UNSCAM UPDATE: An interesting development:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) has received a subpoena from a federal prosecutor regarding the UN-run oil-for-food program in Iraq, the world’s No. 1 publicly-traded oil company said on Friday.

The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on whether it has opened a probe of the program. . . . UN officials said they believed the subpoena to Exxon Mobil was the first indication that the federal prosecutor’s office might be looking into the program.

Hmm.

UPDATE: Brian Erst thinks this is just the news hook the media have been waiting for:

This may be just the hook that will prompt the major news outlets to start fronting this story. Now that it can be spun as a major scandal involving US oil companies, there’s a STORY here! It can be linked to Enron and Halliburton and other completely unrelated corporate malfeasance and shown to really be an “American failing” of “corporate greed”, not the inevitable result of unelected, unaccountable, readily-corruptible elites being given access to vast sums of money. Besides, the UN diplomats involved throw, and are invited to, the BEST parties in Manhattan. What could be wrong with them?

I’m shocked by his cynicism, since the story makes clear that Exxon wasn’t involved. Let’s see if he’s right.