Is It Christmas Already? U.N. Procurement Scandal: Ties to Saddam and Al Qaeda

Finally, someone does some actual investigative reporting. h/t to Fark for the story link from Fox News. Warning: The story by Claudia Rosett and George Russell of Fox News reads like an Agatha Christy whodunnit and is a little hard at times to keep up with the twists and turns, but the links appear very credible.

NEW YORK — The scandal engulfing the United Nations Procurement Department now appears to be bottomless. It also shows signs of growing more sinister, especially where it involves a mysterious private company called IHC Services, which did big business with the procurement department until it was removed from U.N. rosters in June.

New details of how dark the scandal could prove to be have emerged from the private sale of IHC on June 3, 2005, just as the procurement scandal was about to break. It now appears that while doing business with the U.N., IHC had links both to Saddam Hussein’s old sanctions-busting networks, and to a Liechtenstein-based businessman, Engelbert Schreiber, Jr., known among other things for his ties to a figure designated by the U.N. itself as a financier of Al Qaeda. (more)