While mentioning Oil-for-Food-for-Terror earlier, I omitted to link to Claudia Rosett's more in-depth work on the subject. I've read this through several times now, and it's beginning to sink in that the programme was an illegitimate kind of child that turned into a seriously wayward adult- thanks to the kind of parental care only the UN at the highest levels can offer. Rosett really gets warmed up towards the end (hint: that's an incentive to read all the way):

'The UN Secretariat, in its well-paid arrogance, set out to administer virtually the entire economy of Iraq. Under its eye, all legitimate trading privileges became the franchise of a tyrant who laid first claim to every barrel of oil and every dollar (or euro) of proceeds. How could Oil-for-Food not help consolidate Saddam’s grip on power? '

Good Stuff.