Kofi Annan surrenders

This may be a record fold even for the spineless Kofi Annan. According to news reports, including a lengthy video of Annan speaking, he has capitulated to Syrian strongman Bashar Assad's barely-week-old demand that UN troops not be stationed along the Syrian-Lebanon border. I predicted at the time that the UN would cave. Sometimes it's distressing to be right.

UN chief Kofi Annan said Friday Damascus would enforce an arms embargo on Hizbullah in accordance with a UN resolution that halted Israel's war with the Lebanese group. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Syrian President in the Ash-Shaab Presidential Palace in Damascus, Annan said Bashar Assad had promised him he would halt all weapons to the Lebanese resistance group under UNSC 1701.

Syria also promised to boost the number of it own guards along the Lebanese-Syrian border, and establish joint patrols with the Lebanese Army "where possible," Annan said.

"While stating Syrian objections to the presence of foreign forces along the Syrian-Lebanese border , the [Syrian] president committed to me that Syria shall take all necessary measures to implement in full paragraph 15 of Resolution 1701 [which] deals with the arms embargo and rearmament" of Hizbullah, Annan said.

Is it any wonder that practically no Israeli of any political stripe has the slightest trust in Kofi Annan? By assigning Syria the responsibility to enforce the arms embargo against Hezbollah, Annan has truly put a ravenous fox in charge of guarding the henhouse. It's not credible that Annan doesn't know that Syria was the principal supplier of weapons to Hezbollah.

A more craven, unsavory character to head the UN can hardly be imagined. He has done more to destroy the UN's credibility (when it's had precious little to spare) than anyone else in the whole, wide world.

The Toyota Taliban & Malaria

Anyone remember that Winds post re: "The Toyota Taliban"? Not to mention "Apocalypso" about Haiti's situation and the difference between work that made a difference and activity to suck up foreign money? Well, here's Sen. Sam Brownback [R-KS], on the Toyota Taliban at work:

"Many have stated to me, and they know it in this country, we have given millions, if not billions, for years in aid to Africa and people are worse off today than they were when we started. What went wrong? Certainly some of the money went into dictators' pockets, but also much of it was wasted on conferences and consultants, telling people what to do, rather than giving them the tools to do it with.

Let me give you an example, malaria. We spent over 90% of our money budgeted for malaria on consultants. Now, the African leaders I talked to tell me that they know what to do about malaria, they don't have the money to do it. Indeed, it's the old adage, you can teach a man to fish, but if he has no fishing pole he isn't going to catch many. We must change this by getting medicines and food and water-drilling equipment, and African trained doctors and teachers to Africa, not one more conference at a nice hotel. Also, you need to go to Africa, people-to-people style, you need to do a work study-abroad in Africa, in Rwanda, in a country there, or take a spring break trip. Instead of going south, go really south. Go and visit. Go with a group that drills water wells. Go with a group that goes and helps distribute malaria medicines. You will be changed forever. You need to do it."

China & Russia Block UN Sanctions on Sudan

Brutally Honest has the goods. And what were these terrible sanctions that called Russia, China and Qatar to the aid of Sudan's genocidal government?

"The two powers, joined by Qatar, used their position on a UN sanctions committee to block the imposition of a UN travel ban and asset freeze on four unnamed Sudanese, including one government official, proposed by Britain."

THIS, folks, is the United Nations at work. So sorry if you're one one of the millions killed or ensalved over the years by Sudan's Arab government - because "The Global Test" thinks capital punishment is just fine for BWB (Breathing While Black). At least, it's fine as long as it's carried out by approved regimes with a UN License to Kill® - which is to say, any Arab or Muslim nation, or anyone with the approved backing of Russia or China.

Yeah, these are the people the US should seek approval from for all war and peace decisions in its foreign policy.

Don't Look for U.N. Help on Iran

Small Town Veteran notes that Britain is moving toward a more confrontational approach with Iran. Captain's Quarters notes that Russia and China are bought off by Iran and remain so - and thus, the UN avenue Britain is attempting to preserve is also bought and paid for.

"We have reached the point where the Western nations looking to defend themselves from Islamofascist threats need to band together instead of working through a dead process at Turtle Bay. The UN does not preserve peace; it preserves the status quo, and unfortunately that allows rogue nations like Iran the breathing room they need to make those developing threats a reality. We need to recognize that and act on it. The US and the UK are not required to commit suicide in the cause of upholding the credibility of international organizations that have already demonstrated themselves as hopelessly corrupt and demonstrably inert."

UN Rally Kicks Off Anti-Slavery Sudan Freedom Walk

The Sudan Freedom Walk, covering 300 miles to call attention to the ongoing genocide and slavery of black African Sudanese, began with a rally near the UN in New York on Wednesday. About 75 people attended the event, which starts in New York and concludes on April 5 in Washington, D.C. at the Capitol Building. More information about the walk, which will stop in 19 cities, can be found at www.sudanfreedomwalk.org. (Also here.)

In the interviews which follow, you will hear many unkind words about the UN, Arabs, and Islam. By people who have good cause. This was also clear at a rally in front of the UN in September 2004 (when Gloria Steinem put her foot in her mouth), and at a rally in December 2004.

• Photos and a report of the 2006 Sudan Freedom Walk.
• Another report with photos.
• Atlas Shrugs has lots of video and photos:
• Video interview with former slave Simon Deng.
• Simon Deng's complete remarks.
• Video interview with I-Abolish founder Charles Jacobs (who also co-founded the David Project to expose the anti-Israel bias in Columbia University's Middle East studies Dept.)
• Video interview with Sudanese native and former basketball star Manute Bol. (More on Bol's involvement with the cause.)
• More photos.

Pamela also points out some ironic hyperbole from leftist antiwar group United for Peace and Justice, over a definition of "slavery."

ICANN nibbled to death by gnats

Did Scrappleface write a parody of tinpot dictators bitching about how the "neo-colonial" United States controls the internet in order to promote "disorderly freedom of expression"?

You wish it was a parody.

read the rest! »

UN-sponsored bigotry

Anne Bayefsky is a serious human rights lawyer, a career which has led her to becoming an ongoing critic of the UN. She has doggedly exposed the rampant antisemitism of the UN-sponsored Durban conference, which took place just 10 days before 9-11, as well as ongoing institutionalized antisemitism at the UN.

Recently she expanded her watchdog activities from her own site to Eye on the UN, which hosts other pundits dear to the pro-democracy blogosphere.

Eye on the UN recently posted a video and stills from the Durban conference, which ironically was billed as an anti-racism conference. As usual, the Exception Clause applied. With a vengeance. Look at the propaganda from the conference, and wonder just what the word "racism" means these days. (I know, it's a rhetorical question.)

Hubris

Charles Johnson noted that while IAEA and Mohamed ElBaradei received the Nobel Peace Prize for working against nuclear proliferation, Britain's MI5 has uncovered 360 clandestine nuclear arms organizations -- MI5 Unmasks Covert Arms Programmes:

More than 360 private companies, university departments and government organisations in eight countries, including the Pakistan high commission in London, are identified as having procured goods or technology for use in weapons programmes.

The length of the list, compiled by MI5, suggests that the arms trade supermarket is bigger than has so far been publicly realised. MI5 warns against exports to organisations in Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel, Syria and Egypt and to beware of front companies in the United Arab Emirates, which appears to be a hub for the trade.

Mr. Johnson continued with a London Times piece that highlights the IAEA's failure to abate the proliferation of nuclear weapons materials:

read the rest! »

Zimbabwe Changed My Mind: Guns Are A Human Right

As many of you know, I'm from Canada. We have a pretty different attitude to guns up here, and I must say that American gun culture has always kind of puzzled me. To me, one no more had a right to a gun than one did to a car.

Well, my mind has changed. Changed to the point where I see gun ownership as being a slightly qualified but universal global human right. A month ago in Yalta, Freedom & The Future, I wrote:

"Frankly, if "stopping... societies from becoming the homicidal hells Mr. Bush described in his Latvia speech" is our goal, I'm becoming more sympathetic to the Right to Bear Arms as a universal human right on par with freedom of speech and religion. U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice's personal experience as a child in Birmingham [Alabama] adds an interesting dimension; I hope she talks about this abroad."

This week, I took the last step. You can thank Robert Mugabe, too, because it was his campaign to starve his political/tribal opponents and Pol-Pot style "ruralization" effort (200,000 left homeless recently in a population of 12.6 million) that finally convinced me. Here's the crux, the argument before which all other arguments pale into insignificance:

The Right to Bear Arms is the only reliable way to prevent genocide in the modern world.

And Zimbabwe is the poster child for that proposition. So let's start with what's going on:

• Zimbabwe's Slo-Mo Genocide
• Bystanders of the World
• The Dynamics of (In)Action
• Or Else Get Weapons: The Right to Bear Arms

read the rest! »

The U.N.: Still Appeasing the Nazis, 60 Years Later

Transatlantic Intelligencer take a close look at the U.N.'s V-E day statement, and notes its odious combination of retroactive appeasement, whitewashing, and moral equivalence.

I'd like to add a note to the effect that the U.N. once again demonstrates its own equivalence to the League of Nations, but I can't. It's worse.

Canadian Scandals: AdScam - and UNSCAM?

Developments continue up here in Canada re: the $100 million AdScam fraud perpetrated by the Liberal Party. Prime Minister Martin has followed the script laid out here on Winds of Change.NET to the letter, beginning with a 'stick to the plan approach' before caving and borrowing a leaf from his worst enemy's playbook. Meanwhile, new witnesses are taking the stand under publication bans. Sitting in Minnesota, Captain Ed promises to publish any material that's given to him.

Elsewhere, blogger and mystery writer Roger L. Simon cotinues to dig into the real mystery of UNSCAM, currently facing resignations from senior investigators who believe the report soft-pedaled the truth and failled to pursue obvious leads, major divisions in the senior panel, and 5 ongoing investigations outside the U.N. The Volcker "Investigation," answering to Kofi Annan himself and headed by someone who spent spent several years as a director of the United Nations Association (UNA-USA) and the Business Council for the United Nations, is becoming a disaster all its own.

Attention is also turning toward possible links to... Canada.

read the rest! »

UNSCAM: The Report is Out (Updated)

Dan Darling can't analyze every major report that comes out...

• SECOND Interim Report. Roger L. Simon's quick initial impressions. Links and some very to the point notes and excerpts.

• Belmont Club quotes organized crime specialist and key UNSCAM investigator Professor Mark Pieth of Basel University: "We did not exonerate Kofi Annan," Pieth told The Associated Press. "We should not brush this off." But the Left is spinning it exactly that way.

• The Wall St. Journal is very specific: Mr. Mouselli had sought and obtained the meeting with the senior Annan as a prerequisite for going into business with Kojo, and he and Kojo discussed Cotecna with the Secretary General, along with their other business plan. Kojo refuses to cooperate with the Volcker Committee. There were obvious irregularities in the Cotecna contract award. And the person assigned to investigate Cotecna? Mr. Annan's then-chief of staff Iqbal Riza, who shredded 3 years of potentially relevant UNSCAM documents. Their conclusion: "Anyone who still thinks Mr. Annan has been acquitted of "wrongdoing" would do well to read the Volcker Report, as would anyone who still believes Mr. Annan is fit to lead the United Nations."

read the rest! »

Food-Oil Explosive About to Hit U.N.

Arthur Chrenkoff covers positive news out of Iraq, while many members of the "mainstream" "media" ignore it. Roger L. Simon has been on the Enronesque U.N. Oil-for-FoodPalaces scandal since Day 1, and lately he's been working with Wall St. Journal reporter Claudia Rosett, one of the few MSM reporters to actually dig into this multi-billion dollar scandal. He writes:

"This blog has new information from sources close to the investigation of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Scandal by Paul Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee. After some delay, the committee is releasing its preliminary results at noon Tuesday. This report may reveal, among other things, startling information tending to indicate Secretary General Kofi Annan had more knowledge of, or was closer to, his son Kojo's activities with Cotecna - the company whose role in the scandal seems so pervasive - than previously thought....."

There will be follow-ups from both Simon and Rosett on the rest of Mouselli's testimony, but they do offer some previews. Looks like a bombshell is about to hit. It will be interesting to see if the liberal media covers this, and how.

Wolfowitz and the "International Order"

The Washington Post is reporting that the Europeans are backing off, which means Paul Wolfowitz looks like a lock for the top job at the World Bank (and not a minute too soon).

The Wall Street Journal has a good article about Bush's recent international appointments that extends my recent "Reshaping the U.S. State Department" post. They will help you understand the internal logic behind these moves, whether or not you support them.

For the external logic, I'd like to draw your attention to an excerpt from the Washington Post. It illustrates some cold home truths about international politics that we forget at our peril. It also ties in very nicely with the predictions of a STRATFOR global strategy analysis that Discarded Lies covered back in January. We'll start with the WaPo:

read the rest! »

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings Schedule

For those of you who are interested, here are the Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings over the next couple of months. All changes etc. will be posted here, to make it easy for team members to check.

Hat tip to team member Robi Sen for the suggestion. Note that items in [square brackets] are briefings we're still recruiting for.

read the rest! »

Apocalypso: Haiti's Chosen Poverty

Back on Sept. 22, 2004, I wrote a post about "Valuing Eco-Services". Celeste promptly turned around on the 29th and applied its concepts to the disastrous 2004 floods in Haiti.

Now the Miami Herald chimes in with Haiti: A ravaged land more bleak by Susannah A. Nesmith. When it comes to Haiti's deforestation and the economic/ environmental devastation it has wrought, there's a lot of blame to go around: NGOs, government, even Haitians themselves. Haiti's poverty isn't a conspiracy from abroad, it's the product of choices. If those choices don't start changing, neither will Haiti's fate.

Belmont Club, discussing similar issues in the Philippines, called it "Death By Insanity" - and the term is apropos. Dysfunctional cultures, corrupt governments, and (worst of all) a lack of understanding of economics or the importance of property rights add up to a toll of doom across the 3rd world. Haiti is just one example, albeit a very illustrative one. So let's take a closer look:

• International NGOs - Gypsies in the Palace
• Success Stories - You Can Shake the Hand of the Mango Man...
• Governance & Culture - Down to Rock Bottom Again
• Banana Republics
• Conclusion - Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

read the rest! »

How The U.S. Military Is Carrying Out Tsunami Relief

(Originally posted Jan. 4, 2005)

The Adventures of Chester has a very good set of articles covering tsunami relief efforts by the U.S. military:

"I'm doing some in-depth work this week on the US military relief effort in SE Asia. I think it will really kick off from its current initial phase in about 3-5 days."

I'm hoping he expands his coverage to the entire core group, plus Russia. It would be an illustrative comparison to the U.N., on which more later. Meanwhile, see especially:

read the rest! »

The Toyota Taliban

I've often seen the term "Toyota Taliban" used to refer to non-governmental 'aid' agencies and U.N. bureaucrats. I've even used it myself on occasion. What does it mean, and where does it come from? Here's an excerpt from U.N. Insider's June 04 summary:

In a letter from Kabul, British satirical biweekly Private Eye reported on the private life of international community members in the Afghan capital. It claims that only 16% of the $4.5 billion pledged at the Tokyo conference goes to the government; the rest in the hands of NGO; a term used to refer to "the well heeled" international staff of the U.N. and aid organizations who reportedly spend time shopping for wide screen tvs and laptops at a new Sony Centre. "Most other shopkeepers only ever glimpse them as they are driven past in one of the $75,000 Toyota Landcruisers most of them owned by the U.N. -- known here as the Toyota Taliban," the letter says, adding that the cruisers ferried them from office to restaurant to guest house. It continues: "There's a swimming pool at a central U.N. compound and regular parties and barbecues. Memories of a party held by the DHL courier group last November, when an opium pipe was passed around by U.N. staff, are still fresh. If boredom strikes, aid workers might also sign up for Tai Chi and Argentinean tango lessons."

Additional on-the-scene reports from Instapundit's Afghanistan correspondent Professor John Robert Kelly of Boston University, Congressional Chief of Staff Joseph Eule, and a Roger L. Simon commenter with 18 years experience in Afghanistan add further depth to the picture, in both positive and negative ways. This excerpt from John's comment is especially instructive:

read the rest! »

The U.N.'s Unaccountable Inquisitors

Belmont Club has been on fire lately covering the "United Nations", which is facing growing questions in America's legislature and even bills that would stop payment of dues.

Whatever you think of the U.N., it's worth looking at Belmont Club's revealing analyses. He touches on many subjects: UNSCAM, Kofi Annan, legitimacy, the roots of U.N. failure, recent reform proposals; even the nature of the U.N.'s most prominent paradox. In that paradox, he says, lies the answer to the riddle of the U.N. itself.

read the rest! »

U.N. Oil for Corruption Scam Update: Dec. 3/04

After the Enronesque rip-off of UNSCAM, any other CEO would be packing his bags. Especially if his lieutenants and son were involved. So why isn't Kofi Annan packing his bags, and what makes the U.N. different? Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN, Chair of U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee member) wants to know. His indictment of the supposed "internal investigation" by Paul Volcker is devastating.

To add to the pressure, the Oil for Food Accountability Act has been introduced in the House and Senate. It proposes witholding U.S. dues to the U.N. until the President certifies that the U.N. in really cooperating in the UNSCAM investigvation. The media attention this would aim at the U.N. would make the law's passage a good thing all by itself.

Meanwhile, Clinton pardon-recipient Marc Rich may be up to his old tricks - he's being investigated in connection with UNSCAM. This time, maybe they can keep him in jail.

Blogsphere Arrivals & Returns

Frequent Winds commenter Glen Wishard now has a blog of his own: Canis Iratus. Welcome, Glen! I especially like Learning Math With Paul Krugman, which included this bon mot:

"People like Krugman are beginning to display another kind of creepy gnostic certainty: the idea that they are entitled to win, no matter what, and if they lose it can only be because they were cheated. In fact, a loss is prima facie proof that they were cheated.... Sentiments like Krugman's are growing, and such thinking is absolutely deadly to democracy."

TMJUtah is an occasional over here and a smart regular over at Michael Totten's place. We featured him in Overcoming Hate: Abby & Me. His new blog is called Three Rounds Brisk, and one of his early essays responded to Totten's "Terror and Victory".

Meanwhile, Donald Sensing is blogging again, sharing news that his son Stephen has completed Marine boot camp, and discussing Hari's "solution" to the nuclear proliferation dilemma. Sensing also fisks a couple of foreign policy professors whose article about the UN and American Legitimacy can only be described as blatantly dishonest. (JC, this sort of thing may help to explain the level of credibility A.L. and I gave to that petition by foreign policy professors.) And here's the TM Lutas blog post that got Sensing going on the subject - as usual, it's intelligent and worth reading.

Childhood's End

The Hoover Digest recently published an essay by Niall Ferguson entitled A World without Power. Mr. Ferguson illustrates how there have been few eras in human history where a power vacuum existed for long before it was filled by rivals. History is mainly about power rivalries. He posits that the wish by some for an apolar world is a fantasy; its realization would be a disaster, heralding in a new Dark Age. Alas, the United States, on the threshold of a new century, must now prepare for the rise of new rivals across the world.

Meanwhile, there is internal gravitatation towards post-hegemonic transnational power sharing, presumably with an apolar goal. Many on the extreme left and right do not hold that the United States should practice hegemony; each has their own vision for a world where American power is blocked, controlled, channeled or diffused. Here's a few snippets from Mr. Ferguson's essay:

If the United States retreats from its hegemonic role, who would supplant it? Not Europe, not China, not the Muslim world - and certainly not the United Nations. Unfortunately, the alternative to a single superpower is not a multilateral utopia but the anarchic nightmare of a new Dark Age. The “unipolarity” identified by some commentators following the Soviet collapse cannot last much longer, for the simple reason that history hates a hyperpower. Sooner or later, challengers will emerge, and back we must go to a multipolar, multipower world... Apolarity could turn out to mean an anarchic new Dark Age - an era of waning empires and religious fanaticism; of endemic plunder and pillage in the world’s forgotten regions; of economic stagnation and civilization’s retreat into a few fortified enclaves.

read the rest! »

"If You See Blue Helmets, Run."

Via Normblog, we bring you Kofi Annan:

Annan also dismissed any suggestion that France, Russia and China had been prepared to ease sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq in return for oil contracts.

Iraq tried to manipulate foreign governments by awarding contracts -- and bribes -- to foreign companies and political figures in countries that showed support for ending sanctions, in particular Russia, France and China, the final report by the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group said earlier this month.

But Annan said it was "inconceivable" that Saddam's activities could have influenced policy in the countries concerned.

read the rest! »

Allawi, Bush, Kerry: In Their Own Words

There have been 3 speeches in recent weeks that are worth reading on their own, unfiltered by media spin. So, here they are, in alphabetical order:

• Iraqi Interim Prime minister Iyad Allawi's address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress. There was also a press conference later.

• U.S. President George W. Bush's address to the United Nations

• U.S. Democratic Party nominee John Kerry's recent "What I'd Do About Iraq" speech on Sept. 20.

Hooray For Gov. Dean

Via TAPPED, a seriously great comment from Howard Dean.

Europeans cannot criticize the United States for waging war in Iraq if they are unwilling to exhibit the moral fiber to stop genocide by acting collectively and with decisiveness. President Bush was wrong to go into Iraq unilaterally when Iraq posed no danger to the United States, but we were right to demand accountability from Saddam. We are also right to demand accountability in Sudan. Every day that goes by without meaningful sanctions and even military intervention in Sudan by African, European and if necessary U.N. forces is a day where hundreds of innocent civilians die and thousands are displaced from their land. Every day that goes by without action to stop the Sudan genocide is a day that the anti-Iraq war position so widely held in the rest of the world appears to be based less on principle and more on politics. And every day that goes by is a day in which George Bush's contempt for the international community, which I have denounced every day for two years, becomes more difficult to criticize.

I'm one of those who abandoned respect for the U.N. quite a while ago, and so have a hard time with those - Kerry included - who call for the U.S. to align it's foreign policy with U.N. mandates. The appalling track record of the U.N. continues, and weakens the claims of those who look to it as the world's moral arbiter.

Gov. Dean deserves applause for taking this stand, and for acknowledging - atypically for a politician - how it connects to his past views.

Blog Power

Wow. Roger Simon (who's been carrying the U.N. Oil-for-Palaces scandal) goes to New York and all of a sudden the New York Times gets bold about it.

Coincidence? I think not...

Darfur, Sudan: Multilateral Half-Measures

The casualties are piling up, with over 30,000 believed dead and 1 million+ refugees. After wars with the black and mostly Christian south, the (mostly Arab) Sudanese government is busy terrorising and ethnically cleansing the black and mostly Muslim west. Robert Corr may have written the best history and summary of the Darfur crisis in the blogosphere.

Even in such an obvious case, however, multilateralism is running into trouble:

"The United States and Britain are pushing a Security Council resolution to impose trade sanctions, but they're having trouble getting it passed. Pakistan and China, for instance, are hesitant to interfere with Sudan's oil trade, which supplies about 300,000 barrels a day to Asia, partly pumped by a Chinese company."

...oh, and don't forget all the French oil deals (France is opposing sanctions, of course, as it did in Iraq). Not to mention Russian military contracts with Sudan. Meanwhile, African nations have ensured that Sudan will keep its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Gary Farber has more on the limited progress being made, and sums it up as "Small steps continue. Meanwhile, people die." The Washington Post looks at the EU's cynical half-measures and asks, appropriately, "how many more deaths will it take?"

If YOU want to take action, a blog/ activists' workstation called Sudan: The Passion of the Present is a fine place to start.

The UN, Israel & The Wall

The Key To Helping Darfur Must Be The UN!

Gary Farber's home blog is Amygdala.

That's simply obvious, right? Why, we must persuade the French, because that is the key to internationalization, which is the cure for all problems; it removes American arrogance and imperialism from the equation, gets us contributions from around the world, and global support.

read the rest! »

Anti-Semitism in France & the U.N.

Prof. Anne Bayesfsky wonders if the U.N. is finally ready to get serious about anti-Semitism, as she speaks at a U.N. conference on the subject. I can't say I'm optimistic - her stark description of the very real anti-Semitism practiced within the U.N. is chilling. This paragraph in particular struck home:

"U.N.-led anti-Semitism moves from the demonization of Jews to the disqualification of Jewish victimhood: refusing to recognize Jewish suffering by virtue of their ethnic and national identity. In 2003 a General Assembly resolution concerned with the welfare of Israeli children failed (though one on Palestinian children passed handily) because it proved impossible to gain enough support for the word Israeli appearing before the word children."

Imagine that those were your children, and that the U.N. had just declared that they didn't deserve security from murder and violence. What would you call it? Would you accept that organization as an honest broker for peace?

Worse, this kind of demonization carries very real consequences on the ground worldwide.

read the rest! »

UNSCAM Updates

The moral and financial scandal at the heart of the United Nations continues to deepen. At least 3 senior U.N. officials are suspected of taking multi-million dollar bribes from the Saddam Hussein regime, and documents have surfaced that link U.N. Undersecretary General Benon Sevan and 270 prominent foreign officials to a scheme that allowed them to trade in Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices.

Instapundit summarizes the ABC News roundup, and links on where you can find even more. Roger L. Simon, a U.N. supporter who has covered UNSCAM diligently from Day 1, believes this is a crisis point for the organization - and links to a new blog that will focus on covering this issue. Austin Bay, a U.N. supporter who has seen its humanitarian works first hand in the field, has more (Hat Tip: Instapundit):

"So many of the self-righteous left still scream about "blood for oil" and maliciously accuse the United States of toppling Saddam in order to secure petroleum supplies. The truth is otherwise. Oil for Food lined the pockets of Saddam, his international political supporters, and corporate cronies, and that oil was paid for, hour by hour, with the blood of Iraqis slaughtered by his brutal regime."

Or, in other words, blood for oil - to prominent international "anti-war" forces, and to the U.N. itself in return for managing this corrupt mess. Disgusting.

Oil-For-Food: la réponse

There's been a lot of discussion on oil-for-food. In today's LA Times, the French Ambassador responds, and raises at least one factual point (re banking) that should be addressed. Over to you, Roger!

First 'Freedom Fries,' Now Oil-for-Food Lies: Give France a Break

By Jean-David Levitte, Jean-David Levitte is the French ambassador to the United States.

...I have been deeply surprised in the last few days to see a new campaign of unfounded accusations against my country flourish again in the media. These allegations, being spread by a handful of influential, conservative TV and newspaper journalists in the U.S., have arisen in connection with a recent inquiry into the "oil for food" program that was run by the United Nations in Iraq during the final years of Saddam Hussein's government.

read the rest! »

The U.N. Oil-for-Palaces Scandal, Part III

Instapundit has more. The largest episode of corruption in history? Don't know, but at the very least it's in the top tier.

Here's a wild thought... at $10 billion and counting, plus the blood of the Iraqis the U.N. was supposed to be protecting and helping to feed, maybe there ought to be a congressional investigation about that.

The U.N. Oil-For-Food Bribery Scandal

Ryan over at Tasty Manatees methodically details the corruption, payoffs, and coverups surrounding the U.N.'s supposed administration of Saddam's "oil-for-food" program under the U.N. sanctions regime. He also includes links to a now-verified list of the political parties and individuals around the world that Saddam bribed using program proceeds, using accounting tactics that look a lot like Enron's.

Pay special attention to the long lists of French & Russian recipients. Not to mention the presence of British MP George Galloway, Indonesia's President Megawati, and so many others.

I'm sure the fact that this money was not actually going to feed the people of Iraq will come as a shock to everyone familiar with Saddam, and with the U.N. Naturally, the organization issued a weasel-worded non-denial in Wednesday's Wall St. Journal. Fortunately, Ryan's article also includes a thorough deconstruction of their evasions. He concludes that the U.N. has refused to investigate the corruption in its own ranks, and will now turn a blind eye to the allegations. That's my bet, too.

A real fine organization the U.S. Democratic Party has decided to beg permission from in order to protect America. Yessirreee.

Reality, Laws and the Useless U.N.

Sir Banagor on trusting the U.N. with American security:

"The idea of a United Nations protecting the rights of citizens in this country, when they have never done it in any other country in the world, is not only laughable, but absolutely insulting."

Gotta say, he backs it up.

Stupid Op-ed Tricks

I'm probably as tired of writing about them as many of you are tired of reading me writing about them, but what can I say, someone's got to do it.

I'd laid off this column in the LA Times Opinion (annoying registration required, use 'laexaminer'/'laexaminer') this Sunday, because I thought everyone else would cover it.

But no one has, and it's me alone, standing between idiocy and the Internet.

You know how it's all our fault? Here's a serious commentator - the former U.N. correspondent for the LA Times - who suggests that Saddam's failure to comply with the UN inspectors - and therefore avoid war - was, of course, the fault of the US Government.

read the rest! »

Bush's Non-Proliferation Speech, Feb 11/04

Remarks by the President on Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation
Fort Lesley J. McNair - National Defense University, Washington, D.C.

• The transcript
• Would you prefer the speech in audio, or full audio & video?
• The associated fact sheet, summarizing action points and recommendations from the speech.
• Online Q&A session at whitehouse.gov that followed President Bush's speech. Jim Wilkinson, Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications, hosting and answering.

Finally, for background on why this is a serious issue and the alarming dynamics of proliferation around the world, "Fibonacci's Nukes" remains an excellent primer.

The U.N. "Security" Council

Recently, the "United Nations" released a report saying that the international community was not doing enough to combat Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. So what did the U.N. do? Well, of course, it dissolved his commission and fired Mr Chandler.

But the Democrats tell us that the U.N. should be the linch-pin of American security, and the Democrats are honourable men...

Revealing Contrasts: Bush, Dean & the International Order

Mader Blog is on a roll. This post where he quotes Steyn is absolutely worth your attention:

"The one consistent feature of the post-9/11 era is the comprehensive failure of the international order. The French use their Security Council veto to protect Saddam. The EU subsidises Palestinian terrorism. The International Atomic Energy Agency provides cover for Iran's nuclear ambitions. The UN summit on racism is an orgy of racism."

Word.

I also liked Mader's analysis and deconstruction of Howard Dean's big foreign policy speech. Read that, then read his transcript and analysis of Bush's recent press conference. It will tell you more about the coming election that all the talking heads on CNN. Mader leans rightward, but I strongly suspect that a lot of other folks outside of Dean's base are going to have similar reactions.

War and Police

Geitner Simmons has an essay that describes how "governments and activists are attempting to constrict the assertion of U.S. military power by erecting legal restrictions that equate warmaking in fundamental ways with mere police work... without any regard for their military consequences." The article he cites, by David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey, certainly does a fine job of listing the inehrent problems with this approach.

I'm glad it does, because the blurring and deliberate misunderstanding of war vs. policing has become a staple of "dialogue" with the political left, and a firm feature of the transnational progressivist agenda. As Geitner noted:

"Judging from the rhetoric of Amnesty International," Rivkin and Casey write, "any use of force whatsoever would necessarily be deemed illegal under Protocol I."

As dishonest and foolish as it is predictable. This is a good and appropriate follow-up to my article on Iran's hellishly dangerous idiocy, so obviously unconstrained by such things. As I replied to Geitner in an email:

"That, indeed, is part of the long-term concern as international law is pushed in this direction. But then, that is the exact intent behind these changes. Deeply immersed in their decadence and sheltered in their cocoons, Europe and the tranzies believe they are criminalizing all war, as opposed to just criminalizing self-defense by democracies."

And criminalizing self-defense by democracies wouldn't exactly trouble many of them, either.

From Rwanda, Truth

Rwanda isn't part of our War on Terror briefings today [Iraq | The Wider War], but it's worth your attention for other reasons. How could Andrew Apostolu possibly find this Guardian article 'uninteresting'? Good grief, it's just choc-a-bloc with interesting stuff. Things like:

• U.N. ICTR Criminal Prosecutions for 1990s Rwandan genocides: 12 cases.
• Illiterate African villagers using traditional Gacaca process: thousands of cases, in a process even The Guardian seems to approve of.

I, too, would trust a gathering of illiterate African villagers over anything the U.N. might attempt. Nor is this the only good news out of Rwanda:

"Gacaca is the centrepiece of a set of reforms which has already seen the writing of a new constitution, passed by a referendum in May, and presidential and parliamentary elections (the latter are being held later this month). With gacaca, the government has calculated that enough guilty people "will want a second chance to live a decent life," as the president put it, and therefore confess. With the elections, they calculated - correctly, as the presidential poll showed - that the Rwandese would buck the trend of ethnic voting in Africa, and instead vote for a party (the Rwandese Patriotic Front) and a president who have proved they can bring stability, offer reintegration to old enemies, and begin to revive a rock-bottom economy."

That last bit about non-ethnic voting is incredibly important, because it's such a huge departure for Africa. Of course, "caring" international NGOs are upset over the Gacaca process, and over the executions of 20 perpetrators of genocide. Which bring us to the 2 most telling paragraphs in the whole piece, as the NGO set and the French get theirs in quick succession:

read the rest! »

The Wisdom of Letting Them Fight

Geitner Simmons makes a fine point, one that nicely extends some of the realities I've noted before in "The Congo Ideology-trap". Try this idea on for size: sometimes, it's better to let people fight it out than it is to intervene. Shocking? Immoral? Well, consider this... what if foreign powers had stepped in as 'peacekeepers' after Gettysburg?

"Around about 1863, neither the North nor the South had delivered a knockout blow. Foreigners could hardly have been blamed for judging the war-torn United States, where hundreds of thousands had died, to be a failed state..."

read the rest! »

Genocide Paralysis

Mader Blog has 2 things to recommend itself to you today. One is a fantastic new home page look, in the finest Canadian tradition. Bravo!

The other is an article about global reaction to instances of genocide since the term was coined and codified after the Second World War. Samantha Power analyses the reactions of world officialdom (both U.S. and U.N.), and finds the same syndromes recurring each time: The refusal to believe. The false moral equivalence packaged as diplomacy. The use of that equivalence, and all or nothing intervention arguments, to justify doing nothing. "Look Shocked But Look Away" captures the dynamic perfectly.

Disturbing and necessary reading. Especially if coupled with our next post: "The Wisdom of Letting Them Fight."

UPDATE: Fierce Highway has some worthwhile comments.