Amid the cheering of the Iraqis over their first taste of true freedom, the Times of London reports that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's sone Kojo had more involvement in brokering oil for the corrupt program that stole their money than first revealed:

THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein.

Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme.

The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing calls for his resignation over the management of the humanitarian programme. ...

Potentially more serious is his connections with Hani Yamani, the son of Sheikh Yamani, the wealthy former Saudi oil minister who set up Opec. Kojo acted as a director for Hani Yamani’s company and was a close business associate. The pair represented the coming together of two of the world’s most influential families.

In 2001 Yamani lined up a deal to sell about $60m worth of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company. The Sunday Times has statements from two close business associates of Yamani who claim that Kojo was involved in the deal.

Why did Yamani include Kojo in the deal? Could Yamani have wanted to curry favor with the UN Secretary-General? Yamani, who helped create OPEC and who still remains an influential Saudi sheikh, had good reason to grease the wheels for UN political credits. They wanted the OFF program to remain in place and fought hard to keep the Iraqi invasion from happening.

Kojo apparently is cooperating with investigators. It will be interesting to see how much.

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» Kojo Annan admits to involvement in oil-for-food from INCITE
You heard it hear first. Unless you heard it somewhere else first, in which case you heard it there first. [Read More]

Tracked on January 30, 2005 8:02 PM

» Kojo Brokered Oil For UNSCAM After All from FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters has a good piece on Kojo, the son of the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan: [Read More]

Tracked on January 30, 2005 9:33 PM

» Oil For Food scam coming apart from Media Lies
The Counterterrorism Blog links to a Financial Times story that reveals that Benon Saven, who ran the Oil For Food program personally directed the scam, something he has repeatedly denied. The Financial Times has just reported that Iraqi officials h... [Read More]

Tracked on January 31, 2005 8:25 PM