Congress Should Withhold U.S. Funds from the U.N.

Heritage Foundation ^ | 12/10/04 | Niles Gardiner & James Dean

[Paul Ross]

www.heritage.org

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Congress Should Withhold U.S. Funds from the U.N. by Nile Gardiner and James Dean December 10, 2004 | | American taxpayers should demand accountability from an institution that depends on their funding. Luckily, that’s finally starting to happen. As the United Nations Oil for Food scandal continues to unfold, Congress is beginning to flex its investigative muscle. Five different committees are investigating the largest financial fraud of modern times. With the arrival of new chairmen for both the House and Senate Appropriations committees in January, it’s time for Congress to withhold the generous contribution that U.S. taxpayers bestow on the United Nations each year -- until and unless it fully cooperates with these and other concurrent investigations. There is mounting outrage on Capitol Hill over the management of Oil for Food. The U.N. program was supposed to protect the Iraqi people from international sanctions targeted at the Iraqi dictatorship. Instead, it served as a giant slush fund, enriching Saddam Hussein even as people starved to death. Recent Senate hearings on the scandal doubled the previous estimate, to $21.3 billion, of Saddam’s plunder. An investigation by the House International Relations Committee concluded that Saddam used some of that money to fund Palestinian terrorism. New revelations also have emerged regarding Kojo Annan, the son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kojo now admits that, until this year, he was on the payroll of a Swiss contractor hired to inspect humanitarian goods brought into Iraq through the Oil for Food program. Annan had claimed such payments ended in 1999. A lack of U.N. cooperation has compounded congressional anger. Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, chairman of the Investigations Subcommittee, and his Democratic counterpart, Michigan’s Carl Levin, have accused Kofi Annan of blocking efforts by Congress to obtain U.N. documents relating to Oil for Food, including 55 internal audit reports. Annan also refuses to allow congressional investigators to interview U.N. officials. The breathtaking arrogance displayed by Annan and the U.N. leadership is simply unacceptable. Oil for Food has further eroded the American public’s trust in the U.N. and exposed potentially irreconcilable fault lines between the U.S. government and the U.N. To coerce a recalcitrant U.N. to cooperate, Congress should apply powerful financial pressure on the U.N. That pressure has rightfully increased in recent weeks. Rep. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and 19 of his House colleagues joined Sen. Coleman in calling on Kofi Annan to resign. Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake and 77 of his House colleagues have signed on to legislation to reduce the annual U.S. contribution to the U.N. by 10 percent in 2005 and 20 percent in 2006, or until the U.N. adopts financial reforms specified in the Flake bill. Finally, senior House Appropriations member Frank Wolf of Virginia procured $1.5 million for a Task Force on the United Nations to recommend much-needed institutional reforms. Flake has identified the single most effective pressure point to force U.N. cooperation. The United States has been the United Nations’ biggest contributor since the latter was founded in 1945. In 2004, the U.S. contributed $360 million toward the U.N.’s routine operating expenses -- 22 percent of the U.N.’s regular annual operating budget and more than the combined contributions of France, Germany, China, Canada and Russia. (This figure excludes U.S. funding for peacekeeping operations, and contributions toward the global AIDS fund.) Congressional leaders should go beyond the Flake proposal and make it clear that Congress will withhold all of the U.S. assessed contribution until the United Nations has provided unlimited access to relevant documentation and the sworn testimony of officials. U.N. officials accused of criminal activity should surrender diplomatic immunity and face prosecution. The withheld funds should be placed in an escrow account, with future disbursement contingent on these matters being satisfactorily resolved. In linking the U.S. contribution to the U.N. to the scandal, congressional leaders would be aligning themselves with President Bush, who recently said, “It’s very important for the U.N. to understand that there ought to be a full and fair and open accounting of the Oil for Food program. In order for the taxpayers of the U.S. to feel comfortable about supporting the U.N., there has to be an open accounting.” The U.N. owes its financial supporters the courtesy of full transparency and, ultimately, full accountability for any of its officials who breach this trust. The Oil for Food scandal may well prove to be a watershed in U.N. history. With sufficient congressional pressure, the international outcry should force positive reforms on the U.N. Congress owes it to the American people to ensure the U.N. is held accountable for Saddam’s massive manipulation of a humanitarian program established to help the people of Iraq. Withholding taxpayer funds will send a clear message to the bureaucrats in Turtle Bay that the U.N.’s future depends on its coming clean now. Nile Gardiner is a fellow in Anglo-American security policy, and James Dean is deputy director of government relations, at The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org).

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[Paul Ross]

I hope that GWB's public defense of Kofi does not mean that he will try and twist Congressional arms to call off the dogs. The UN is not helping in the WOT...or anything else for that matter. Better push it to a confrontation now, before it gets any worse. If we have to leave, we leave. Better now, while we still have a comparative military advantage.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

"Withhold funds," hell! Demand REPAYMENT -- ! :)

[Mr. Mojo]

If we have to leave, we leave

The chance of that happening is pretty close to zero, unfortunately.

[Paul Ross]

Leaving the General Assembly, and just hanging onto the Security Council seat has been openly considered and discussed by serious folks. Yes, with the State Dept. stacked as it is, the odds are against it.

[gitmo]

This doesn't go far Get the US out of the UN and vice versa.

[trek]

How about we turn the United Nations building into a Gay Wedding Chapel. Homos can get married in it if they agree to leave the country permanently after the ceremony.

[Paleo Conservative]

Witholding funds does not go far enough. We should bomb the UN. It would make an excellent substitute for Vieques.

[Dashing Dasher]

I think we should move the UN to someplace exotic... like Greenland, Antactica, maybe Somalia.

Someplace of less interest than Manhattan.
If you really want to belong to the UN and really believe in the Charter - move to Somalia....

Ps... speaking of their charter... they should probably review that to remind themselves why they are in existence.

[cyncooper]

Can you point me to GWB's defense of Annan?

Thanks

[cyncooper]

I mean, the last I heard President Bush actually say on the subject was:

"In order for the taxpayers of the United States to feel comfortable about supporting the United Nations, there has to be an open accounting," he said.

Which appears to comport with the concerns raised here.

[DTogo]

Just make it an all-purpose exit, Ellis Island in reverse, with empty ocean liners parked out back. All disgruntled DUmmies and their Liberal ilk can revoke their citizenship, turn in their passports and DLs, submit to bio-scan to enforce illegal return, then board and ship out to France.

We'll all wave flags and sing patriot/religious songs on the docks.

[Brian Allen]

Un-UN US!

[EGPWS]

Congress Should Withhold U.S. Funds from the U.N.

Alas, it won't happen....

[exnavychick]

No offense, but that sounds an awful like having our cake and eating it too. Either we pull out of the UN altogether, or we stay and fight. I don't think it's wise to try to have it both ways. It smacks of hypocrisy, imo.

JFTR, I think we should get out, and kick them out of the US.

[marmar]

I don't care if they pay anything back...just so long as they get the heck out of our country. And we get the heck out of the UN......

[Ed Current]

Will the Republicans and Democrats get us out? NO

Will the voters vote for a third party that would? NO

Then take the advice of Clayton Williams and "lie back and enjoy it"

In 1990 Clayton Williams was the Republican candidate for governor in the state of Texas. He was locked in a tight race with Democrat Ann Richards but seemed to be gaining momentum in the final weeks of the campaign. Then it happened. The brash millionaire opened his mouth and inserted his foot up all the way up to his knee.

Hoping to curry favor with the press, Williams invited several reporters for some informal "off the record" time at his ranch. In casual conversation, the subject of the weather came up. Williams could not resist the temptation to play meteorologist and commented that bad weather is sort of like rape: "as long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it."

Constitution Party National Political Headquarters

National Sovereignty

The United States is properly a free and sovereign republic which should strive to live in peace with all nations, without interfering in their internal affairs, and without permitting their interference in ours. We are, therefore, unalterably opposed to entangling alliances - via treaties, or any other form of commitment - which compromise our national sovereignty, or commit us to intervention in foreign wars.

To this end, we shall:

• steadfastly oppose American participation in any form of world government organization, including any world court under United Nations auspices;
• call upon the President, and Congress, to terminate United States membership in the United Nations, and its subsidiary organizations, and terminate U.S. participation in all so-called U.N. peace keeping operations;
• bar the United Nations, and its subsidiaries, from further operation, including raising of funds, on United States territory; and
• propose that the Constitution be obeyed to prohibit the United States government from entering any treaty, or other agreement, which makes any commitment of American military forces or tax money, compromises the sovereignty of the United States, or accomplishes a purpose properly the subject of domestic law. In this connection we specifically denounce the agreement establishing the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and any other such trade agreements, either bi-lateral or regional in nature. All treaties must be subordinate to the Constitution, since the Constitution is the only instrument which empowers and limits the federal government.

American troops must serve only under American commanders, not those of the United Nations or foreign countries.

Get US out! of the United Nations

[gitmo]

I hear Chechnea is nice this time of year. But I agree, Somalia is ideal. Haiti is too close.