UN officer pleads gulity in Oil-For-Food

UN official Alexander Yakovlev pleads guilty[*1] as the Iraqi Oil-For-Food scandal investigation works its way up the UN bureaucratic ladder:

Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian procurement officer, was the first U.N. official to be charged in the scandal. He was also accused of wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly accepting nearly $1 million in bribes from U.N. contractors in his work outside the program.

Yakovlev pleaded guilty Monday to the charges and surrendered toFBI agents in Manhattan but was later released on $400,000 bail. He could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the three counts.

The Wall Street Journal summarizes the scandal[*2] :

Mr. Sevan’s graft is reprehensible, but the real scandal is that Saddam Hussein was able to manipulate the Oil for Food program and bend the U.N. to his will for such comparatively tiny sums. That didn’t happen because of U.N. oversight failures; it happened because of the U.N.’s political commitment to continued dealings with Saddam, something Mr. Annan endorsed personally, both through his own diplomatic initiatives and his stalwart defense of the prewar status quo.

It is obvious that Kofi Annan must go, and that the entire UN structure needs a serious housecleaning. John Bolton has his work cut out for him.