Today’s Wall Street Journal ($) contains this devastating op-ed by Therese Raphael about the corrupt United Nations‘ “Oil for Food” program that Saddam Hussein and his henchmen used to line their pockets during the final years of Iraq’s fascist regime. The entire article is well worth reading, and concludes as follows:

There is no doubt that the U.N. relief effort in Iraq has been a global scandal. A monstrous dictator was able to turn the Oil-for-Food Program into a cash cow for himself and his inner circle, leaving Iraqis further deprived as he bought influence abroad and acquired the arms and munitions that coalition forces discovered when they invaded Iraq last spring.
A U.N. culture of unaccountability is certainly also to blame. And Security Council members share responsibility for lax oversight, no doubt one reason there is so little appetite for an investigation.
But Saddam’s ability to reap billions for himself, his cronies and those who proved useful to him abroad depended on individuals who were his counterparties. These deserve a full investigation if the U.N.’s credibility is to be restored and its role in Iraq and elsewhere trusted. Especially now, with the U.N. taking a more active role in Iraq, it’s time we knew more about how the Oil-For-Food scandal was allowed to happen.