Decades Of Corruption In The Land Of Lincoln

The U.S. Attorney's Office had been investigating Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for three years and right after the 2008 Presidential Election ended in early November, a tap was placed on his phone.

What the Feds heard from the Illinois Governors telephone conversations during the last few weeks have been in the words of Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a "political corruption crime spree" .

Yesterday, Blagojevich was arrested, handcuffed and taken before a federal magistrate on charges he conspired to sell his office. The charges involve a variety of crimes including fundraising in return for state contracts, plush jobs for the governor and his wife Patti, and selling the nomination to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder. It was a "pay to play" political corruption crime spree run from the Governor's office.

Of course, "pay to play" political corruption from the Governors office is nothing new in the land of Lincoln. However, this is a story not only about corruption but also about hypocrisy.

Rod Blagojevich ran for the Governor's office as a reformer to replace previous Illinois Governor Gov. George Ryan, who is now serving a six year prison term for accepting bribes. Ryan was convicted of corruption in 2006 for steering state contracts and leases to political insiders while he was Illinois Secretary of State and Governor.

If Blagojevich is convicted he will become the fourth Illinois Governor in the last 35 years to go to jail. Before Ryan was convicted in 2006, former governor Dan Walker was found guilty of taking fraudulent loans to repair his yacht. He plead guilty in 1987 to bank fraud, misapplication of funds and perjury.

Several years earlier, Gov. Otto Kerner was convicted of taking bribes during his time in office. Kerner was convicted in 1972 on bribery, tax evasion and other counts. He arranged favorable horse-racing dates as governor in return for horse-racing-association stock at reduced prices.

So, how did Rod Blagojevich launch his campaign to become the latest alleged corrupt Governor of Illinois? Well, he occupied “Dan” Rostenkowski’s Congressional seat after Rostenkowski plead guily to mail fraud charges.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich "would make Lincoln roll over in his grave." Still, Blagojevich is only the latest in a long line of unsavory Illinois governors and politicians. Sadly, there have been decades of corruption in the land of Lincoln.

A World Of Mismanagement And Corruption At The U.N.

The United Nations internal Task Force investigating procurement will come to an end on December 31, 2008 due to a lack of funding.

In the strange world of the U.N., the elimination of an internal task force is the best evidence of its effectiveness. In fact, in just the last three years, the U.N. Procurement Task Force, has uncovered 630 billion dollars worth of contracts tainted by fraud, corruption or mismanagement.

In addition, the Task Force is still investigating 150 cases of which one third involve fraud and corruption. These cases will never be completed before December 31, 2008, but may represent another billion dollars in suspect contracts.

The Procurement Task Force headed by former U.S. federal prosecutor Robert Appleton and staffed with eighteen legal professionals plan to focus on only eight more cases before the task force ends its investigations by the start of the new year.

Still, it was just two weeks ago, that the Task Force announced that it had uncovered five more cases of fraud and mismanagement. These new cases total 20 million dollars of U.N. contracts according to the unit's annual report to the U.N. General Assembly. These recent cases involve air charter services in the Congo, office supplies in Kenya, consulting jobs in Greece, and payroll services in New York.

Last year, the Procurement Task Force issued a series of reports that highlighted the fact that corruption had spread from United Nations headquarters to its peacekeeping efforts. It identified ten significant instances of fraud and corruption with an aggregate value of 610 million dollars. The task force also cast a spotlight on United Nations officials that were allowed to carry out criminal schemes in one U.N. mission after another.

These Task Force findings confirmed comments made by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker in 2006 about the findings of mismanagement and corruption in the United Nations corrupt oil for food program. Volker said at the time that the United Nations suffered from a "culture of inaction".

Of course, rampant fraud and corruption is nothing new for United Nations peacekeeping missions. In the early 1990's corruption was widespread in Cambodia, Somalia and the Balkans. The Procurement Task Force focused it most recent peacekeeping corruption allegations on Haiti and the Congo.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon reportedly has begun a campaign to lead the U.N. for a second term. It may have been the reason that his communications director recently told reporters that United States President elect Barack Obama "is a U.N. person."

The history of the United Nations shows it to be a dubious world of mismanagement, fraud and corruption. A lack of oversight is where much of the problem begins. If Barack Obama is really a "U.N. person" then he should withhold American dues until more U.N. reform and oversight begins.

Indeed, if Barack Obama wants to deal with the current U.N. he should at least insist on somebody with the proper experience to lead it. There is only one clear choice to run this corrupt bureaucracy. Tony Soprano for Secretary General is the appropriate choice for the U.N. in its current form.

Also Read : No United States Dues For The United Nations on eWorldvu.com