UNSCAM Claims Another Scalp

India's foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was forced to step down from his post Monday amid allegations that he and the governing Congress Party had illegally benefited from the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Singh's position was deemed untenable after the government began two separate investigations into the alleged deals.

Singh described the allegations, contained in the final report by the committee led by the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, as "farcical" and refused to resign, saying, "I do a good job. I have had tremendous support." Late Monday, however, after a long meeting with the prime minister, Congress party officials announced that he had been demoted.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was named interim foreign minister, and Natwar Singh was given a post as minister without portfolio. He was assured that the position of foreign minister would be returned to him if his name is cleared, officials said.

India was among the countries critical of the US for seeking to enforce UN SCR 1441 et seq. on Iraq. The more the investigations continue, the more we see the relationship between sweetheart deals, politicians on the take, and national policy influenced by the economics of the OFF program.

UPDATE:
And the scalps of both Paul Volcker, who was brought in to investigate the scandal, and Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the UN should be brought to justice as well. Volcker sanitized his findings so that Kofi could skirt on the edge of the precipe, and Kofi's actions throughout the whole mess has been abhorrent. Via Ace of Spades.

UPDATE:
And here's one that has apparently gotten away.

Investigators have identified Alexander Kramar, a for mer member of the U.N. Oil Overseers Board, as the man who may have gotten away — escaping the scrutiny that has entangled hundreds of U.N. officials and international political figures and businessmen in one of the most massive financial scandals in history.

Kramar, who lived in the Riverdale section of The Bronx for nearly a decade before leaving in 2003, has resurfaced in Moscow — with Zarubezhneft, a state-owned oil firm recently cited as the largest and most active participant in the food program, which paid at least $8.7 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime.

The investigation team, headed by ex-Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, learned that Kramar, who was paid $12,000 a month at the United Nations, transferred about $1 million from a New York bank account out of the country.

Technorati: UNSCAM, Oil for Food, and Kofi Annan