Backstabbing for Beginners:
Page 41
And yet I could not afford to become cynical about this journey. If anything, I had seen where cynicism led people. Pasha had been corrupted by cynicism long before he had been tempted by greed.
My colleagues and I had paid a steep price for our experience. But it was not without value. The Oil-for-Food debacle had sparked the most meaningful push for reforms since the UN’s creation. And it exposed the true nature of the organization’s core institution: the Security Council itself.
The black elixir that fueled the world economy enticed most members of the Security Council to violate the laws they had adopted together, completely discrediting the institution’s claim to legitimacy and moral authority.
Sad as this discovery was, it would have been far worse if it had never been made. While no amount of reforms would transform the United Nations into a perfectly accountable body, we had witnessed a historic first with the imposition of previously unimaginable demands for transparency on the world body.
If transparency, or glasnost, as Mikhail Gorbachev used to call it, could bring the Soviet empire to its knees, surely it could be trusted to provoke real change in the ossified structures that govern international affairs.
The demise of our operation marked the end of an era. Radical new ideas were emerging about how to reshape the world organization. One former adviser to Kofi Annan, who also resigned, argued for a dissolution of the Security Council and its Secretariat in favor of an agency-driven approach to solving global challenges. In a New York Times op-ed published in September 2005, Nader Mousavizadeh, a fellow Danish national of Persian origin, challenged the forces of the status quo, which had opposed reforms even in the aftermath of the Oil-for-Food debacle. “At this stage,” he wrote, “the burden surely falls on the proponents of the status quo—those who cannot imagine a world without a Security Council, a General Assembly or Secretariat—to explain what value these structures add that outweighs the profound damage they have done to the very idea of multilateral action.”
The forces of complacency were being rattled. People who could hardly be described as right-wing UN bashers or left-wing radicals were starting to make their voices heard.
Instead of rattling my faith in the need for international governance, my experience had strengthened it. As much as I researched the history of UN reform, however, I never found a better blueprint for healthy international organization than that originally offered by Immanuel Kant in his 1795 essay “On Perpetual Peace.” Unfortunately, neither the United Nations nor its predecessor, the League of Nations, sought to abide by Kant’s guidelines, which foresaw an organization of democratic, independent republics that would apply to the international realm the laws and values that the Enlightenment had brought to bear on the domestic realm.
The financial corruption I had witnessed had its roots in the corruption of a great vision, an attempt to apply international laws to governments that considered themselves above their own domestic laws and whose actions had a spillover effect that tainted the entire system.
“Corruption is nature’s way of restoring our faith in Democracy,” wrote Peter Ustinov. The Security Council was indeed coming under mounting criticism for failing to adhere to the basic principles of the democratic process and for concentrating all power in the hands of a few states. The lack of separation between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of governance on the world stage would eventually need to be addressed. A legal body whose members violated their own laws with impunity would not prove sustainable in the long run. Change was inevitable.
Perhaps I was fooling myself once again. But insofar as delusions go, optimistic ones are far healthier than pessimistic ones. The lies we tell ourselves, for better or worse, often end up defining the way we act. Greater transparency was a cause in which I felt comfortable placing my faith. And our debacle, while tragic in many ways, had given this cause momentum. Never before had so many corrupt individuals and companies been exposed on the world stage. Under pressure from NGOs like the Government Accountability Project, UN whistleblowers were offered new protections. A steady progression toward greater transparency was in motion, and, to the best of my ability, I would contribute to this process in the future.
After returning from Iraq, I took up a teaching job at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. In the spring semester of 2008, after one lecture in which I had spoken of my misadventures working for the United Nations, a student came up to me and asked me for advice. She had an opportunity to join the United Nations and was wondering, in light of my experience, whether I thought it was a good idea.
Spooky’s old words of advice came to mind: be your own man.
It had been the best advice I received throughout this whole journey. It ultimately led me into a confrontation with the “system,” and I can’t say that made for only good times. I realized that Pasha had felt betrayed by my decision to call for an investigation. And surely, he realized that I felt equally betrayed by his corruption, too. I suppose our trajectories had been on a collision course from the start.
The system tends to transform young idealists into old realists. Both outlooks have their inherent flaws (idealists can be alarmingly naïve, just as realists can be dangerously cynical), but both offer necessary, even complementary, contributions to the process. In fact, the idealism/realism dichotomy is at the center of most debates in the field of international affairs. In the real world of diplomacy, the clash between these two worldviews often translates into a clash between generations.
Ours was a game in which most players ended up feeling stabbed in the back at some point or another, either on the level of their ideals or on the level of their raw personal interests. The key to surviving in such an environment was to try to be true to oneself. And so, in answer to the young student, I found myself repeating the advice that I had received at the outset of my own journey.
“I can’t advise you against joining the UN,” I said. “In fact, I hope that my own experience doesn’t dissuade you from joining. I do feel I made a difference. And if that’s what you want to do at this stage in your career, nothing should hold you back.”
She nodded.
“But if the going gets tough, as surely it will, just remember: be your own . . . woman. Your own person. Think for yourself. And if you see something rotten, don’t be afraid to speak out.”
Seeing signs of confusion in her expression, I remembered how confused I had felt myself, some ten years ago, when Spooky first welcomed me to the game. And it made me smile.
INDEX
A.V.M. Air
ABC News Channel
Abdelnour, Fakhry
Abdel-Rahman, Omar (“Sheikh Omar”)
Abramoff, Jack
lobbyist extraordinaire
Abu Ghraib
Accountability
Government Accountability Project
UN system lacking
UN’s lack of, internationally
Adnan
Afghan v. Yemenite
Afghanistan
African Middle East Petroleum (AMEP)
Afsane
Ahmad, Sultan Hashim
Ailes, Robert
AK-47 rifle
Albright, Madeleine
Alcatel telecom firm
Algeria
Allawi, Ali
Allawi, Iyad
Allies (World War I)
Al-Mada
Al-Rasheed Hotel
Amanpour, Christiane
AMEP. See African Middle East Petroleum
American Enterprise Institute
American oil companies
Chevron
Delta
Shell
See also United States
Amnesty International report (2001)
Angola
Annan, Kofi
on anti-UN propaganda
background of
Baghdad mission by
buck passing by
called upon to step down
�
��Hammarskjöld moment,” 161-162
ordering investigation
weapons inspection deal by
Annan, Kojo
Anthrax
Anti-sanctions activities
in Baghdad
Halliday’s
Arab Club of Britain
Arab League
Arabs
Kurds’ ethnic rivalry with
Lawrence of Arabia
Shiite Marsh Arabs
Sunni Arab doctors
Sunni Muslims
Sunni terrorists
See also specific Arab nations/persons
Araud, Gerard
Armitage, Richard
Arnett, Peter
Arthur, Holbrooke
Ashcroft, John
Asplund, Bo (“Boo!”)
mission statement by
Associated Press
Atatürk, Kemal
Auchi, Nadhmi
Australia
playing stupid
Prime Minister investigated
Australian Wheat Board
Austria
Ayoub, Muwafaq (“Bumblebee”)
Aziz, Tariq
Benjamin’s letter to
on Genmar Resources GMBH
Aznar, José Maria
Baath Party
Babylonian culture
Baer, Robert
Baghdad
Annan, Kofi, mission in
anti-sanctions demonstrations in
Bunny Huggers left in
Jordanian embassy bombing in
trade fairs in
UN interagency meeting in
UN’s senior managers in
See also Halliday, Denis; Hussein, Saddam; Sponeck, Hans von
Baghdad Hunting Club
Bahai Kurds
Bahamas
Baker, James
Balkans
Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP)
UN’s account with
See also Paribas
Barnes, Fred
Barzani, Massoud
on UN in Kurdistan
Barzani, Mustapha
BBC. See British Broadcasting Corporation
“Be your own man,” 21
Bell, Gertrude
Benjamin Committee for Iraq
Benjamin, Jean-Marie
Voices in the Wilderness
Berger, Sandy
Biden, Joseph
Bierce, Ambrose
Big Ben to Baghdad
Bin Laden, Osama
Biological weapons
VX gas
Bionda, Alain
Bishopric, Suzanne
Blackmail
Blair, Tony
Blix, Hans
Blue Helmets
BNP. See Banque Nationale de Paris
Bogart, Humphrey
Boidevaix, Serge
Bombing
Albright on U.S.’s
B-52 bombers
of Jordanian embassy in Baghdad
U.S., on Iraq
See also Terrorism
“Boo!” See Asplund, Bo (“Boo!”)
Book of Esther
Borat
Bosnia
“Bottom-up review,” 109-111
Boutros-Ghali, Boutros
Sevan and
Bremer, Paul
Bribes
list of takers
Sevan receiving
Britain
implicated in fraud
International Institute for Strategic Studies
Ministry of Defense
“missing” documents
on UN Resolution #1441
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
British Ministry of Defense
Brown, Marc Malloch
Brown University
“Bumblebee.” See Ayoub, Muwafaq
Bunny Huggers (UN humanitarian observers)
interagency meeting of
non-evacuation of
See also UN observers in Iraq
Burnett, John
Bush administration
aware of fraud
during run-up to war
See also Bush, George W.
Bush, George W.
DeLay “unknown” to
in Qatar
on tightening of sanctions
Butler, Richard
B-52 bombers
Cambodia
Cambone, Stephen
Cambridge Against Sanctions in Iraq (CASI)
Cameroon
Canal Hotel
Casaroli, Agostino
CASI. See Cambridge Against Sanctions in Iraq
Catholic priest
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
See also Spy(s)
Chalabi, Ahmad
Chalabi, Tamara
Chechnya
Chemical weapons
Cheney, Dick
Chevron
China
embassy in Belgrade
Chirac, Jacques
Chlorine gas
Christian Kurds
Christie, Agatha
Churchill, Winston
CIA. See Central Intelligence Agency
Cindy. See Spikes, Cindy
Cipro
Civilians, Iraqi
census of
cheated
chemical weapons used on
defrauded
food/water for
front companies v.
human dimension of war
international theft from
medicines for
parade burials of
sanctions damaging
scripted by Hussein
“vulnerable groups,” 143
See also Fraudulent companies
Clarry, Stafford
Clausewitz, Carl von
Clinton administration
attack on Iraq
Boutros-Ghali disliked by
Iraq Liberation Act signed by
Oil-for-Food monitoring by
sidestepping UN
Clinton, Bill
Clinton, Hillary
Clooney, George
CNN news channel
Baghdad cook watching
Iraqis watching
narrow focus of
no comment by
Coalition Provisional Authority
Coconut
Columbia University
Communist terrorist groups
Concert of Europe
Conflict resolution seminar
Congress (U.S.)
delegation to Saipan sweatshop
Connery, Sean
Corruption
ball of snow v.
Cotecna
Cowboys (UN inspectors)
interagency meeting
See also UN weapons inspectors
Crimes against humanity
Crossette, Barbara
Currency exchange
Cyprus
See also Sevan, Benon V.
Daily News Building
Darth Vader
Dearlove, Richard
Declaration of Human Rights
Delay, Tom
Delta Oil
Delta Shuttle
Demining. See Minefield operations
Denmark
Mousavizadeh of
See also Soussan, Michael; Torben
Derbandikhan Dam
Desert Storm operation. See Operation Desert Storm
Diplomats, lying v. preserving peace
Dohuk
Dokan Dam
Double-O’s
facilitating fraud
Downing Street Memo
Dracula
“Dual-use” items
Dubai
Dysentery
East Timor
Economic sanctions (on Iraq)
activists v.
Baghdad demonstrations against
enforcers v. alleviators
United Nations sanctions committee
UN’s 661 Committee on
See
also Bunny Huggers (UN humanitarian observers); Cowboys (UN inspectors); Oil-for-Food operation
The Edge
Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC)
Electrical power generation
Derbandikhan Dam
Dokan Dam
Elfverson, Christer (“Smiley Face”)
Sevan v.
Spikes v.
Enron scandal
EOTC. See Education Outside the Classroom
Erbil
fighting in
Western bar in
Euros
Fallujah
FAO. See Food and Agriculture Organization
Fawzi, Ahmad
FBI. See Federal Bureau of Investigation
Fear
of Iraqi authorities
peshmerga
UN personnel living in
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
See also Spy(s)
Finland
Firzli, Elias
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
“Food basket,” 107
Food, in Iraq
industrial supplies v.
malnourishment
Ford Foundation
Fox News Channel
France
embroiled in blame game
Grandes Ecoles of
implicated in fraud
invested in Hussein’s regime
on Iraq’s WMD
“missing” documents
nuclear reactor sold to Iraq
stakes in Oil-For-Food
U.S. v.
See also specific French companies
Franks, Tommy
Fraudulent activities
Britain’s
Clinton/Bush administrations aware of
Iraqi regime’s
United Nations’
See also Hussein, Saddam; specific nation
Fraudulent companies
UN mandate v.
Fréchette, Louise
in chain of command
Freedom
Kurdish
Operation Iraqi Freedom
political
of speech
from UN’s cynicism
Freedom of Information Act
Front companies
UN mandate v.
F-16 fighter jets
Galloway, George
Gates, Robert M.
General Assembly (United Nations’)
Genmar Resources GMBH
See also Lukoil
Genocidal program
Germany
companies involved in kickbacks
Ghana
Gingrich, Newt