That makes France one of the most corrupt countries not in the entire world, but merely in Western Europe. Alas, such dignity may come as cold comfort to the French, given that Mr. Annan did not actually deny that the Chinese, Russians and French had taken big payoffs from Saddam. Mr. Annan merely disputed that the Chinese, Russians and French would have delivered anything in return for the bribes. In other words, they may be corrupt, but at least they weren't honest about it.

Emphasis mine. Claudia Rosett on the U.N./Saddam Hussein joint venture Oil for Food, Palaces and Weapons Program today at OpinonJournal.com. I am glad she continues to be on the case. This is (still) the biggest story of corruption ever. EVER!

And we don't even know half of the tale. How much money ended up in French, Russian and Chinese politician's pockets? How many Iraqis were poisoned by the bad rations that reached them? How many more starved because no food got to their town? How much money went to palaces and weapons? How little was reinvested in the country's oil infrastructure? The Duelfer report has a lot more to tell us than what is being portrayed in the MSM. Big surprise. The U.N. is a joke. Annan is a joke. The U.N., the French government, the Russian government and the Chinese government have Iraqi blood on their collective hands and dirty money, billions of it, in their collecitve pockets. Read Rosett's article.