Traditional media outlets are finally covering the bombshell U.N. scandal that many web sites—including this one—started reporting back in February.

Dubbed UNSCAM, the scandal involves the U.N. Oil-for-Food program, which Saddam Hussein subverted to reward people connected to the governments that most strongly opposed military action against him. Many billions of dollars in pay-offs occurred, and it now appears that the U.N.—if it didn’t actively facilitate this scam—certainly looked the other way. But claims of innocence at the U.N. sound a little hollow, considering who benefitted.

ABC News reports that “[a]t least three senior United Nations officials are suspected of taking multimillion-dollar bribes from the Saddam Hussein regime” and that “[m]ost prominent among those accused in the scandal is Benon Sevan, the Cyprus-born U.N. undersecretary general who ran the program for six years.”

If the accusations prove true, Sevan’s alleged activities “would have generated an illegal profit of as much as $3.5 million.” And that was just for him. The U.N. itself collected over $1 billion in commissions on the sales of Iraqi oil.

According to Michael Soussan, a former U.N. Oil-for-Food program coordinator one estimate says “Saddam Hussein used the U.N. operation to extort $4.4 billion in kickbacks from Iraq’s international trading partners.” Another report claims over $10 billion in fraud.

As London’s The Telegraph reported, “The list is an extraordinary collection of names, stretching from Paris to Moscow, from the Vatican to the Far East.”

So now we know. Higher-ups at the U.N. had a vested financial interest in keeping Hussein in power, as did affiliates of French and Russian government officials. They were doing billions in business with Saddam. No wonder he felt safe ignoring each and every U.N. resolution passed against his regime. Threats of force issued by the U.N. were completely meaningless to Hussein, because the people who were supposed to be enforcing them were on his payroll, profiting from his oil. Gives a whole new meaning to the slogan no war for oil, doesn’t it?

This story should have implications for our election, which may explain why it still isn’t getting the coverage it deserves. John Kerry wants to give the United Nations a veto over our national security decisions. Does that really sound like such a good idea?