Posted on 12/06/2004 9:07:10 AM PST by jalisco555
Last Wednesday, Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota and co-chairman of the U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq, called on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign in a commentary published in The Wall Street Journal. While Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China quickly rallied to Mr. Annan's defence, there can be no doubt that the senator is correct: Mr. Annan has to go.
As Mr. Coleman argues, "the most extensive fraud in the history of the United Nations occurred on [Mr. Annan's] watch." Over the decade-long run of the oil-for-food program, the UN and several member states looked on as Saddam Hussein siphoned off at least 20% of its $100-billion revenues for his personal use. Hundreds of millions went to rebuilding the Iraqi army; more was paid out in kickbacks to Western politicians, governments, political parties, journalists and UN officials who looked the other way. Tens of millions funded terrorist training and operations around the world, particularly among Palestinians. The grandiose, sprawling palaces U.S. troops discovered when they liberated Baghdad and other Iraqi cities were constructed by Saddam and his family with the proceeds from oil sales meant to pay for food and medicines for ordinary Iraqis. Critics of the American- and British-backed sanctions against Iraq that were in place from the early 1990s until the 2003 invasion claimed they were responsible for the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis per year through malnutrition and disease. But we now know it was Saddam's lust for gold plumbing fixtures and weapons that caused the lion's share of Iraqi hardship.
Under Mr. Annan's leadership, the UN feigned blindness to all this. To make matters worse, it recently became clear that Mr. Annan's son Kojo was a beneficiary of oil-for-food largesse. The Swiss firm appointed to certify that Iraqi oil sale proceeds were indeed going to buy human essentials (which clearly was not doing its job) paid the junior Annan hundreds of thousands of dollars in untendered consulting contracts. And while Mr. Annan once claimed Kojo's financial affiliation with the company ended long ago, it has now come to light that it continued till well after Saddam's fall from power.
U.S. President George W. Bush signalled his lack of faith in Mr. Annan on Thursday by refusing to say whether the Ghanaian-born diplomat should keep his job till the end of his second five-year term, which expires in December of 2006. It's a wonder Mr. Bush was able to be so restrained. Twice during the recent U.S. election campaign, Mr. Annan tried to help out John Kerry by criticizing Mr. Bush's "illegal" invasion of Iraq -- an unprecedented intervention by a secretary-general.
Even putting Iraq and the oil-for-food scandal aside, the case against Mr. Annan is damning. While Mr. Annan made some early progress in streamlining the United Nations' grotesquely bloated bureaucracy, he has since presided over a crisis in staff confidence, in part thanks to his bungled efforts to sweep aside sexual harassment charges against one of his deputies. Two weeks ago, UN workers in New York City voted that they had lost faith in the Secretary-General's ability and that of his senior administrators.
Mr. Annan has also watched as the UN Human Rights Commission has degenerated into a laughingstock run by some of the worst human-rights abusers in the world. He has refused to stop the UN agency responsible for delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees from assisting terrorists. And from Rwanda to Srebrenica, East Timor to Sudan, he has time and again permitted himself to be conned by tyrants and butchers while they have murdered hundreds of thousands of innocents.
Given all this, it is amazing to think that Mr. Annan was once thought to be a man who could help reform the United Nations. Indeed, he was originally the Americans' choice for his position (mostly because they were keen to prevent the even more inept Boutros Boutros-Ghali from winning a second term in 1996). But whether or not he was the wrong choice from the get-go, or a good man whose leadership came to progressively resemble the stunning dysfunctionality of the organization he was picked to run, there is no doubt that his tenure as the United Nations' leader should end as soon as possible.
Hey, booting Kofi is a start.
National Post is the 'conservative' newspaper in Canada. It's good to see they can see clearly, but the rest of the Canadian press will probably fall into line behind their sacred cow (the UN) and support Annan.
Not this Canadian...The UN can go to HELL...
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Taking their cue from the NY Times.
Don't kid yourself. Kofi getting forced out would be a major blow to this corrupt org.
Maybe, but it didn't start with Kofi and it won't end with him either.
Perhaps that's why I used the word "start." :-)
I second that opinion:
The UN and its supporters can go to hell.
This is a vicious lie! Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with terrorism! He is a distraction from the real war! Saddam is a secularist! THe left said so...
Hmmmmmm, how will a Canadian editorial calling for Annan to step down square with the ludicrous dem talking point that calls for Kofi's ouster are partisan "payback" for Annan's endorsement of Kerry?
LOL
That's cool. Hope you guys make a stink about this up there, too!
Do you happen to know how much Canada sends to the UN annually?
The dems will do what they always do with inconvenient facts- ignore them.
I live in WA state...I have no intentions of returning to Canuckistan.
indeed, Canada, leaving out the biggest contributor, the United States, is one of the largest contributors to the UN and we pay on time, like clockwork........
Damn-it to heck!!! I was the UN that caused the Lion's shrare of the Iraqi hardship.
Sadam was just acting his natural vile, and evil self.
I understand what you're saying. However, there's a body of opinion that states that Kofi should stay on while the scandal continues to fester. The rationale is that replacing Kofi will create the illusion of reform and take the spotlight off the rest of the criminals, allowing them to continue to rape (literally), pillage and plunder behind the scenes. That's why I say it's time to destroy the whole stinking cesspool.
Only for the last four years.
To be so restrained that when he asked the UN to get involved with the WOT amazes me.
It's a wonder he didn't crack up laughing.
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