The untold tale of Sergio de Mello

Veteran diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello was the point man for the new UN mission to Iraq. Shortly after the invasion, and after the UN passed resolution 1483 regarding post-war operations in Iraq:

A truck packed with about 300 kilograms of Soviet-made munitions was driven up to the building and detonated in the close proximity of Vieira de Mello's office.

Mr. de Mello was generally thought to be the target of the attack. The UN subsequently bailed out of Baghdad, despite tough talk from Kofi Annan about not being intimidated.

There was considerable speculation about who carried out the attacks and why. According to terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky the bomb was constructed at a terrorism support base near Abu-Kamel in Syria and the suicide bomber was a twenty four year old Tunisian named Fadhal Nassim, who received his training at clandestine camps in southern France.

However, trying to corroborate the above using open source data from the search engines produced a big fat goose egg, so take it for what it's worth. It seems clear that both the Saddamists and the Islamists wanted de Mello out of Iraq, and it's doubtful Iran would have been too broken-hearted about his departure, either.

The UN empaneled a commission to examine the pre-blast 'threat assessment' and issue an after-action report. Newsmax is now reporting that Kofi Annan is sitting on the report and won't even give it to the Security Council states, however the story also includes a rather strange sidebar about a UN security officer onsite shortly after the blast. Seems this gentleman obtained a copy of a 'personal report' of the assessment:

The officer still maintains possession of the file almost three years later. The U.N. can offer no explanation for the officer's actions, and it has not sought possession of the "personal" document last seen by co-workers in his locker at New York headquarters.

Efforts to reach the officer have been unsuccessful.

The story goes on to quote UN officials as saying the officer is now taking some 'sick leave'.

Speculating wildly here, if Bodansky is correct and the terrorist was trained in France, perhaps they have asked Annan to keep the lid on it. Maybe it would expose more of the web of connections the Islamists maintain on the continent, or maybe something more towards Oil-for-Food. Perhaps Benan Sevan might have some information about it. Where is that guy, anyway?