According to a 2005 Senate subcommittee report, Picco provided his services on a number of occasions from 1997 to 2003--overlapping with his Dialogue appointment as a U.N. special representative and undersecretary-general--as a consultant on Oil-for-Food to Bayoil, a company owned by Houston oil man David Chalmers.

FORBES: Freedom's Edge

For U.N. purposes, the Dialogue of Civilizations faded away in early 2005, only to be replaced that same year by the current Alliance of Civilizations.

FORBES: Freedom's Edge

Apart from much jetting around and private palaver among eminent people under U.N. auspices, the chief visible product of the Dialogue was a report, released in book form in the fall of 2001.

FORBES: Freedom's Edge