The corruption at the UN is even more wide spread than most imagined (though I'm not surprised at all):

Procurement and budgeting corruption may escape Volcker's scrutiny, but they are central to the mandate of Annan.

This scandal touches on almost everything the secretary-general is supposed to control. It is by way of procurement contracts, for goods and services ranging from cappuccino and paper clips at U.N. headquarters, to air freight services and food rations for peacekeeping troops worldwide, that the United Nations spends the billions contributed every year by member states — of which U.S. taxpayers provide the largest slice.

I still think that Claudia Rossett deserves a Pulitzer for this work. She won't get it, though. Those only go for investigations into Evil Corporations and "authoritarian governments." Stories about cushy clubs for defending and protecting collectivist dictators don't count.

[Update at 9:15 PM PDT]

Claudia Rossett has thoughts on tomorrow's release of the long-awaited Volcker Report. She thinks that the blame will be diffused, and that Kofi Annan will get off too easy.

Someone forgot to close a link tag, methinks... IE shows all but the first 6 words of this post as a link...

It seems to me, public money requires public documents. How in the hell can they get away with telling the guys paying the bills (US Taxpayer mostly) that we have no right to see what's going on?

This country needs to invest in more bulldozers and start using them.