A good start...

Why haven't we seen more on this?

But it's strange (duh: it has to do with the UN): apparently he was given the options on 4 mn barrels of oil, but these options weren't exercised, aka the allocations weren't performed, as the jargon goes. Which is weird: if you're being bribed, then why do you not take the bribe instead of letting it set where everyone can see it?

But this is not just anyone: he was/is - it's difficult to say given the opacity of the UN - the special advisor for Europe for Kofi Annan.

But no one knows where he is or what he's doing.

Par for the course?

I don't think so.

There may well be a deeper layer of the onion here. What if Hussein in his attempts to break the embargo used blackmail instead? Of showing that an allocation had been made and that if the information came out that there was a bribery setup within the Oil-For-Food program that would implicate such people?

I fear that we'll never get to the bottom of this. But this can, at least, serve as a precautionary item. Never, ever underestimate the duplicity and cleverness of Third-World despots when it comes to keeping their power. They never need to worry about disclosure of blackmail or attempted blackmail, since it's the kind of behavior we expect from them and besides, they have nothing to lose by trying the trick of setting someone up so that it looks like they were in cahoots when in fact there was no blackmail or attempt at blackmail.

Again, it's the appearance that counts politically and not the reality of whatever happened.

It's a strange world...

PS: I ran across this as well. Even stranger. Scapegoat time?