Free Republic

The United States is lobbying to put an American, possibly a general, in charge of all UN peacekeeping operations in a move that could offer Washington an exit strategy in Iraq.The unprecedented US bid for the top UN peacekeeping post would place an American in command of the 95,000 UN peacekeepers in trouble spots from Lebanon to Sudan. The American lobbying effort is set to prove hugely controversial. If successful, the change would amount to a radical remaking of the organisation, bringing it closer to its origin in the Second World War as a US-led alliance. It is also stirring...

If you had a dog that bit you every time you fed it, or a horse that kicked you every time you groomed it, chances are you would not suffer their abuse very long. So why is that the US should continue to foot 25% of the entire UN budget only to have its interests undermined by the small minds running the shop? One of America’s self-defined elements of power is its ability to form diplomatic alliances. However that particular engine isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders, meaning that most of America’s efforts at finding international support are thwarted by...

They’ve gathered in New York City, the best and brightest minds in the global gun ban movement. Oh, they don’t want you to think for a second that they’re actually interested in your guns. Kofi Annan as much as said so yesterday, when he told the attendees of the Small Arms Review Conference, “This Review Conference is not negotiating a ‘global gun ban’, nor do we wish to deny law-abiding citizens their right to bear arms in accordance with their national laws.” Got it, gun owners? There’s nothing to fear from the UN when it comes to your guns. It’s...

The fall of Somalia’s Capital City of Mogadishu is a symbolic victory for the forces of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda Terrorist Organization and is yet another setback for the United Nations. The Islamic rebels, who have been links to Al-Qaeda, seized the city in early June following months of heavy fighting between the city’s rival clans. For Bin Laden and his radical followers this victory can only be compared to the Israeli capture of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. Bin Laden has quoted in saying, “That it was Al-Qaeda inspired rebels that caused the United States and...

NEW YORK, United States, March 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) There is a new desperation at the UN to secure international recognition of abortion as a human right, as abortion advocates increasingly anticipate that Roe vs. Wade will be overturned in the United States, says Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women of America.Dr. Crouse is reporting on the 50th Commission on the Status of Women, held at the U.N. headquarters in New York, February 27 to March 10.Writing for The Beverly LaHaye Institute, CWA's think tank, Dr. Crouse said abortion advocates with the Commission are resorting to complex language games in...

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 that 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 U.N. padlocked is because I...

Picture this: So I'm in French class reading an article on the jobs of interpreters in the UN- the two being discussed were a) translating live dialogue in session and b) translating a written speech. After reading the thing, my teacher had five questions for us to write out answers to, four of which were comprehension questions. The fifth one was a bit of a critical thinking question. After a few minutes, she decides to go through the questions as a class. The first four come and go pretty easily, and then she asks the fifth one. Bear in mind...

As President Bush addressed the United Nations Wednesday, a new advertising campaign blasting the world organization was going on just outside the UN's New York City headquarters. While the UN began celebrating its 60th anniversary, signs reading "Broken Promises: The United Nations at 60" were plastered on locations surrounding the Turtle Bay building. The advertisements for a new, in-depth documentary on UN failures were purchased by the Citizens United Foundation (view the trailer here). The ad campaign was timed to begin Wednesday as 170 heads of state gathered in NYC for the United Nations World Summit. The ads are located...

NEW YORK (AP) - Pregnant and with three small children in tow, Grace Mukagabiro ran for her life after her husband was beheaded and their house burned down. On Tuesday, the Rwandan survivor of the attack on her Tutsi village joined activists in urging the United Nations summit to endorse a measure that would protect civilians from mass killings. "I survived the Rwandan genocide. Almost a million others did not," the 42-year-old mother of four said, a decade after the massacres led by the extremist Hutu government. She still lives in Kigali, Rwanda, working as program coordinator for the global...

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 - A week before world leaders gather here to set a course for combating global poverty, a United Nations report released on Wednesday names the United States and Japan as among "the least generous donors" and says American and European trade policies are hypocritical and contribute to impoverishing African farmers. The report also highlights shortcomings in developing countries. It notes that India's and China's progress in reducing the easily preventable deaths of children has slowed even as their economic growth has surged. India has 2.5 million deaths of children a year, while China is second, with...

Police will destroy $200,000 worth of firearms when they upgrade to semi-automatics because of a UN convention designed to prevent the illicit trade of weapons. During the next 12 months police will spend $3 million replacing 880 Remington rifles with semi-automatics. NZ First MP Ron Mark, and the Sporting Shooters Association have criticised the decision to destroy the Remingtons, saying it's a "politically correct move" that wastes taxpayers' money. However, police say they have no choice because New Zealand, as a member of the United Nations, is compelled to abide by a convention designed to control firearm numbers and prevent...

KIGALI, July 23 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, visiting a Rwandan genocide memorial on Saturday, expressed regret for his "personal failure" to prevent the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 people. On a brief visit to look at HIV/AIDS projects in the central African country, Clinton laid a wreath at a museum commemorating victims of the 100-day massacre by extremists from the Hutu majority which took place during his presidency. "I express regret for my personal failure," he said before touring the museum, which features graphic images of people being decapitated and bodies twitching on the road. Clinton apologised on...

The United Nation’s Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee added last week South Africa’s Vredefort Dome -- an Earth impact crater – to its World Heritage List. Natural and cultural sites are listed to be protected due to their “outstanding universal value around the world.” The roughly circular pattern of Vredefort Dome, approximately 75 miles (120 kilometers) south west of Johannesburg, is a representative part of a larger meteorite impact structure, or astrobleme. Dating back some 2 billion years ago, it is the oldest astrobleme found on Earth so far. With a radius of 118 miles (190...

GENEVA - U.N. human rights investigators, citing "persistent and credible" reports of torture at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, urged the United States on Thursday to allow them to check conditions there. The failure of the United States to respond to requests since early 2002 is leading the experts to conclude Washington has something to hide at the Cuban base, said Manfred Nowak, a specialist on torture and a professor of human rights law in Vienna, Austria. "At a certain point, you have to take well-founded allegations as proven in the absence of a clear explanation by the government,"...

The United States is approaching the moment of decision in its relationship with the United Nations. Whether the bloated, corrupt world body fades, as did the League of Nations, or emerges as the supreme government of the world, is in the hands of the United States Congress. The U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal continues to boil, while U.N. peacekeepers' sexcapades exploit victims of civil strife in Africa. Most of the 190 member nations of the U.N. are aligned against U.S. policy – whatever that policy may be – and demand that the U.S. provide "new and additional" funding for a never-ending string...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday criticized proposed legislation before the U.S. House of Representatives that would link reforms of the world body to payment of U.S. dues. Annan said he hoped the bill, introduced Tuesday by Illinois Republican Henry Hyde, won't become law. He repeated his oft-stated view that withholding dues from the United Nations would be "counterproductive." "We are going through reforms and the U.S. has a natural leadership role and I hope it will work with other Member States to reform and strengthen the Organization," Annan told reporters. "I don't think holding back...

GLOBAL: UN deals with sexual abuse allegations against peacekeepers11 May 2005 17:56:16 GMT Source: IRIN JOHANNESBURG, 11 May (IRIN) - The United Nations has requested funds for hiring additional staff to beef up preventative measures aimed at tackling allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by some UN peacekeepers. In a report to the General Assembly this week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that the number of claims of sexual abuse and exploitation lodged against UN peacekeepers last year was more than double the number reported in 2003. In March the UN released a report by Annan's special adviser on the issue,...

As if the United Nations' reputation had not suffered enough from self-inflicted wounds, its Human Rights Commission has rubbed in more salt. It has re-elected Zimbabwe, one of the world's most notorious human rights violators, as a member. President Robert Mugabe has evicted white farmers from their land, harassed his political opponents, shut down independent news media and presided over fraudulent elections. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has accurately described his nation as "an outpost of tyranny." But the U.N. has helped to legitimize the treacherous Mugabe regime. Why expect anything else? Libya is a member of the Human Rights...

The United Nations is a mess, beset by scandal. There's the oil-for-food scandal; sex scandals; power-abuse scandals; smuggling scandals; theft scandals -- not to mention unpaid traffic tickets. Rob, rape, and pillage seems to be the UN's modus operandi. Yet why is anyone surprised? The UN considers itself above the law of mere nations. And it answers to no one. There is no vote on UN leaders (other than by the culprits themselves). There is no international referendum on its policies. The UN sets its own standards of conduct and it controls its own judge and jury. These, of course,...

Washington Post ran a 1000-word March 13 article about U.N. sexual abuse scandals. It began this way: "The United Nations is facing new allegations of sexual misconduct by U.N. personnel in Burundi, Haiti, Liberia and elsewhere, which is complicating the organization's efforts to contain a sexual abuse scandal that has tarnished its Nobel Prize-winning peacekeepers in Congo." But what about Nobel Prize-winning U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the former director of U.N. peacekeeping? Does any of this affect him or his reputation? In a curious omission, the story by Colum Lynch, a member of the U.N. Correspondents Association, didn't even mention...