The United States is not campaigning against Libya's bid to join the UN Security Council, the State Department said Monday, in what is seen as another move to end the oil-rich north African state's diplomatic isolation.(AFP/File/Stan Honda)
Posted on 10/16/2007 11:02:16 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS - Libya won a seat on the powerful U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
Libya was virtually assured of election because it has been endorsed by the African group along with Burkina Faso and faced no opposition. Vietnam, which was endorsed by the Asian group, also ran unopposed.
All three countries won in the first round of voting, but the battle for seats from Latin America and Eastern Europe went to a second round.
Susan Cohen, of Cape May Court House, N.J., who lost her 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, said the United States should oppose Libya's candidacy for a seat because Libyan leader Moamar Gadhafi was responsible for the attack.
"I feel that the U.S. has totally lost its moral compass," she told The Associated Press. "Gadhafi blew up an American plane."
In 2000 the United States successfully blocked Sudan's bid for a council seat, and Washington's candidate, Mauritius, won. But in 2005, the U.S. backed Nicaragua and Peru won. This year, Washington did not back a candidate against Libya.
General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim announced after the first round of balloting that Burkina Faso received 185 votes, Vietnam 183 votes and Libya 178 votes. He then declared them elected as diplomats from the 192 U.N. member states burst into applause.
Croatia and the Czech Republic and Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic were still battling for seats.
The five new nonpermanent members of the council to serve two-year terms. In the secret ballot, candidates must get a two-thirds majority of members voting to win.
Last year's election saw the third-longest battle in U.N. history for a seat on the council.
It ended with victory for Panama on the 48th ballot after U.S.-backed Guatemala and leftist Venezuela led by anti-American President Hugo Chavez withdrew to end the deadlock for a Latin American seat.
Ten of the council's 15 seats are filled by the regional groups for two-year stretches. The other five are occupied by its veto-wielding permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
The five countries elected to the council will take their seats on Jan. 1, 2008, replacing the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia.
I so wanted to put this in Breaking but it’s been on the wire for a few hours, it seems. ;-)
The UN,,
Utter Nincompoops
The United States is not campaigning against Libya's bid to join the UN Security Council, the State Department said Monday, in what is seen as another move to end the oil-rich north African state's diplomatic isolation.(AFP/File/Stan Honda)
Libya's President Muammar al-Gaddafi (C) is escorted by his bodyguards after the morning session of the African Union Summit of Heads of States in the United Nations office in Addis Ababa, January 30, 2007. Libya, Vietnam, Croatia, Costa Rica and Burkina Faso were elected to nonpermanent seats on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2008-09 on Tuesday. (Andrew Heavens/Reuters)
Well, ever since a scared Qaddafi gave up his nuke program after the fall of Baghdad, Libya has become the U.S. new best friend, albeit a very quiet friend, in the war against Al Qaeda. I’m not at all surprised that the U.S. government acquiesced on Libya’s rise into the Security Council, since it’s undoubtedly some form of payment for services rendered.
Someone was asleep at the switch on this one.
The U.N. is so special that we have to stay in it, then our officials neglect to pay attention. No wonder so much crap passes with no objections.
I agree. I am puzzled by times where some posters do not seem to realize the less we say about a country, in some cases, means we are not praising them in order to not give them a domestic headache (Egypt, our interrogator, comes to mind). Given what has been publicly described of what Libya gave/told/showed us, it seems likely they have given us a lot more assistance/info of one type or another as well.
Memo to Susan Cohen...... get over it.
Libya surrendered the nuclear materials that are now in Oak Ridge. We don’t know what all they told us regarding others nuclear involvement.
Libya should be given the benefit of the doubt until they actually do something bad.
Not surprised.
Not surprised.
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