ABC News reports:

April 20 — At least three senior United Nations officials are suspected of taking multimillion-dollar bribes from the Saddam Hussein regime, U.S. and European intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS...

One year after his fall, U.S. officials say they have evidence, some in cash, that Saddam diverted to his personal bank accounts approximately $5 billion from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program...

The entire program itself was $39 billion, meaning more than 15 percent of the entire U.N.-run relief effort would have been actively skimmed through the time the United Nations Security Council blocked U.S., British and Spanish efforts to get support for the war in Iraq.

Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has spoken repeatedly about giving more and more power in Iraq to the same people who protected - and allegedly pocketed some of - Saddam's 15 percent skim. Here's some of what he's said in the past year plus:

"And I believe very deeply that making a better effort through the United Nations, trying harder to bring people on board with us strengthens America." - Jan. 30, 2003

"That's why I was one of the first Democrats to speak up and urge President Bush to go to the United Nations - because even a country as great as the United States needs some friends in this world." - March 14, 2003

"...President Bush made an enormous mistake in not building a broader coalition or winning the support of the United Nations because, after all, Saddam Hussein broke an agreement with the world, not just the United States." - May 15, 2003

"We also need greater United Nations involvement in the humanitarian and governance transformation. And the world needs to be invested in the outcome in Iraq..." - July 10, 2003

"And we should bring NATO, we should bring the United Nations, we should bring other countries into the effort. We can still manage most of the security operation, even as we do that, but the humanitarian and the governance components of this must be broadened." - July 13, 2003

"... They're going through the back door, you know, rather than the front door. I mean, they're kind of reaching out to countries, but they're trying to keep it on the QT. A number of countries have said, 'Look, we're prepared to be helpful, but we think we ought to do it through the United Nations,' which is something that this administration, obviously, just hates to do. I think that when you're dealing with the lives of young Americans, you don't let pride get in the way." - July 16, 2003

"We need to protect our troops, and that mean that pride should not prevent this administration from going to the United Nations and doing what they should have done in the first place." - July 16, 2003

"Look, I voted to protect the security of the United States of America based on the information that we were given, and I voted correctly to put the United States in a place to go to the United Nations and hold a clearly miscalculating evil person accountable to the United Nations standards." - July 21, 2003

"It is imperative to get the United Nations to help not because of any politics but because it just makes plain, old American common sense to have as many nations carrying the burden and risk as possible. " - Aug. 25, 2003

"And I'll tell you, after I'm sworn in, one of the first things I'm going to do is go to the United Nations and turn over a new chapter in America's relationship with the world, one that strengthens our security and our safety." - Aug. 31, 2003

" I believe the president made a—an unbelievably bad decision, a dramatic decision not to bring the United Nations in earlier and to refuse the offer recently for them to be involved. We need to take the target off of American soldiers and reduce the sense of American occupation." - Sept. 2, 2003

"I—I voted to do the responsible thing for America, which was to have a threat of force to hold Saddam Hussein accountable and to go to the United Nations." - Sept. 2, 2003

"It is time to return to the United Nations, not with the arrogance of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz but with genuine respect. For the Bush Administration to reject the participation of allies and the UN is a miscalculation of colossal proportions. " - Sept. 2, 2003

“The President wasted another opportunity to move forward and to give us details. The facts on the ground in Iraq require a concrete plan, and real and immediate leadership to involve the United Nations, and to provide real security in Iraq.” - Sept. 23, 2003

"He doesn't have a plan. We need to go to the United Nations, Paula." - Sept. 25, 2003

"Putting governance and rebuilding Iraq under the authority of the United Nations would change our role from an occupying force to protectors of U.N.-sponsored security, making it easier to increase international participation and funding, both military and civilian." - Oct. 1, 2003

"For months I have been urging the administration to bring the United Nations and the international community into the process of rebuilding Iraq's economy and political system. The United Nations must be given a clearly defined, central role in the reconstruction of Iraq and in the process of establishing a new Iraqi government. " - Oct. 16, 2003

"I think you have to turn over to the United Nations genuine authority, ask them, with a little humility, to be involved in the process of the transformation of Iraq and bring them to the table for the humanitarian, the infrastructure and governance—the governing part of Iraq." - Oct. 27, 2003

" I would go to the United Nations and legitimately, with the appropriate humility and the appropriate sensitivity, internationalize our presence. It is wrong for the United States to be viewed as and, in fact, implementing an occupation by ourselves almost." - Oct. 28, 2003

" I will go to the United Nations and travel to the nations of the world to restore American leadership and rebuild our shattered alliances. Even a nation as great as the United States needs some friends in this world. " - Nov. 21, 2003

"And I want to introduce to you, all of you, a very special person in my life. She hails from Mozambique, lived most of her life-early life there and in being educated abroad until she came here to work at the United Nations, when she was about 24 years old. She is a naturalized American and approaches America and our politics with all of the passion of somebody who has come to exercise the vote and citizenship aware of what the alternatives are. And I would like you all to join me in saying hello to a remarkable woman, Teresa Heinz Kerry. (Applause.) Thank you.

And my stepson Christopher and my sister Peggy are here. And Peggy's been working in New York and is at the United Nations now, working in the mission, where she works with nongovernmental organizations." - Dec. 3, 2003

"I will carry that message to the world myself in my first hundred days in office. I will go to the United Nations and travel to our traditional allies to affirm that the United States has rejoined the community of nations." - Dec. 3, 2003

"The only way to be successful ultimately is to transfer to the United Nations the full measure of authority for the reconstruction of Iraq, and for the governance transformation of Iraq. " - Dec. 9, 2003

"go back to the international community and to the United Nations and offer a real partnership in Iraq. We need a new Security Council resolution to give the United Nations authority in the rebuilding process and the development of a new Iraqi Constitution and government." - Dec. 16, 2003

"...(Y)ou needed to do it right. And doing it right meant going through the United Nations properly, exhausting the remedies of the inspections. It meant taking the time to build a legitimate coalition, not a fraudulent one." - Jan. 11, 2004

"It is time to return to the United Nations and return America to the community of nations to share both authority and responsibility in Iraq, and take the target off the back of our troops. " - Feb. 27, 2003

"The United Nations, not the United States, should be the primary civilian partner in working with Iraqi leaders to hold elections, restore government services, rebuild the economy, and re-create a sense of hope and optimism among the Iraqi people. The primary responsibility for security must remain with the U.S. military, preferably helped by NATO until we have an Iraqi security force fully prepared to take responsibility." - April 13, 2004

"And as president, I will rejoin the community of nations within months-excuse me-within weeks, if you will trust me with the presidency, within weeks of being inaugurated, I intend to return to the United Nations, and I intend to formally lay out for the world America's agenda on a global basis, which will show how we intend to restore to our foreign policy the values and the hopes and aspirations of people all around this planet about how the leader of the free world ought to behave." - April 15, 2004

"Q Why do you support a greater U.N. role, especially in the involvement of transferring power, when many Iraqis do not trust the United Nations? One reason was pointed out already: they left in 1998. And secondly, the U.N. ran the oil-for-food program, which was a fraud. So why would the Iraqis welcome a U.N. presence?

SEN. KERRY: If the United States of America is as much a part of that as we would be, because we're going to be still holding onto the security component of the mission-remember that I said that the reconstruction effort and the government reconstruction effort are two singular efforts. But the third effort is the security effort, and I would keep that under United States command, but I would share it as I have described. That can give the guarantee of the security necessary to trust that you really have an ongoing effort. That's number one.

Number two, the U.N. has done actually a superb job in a lot of places; East Timor most recently, but invested 10 years of effort in Cambodia, it's been very successful in the Bosnia-Kosovo area though there are some problems now increasing for other reasons. I think that it is the best chance of internationalizing an effort that has to have a global stamp of approval.

Q But why? If the Iraqis don't trust the United Nations --

SEN. KERRY: The Iraqis will if the United States agrees that there is a process in place which is agreeable to us. And trust me, they will go along with that providing there's adequate security and providing that there is a shared decision-making process. Ultimately the goal is to transfer that authority, then, so they make their own decisions, needless to say. But I think we ought to reduce the American unilateralist and particularly the perception-the reality of American occupation." - April 14, 2004

"MR. RUSSERT: There's a lot of concern as to just how much influence you would give the United Nations in American foreign policy.

SEN. KERRY: Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: And people refer back to an interview when you first ran for Congress, back with The Harvard Crimson, where you said, “Kerry said the United Nations should have control over most of our foreign military operations. I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”

SEN. KERRY: That's one of those stupid things that a 27-year-old kid says when you're fresh back from Vietnam and angry about it. I have never, ever, ever, in any vote, in any policy, in any speech, in any public statement advocated any such thing in all of the years I've been in elected office." - April 18, 2004