekeepers" lived in comfortable coexistence with the murderers of Hezbollah, using the same telephones, sharing water supplies. Were it up to me, not another American dime would be paid to the UN while that Hezbollah flag flies. I wonder: how many other terrorists take advantage of similar UN hospitality elsewhere in the Middle East and around the world?
. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East - UNRWA - is supposed to be dispensing humanitarian aid and educational services in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In "Inside the Asylum", I quote from the testimony of Professor Rashid Khalidi of the University of Chicago. In a US District Court case, his affidavit said that UNRWA hires members of Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Hamas and Islamic Jihad in disregard of their terrorist ties. I don't know how many US tax dollars or private donations by Americans go to UNRWA. Whatever the total, if it's above zero, it's too much; | |||||||||||
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