Posted on 12/21/2005 9:35:24 PM PST by Critical Bill
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lost his diplomatic cool with a reporter today, calling him an "overgrown schoolboy" in a show of anger at questions over his part in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.
The normally unruffled Annan responded calmly at an end-of-year news conference to several questions on the $US64 billion ($NZ95 billion) programme, which he said had sometimes been covered through "deliberate leaks" that were "fed by people with agendas."
Journalists, he said, often missed the story, such as oil smuggling outside of the UN programme, recently documented by a UN-established inquiry headed by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
His frustration showed when a British journalist, James Bone of the London Times, began questioning him about reports that Annan's son, Kojo, imported a Mercedes-Benz car into Ghana using his father's diplomatic status to avoid taxes.
Annan interrupted the reporter when Bone said, "Your own version of events don't really make sense." "I think you're being very cheeky," Annan said. "Listen James Bone, you've been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years.
"You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving and please let's move on to a serious subject," Annan added.
The president of the UN Correspondents Association said that Bone had a right to ask a question. Annan said he agreed with that "but I think we also have to understand that we have to treat each other with respect." The Volcker commission faulted Annan for bad management of the oil-for-food programme but cleared him of personal wrongdoing, including influencing a contract that went to a company that employed his son. Advertisement Advertisement
Asked again if he bought a Mercedes tax-free for his son, Annan said, "I know you are all obsessed about the car. If you want to know more about it, please direct the questions to his lawyer or to him." "I am neither his spokesman nor his lawyer," the Secretary-General said of his son.
"The report of Paul Volcker is clear. I am not going to rehash it," he added.
Earlier in the news conference, Annan, whose second five-year term ends in December 2006, had some advice for the man or woman who will succeed him.
"They need a thick skin. They need a sense of humour, and they should laugh a lot inside and outside and at themselves. . . and be able to reach out and work effectively with leaders across the world," Annan said.
I saw a video of this .. he really got snippy
Which is read meat for reporters
And you, Kofi, have been acting like an aristocrat, when you are really just an old weiner vendor from the midwest.
Not only no, but hell no. Not a reporter.
:)
Cool!
This guy won't be on the MSM cocktail party invite list.
LOL! Coffee, that is a great one!
I suppose exposing corruption and criminality to the light of day and trying to prevent future episodes is a good and legitimate agenda. Sorry if it bothers you.
Gosh... Kofi is the one implicated in the systematic theft of billions of dollars in aid money, and he's insulting a member of the press for asking questions.
I don't get it Kofi, I really don't. You didn't the UN's failure in Rwanda get to you, or the failure in Somalia, or YOUR failure in Kosovo (which, if you recall, was during your tenure as the head of the Anti-Genocide council in the UN).
I thought that after all of that you might be a little bit tougher than to let a silly old reporter get under your skin...
Kofi sure did look like a Nobel Peace Prize winner...NOT!
And Kofi, you are nothing more than an overglorified, cowardly piece of sh*t thief.
Are they ever gonna get to the bottom of this and prosecute some people like Kofi's son? Whassup with this?
Saw this on Fox. Sounds to me like some sort of bizarre self transference by Kofi to this diligent reporter. Kofi is everything (And more) that he accuses the reporter of being.
Kofi ping
"I'm a lefty, this is my ivory tower and I'm above your petty laws peasant." Koffi Annan
Coffee sounds like THE ideal candidate to try that new international criminal court in the Hague.
What Koffi cup really means is, "Listen up underling, I am your overlord, I run the UN, I am in charge of socialist utopia. Know your role and shut your mouth."
Well this is a disturbing situation. I actually find myself defending a reporter. Hopefully, this won't become a trend.
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