Friends of Saddam looks into the potential conflict of interest of Paul Volker, the author of the report.

When Volcker was appointed to head the Oil-for-Food investigation in April 2004, it was not widely known to the general public, the world’s media, or the U.S. Congress that he was at the time a director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) and the Business Council for the United Nations. Mr. Volcker is listed as a director in the 2003-2004 UNA-USA annual report,[3] as well as the annual reports for 2001-2002 and 2000-2001.[4]The UNA-USA’s partner organization, the Business Council for the United Nations (BCUN), works to “advance the common interests of the U.N. and business in a more prosperous and peaceful world.” One of its chief underwriters was BNP Paribas, the French bank that held the escrow account for Oil-for-Food funds.[9] BNP donated more than $100,000 to UNA-USA and BCUN in 2002 to 2003.[10] BNP’s role in the Oil-for-Food scandal is currently being investigated by the House International Relations Committee,[11] as well as by the Volcker Committee.

All the footnotes in the above quote have references in his original post… go check it out.

And the Toronto Free Press questions his objectivity from another angle:

On the payroll as an attorney with Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee is Miranda Duncan. Duncan, who worked for UNICEF, is David Rockefeller’s granddaughter. It was Rockefeller money that built the UN’s Manhattan headquarters.

and more…

Potential conflict of interest number one for Volcker is the fact he held a seat on Power Corporation’s international advisory board.

Wealthy Canadian businessman and Power Corporation founder, Paul Desmarais Sr. is a major shareholder and director in TotalFinaElf, the largest oil corporation in France, which has held tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein

Wow, what a tangled web. Here’s a bit more:

Gardiner also raises questions about former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s handpicked choice to lead the inquiry. Volcker has served on the boards of two U.N. advocacy groups: the United Nations Association of the United States and the Business Council for the United Nations. An additional sign that his loyalties may lie more with the U.N. bureaucracy than with accountability was his choice for the IIC’s communications director, Anna Di Lellio, who resigned last September after it was revealed she had given a newspaper interview comparing President Bush to Osama bin Laden.