The $21.3 billion United Nations oil-for-food scandal has now widened to include the brother of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.It's great the way the United Nations brings the most endearing features of Third World governments to "world government."
Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be "connected" to an African businessman at the center of the scandal.
The probe into Kobina's dealings are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed.
However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal.
A source close to the investigation said: "We believe Kobina Annan may be involved with Michael Wilson and Kojo Annan. We know there is a connection between Kobina and Wilson."
Kobina is the second member of Annan's family — after Annan's son Kojo — to be drawn into the scandal, which has led to the resignation of several senior U.N. officials.
And speaking of senior U.N. officials, I've been woefully neglecting the latest UN hijinks. I don't intend to try to catch up now, but I have to mention the travails of Iqbal "Shredder Boy" Riza. First he loses his job as Kofi's right hand man because he's shredding every "Oil-for-Food" document in sight down at UN HQ. Then then he comes back as a "dollar-a-year" employee (retaining his diplomatic immunity) to just help out. Helping out apparently consisted of shredding more documents:
According to the eyewitness, a U.N. staffer who works on the same floor as Riza, the retired cabinet chief arrived within days of leaving his old job, loaded down with many cartons of papers and files.I'm certainly laughing - ole Icky is quite a lad!
Riza was not in his new office daily, but every day he appeared, he would put large numbers of material through an office shredder located in a public area.
"It became the office joke," said the eyewitness, who did not wish to be identified for fear of reprisals from superiors.
