Sunday, March 27, 2005 11:15 a.m. EST 
Kofi Annan's Smoking Gun 
As the second installment by chief investigator Paul Volcker on the scandal-ridden U.N.-Iraq Oil-for-Food program is prepared for release on Tuesday, speculation grows on the survivability of Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The second Volcker report is expected to severely criticize Annan's management style and the role of his son Kojo working for a U.N. contractor. Annan is expected to come under fire for the compensation his son received working for the Swiss firm Cotecna. 
Sunday's New York Times reported the younger Annan received cash in excess of $400,000 for his services, more than triple the amount previously disclosed to investigators. 
The Times also reported that Annan himself met Cotecna officials at least three times, none of which he had previously disclosed. 
Cotecna was contracted to provide import services for Iraq. 
It is alleged that the operation was compromised with widespread fraud. 
Now NewsMax can report that another time bomb may be waiting to explode in Annan's face. 
In August 2003, the U.N.'s Baghdad headquarters was destroyed by a suicide truck bomber. More than 150 were injured, 23 killed, including the U.N.'s Iraq rep, Sergio Viera de Mello. 
It was the worst attack on a U.N. facility since the organization's founding in 1945. 
NewsMax has learned that Annan's management style may have directly contributed to the Baghdad attack. 
It has been revealed that between May and June 2003, then U.N. security chief Michael McCann sent his deputy, Bruno Henn (now head of U.N. New York City security), to Baghdad to engage in a field survey of the Canal Hotel. 
The hotel had housed U.N. operations prior to the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003 and was evacuated when the invasion began. 
Henn was sent to assess security at the hotel prior to the return of any U.N. personnel. 
A report on the situation was forwarded to Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette, who headed an Annan Iraq action advisory group. 
Annan has previously denied any direct involvement in such security matters, saying he had left that responsibility to Frechette. 
The Annan deputy offered her resignation last year. It was refused. 
Now it has been learned that Annan himself participated in at least two meetings of Frechette's action group prior to the August attack. 
Henn's security survey expressed concern over the situation in Baghdad and raised serious questions about how safe the U.N. hotel could be made without costly improvements. 
Frechette, with Annan's approval, opted to delay any action on the Henn survey and decided to vet the survey with other U.N. departments and seek their comments before deciding on what action, if any, should be taken. 
It was during this period that the U.N. compound was destroyed. 
It took the secretary-general, who was vacationing in Scandinavia, two days to react. 
A formal letter of condolence to those who lost friends and relatives was issued almost six months later, only after two investigations had been concluded. 
Now it appears that the attack might have been averted. 
NewsMax has been told that transcripts of the Frechette group meetings with Annan have been kept locked up in a secure area at U.N. headquarters. 
U.N. staff union officials tell NewsMax that if transcripts of the Annan-Frechette meetings are unearthed, the U.N. chief could face a revolt among the U.N. rank and file. 
If we can find those transcripts, I doubt that many of us would want to continue to work for him [Annan], lamented a U.N. veteran.