WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. senator leading the investigation into allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the Iraq oil-for-food program is urging U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign.

The “massive scope of this debacle demands nothing less,” wrote Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, in an opinion piece published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal.

“The decision to call for Mr. Annan’s resignation does not come easily,” Coleman wrote. “But I have arrived at this conclusion because the most extensive fraud in the history of the U.N. occurred on his watch.

“The world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks and under-the-table payments that occurred under the U.N.’s collective nose while Annan is in charge.”

Coleman is chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has been investigating the oil-for-food program for seven months.

Coleman said he was not accusing Kofi Annan of anything “other than incompetence and mismanagement.
Full article:cnn.com

Coleman is the Freshman senator from Minnesota who was picked by Karl Rove to run against Paul Wellstone in 2000, and lost. But now that Wellstone is dead, he can take his preordained place as Bush’s hatchet-man in the Senate. This is revolting.

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