Oil for food

The Kansas City Star

Previous reports on the United Nations' Oil-for-Food program showed how it was thoroughly corrupted. The fifth and final report from an investigative panel adds many new details, including a 60-page list of companies and people who received oil allocations from Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

The magnitude of the corruption calls for Secretary-General Kofi Annan's resignation.

Oil-for-Food was set up in 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed on Hussein's regime. Under the program, Iraq could sell oil and use the money for food and humanitarian goods.

But the U.N. allowed Hussein to pick the buyers of oil and the sellers of goods. He demanded surcharges from oil buyers and kickbacks from sellers of humanitarian goods.

Most allocations went to France and Russia, countries opposed to continuing the U.N. sanctions. ... More damning information is quite likely to come out, further damaging the U.N.'s credibility.

The world needs an effective United Nations. At this point, the best thing for Annan to do is step down and allow a replacement ... to begin rebuilding the world body's tattered image.