Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein. Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office.This UN scandal is so much fun. Democrats think it is the provincial domain of Republicans to amorally pursue the greenback in backroom dealings with sovereign dictators. No doubt, Republicans are just as crooked as Dems, but generally, the GOP hypocrite is financing some sort of personal liberty for the oppressed masses whereas the lib is simply pursuing money, power, or extramarital sex.
The Rich connection is the latest wrinkle in a rapidly mushrooming scandal that has thrown the United Nations into its gravest crisis and has led to numerous calls for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to step down. Rich, who fled the country to Switzerland in 1983 to escape an indictment for racketeering and tax evasion as well as trading oil with Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran, has not set foot inside the United States since his pardon.
In January 2001, in the final hours his presidency, Clinton bypassed law-enforcement and intelligence agencies to wipe the books clean for Rich after being subjected to intense lobbying from former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Rich's jet-setting ex-wife, Denise, who donated more than $1 million to Democratic campaigns — including Sen. Hillary Rodham's first Senate race — along with an additional $450,000 to Clinton's library fund.
Liberals who see corruption only on the other side of the aisle have always amused me. Lately, the mainstream media has increasingly admitted its long-standing bias, which gives enjoyment to the more reasonable among us. And now the United Nations is wallowing in scandal, another source of quality entertainment. What's even better is that the corruption is bypassing W and heading straight for Teflon Bill.
No comments:
Post a Comment