Free Republic

x-Fed Chief to Lead New Economic Panel of Outside Experts Who Will Brief Obama President-elect Barack Obama appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday to be the chairman of a new White House advisory board tasked with helping to lift the nation from recession and stabilize financial markets. University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, one of Mr. Obama's longest-serving policy advisers, will serve as the board's staff director, along with his duties as a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Members of the panel will be drawn from a cross-section of citizens outside the government,...

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today said Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis was far worse than he could have imagined and expressed dismay that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his government refused to acknowledge the problem even existed. "The entire basic structure in education, healthcare, feeding people, social services and sanitation has broken down," Carter told a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. "These are all indications that the crisis in Zimbabwe is much greater, much worse than we had ever imagined." Carter was part of a delegation that was denied entry into Zimbabwe last week to assess the crisis. The delegation...

Zimbabwe has refused to let Kofi Annan and two eminent colleagues visit the impoverished African country for a humanitarian mission, the three said Saturday. The former U.N. secretary-general, ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and rights advocate Graca Machel had planned to assess the country's needs. They are members of The Elders group, formed by former South African President Nelson Mandela to foster peace and tackle world conflicts.

I'm actually beginning to think had Hillary won there would be fewer Clinton retreads coming on-board. Where the change? The bold innovative thinking? Are former Clinton hacks the best you can do, Barry? Geez, at this rate I almost expect Lani Guinier to be nominated for something. It's almost as if they had some incriminating photos of the guy. No, instead of this mythical change, we get a guy who sent Elian Gonzalez back to hell. Craig, 63, is a partner at Williams & Connolly and a protégé of the late Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary Washington power lawyer. His...

Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton’s impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials. Craig is intimately familiar with the president-elect’s record because he played the role of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in debate preparations. The officials said Obama has settled on Craig but were not sure when the appointment would be announced. The choice gives the president-elect both experience and loyalty. During the primaries, Craig was an early Clinton alumni defector to Obama. Columnist Robert D. Novak reported back in the winter of 2007 that...

Another Celebrity Endorsement for Barack Obama Fresh from a no-Jews-allowed “Global Dialog” conference with the mullahs in Tehran, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announces his endorsement of Barack Obama: AFP: Former UN chief mulls ‘phenomenal’ Obama presidency. ====================================== DUBLIN (AFP) — A US presidential poll victory for Barack Obama would be “phenomenal,” former UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday, adding that whoever wins needs to learn the lessons of the last eight years. ... When asked if the United States and the world was ready for a black US president, he said: “I think it would be a phenomenal...

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have signed an agreement to end the country's post-election crisis. At a ceremony in Nairobi, the two men put their signatures to a power-sharing deal brokered by ex-UN head Kofi Annan. --snip-- Speaking after the signing, Mr Kibaki said: "This process has reminded us that as a nation there are more issues that unite than that divide us... "We've been reminded we must do all in our power to safeguard the peace that is the foundation of our national unity... Kenya has room for all of us." Political violence has ignited...

Kenya's political rivals agreed Thursday to write a new constitution within a year as part of a deal to end postelection violence ... In Washington, President Bush said he will dispatch Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya... Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who is mediating in the Kenya crisis, has hammered out a deal ... "The two parties agreed to write a new constitution," ... Opposition leader Raila Odinga ...

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may walk away from Kenya's peace talks after his security detail discovered his hotel room in Nairobi was bugged, according to a report. Sources at the Serena Hotel, where the talks are taking place, said Annan's security detail became wary of his safety after discovering that his personal conversations were being intercepted, South Africa's Independent Newspapers reported. Who may have planted the listening device and how long it was there remain unclear, the Independent reported. Annan is said to be "livid," but it is not yet known whether he will walk away from the already...

Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the number of dead from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to 69. Houses were blazing in the tourist gateway town of Naivasha, torched by members of President Mwai Kibaki's tribe exacting revenge on their Luo rivals... The latest deaths raise the toll to nearly 800 killed in ethnic violence and clashes with police since Kibaki was declared winner of Dec. 27 balloting that international and local observers say had a rigged tally....

A former ABC News consultant fired last year because he couldn't authenticate academic credentials is at the center of a new dispute over apparently faked interviews with Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Gates and others. The consultant, Alexis Debat, quit the Nixon Center, a Washington think tank, on Wednesday after Obama's representatives claimed an interview with the senator appearing under Debat's byline in the French magazine Politique Internationale never took place. The interview quoted the Democratic presidential candidate as saying the Iraq war was "a defeat for America." Pelosi, Gates, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, former United Nations Secretary-General...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - World famous opponent of South African apartheid, Nelson Mandela, celebrated his 89th birthday last Wednesday by announcing the formation of a Global council of elders, known simply as "The Elders."So far The Elders includes Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Mary Robinson, Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, Muhammad Yunus, Ela Bhatt, Graca Machel, and, of course, Nelson Mandela.  The group of high-profile international leaders is intended to be an independent body of "wise" men and women that will use their combined experience to solve any of the host of problems currently...

The United Nations' Cash for Kim Jong Il scandal is now six months old, so it's a good time to assess progress, if that's the right word. The evidence of misdeeds at the U.N. Development Program in North Korea continues to mount, but there's still no "urgent" and "external" inquiry, as ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in January. Now the U.S. has uncovered evidence that in addition to transferring millions of dollars in cash that may have gone to help prop up Kim's grotesque regime, the UNDP also transferred dual-use technology. It did so without bothering to secure a U.S....

BOULDER — University of Colorado students paid $160,000 in April to hear former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan say the people of the world must work together to bring about peace. The amount came as a surprise Wednesday to several members of CU's board of regents, who saw the figure on a routine list of speakers and their fees for the school year that just ended. Annan was far ahead of the second-highest-paid speaker, liberal historian and activist Howard Zinn, who received $15,500. The amount for the one-hour speech brought calls from some regents for more frequent audits of student government,...

The Swiss foreign ministry has confirmed it is supporting a plan by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to set up a humanitarian foundation in Geneva. Reacting to newspaper reports on Sunday, a spokesman said the ministry was working in this direction with different partners, with Annan expected to play a leading role. Johann Aeschlimann told the AP news agency that the project was in its first phase of development and that it was still too early to say what form the foundation would take. At this stage official Swiss participation in the plan is open. The cabinet will consider...

The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told the BBC the US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter. He said the decision to take action in Iraq should have been made by the Security Council, not unilaterally. The UK government responded by saying the attorney-general made the "legal basis... clear at the time". Mr Annan also warned security in Iraq must considerably improve if credible elections are to be held in January. The UN chief said in an interview with the BBC World Service that "painful lessons" had been learnt since the war in...

When the stink threatens to make even bureaucrats gag, somebody has to mop up some of the mess.     When a gaggle of special pleaders met the other night in New York to talk about the puddle in the parlor at the United Nations, it wasn't clear whether they were interested in shaping up the U.N. or merely saving the job of Kofi Annan, the bureaucrats' favorite bureaucrat. [snip]What frightened the coterie to action then, and no doubt Mr. Annan yesterday, is the growing sentiment in Congress to do something about corruption at the U.N., or else. [snip]     There was...

AN AUSTRALIAN former UN war crimes investigator has revealed documents exposing a UN cover-up of its inquiry into the events that triggered the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Adelaide lawyer Michael Hourigan says the UN shut down his investigation in 1997 into the shooting down of a plane carrying the extremist Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and the president of Burundi. The investigation implicated ethnic Tutsi rebel leader Paul Kagame, who is now the President of Rwanda. The 100-day genocide, in which Hutu extremists murdered Tutsis and moderate Hutus, began hours after the plane was shot down. Late last year, President Kagame was...

South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-moon became the United Nations' eighth secretary-general on New Year's Day as the organization faced a tough array of global issues - from escalating violence in Darfur to the AIDS pandemic. The 62-year-old career diplomat, who grew up during a war that left his country divided, has promised to make peace with North Korea a top priority. He will travel there when necessary, he has said, and has cautioned that the reclusive communist nation must be talked to - not just punished with sanctions for its nuclear weapons program. The United States is certain to press...

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a brief statement late Tuesday on the death of former President Gerald R. Ford. Annan released the brief, two-paragraph statement to media through his spokesman Stephane Dujarric: "The secretary-general mourns the passing of former President Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States, who died yesterday at the age of 93. He extends his sincere condolences to Mrs. Betty Ford, to the family of the former president, and to the government and people of the United States. "President Ford will be remembered for the leadership, calm resolve, and broad experience he brought to...