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| International-UN-NGOs |
| It's time to evict the U.N. |
| 2004-10-06 |
| My wife would like to see us kick the United Nations out of the United States. I, for one, think it's a swell idea. What's more, I'm certain most New Yorkers feel the same. After all, for the past 58 years, the gang of scofflaws have taken advantage of their diplomatic immunity to be the worst kind of guests. Double-parking is the least of it. Probably the only people who would miss these expense-account spongers are the waiters and maitre 'd's at the more expensive Manhattan eateries. My own reason for wanting the United Nations padlocked is because I object to corruption and hypocrisy being passed off as high-mindedness. I understand that Kofi Annan — which sounds like a 12-step program for caffeine addicts — collected a nice piece of change out of Iraq's phony oil-for-food program. But my problem with the organization is more basic than that, although it does explain how it is that Mr. Annan seems to have a more extensive, more expensive, wardrobe than Donald Trump. People such as John Kerry are always eager to get the United Nation's good housekeeping seal of approval before America makes a foreign policy decision. Or at least Kerry and company do when there's a Republican in the White House. I don't seem to recall it's having been quite so imperative when Clinton and Lewinsky were holding down the Oval Office. Be that as it may, what nation in its right mind would surrender even a scintilla of its sovereignty to a group as loathsome as the member states of the United Nations? I would sooner trust the Mafia to call the shots. You think I'm indulging in hyperbole? At least I have no reason to think that, for all their faults, the Costa Nostra hates America. I mean, consider that among the regimes having votes are the likes of Cuba, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea to you), Laos, Cambodia, Rwanda, Myanmar, Sudan, Uganda and two dozen Muslim-dominated dictatorships running the gamut from Bahrain to Yemen. And that's not even counting France. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #11 Re #10 (CrazyFool): The fact that Anna is doing everything in his power to obstruct the investigation What's your evidence for that accusation? Can anybody make any accusations at all about Kofi Annan, without any evidence at all? . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-10-07 12:45:19 AM |
| #10 The fact that Anna is doing everything in his power to obstruct the investigation, and the fact that his office - the Secty General of the U.N. was in charge of the program might tell you something..... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-10-06 11:59:15 PM |
| #9 Ed, your article has no evidence at all that Kofi Annan personally "collected a nice piece of change out of Iraq's phony oil-for-food program." Your article says Kofi Annan's son Kojo worked on the staff of a Swiss firm, Cotecna, for a while, and then left that firm. Then, thirteen months later, Cotecna bid on a UN contract to supervise the food-for-oil program. Cotecna won the contract by offering the lowest bid. By that time, Kojo Annan was a partner for a consulting firm that did business with Cotecna. That's the entire "evidence". What am I missing? Ponder this quote from the same article: It is possible of course, that Kojo Annan had nothing to do with the Iraq program per se, as he told the Telegraph back in 1999: "I would never play any role in anything that involves the United Nations for obvious reasons." Though at the same time, in a comment that suggested at least nodding acquaintance with the Oil-for-Food program, Kojo added: "The decision is made by the contracts committee, not by Kofi Annan.". . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-10-06 11:01:06 PM |
| #8 Kofi's kiddo Kojo Annan got in with the sanctions monitoring firm Cotecna. There is no mention of Kofi being directly bribed, though some current and former UN officials seemed to have done well for themselves. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rosett200403101819.asp Cotecna was hired by the U.N. on December 31, 1998. Shortly afterward, press reports surfaced that Kojo was a partner in a private consulting firm doing work for Cotecna, and that just 13 months previously he had occupied a senior slot on Cotecna's own staff. Asked about this in 1999 by the London Telegraph, a U.N. spokesman, John Mills, replied that the U.N. had not been aware of the connection, and that "The tender by Cotecna was the lowest by a significant margin." It seems there's a lot the U.N. managed not to be aware of. But the information that Cotecna — while employing Kofi's son in any capacity — put in the lowest bid by far for the job of authenticating Saddam's Oil-for-Food imports, is not necessarily reassuring. Cotecna, which got paid roughly $6 million for its services during that first year (the U.N. will not release figures on Cotecna's fees over the following years) was bidding on work that empowered its staff to inspect tens of billions worth of supplies inbound to a regime much interested in smuggling, and evidently accustomed to dealing in bribes and kickbacks as a routine part of business. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-10-06 7:05:17 PM |
| #7 Relocate the U.N. to the center of the biggest mass grave in Iraq (or Darfur...). |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-10-06 7:04:24 PM |
| #6 Perhaps they could relocate UN HQ to the Darfur region of the Sudan. |
| Posted by: A Jackson 2004-10-06 6:57:49 PM |
| #5 I understand that Kofi Annan .... collected a nice piece of change out of Iraq’s phony oil-for-food program. How much? What's the evidence? . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-10-06 6:32:49 PM |
| #4 Brother plainslow is on the path! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-10-06 6:15:04 PM |
| #3 Preach Brother Preach! |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2004-10-06 6:02:05 PM |
| #2 Put them in Jerusalem. Than they can oversee the world's number one hot spot. |
| Posted by: plainslow 2004-10-06 1:53:16 PM |
| #1 It's PAST time to evict the UN. His last line sums it up perfectly. :-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-10-06 1:52:18 PM |