NoonShadow

Strange doings in Rome

2006-01-25T08:51:00.000+02:00

The Italian parliament has passed legislation allowing people to shoot robbers in self-defence.

The law permits the use of guns and knives by people in homes or workplaces to protect lives or belongings. The reform was introduced by the Northern League party, a right-wing member of the ruling coalition with a strong anti-crime platform.

The opposition voted against the bill, which critics say will encourage people to take the law into their own hands.

The new law will allow people to use legally registered weapons to protect themselves or others, and their property and the property of others, from harm. It applies if there is a danger of aggression and the attacker does not desist.

Justice Minister Roberto Castelli backed the new law. "Today criminals will have more to fear while there will be fewer problems for honest people," said Mr Castelli, who belongs to the Northern League.

However, the centre-left opposition expressed concern that it would encourage violence and lead to increased use of firearms. "This is a... measure that delegates the use of force to citizens with the sole certain result of increasing the risks for people's safety," said Paolo Cento of the Greens party. A criminal lawyers' group also criticized the law, saying it amounted to allowing "legitimate offence".

Is this a hoax?

Corruption in Turtle Bay, part XL

2006-01-25T08:42:00.000+02:00

The Financial Times tells us some shocking news... that there is major league corruption in the UN!

A different culprit, this time, though. Not the peacekeepers, or Kofi's family, or Kofi's deputy, or his special representative, or his election monitor, or his refugee commissioner or his right hand man...

United Nations investigators estimate the world body may have lost as much as $298m through irregularities in peacekeeping procurement, according to an unofficial draft of a report into alleged fraud and mismanagement.

The unofficial report, seen by the Financial Times, paints a damning picture of poor or bypassed financial controls, insufficient oversight by senior management, as well as a revolving door of employment between UN procurement staff, and the private companies whose services the UN hires.

The scale and allegedly systematic nature of wrongdoing has raised fears of a scandal as large if not larger than the Iraqi oil-for-food programme affair, which may hit even closer to UN headquarters.

The $298m figure, almost a third of the $1bn of contracts examined, was removed from a subsequent final document, as were references to named companies and officials. UN member states will be officially sent the final version.

Christopher Burnham, the UN’s head of management, acknowledged on Monday that the cost of fraud and mismanagement in peacekeeping procurement could go into the “tens of millions of dollars”, and the figure was likely to rise over coming months.

There are currently 200 separate investigations related to procurement. Over recent weeks, a new interim head of the procurement service has been appointed, and the UN’s internal investigative arm, OIOS, which conducted the investigation, has established a procurement fraud taskforce.

Last week, the UN announced it had placed eight staff members on administrative leave, although without any presumption of wrongdoing. “The UN is being proactive,” Mr Burnham said, citing co-operation with US federal authorities. “We are ferreting out corruption and fraud where is existed and where it exists.”

Contracts awarded to companies through violations “certainly will be terminated”, he added, and the secretariat would seek compensation.

The draft report also raised questions about the UN’s Headquarters Committee on Contracts, which reviews contracts above $200,000. It named eight officials which worked both for the UN and its contractors at different times.

Also under investigations was the UN’s controls over performance bonds, which are used to guarantee satisfactory completion of a contract. In nine sampled contracts, the bonds received ranged between zero to 7.6 per cent of the contract value, even though the minimum suggested was 10 per cent.

“OIOS noted the systematic erosion over many years of a fair and competitive source for the UN procurement,” the draft report said in its overall assessment. “A lack of enforcement of accountability and a reluctance to investigate mismanagement…has led to a pattern of corrupt practices.”

(Emphasis added.)

Well, one thing that you can say about the UN bureaucrats... at least they are thorough.

I hope Kojo's late fees and interest payments are similar to mine

2006-01-25T08:33:00.000+02:00

According to CNN, eight years late, but Kojo finally picks up the tab:

The son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he is sorry he misused his father's name to save more than $20,000 on a Mercedes SUV he had shipped to his native Ghana. Now, eight years later, he's looking to make things right.

Kojo Annan wants to pay back the customs duties he skirted during the 1998 transaction that cast a shadow over him and his father during last year's probe into the United Nations oil-for-food scandal, according to Kojo Annan's attorney.

Investigators last year found that Kojo Annan "used false pretenses" in obtaining a diplomatic discount for a Mercedes ML 320 sport-utility vehicle he purchased in Geneva, Switzerland.

He saved over US$20,000 by using those false pretenses.

In a January 19 letter to Ghana's customs agency, Kojo Annan's attorney, William Taylor, wrote, "The automobile was not for the secretary-general's personal use and therefore the exemption was not justified."
"Kojo Annan wishes to make full payment of the amount due to the government of Ghana as a result of this transaction," Taylor wrote...
Neither Annan was immediately available for comment. But U.N. spokesman Stephanie Dujarric said, "He obviously misled his father."
Kofi Annan told Volcker investigators that he gave Kojo Annan $15,000 to help him buy the car but said he didn't realize his son was purchasing the car in his name.

Never mind that he had to get forms and signature's from Papa's office to save the 20 G's.

The United Nations has remained silent on details about the vehicle, and Kofi Annan called a Times of London reporter "an overgrown schoolboy" last month after the reporter pressed him on the SUV's whereabouts.

Let's give these paragons control over war and peace...

Endangered Germans

2006-01-22T09:39:00.000+02:00

Another straw in the wind on Europe's demographic suicide, from Reuters:

Ursula von der Leyen, a medical doctor and the mother of seven, wants Germans to have more babies.

Since taking the family affairs portfolio in Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet, she has been making proposals that have put the family high on Germany's political agenda.

Her calls for free child care and extensive tax breaks for families with small children have put the spotlight on Germany's low birthrate.

The Federal Statistics Office said yesterday that Germany's population fell for a third straight year in 2005, adding impetus to the new minister's determination to halt the decline by encouraging families to have more children.

The data show the number of Germans has fallen by 3.2 million in the past 33 years, a decline masked until recently by the flow of immigrants...

Determined to overhaul Germany's child-care system and end the frosty attitude toward families, Mrs. von der Leyen sparked a debate by urging states and communities to slash or even eliminate preschool-care charges that far exceed university fees.

Other European nations are prescribing similar incentives.

More than 600,000 Italian newborns will receive a letter from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the next week welcoming them into the world as Italian citizens and telling their parents how to receive a 1,000 euro "baby bonus" from the state. Like Germany, Italy's birthrate has plummeted.

Political opponents accuse Mr. Berlusconi of campaign trickery in the run-up to the April 9 elections, using the letter to evade campaign laws limiting his time on television.
"Best wishes for your arrival; do you know that the budget has put aside 1,000 euros for you?" Mr. Berlusconi writes in the letter sent to babies born in 2005.

He signs off: "Big Kiss, Silvio Berlusconi."...

Today, German women find it hard to raise children and pursue a career at the same time. A law scrapped only in the 1970s even allowed a husband to have his wife fired from her job by saying she was neglecting her family. (How sophisticated! - ed.)

Mothers who swap diapers for careers are still disparaged as "raven mothers" -- leaving their children alone in a cold nest. Studies show one-third of German women think working mothers can't have a warm, stable relationship with their children...

(What to do? Beg the government!)

"Free child care might be a nice idea," said Stephan Articus, head of the association of German municipalities. "But we simply don't have the [money] needed."

(Emphasis added.)

Interesting.

NoonShadow has put the spotlight on the phenomenon of Europe's quietus before.

It is not only that the population is shrinking, but that with so few children, the population is becoming older and older.

Minister von der Leyen's moves come too late to make a difference.

Speaker for the oppressed and downtrodden?

2006-01-22T09:20:00.000+02:00

The N.Y. Times explains how the U.N. chooses sides between gang rapists and their victims:

Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani woman whose defiant response to being gang-raped by order of a tribal court brought her worldwide attention, was denied a chance to speak at the United Nations on Friday after Pakistan protested that it was the same day the country's prime minister was visiting.
Ms. Mai had long been scheduled to make an appearance called "An Interview With Mukhtar Mai: The Bravest Woman on Earth" in the United Nations television studios, sponsored by the office for nongovernmental organizations, the Virtue Foundation and the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Human Rights.

But on Thursday night the organizers were informed that the program would have to be postponed because of Pakistan's objections.

Ms. Mai is leaving New York on Saturday so the effect was to cancel her appearance.

Asked at a news conference why Pakistan had taken the action, the prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, said: "I have no idea. You have informed me and so have some other people as I was walking in. I don't know how the place functions."

The Pakistani Mission did not return calls seeking comment.

In 2002, a village council sentenced Ms. Mai to be gang-raped for the supposed misconduct of her brother. Pakistani women in such circumstances often commit suicide, but Ms. Mai instead successfully challenged her rapists in court. She gave the compensation money she received to schools in her remote district...

Mr. Aziz is scheduled to see President Bush in Washington next week.

This was not the first time that Pakistan's government had interfered in Ms. Mai's travels. President Pervez Musharraf blocked her from taking a trip to the United States in June and then relented last fall when Glamour magazine honored her as its "Woman of the Year...
In an interview, Ms. Mai said: "I feel disappointed. I was not going to say anything bad about Pakistan. I was just going to talk about my work and what people are doing."

(Emphasis added.)

It is a strange place, the U.N.

Supposedly founded to advance humanity's highest ideals, it instead wallows in the muck, proudly protecting the world's cruelest scum.

Quote for the day

2006-01-17T09:48:00.000+02:00

As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.

- Vaclav Havel (1936 - )
Czech playwright and president

Global warming crisis

2006-01-17T08:39:00.000+02:00

Where were the SUVs?

An extraordinary burst of global warming that occurred around 55 million years ago dramatically reversed Earth's pattern of ocean currents, a finding that strengthens modern-day concern about climate change, a study says.
The big event, the Palaeocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), saw the planet's surface temperature rise by between five and eight degrees C (nine and 16.2 F) in a very short time, unleashing climate shifts that endured tens of thousands of years.

(Emphasis added.)

America didn't exist 55 million years ago.

Actually, neither did Europe.

Actually, neither did homo sapiens!

Please explain, greenies.

Fat Canucks

2006-01-17T08:14:00.000+02:00

Also in Toronto's Globe and Mail:

Canada's obesity crisis appears to be deepening, with the number of people classified at the most extreme end of the spectrum exploding in recent years, new research suggested Monday.

The findings were part of a study conducted by researchers at Queen's University, who were looking at changes in the prevalence of three classes of obesity in this country.

They found that between 1990 and 2003, the prevalence of those falling into the class III category of obesity – those with a body mass index of 40 or greater – rose to 1.3 per cent, from 0.4 per cent, an increase of 225 per cent.

That trend, they said, mirrored a similar move south of the border, where the prevalence of class III obesity soared 175 per cent.

Canada: 225%
USA: 175%

Wait, I thought it was the Big Mac scarfing, SUV driving, reality show watching couch potatoes in the U. S. of A. who were slapping on the lard?

How can the compassionate, fully insured, fully disarmed Canadians be outperforming the Yanks?

Re obesity, see earlier post on South Korea. And for the whole bleedin' world, see this post. (The Maltese and Malians and Mexicans and Jordanians are fat too? I bet it is still the Americans' fault.)

Shocking news

2006-01-17T08:07:00.000+02:00

The Toronto Globe and Mail has endorsed the Conservative Party!

Full details at the New Sisyphus.

I don't know how long it has been, but it has been quite a while since the de facto mouthpiece of the Grits has endorsed the Tories. The rotten stench of Liberal corruption must really be thick in Ontario.

The election is 23rd Jan.

Quote for the day

2006-01-17T07:59:00.000+02:00

If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if you enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.

(n.b. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian minister hanged by the Nazis in 1945 for helping Jews and for his involvement in the plot to kill Hitler)

- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968)
American pastor, civil rights leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner

Kyoto greenhouse gas wheeze

2006-01-17T07:50:00.000+02:00

Hypocrisy? Bite your tongue! Only the morally superior sign Kyoto...

Rob Lyons in Spiked Online:

One of the many strange things about the Kyoto protocol is that its biggest defenders are also its biggest breachers...

Canadian prime minister Paul Martin said in his speech to open the talks at Montreal: 'The time is past to pretend that any nation can stand alone, isolated from the global community, for there is but one Earth and we share it, and there can be no hiding on any island, in any city, within any country, no matter how prosperous, from the consequences of inaction.'

Canada, bound by the treaty to achieve a six per cent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, is currently producing 24 per cent more emissions than in 1990.

The treaty demands that global emissions of six greenhouse gases fall by 5.2 per cent compared with 1990 levels over the period from 2008-2012. Yet its biggest supporters are failing miserably in this effort. Emissions for the EU are supposed to fall by eight per cent but the 15 longest-standing members of the Union will manage cuts of only 2.5 per cent by 2012.

What is Canadian PM Paul Martin saying? That the only important thing to do is sign Kyoto... implementation is optional?

Lyons again: "The Kyoto process is not dead, but it may be in a permanent vegetative state."

Isn't that a perfect example of hypocrisy?

Paragon of virtue insulted

2006-01-06T05:29:00.000+02:00

Iran doesn't need any goody-two-shoes UN busybodies telling it when it can or can't make bombs. No matter how loudly their good-conduct medals may clank and clatter.

From the New York Times:

A defiant Iran rebuffed the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday, failing to show up for a meeting to discuss Tehran's plans to move closer to uranium enrichment within days.
Diplomats close to the agency described the move as unusual and suggested it was at least partly triggered by criticism of Tehran by agency head Mohamed ElBaradei during a Wednesday meeting with Iranian envoys.
One of the diplomats said the Iranians appeared taken aback by the firmness of ElBaradei's demands for more cooperation in his agency's investigation of Tehran's nuclear activities...
But a diplomat accredited to the agency said the IAEA appeared resigned to not getting the details it had asked for before Monday. He cited ElBaradei as saying he did not expect the high-ranking Iranian delegation to ask for a new appointment.
Agency officials said the delegation, led by Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was en route to Tehran by Thursday afternoon...
European powers had hoped that a briefing by IAEA officials would help them determine whether to go ahead with planned talks with Iranian officials in Vienna on Jan. 18 or to cancel them and have Tehran referred to the Security Council. (Note to EuroWeenies: What, it isn't clear yet? If the other party doesn't show, consider them cancelled... Where's the mystery? What do you need, a freakin' diagram? Jeez... - ed.)

(Emphasis added.)

Please note that there is one phrase missing from this article, which is replete with references to ElBaradei and the IAEA.

This little phrase is present, without exception, in any recent article regarding either ElBaradei or the IAEA.

That phrase is 'Nobel Peace Prize-winning.'

Yes, for their good works, Mr ElBaradei and his IAEA won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Could this glaring omission be because the Persians just took a rod to the ineffectual international bureacracy and beat it like a redheaded stepchild? Then made water on the IAEA quivering toadies and snorted with derision?

Or is it just an oversight by the New York Times? (We know how cavalier that the Grey Lady has been with the facts in recent years. Isn't that right, Howell?)

Quote for the day

2006-01-06T05:21:00.000+02:00

Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.

- Jean-Francois Revel (1924 - )
French author and philosopher

Dubya's great-great^4096 grandfather is to blame, naturally

2006-01-05T08:43:00.000+02:00

There is a certain spin on this new study which seems to beg - nay! entreat, importune, implore, plead, beseech - a certain question:

A new study has revealed that an extraordinary burst of global warming that took place around 55 million years ago dramatically reversed the world's pattern of ocean currents, adding weight to modern concerns over climate change.

The research, produced by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, showed how global warming caused by greenhouse gases can quickly disrupt ocean processes and lead to drastic changes.

The Palaeocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which occurred 55 million years ago, saw the planet's surface temperature rise by between five and eight degrees Celsius in a very short time, unleashing climate shifts that lasted tens of thousands of years.

The study appears in the respected British journal Nature, and comes after research published in November suggested that global warming is slowing the Atlantic current, giving western Europe its mild climate.

The question is: How many fat Americans were driving SUVs and launching wars for oil... 55 million years ago?

European 'social' 'model' creates no jobs... but plenty of misery and immigration

2006-01-05T07:04:00.000+02:00

Schadenfreude alert:

Germans are leaving their country in record numbers but unlike previous waves of migrants who fled 19th century poverty or 1930s Nazi terror, these modern day refugees are trying to escape a new scourge -- unemployment...

High unemployment that lingers at levels of more than 20 percent in some parts of Germany and dim prospects for any improvement are the key factors behind the migration. In the 15 years since German unification more than 1.8 million Germans have left...

According to the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden, the 150,667 Germans who left last year went to 200 countries -- the United States was the top destination with 12,976, following by Switzerland (12,818), Austria (8,532) and Britain (7,842.)...

"There are actually far more Germans moving abroad than the numbers reflected in the official statistics," said Klaus Bade, a University of Osnabrueck professor who studies migration.
"The poor chance of finding jobs at home is the main reason they're leaving," Bade told Stern magazine in a cover story that gave Germans useful tips on how to emigrate.

It's a remarkable change of fortune for Germany, which thanks to the post-war "Economic Miracle" of the 1950s and 1960s was a magnet for millions of foreigners who trekked there from Turkey, Italy and other poor countries in search of jobs.

The main exodus from Germany has been from its formerly communist East, which has been depressed and contracting since just after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The East's population has shrunk to 14.7 million from 16 million since 1990.

(Emphasis added.)

Hey, even corrupt, thrice-divorced hair-dyer Gerd is doing it. (And he gets the added bonus of forcing poor Ukrainian untermenschen pensioners to freeze to death whilst raking in millions of Russian petro-dollar dosh.)

Don't forget: the German population was already shrinking before this latest tidbit.

And loyal readers won't be able to say that they never saw it coming. It is not big news. This trend has been gathering pace. And we know why.

The Jerries aren't alone though...

Remember the House of Orange! (The Dutchies are fleeing the Netherlands, too, but at least in Holland, you can find a job if you are not a lazy dole-addicted slob.)

Quote for the day

2005-12-28T15:35:00.000+02:00

If a working class Englishman saw a bloke drive past in a Rolls-Royce, he'd say to himself 'Come the social revolution and we'll take that away from you, mate'. Whereas if his American counterpart saw a bloke drive past in a Cadillac he'd say 'One day I'm going to own one of those'. To my way of thinking the first attitude is wrong. The latter is right.

- Kerry Packer (1937 - 2005)
Australian businessman

More sexcapades from our sophisticated, compassionate, betters at the UN

2005-12-15T04:53:00.000+02:00

Remember Carina Perelli?

Sacked!

UN Chief Fired Over Sexual Harassment Charges

UN's electoral chief Carina Perelli was fired over sexual harassment and authority abuse charges on Tuesday.

UN Undersecretary-General Christopher Burnham handed 48-year-old Perelli a letter of dismissal in the morning.

According to the letter she was dismissed due to "serious misconduct" and conduct "inconsistent with the standards of conduct expected of international civil servants."

An internal investigation had shown that Perelli had been "engaged in sexual and professional harassment" of her staff and that she had abused her authority as a manager.

Perelli said that she would appeal the dismissal, because the accusations were wrongful.

Misconduct, yes. Inconsistent with UN standards, no.

Early this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers (the 'Rude Lover') was given a choice between resignation or the sack, for his serial sexual harassment. He resigned.

Or how about the globe-spanning saga of Blue Helmets & Purple Helmets, chronicling the exploits of our Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning UN Peacekeepers, including running prostitution rings, gang-rape of 12-year-olds, offering food for sex with starving children, and so on, in every location where the UN has a peacekeeping operation.

Sounds awful bleeding 'consistent with UN standards' to me. Disgustingly so.

We don't need no steenking cognitive dissonance!

2005-12-14T05:31:00.000+02:00

Nick Cohen gets off to a rousing start in the current issue of New Statesman, the top left-wing journal in Britain:

Before you go to a left-wing meeting, brace yourself for the likelihood that everyone you meet in the hall will be standing on their head. Do not be surprised to see communists supporting fascism, feminists throwing their arms around misogynists and liberals volunteering to be advocates for tyranny. It's been like this since 9/11 turned the world upside down, and the temptation for a journalist is to play the cynical reporter and pretend to be unshockable. I try my best to be a hard man, but the shocks keep on coming.

Read the whole thing.

Quote for the day

2005-10-28T17:23:00.000+02:00

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

- C. S. Lewis (1868 - 1963)
Irish author and educator

Pensions train wreck still approaching

2005-10-28T10:45:00.000+02:00

From today's Financial Times:

Germany's government-in-waiting is considering a proposal to increase the statutory retirement age to 67 from 65, in a move that, if agreed, could send a reform signal across Europe but would stir a backlash from welfare and pensioners' groups in Germany.

"Stir a backlash"? Lieber Gott! There is some understatement!

What happened in Italy the last time pension reform was attempted?

General Strike!

In 2003, Berlusconi's government

propose[d] raising the official retirement age by several years from 57 to 65 for men and to 60 for women.

In response, Italy's three major unions called for a general strike... which shut down most airline and train service, public transportation as well as schools. Even fans of one of Italy's most beloved pastimes, opera, were inconvenienced when Rome's famous La Scala opera house was closed due to the strike.

Berlusconi's first government was toppled in 1994, when his attempts to take on the issue were met with popular unrest.

The result: reform only at the margins. Pensions catastrophe still looms in Italy.

What happened in Austria in 2003?

General Strike!

Key aims of the [proposed Austrian pensions] reforms:

Raising the retirement age to 65 years; at present, most Austrian men retire at 59 and women at 57
Slashing some pension payments by more than 30%, because the reforms would calculate the monthly sum by taking an average of contributions over 40 years and not only the 15 last, or most lucrative, years

Fully one-quarter of Austria's voters took to the streets in mass demonstations. The zeal of even the stoutest reform-minded politician must surely have quailed at that level turnout. It was the first General Strike in Austria since the Second World War.

The result? Reform only at the margins. Pensions catastrophe still looms in Austria.

What happened in Belgium just this month at mooted pension reforms?

General Strike!

Belgian workers began their first general strike in more than a decade... disrupting schools, transport, government services and shops to protest against government plans to increase the retirement age.

The 24-hour strike halted the high-speed Eurostar service from London and the Thalys connection from Paris to Brussels, home to the European Commission headquarters and EU agencies.

The government wants to raise the retirement age to 60 years from 58 years, saying the country has to pay for its increasing and aging population and has support from its liberal socialist coalition partners for the proposal...

Strikers also picketed entrances to factories and offices, including a Ford car plant in Genk, east Belgium. Antwerp, one of Europe's biggest ports, was shut for business as dockers refused to work...

The result? It remains to be seen. A larger strike may follow shortly if the unions do not get their way.

Back in the Federal Republic of Germany, who knows what will happen?

One salient fact to keep in mind:

General strikes are deemed unlawful in the Federal Republic. An exception to this principle is the case where, exercising the right of resistance enshrined in the Basic Law , a general strike is used as a means of upholding or restoring the law.

(Emphasis added.)

I would wager a large sum that a GeneralStreik would be considered seriously by the parties of the left and their union paymasters. After all the talk about the European / Rhineland 'Social' 'Model', I am sure the rationalisation would be made that the strike was not illegal.

Rather it would be recast as 'justified resistance' to Muntefering's 'bloodsuckers' and 'capitalist 'locusts'. The aim? To 'uphold' and 'restore' European norms.

Kofi once again covers for a tyrant, once again incompetently

2005-10-25T10:32:00.000+02:00

The UN never fails to meet expectations. Still thoroughly corrupt and

The Times of London reports on the UN's latest bumbling attempt to cover for a Middle Eastern tyrant:

THE United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday.
The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.

The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.

(Emphasis added.)

Let's look on the bright side: Kofi is still trying to protect serial human rights abusers who deny democracy to their people, but at least he doesn't do a very good job at it.

Let's hope the greasy-palmed bureaucrats (who pay no taxes!) and their blue-helmeted Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning gang-raping UN peacekeeper henchmen never up their game and become more effective at running interference for dictators.

Back to the Times report:

Mr Annan had pledged repeatedly through his chief spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, that he would not change a word of the report by Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor.

But computer tracking showed that the final edit began at about 11.38am on Thursday — a minute after Herr Mehlis began a meeting with Mr Annan to present his report.

The names of Maher al-Assad, General Shawkat and the others were apparently removed at 11.55am, after the meeting ended.

The BBC has more.

MidEastWeb has a helpful display of the edits:

One witness of Syrian origin but resident in Lebanon, who claims to have worked for the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon, has stated that approximately two weeks after the adoption of Security Council resolution 1559, ~~Maher Assad, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleyman and Jamil Al-Sayyed~~ senior Lebanese and Syrian officials decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri. He claimed that ~~Sayyed~~ a senior Lebanese security official went several times to Syria to plan the crime, meeting once at the Meridian Hotel in Damascus and several times at the Presidential Place and the office of ~~Shawkat~~ a senior Syrian security official. The last meeting was held in the house of ~~Shawkat~~ the same senior Syrian security official approximately seven to 10 days before the assassination and included ~~Mustapha Hamdan~~ another senior Lebanese security official. The witness had close contact with high ranked Syrian officers posted in Lebanon.

Quote for the day

2005-10-23T17:14:00.000+02:00

A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.

- Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
English poet

Bzzzt! Wrong answer.

2005-10-23T16:20:00.000+02:00

Petty corruption on display in Bulgaria. Almost a case of Chekhov's 'laughter through tears'.

Bulgarian Officers "Stole" US Ambassador's Phone

Two border officers from Varna airport were arrested Sunday, for stealing the cell phone of the United States Ambassador to Bulgaria John Beyrle.

The ambassador was flying from Varna to Hungary Friday morning, when he forgot his cell phone at the conveyer where hand luggage is x-rayed. He did not realize his phone was missing until after his plane took off.

A search was commissioned immediately but when asked, all border officers claimed that they hadn't found a phone.

The high-tech gadget was equipped with a global positioning system, however and it helped locating it in the pocket of one of the two officers who were monitoring the x-ray belt. They had thrown away the SIM card and kept the expensive device.

The two claimed that they wouldn't have taken the phone if they knew it was property of the ambassador, Trud daily newspaper reported.

The culprits are now under arrest in Varna, facing malpractice and theft charges. They will be fired, officials announced, and their superiors will also be penalized for the lack of control and bad organization.

(Emphasis added.)

Stopgap

2005-10-09T20:59:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the long lag in postings. I have been alive, but I have been travelling and busy and so forth and so on.

Now I have posted again.

More to come, I hope.

Quote for the day

2005-10-09T20:46:00.000+02:00

If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

- Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
British statesman and author

Another UN scandal uncovered (but $1 mln is small beer for UN bureaucrats)

2005-08-31T18:36:00.000+02:00

The United Nations ought to be renamed 'Old Faithful,' as you can always rely on them to provide sterling examples of corruption:

UNDP Office Snared in Fraud Probe By Anna Smolchenko

An internal UN investigation has uncovered a case of long-running fraud in the Moscow office of the United Nations Development Program that may have cost the organization $1.2 million.

UNDP auditors believe a group of staff members stole funds by forging contracts, tender documents, invoices and payment orders over a four-year period, the UNDP said Tuesday.

"The investigation is ongoing, but a preliminary accounting suggests that about $1.2 million in UNDP project funds was stolen between 2000 and 2004," said a UNDP spokesman. "The culprits are believed to be a group of staff members who worked in the office's operations division. All the suspects were local staff who left UNDP before the theft was discovered."

Stefan Vassilev, the head of the UNDP's Russia office since 2003, has been suspended from his duties until the probe is complete. Bulgarian-born Vassilev has been questioned as a witness in the investigation, said a UN source familiar with the situation.

Neither Vassilev nor his deputy, acting head Kaarina Immonen, was available for comment on Tuesday.

About 40 people work in the UNDP's Moscow office, six in the operations division, which deals with financial issues.

Since opening in 1997, the office has channeled more than $56 million into projects promoting democracy, poverty reduction and economic development.

Nobody has been fired as a result of the investigation, said Victoria Zotikova, UNDP spokeswoman in Russia.

Tatyana Gorlach, the head of the operations division and a longtime employee in the Russia office, quit in April before the probe began, Zotikova said. Several other employees have also left, she said, without elaborating.

There are four suspects, all of them local staff, said the UN source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.

The Russian government has responded "positively" to a request for assistance from national law enforcement agencies, the UNDP said, and the City Prosecutor's Office is cooperating with the investigation.

A spokesman for the city police said he knew nothing about the UNDP investigation. The prosecutor's office could not be reached for comment.

"This appears to be a sophisticated operation that has been difficult to detect," said William Orme, UNDP spokesman in New York. "Unfortunately, we detected it only this year."

Zotikova said the probe was expected to be completed in a month. Internal audits are carried out regularly, she said.

The problem of missing cash plagues the United Nations. More than $300 million in UN funds has been wasted or stolen in the past 10 years, according to the UN's internal watchdog.

In one well-known case, a senior member of the UN Mission in Kosovo embezzled $4.3 million, which he transferred to a bank account in Gibraltar. He was later arrested and sentenced to 3 1/2-years in prison by a German court.

Over the past seven years, the UNDP has spent $56 million on Russian projects. Zotikova said $18 million was spent in 2004 alone. Last year, the organization began a program to boost the economy of the North Caucasus.

Zotikova said that the Moscow office was expected to get a new head, as Vassilev was not returning.

(Emphasis added.)

Yes, '(t)he problem of missing cash plagues the United Nations,' indeed. (Not to mention the problems of gang rape and pedophilia.)

So, what does the UN want? The same things that it always wants... more money and more power!

Kemal Derviş, in his first press briefing as the new Administrator of UNDP, argued for more funding for development as well as greater aid effectiveness... (16 August 2005)

What is Turkish for chutzpah? Well, sure, they want some more money. They are US$1.2 million short in Russia!

According to its own website, the 'UNDP helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively.'

Has the UNDP used its funds for aid effectively?

(Rhetorical question alert.) Or has it merely been funneled this aid into the Grand Cayman accounts of its much-deserving, tireless, caring UN employees, instead of helping the causes of poverty reduction and human rights in Russia?

Those paragons of selfless humanity- let's put our treasure, our lives, indeed our national security in their hands.

Cover your bruises, ladies!

2005-08-28T16:43:00.000+02:00

A dose of atypical fare, here are the rules at the Moscow Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club:

Dancers are forbidden:

to drink to drunkenness

to walk around the club with a cigarette, food, etc.

to walk around undressed

to chew gum and leave it on chairs

to wear street clothes

to argue with guests

to receive a massage from a guest

to discuss relationships with guests and co-workers

to exchange phone numbers with guests

Dancers must:

always have a toothbrush and breath mints

always wear heels, even if not dancing

arrive 30 minutes before their shift

fix hair and makeup after each private dance

tip the DJ

Attention dancers! We all know you're beautiful, but these are the rules:

Wash and style your hair before each show

Make regular appointments with the stylist

Use body lotion, deodorant and perfume

Get regular manicures and pedicures. Your heels should be as soft as a child's

Pluck your eyebrows

Make sure all tattoos and bruises are covered

Keep your legs and underarms bare (shaved)

Keep all intimate areas bare (shaved) except for a vertical stripe

Between acts, use wet napkins regularly

You may not leave the club without the manager's approval

No boyfriends, husbands, fathers or uncles

When a customer enters the club:

Approach him, offer a dance, converse, get acquainted, have him buy you a drink

If, after 5 songs, there is no result, you politely excuse yourself

You must endeavor to get a guest to go to the private booth

Damn interesting material from Property Magazine of Moscow (an Impress Media publication), which carried an interview with the manager of the Moscow club.

Quote for the day

2005-08-28T16:11:00.000+02:00

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

- Gautama Buddha (c. 563 BC - c. 483)
Nepalese philosopher

Japan's population already shrinking

2005-08-25T19:05:00.000+02:00

From the Financial Times yesterday comes further news of the industrialised world's pending demographic train wreck:

Number of Japanese falls ahead of expectations
By David Pilling in Tokyo

Deaths exceeded births in Japan by 31,000 in the first six months of this year, raising the prospect the number of people in the world's second biggest economy has started shrinking two years earlier than expected.

In the six months to June, the Health Ministry reported that the number of deaths totalled 568,671 against 537,637 births.

The ministry also said it was possible the full-year figure could fall. That would be two years before the population had been expected to peak, at 127m, in 2007.

Excluding the war years, when Japan suspended its population census, this was the first decline since records began. If current trends continue, the population will shrink for the rest of the century, with the severest estimates suggesting it could drop to 45m by 2100. The problems that a declining population may pose for Japan's pension system, tax base and labour market are emerging as an important theme of next month's general election. Immigration is negligible in Japan.

In an interview with the FT, Heizo Takenaka, economy minister, said changing demographics was Japan's biggest challenge.

"From now on, the total population of Japan will start falling," he said. "That means if we don't create a system in which the private sector can carry more responsibility, the burden on taxpayers and on the state will become unsustainable.

"Mr Takenaka, who is also minister for postal reform, said privatising the post office, the world's biggest financial institution, was a litmus test for whether Japan's citizens understood the urgency of the challenge.

"This is a choice between big and small government," he said, adding that in decisive moments of its history, such as after the war and following the oil shocks of the 1970s, Japan had shown a remarkable ability to embrace swift change.

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan has also stressed the population issue, saying a declining labour force that needs to support ever greater numbers of retirees will necessitate a root-and-branch overhaul of pension provision.

In its manifesto, the party proposes simplifying the pension system by merging several public schemes. It would also raise consumption tax - probably by three points to 8 per cent - to help pay for retired people. It is also proposing big cuts to state spending, particularly on public works.

The DPJ specifically addresses the task of encouraging couples to have more children. In parts of Tokyo, the birth rate has dropped to 0.7 children per woman, against 2.1 needed to maintain the population.

The opposition party is proposing a substantial increase in payments to families with children, regardless of income. It is also promising to improve funding for childcare, the scarcity of which is seen as a big obstacle to increasing births.

Last year, the number of Japanese men shrank for the first time, presaging a fall in the population as a whole.

(Emphasis added.)

You see, the Japanese were already expecting the population to shrink. It is merely shrinking earlier than expected.

Never mind Japan, the world's second largest economy...

Germany's population is already shrinking.

Russia's population is already shrinking, as well.

China, Italy, and Spain are facing similar issues. That is 3 of the 6 largest European economies, and the two largest Asian economies, and Russia... Russia will be big and empty, with not even enough troops to guard its massive borders with China and the Middle East.

Even the Middle East faces some demographic challenges.

The effects on pensions systems, tax structures, interest rates, property values, and share values cannot be underestimated.

Greed hurts

2005-08-09T20:53:00.000+02:00

The Economist sums it up:

FOR over a year, investigators have pored over questions of mismanagement and corruption at the United Nations. On Monday August 8th, they produced their firmest—and most painful—conclusions to date. An independent commission has found that Benon Sevan, the former head of the UN’s oil-for-food programme in Iraq, “corruptly benefited” from kickbacks while he was in charge. Another UN official, from the procurement office, is accused of soliciting bribes. The UN’s biggest-ever humanitarian undertaking seems to have become its biggest-ever scandal...

So Mr Bolton’s arrival and the mutual acrimony over oil-for-food mean tense times between the UN and its most powerful member—all the more so given that this comes just before the world body is set to consider proposals to keep it relevant after the war in Iraq. These include adding new permanent members to the Security Council, defining terrorism more clearly, helping the UN to react more robustly to humanitarian disasters, and more...

The exploits of Messrs Sevan, Yakovlev and others may have done more than just a terrible disservice to the wretched people of Iraq they were paid to help.

(Emphasis added.)

Quote for the day

2005-08-09T20:03:00.000+02:00

Liberty is liberty, not equality, or justice, or culture, or human happiness or a quiet conscience.

- Isaiah Berlin (1909 – 1997)
Philosopher

Q: When is a tax not a tax? A: When it is a 'staff assessment' 'offset' by a 'post adjustment'

2005-08-09T19:42:00.000+02:00

Oh ho! Colour me shocked! It appears that UN workers do pay tax! (Not to their home countries, mind you, but to the Global Government of Good Guys itself.)

Re Benon Sevan's tax-free pay packet, there is an interesting glimpse inside the world of UN globetrotters. I refer to Footnote 14 on Page 11 of the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme's Third Interim Report (PDF link 3.6 MB file):

When promoted in early 1998 to Under-Secretary-General, Mr. Sevan's salary increased to $147,420. In lieu of taxes, a "staff assessment" of $45,290 was imposed (a 30.7% rate! Who knew? - ed.); this adjustment, however was offset by an upward "post adjustment" of $43,507.

(Emphasis added.)

I would bet my pension that UN peons (translators, drivers, security guards, receptionists, PAs, custodial workers, groundskeepers, etc., do not enjoy the benefit of 'offsetting' 'post adjustments.'

Pace Leona Helmsley, 'Only the little people pay taxes.'

And these corrupt leeches still have the impudence to constantly moot global taxes on really productive workers (viz Tobin tax among many many others).

(BTW I like 'staff assessment,' it sounds even less like 'tax' than 'service fee' does.)

Volcker smacks down Sevan request for special treatment

2005-08-09T18:14:00.000+02:00

From the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme's Third Interim Report (PDF link 3.6 MB file), page 50:

On July 27, 2005, the Committee advised Mr. Sevan through his counsel of its intent to enter an adverse finding against him, arising from his receipt of financial benefits from the oil allocations that he obtained from Iraq for AMEP (Africa Middle East Petroleum Company, a Panamanian-registered company controlled by Fakhry Abdelnour, Boutros-Ghali's cousin - ed.).

Rather than respond to the Committee's finding, Mr. Sevan requested an opportunity to review the evidence upon which it is based. The Committee declined this request because of Mr. Sevan's refusal to be interviewed by the Committee about this new evidence.

Mr. Sevan stated a willingness only to answer written questions, but not to answer questions in an interview.134 This is inconsistent with the obligation of Mr. Sevan and all United Nations staff to "cooperate fully" with the Committee's investigation.

No other United Nations official employee - including the Secretary-General, who has been interviewd seven times - has been afforded the option of answering questions in writing rather than by interview.

In the Committee's view, Mr. Sevan does not warrant a special exception.

(Emphasis added.)

Benon Sevan is a crooked bastard

2005-08-09T17:55:00.000+02:00

The London Times reports some very interesting tidbits about Benon Sevan:

...The investigation of the Oil-for-Food scandal, chaired by Paul Volcker, blamed Mr Sevan’s “precarious personal financial condition” yesterday for his decision to accept almost $150,000 (£84,000) in 1998 and 2002.

Mr Sevan earned $129,524 (£72,600) (all tax-free! -ed.) when he took over the Oil-For-Food programme in 1997. His wife, Micheline, made $69,243 (£38,800) (also tax-free! -ed.) as an assistant at the UN’s department of economic and social affairs. The couple owned a house in Long Island, rented a flat in Manhattan and had savings of less than $5,000 in their New York bank accounts.

But in 1996 Mr Sevan bought shares worth $180,000 using money from an equity line of credit and taking a cash advance on his credit card. His investment lost more than half of its value, partly because of a stock fraud that led to the conviction of four brokers. From December 1996 to October 1998, Mr Sevan’s bank account was overdrawn 45 times and his wife’s account was in the red 153 times.

A Cypriot-Armenian, Mr Sevan is in Cyprus, which does not extradite its citizens. Mr Sevan’s mother, Verginia, was a teenager when she gave birth out of wedlock. She was cast out by her family and his father is understood to have refused to recognise him.

Mr Sevan maintains his innocence and claims to have received $160,000 in cash gifts from an aunt, Berdjouhi Zeitountsian, a retired civil servant. She died last year aged 84 after falling down a lift shaft.

(Emphasis added.)

And a very timely topple it was for little Benon, too. Investigators were seeking to question her regarding where a retired government photographer who lived in a modest flat was getting that much money to splash about.

Benon Sevan and his wife were taking home US$200,ooo per year (equivalent to over US$300,ooo for commoners), and still couldn't balance their accounts.

Whatever could they do to make up their losses on risky shares, and maintain their jet-set diplomat lifestyles? Steal from hungry Iraqis, that's what.

And no, that is not hyperbole. In the UN's own words (from CNN backgrounder):

Following the Persian Gulf War, then-U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar sent a mission to Iraq and Kuwait to look into humanitarian needs.

The U.N. mission found Iraqis were on the verge of “imminent catastrophe, which could include epidemic and famine.” In response to the report, the United Nations proposed measures in 1991 to enable Iraq to sell oil in return for humanitarian goods such as food, medicine and supplies.

Sevan was stealing money from hungry, sick, needy Iraqis.

So now you see why this post is titled as it is.

Baksheesh for Boutros^2

2005-08-09T17:38:00.000+02:00

From the Washington Post another Secretary-General's name pops up repeatedly:

Volcker accused Sevan in a February report of engaging in a "grave conflict of interest" by asking senior Iraqi officials to give business to Africa Middle East Petroleum Co. (AMEP), a Panamanian-registered company controlled by Fakhry Abdelnour, Boutros-Ghali's cousin. AMEP bought 7.3 million barrels of Iraqi oil from 1998 to 2001 and sold them for more than $1.5 million in profit.

Monday's report accused Sevan of accepting cash from Abdelnour and Boutros-Ghali's brother-in-law, Efraim "Fred" Nadler, an officer at the company.

(Emphasis added.)

Boutros Boutros-Ghali is Kofi Annan's predecessor as UN Secretary-General. Both of these fine humanitarians seem to have family members with sticky fingers.

The obvious question is, did Boutros² get a cut? Volcker promises to address (but not necessarily answer) that question in the forthcoming Comprehensive Report.

BTW, the only other Arab I know with a repetitive name like Boutros² is Sirhan².

Glasnost in Oil for Food makes heads roll

2005-08-09T06:12:00.000+02:00

According to the AP, a top UN official has resigned and already 'fessed up:

Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian, also pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and money laundering for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors in his work outside oil-for-food. He could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the three counts in the indictment.

(Emphasis added.)

The UN had removed his diplomatic immunity, making him answerable to charges. He had resigned in June.

What the AP article neglects to tell us is a bit more of Mr Yakovlev's CV:

former ambassador to Canada

one of Mikhail Gorbachev's closest aides and most senior advisors

architect of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union

He is best known for his long association with Mihail Gorbachev, of course.

Wouldn't want to bring Mr Gorbachev's name into the tawdry Oil-for-Food-and-Weapons-and Palaces scandal, would we?

Update: Oops, it is not the same guy. They just have the same name. I apologise for my error. In further research, it seems that Perestroika dude is 80-something and UN Bribe guy is 50-something.

As the Japanese say, even monkeys fall from trees.

Mea culpa.

Home schooling with the siloviki

2005-08-08T18:17:00.000+02:00

I thought that home schooling was just for those slack-jawed creationist yokels in the backwoods of Alabama... but guess who else decided not to leave his progeny to the tender mercies of government-run schools?

From The Moscow Times:

President Vladimir Putin's two daughters have both been admitted to St. Petersburg State University, where their father once studied, national newspapers reported last week.

Katya, 19, will study Japanese history in the Oriental Studies department, while Masha, 20, will study in the department of biology and soil science, the reports said. Putin's daughters had been privately tutored at home.

(Emphasis added.)

Quote for the day

2005-08-07T15:56:00.000+02:00

A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.

- Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)
American poet

Casper's revenge

2005-08-07T15:47:00.000+02:00

Making fools of the toffy-nosed, empty-headed leftist poseurs of the BBC isn't much of a challenge. They make it so easy, but then again, they do so deserve it.

Note the earlier post on the non-existent, nay, 'phantom' Al-Qaeda threat, ginned up by the neocons and nefarious Bush and Blair governments to quash all freedom and control the populace through a state of fear.

From the Washington Times:

Two senior al Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia made money transfers and used coded text messages to communicate with suspected terrorists in Britain in the months before the July attacks in London, according to security officials in the kingdom...

Younis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari, al Qaeda's purported leader in Saudi Arabia, was killed in Riyadh three weeks ago, and Abdel Karim al-Mejati died in a shootout in the central Al-Qassim region in April.

Security officials in Saudi Arabia suspect both men of involvement in the attacks on London on July 7 and 21 and say they have established that al Qaeda is operating in Britain.

"It's beyond doubt they're active in your country," said one security official in Riyadh. The deaths of al-Hayari and al-Mejati had severely disrupted al Qaeda's base in Saudi Arabia, Saudi officials said.

Money transfers are understood to have been made from Saudi Arabia to Britain in the first six months of this year through businesses in the two countries...

Scotland Yard is now investigating who received the messages and money from Saudi Arabia. The suicide bombings of July 7 left 52 victims dead and more than 700 injured, while the second bombs planned for July 21 failed to detonate.

(Emphasis added.)

I continue to make fools of the BBC only because the BBC, which broadcasts lies to the entire UK populace even as it extorts £126.50 from each UK household every year, takes us for fools.

'This is True' exposes PETA's true colours

2005-07-23T14:54:00.000+02:00

The following story is from This is True dated 17 July 2005. It is
Copyright 2005 Randy Cassingham, all rights reserved, and reprinted here with permission:

"Ethical" Defined
After more than 100 dead dogs were dumped in a trash dumpster over four weeks, police in Ahoskie, N.C., kept an eye on the trash receptacle behind a supermarket. Sure enough, a van drove up and officers watched the occupants throw in heavy plastic bags. They detained the two people in the van and found 18 dead dogs in plastic bags in the dumpster, including puppies; 13 more dead dogs were still in the van. Police say the van is registered to the headquarters of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, and the two occupants, Andrew B. Cook, 24, and Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, identified themselves as PETA employees. An autopsy performed on one of the dogs found it was healthy before it was killed. Police say PETA has been picking up the animals -- alive -- from North Carolina animal shelters, promising to find them good homes. Cook and Hinkle have been charged with 62 felony counts of animal cruelty. In response to the arrests PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said it's against the group's policy for employees to dump animals in the trash, but "that
for some animals in North Carolina, there is no kinder option than euthanasia." (Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald) ...Oops, my mistake: that's"Playing God" Defined.

In his author's notes section, Cassingham had more to say about this
story:

The more I learn about PETA, the less I think of them. The story of them killing animals isn't even unusual. According to PETA's own filings, in 2004 PETA killed 86.3 percent of the animals entrusted to its care -- a number that's rising, not falling. Meanwhile, the SPCA in PETA's home town (Norfolk, Va.) was able to find loving homes for 73 percent of the animals put in its care. A shortage of funds? Nope: last year PETA took in $29 million in tax-exempt donations. It simply has other priorities for the funds, like funding terrorism (yes, really). But don't take my word for it: I got my figures from http://www.PETAkillsAnimals.com
-- and they have copies of PETA's state and federal filings to back it up. The bottom line: if you donate money to PETA because you think they care for and about animals, you need to think some more. PETA literally yells and screams about how others "kill animals" but this is how they operate? Pathetic.

And you know what I wonder? PETA's official count of animals they kill is 86.3 percent. But if they're going around picking up animals, killing them while they drive around and not even giving them a chance to be adopted, and then destroying the evidence by dumping the bodies in the trash, are those deaths being reported? My guess: no. While 86.3 percent is awful, the actual number is probably much, much higher. How dare they lecture anyone about the "ethical" treatment of animals!

(This is True is a weekly column featuring weird-but-true news stories from around the world, and has been published since 1994. Click the link for info about free subscriptions.)

(Emphasis in original.)

Who says that the animal lovers at PETA have no sense of humour? They dumped the carcasses (on Wednesday nights over 4 successive weeks, those Einsteins) at a supermarket that goes by the name Piggly Wiggly!

Further items in the press on this mostly ignored story:

Local News

CBS News

The Associated Press

The Washington Times

Fox News

Strangely, CNN had a story but it seems to have disappeared. The Google cache retrieves it for us.

It seems as though the PETA (death camp) workers had digital cameras and illegal drugs with them when caught red-handed in their Mystery Machine!

Glad I am not their defence attorney.

I am not required to be. Nor do I wish to be.

The BBC blames Casper the Friendly Ghost for bombings

2005-07-17T17:11:00.000+02:00

The BBC now tells us that terrorists did not undertake the terrorist suicide bombing of dozens of commuters on the Tube and No. 30 bus in London on 7/7. Mustn't use loaded, judgmental words! They were 'bombers' or 'misguided criminals.'

But how does Auntie Beeb square that with its (until very recently) much-touted, award-winning, January 2005 'documentary' telling the TV licence paying public in the UK, that terrorist conspiracies do not exist?

In January 2005, the BBC's 'flagship' Panorama broadcast a three-part documentary by Adam Curtis entitled 'The Power of Nightmares.' I will let the BBC's own website tell us, in its own words, what the thesis is:

The BBC Two series questioned whether the threat of terrorism to the West was a politically-driven fantasy, winning a Bafta TV award among other prizes.

The Power of Nightmares

Part One:
...In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media. At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists...

Part Two:
...Both the neo-conservatives and the Islamists believed that it is they who defeated the "evil empire" and now had the power to transform the world. But both failed in their revolutions. In response, the neo-conservatives invented a new fantasy enemy, Bill Clinton, focusing on the scandal surrounding him and Monica Lewinsky. Meanwhile, the Islamists descend into a desperate cycle of violence and terror to try to persuade the people to follow them. Out of all this comes the seeds of the strange world of fantasy, deception, violence and fear in which we now live...

Part Three: ...Wherever one looks for this al-Qaeda organisation, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the "sleeper cells" in America, the British and Americans are chasing a phantom enemy. But the reason that no-one questions the illusion is because this nightmare enemy gives so many groups new power and influence in a cynical age - and not just politicians...

(Emphasis added.)

And of course, the movie version of 'The Power of Nightmares' was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. To wild acclaim, I do not doubt.

Reports from intelligence agencies indicate that the four London ~~bombers~~ bloodythirty terrorists were in contact with a known Al Qaeda recruiter in New York and other operatives in Pakistan.

Tell us, Jon Snow; tell us, Huw Edwards; tell us, John Simpson; tell us, Natasha Kaplinsky; tell us David Dimbleby; tell us, Jeremy Paxman; tell us, Lyse Doucet:
What 'myth' bombed the Tube? Which 'phantom' blasted Bus No. 30?

Is it your position that noted neocon Richard Perle was captured on CCTV with an explosives-laden rucksack?

UK residents, your annual TV licence (UK£126.50 / US$ 220 every year) pays for the moral idiots of Auntie Beeb to look down their toffy noses at you as they feed you lies, lies that can and do indeed take innocent lives of your fellows.

Well, you meretricious saps in White City, your 'phantoms' just claimed the lives of 50+ civilians in London.

How do you arrest a ghost?

Update: Australia's SBS had been scheduled to rebroadcast 'The Power of Nightmares' for rebroadcast this past week, but yanked it without notice or explanation to rebroadcast a World War II history programme. I wonder why?
(Link; HT: Tim Blair)

Update 2: From the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik:

One early casualty, for instance, was “The Power of Nightmares,” an influential three-part BBC series that argued that Al Qaeda does not exist, except as a kind of collective hallucination on the part of American neoconservatives. This hypothesis, and, with it, the theory that the terrorist threat was manufactured or hyped, had become extremely powerful on the respectable left. To be fair, the show’s producers never argued that there were no Islamist terrorists—their argument was, instead, that there was no coördinated network of terrorists run by an old Man of the Mountain in hiding. But the popular, anti-Blair, dinner-table view had long ago become that the terrorist threat was exaggerated, or that it wasn’t immediate. That view was destroyed in a morning.

Clive Davis, too.

Thank God, reason is breaking through the clouds...

No quarter

2005-07-07T18:10:00.000+02:00

The headline I want to see splashed across the front page of tomorrow's Sun newspaper:

The Empire Strikes Back

Russia's population already shrinking

2005-07-04T05:35:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the long hiatus in posting. Lots of work, lots of travel.

Population Shrinks 0.2%

The (Russian) population dropped by 286,600 in the first four months of the year, the State Statistics Service said Thursday.

The service said in a statement that the population dropped by 0.2 percent from Jan. 1 and stood at 143.2 million as of May 1. The service said that the number of births in 76 of 89 regions decreased, while the number of deaths in 50 regions grew. The number of deaths on average exceeded the number of births by 70 percent, it said.

source: Moscow Times, Friday June 24, 2005, print version, p.2. Link for subscribers here.

Link to St. Petersburg Times mention here.

Russia's demographic collapse is notable, but the same situation obtains in many of the major economies of the West, most importantly, Germany, Japan and Italy. China, with its 'one child' policy is facing a similar situation.

Yes, that group includes the largest Asian economy and the largest European economy.

Considering long post-retirement life expectancies and generous pension payments, this unprecedented peacetime depopulation is an enormous issue that remains below the radar. The effects of this inversion of the population pyramid over the next 40 years will pose tremendous challenges to political and economic structures.

Keep an eye on it.

WaPo agrees with NoonShadow

2005-05-26T22:58:00.000+02:00

I find myself agreeing quite a lot with today's Washington Post editorial:

IT'S ALWAYS SAD when a solid, trustworthy institution loses its bearings and joins in the partisan fracas that nowadays passes for political discourse. It's particularly sad when the institution is Amnesty International, which for more than 40 years has been a tough, single-minded defender of political prisoners around the world and a scourge of left- and right-wing dictators alike. True, Amnesty continues to keep track of the world's political prisoners, as it has always done, and its reports remain a vital source of human rights information. But lately the organization has tended to save its most vitriolic condemnations not for the world's dictators but for the United States.

That vitriol reached a new level this week when, at a news conference held to mark the publication of Amnesty's annual report, the organization's secretary general, Irene Khan, called the U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the "gulag of our times."

In her written introduction to the report, Ms. Khan also mentioned only two countries at length: Sudan and the United States, the "unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power," which "thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights."

Like Amnesty, we, too, have written extensively about U.S. prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. We have done so not only because the phenomenon is disturbing in its own right but also because it gives undemocratic regimes around the world an excuse to justify their own use of torture and indefinite detention and because it damages the U.S. government's ability to promote human rights.

But we draw the line at the use of the word "gulag" or at the implication that the United States has somehow become the modern equivalent of Stalin's Soviet Union. Guantanamo Bay is an ad hoc creation, designed to contain captured enemy combatants in wartime. Abuses there -- including new evidence of desecrating the Koran -- have been investigated and discussed by the FBI, the press and, to a still limited extent, the military. The Soviet gulag, by contrast, was a massive forced labor complex consisting of thousands of concentration camps and hundreds of exile villages through which more than 20 million people passed during Stalin's lifetime and whose existence was not acknowledged until after his death. Its modern equivalent is not Guantanamo Bay, but the prisons of Cuba, where Amnesty itself says a new generation of prisoners of conscience reside; or the labor camps of North Korea, which were set up on Stalinist lines; or China's laogai , the true size of which isn't even known; or, until recently, the prisons of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Worrying about the use of a word may seem like mere semantics, but it is not. Turning a report on prisoner detention into another excuse for Bush-bashing or America-bashing undermines Amnesty's legitimate criticisms of U.S. policies and weakens the force of its investigations of prison systems in closed societies. It also gives the administration another excuse to dismiss valid objections to its policies as "hysterical."

(Emphasis added.)

AI doesn't stand for Amnesty International. It stands for Absence of Intelligence.

Amnesty points out top human rights violators

2005-05-25T22:08:00.000+02:00

Just for you, gentle readers, I waded thru Amnesty International's report (intro here in PDF).

Flipping thru the country sections (PDF link), I got a strange feeling. (I confess, I had a hint earlier when reading the BBC's headline about the report: Amnesty accuses US over 'torture')

Looking thru the individual country reports, I began feeling as if I were living in Cloudcuckooland.

So I went thru the entire thing, toting up the number of pages for each country to the nearest quarter-page. Then I rank-ordered the amount of ink spilt on each one.

How many pages did Amnesty International spend discussing the human rights violations of each country?

Here are the results:

# of pages	Country	Rank
4.00	USA	1
3.50	Iraq	3
3.50	Russia	3
3.25	China	8
3.25	Colombia	8
3.25	Israel	8
3.25	Serbia-Montenegro	8
3.25	Sudan	8
3.00	Zimbabwe	9
2.75	Brazil	16
2.75	Burundi	16
2.75	France	16
2.75	Iran	16
2.75	Liberia	16
2.75	Syria	16
2.75	Turkey	16
2.50	Bosnia Herzegovina	26
2.50	Congo - DR	26
2.50	Egypt	26
2.50	Haiti	26
2.50	Indonesia	26
2.50	Mexico	26
2.50	Romania	26
2.50	Saudi Arabia	26
2.50	UK	26
2.50	Yemen	26
2.25	Afghanistan	40
2.25	Algeria	40
2.25	Central African Republic	40
2.25	Georgia	40
2.25	India	40
2.25	Italy	40
2.25	Kenya	40
2.25	Libya	40
2.25	Myanmar	40
2.25	Nepal	40
2.25	Nigeria	40
2.25	Sierra Leone	40
2.25	South Africa	40
2.25	Spain	40
2.00	Albania	52
2.00	Angola	52
2.00	Bulgaria	52
2.00	Ethiopia	52
2.00	Greece	52
2.00	Lebanon	52
2.00	Morocco	52
2.00	Pakistan	52
2.00	Somalia	52
2.00	Switzerland	52
2.00	Tunisia	52
2.00	Uzbekistan	52
1.75	Belgium	63
1.75	Croatia	63
1.75	Eritrea	63
1.75	Korea, North	63
1.75	Macedonia	63
1.75	Malaysia	63
1.75	Mozambique	63
1.75	Palestinian Authority	63
1.75	Portugal	63
1.75	Sri Lanka	63
1.75	Turkmenistan	63
1.50	Bangladesh	84
1.50	Belarus	84
1.50	Cambodia	84
1.50	Cameroon	84
1.50	Chad	84
1.50	Chile	84
1.50	Cote d'Ivoire	84
1.50	Equatorial Guinea	84
1.50	Germany	84
1.50	Guatemala	84
1.50	Ireland	84
1.50	Laos	84
1.50	Peru	84
1.50	Philippines	84
1.50	Rwanda	84
1.50	Swaziland	84
1.50	Sweden	84
1.50	Thailand	84
1.50	Uganda	84
1.50	Ukraine	84
1.50	Vietnam	84
1.25	Armenia	102
1.25	Azerbaijan	102
1.25	Cuba	102
1.25	Czech Republic	102
1.25	El Salvador	102
1.25	Fiji	102
1.25	Honduras	102
1.25	Hungary	102
1.25	Jamaica	102
1.25	Japan	102
1.25	Korea, South	102
1.25	Kuwait	102
1.25	Malta	102
1.25	Mauritania	102
1.25	Papua New Guinea	102
1.25	Tanzania	102
1.25	Togo	102
1.25	UAE	102
1.00	Argentina	118
1.00	Australia	118
1.00	Austria	118
1.00	Bahrain	118
1.00	Congo - R	118
1.00	Guinea-Bissau	118
1.00	Guyana	118
1.00	Jordan	118
1.00	Kazakhstan	118
1.00	Maldives	118
1.00	Moldova	118
1.00	Slovakia	118
1.00	Solomon Islands	118
1.00	Timor-Leste	118
1.00	Venezuela	118
1.00	Zambia	118
0.75	Bhutan	139
0.75	Bolivia	139
0.75	Canada	139
0.75	Cyprus	139
0.75	Dominican Republic	139
0.75	Ecuador	139
0.75	Finland	139
0.75	Kyrgyzstan	139
0.75	Latvia	139
0.75	Lithuania	139
0.75	Malawi	139
0.75	Mongolia	139
0.75	Namibia	139
0.75	New Zealand	139
0.75	Paraguay	139
0.75	Poland	139
0.75	Senegal	139
0.75	Singapore	139
0.75	Taiwan	139
0.75	Tajikistan	139
0.75	Trinidad and Tobago	139
0.50	Bahamas	149
0.50	Brunei	149
0.50	Burkina Faso	149
0.50	Estonia	149
0.50	Ghana	149
0.50	Guinea	149
0.50	Nicaragua	149
0.50	Niger	149
0.50	Slovenia	149
0.50	Uruguay	149

(Emphasis added.)

Number 63?!?!? North friggin' Korea comes in at #63?!?!? Less than two pages on the land of lunatic L'il Kim?!?!? Two million dead in famine? Three generations in jail for the crimes of a family member? Public firing squads for crossing the border without permission?

Cuba gets less than one-third the space of the USA?

The USA outpaces Myanmar? Belarus? Syria? North Korea?!?!?!?

These transnational progressive goons must have lost touch with reality.

This piece of briny shite masquerading as a report documenting human rights violations represents a crystal-clear example of what former uber-blogger Steven den Beste called 'searching beneath a streetlight.' (Follow the link and read his post on the topic. I do heartily miss his blog posts.)

It is patently obvious that these blinkered clowns pretending to be humanitarians don't care in the slightest about human rights violations unless the USA can take the blame.

In their eyes, the world has no evil in it but America. Only America can ever do wrong.

UPDATE: I adjusted the rankings to take consideration of the many tie scores. Mea culpa. Sorry, after reading so much Shamnesty propaganda last night, I think my IQ dropped several dozen points.

Amnesty head continues work

2005-05-25T20:09:00.000+02:00

According to the Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Irene Zubaidah Khan, the UN Commission on Human Rights has failed.

Ms Khan also condemned the United Nations Commission on Human Rights for failing to stand up for those supposedly in its care. "The UN Commission of Human Rights has become a forum for horse-trading on human rights," she said.

I won't argue with that.

The UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) is not to be confused with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), but the two are very similar.

The UNHCR was once a widely-respected institution which did some unalloyed good. Not a lot, but it was not such a positively malign object of ridicule now, where the boss-man was recently sacked by Don Kofi for groping the staff.

It was not so very long ago, really, that it did some real good. The UNHCR won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 (for helping refugees in postwar Europe) and 1981 (primarily for aiding refugees from fighting and famine in Ethiopia and Afghanistan).

The UNHCR, like the UNCHR, used to be respected.

The UNHCR's bad name doesn't result from isolated incidents such as dirty old men with names that sound like 'Rude Lover' chasing the secretary around the desk.

No. Now, the UNHCR, like the UN peacekeepers, are implicated in all sorts of sex crimes against poor, frightened, oppressed, hungry refugees in the poorest, most war-ravaged parts of the globe (UNHCR pedophiles paying for sex-with food aid food in Sierra Leone , Liberia and Guinea).

The BBC reported in 2002:

...poverty was the principle cause, with parents feeling compelled to offer their children to aid workers for sex in order to survive.

"They want us to love to them (sic) so they can give us money," one refugee told the BBC.

Another said she was continually sent to the back of the queue for aid because she had refused to have sex with one aid worker...

Condoms were said to be rarely used by the staff involved...

One senior aid worker said ending the sexual exploitation of under age refugees would be an uphill task because gender discrimination was deeply rooted in many cultures, not only here in West Africa but all over the world.

(Emphasis added.)

Was that the 'But everybody does it' defense that I just saw?!?

Back to Amnesty...

Now let's take a look at Ms. Khan's official biography as posted on Amnesty International's website, shall we?

Irene joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1980, and worked in a variety of positions at Headquarters and in field operations to promote the international protection of refugees.

From 1991-95 she was Senior Executive Officer to Mrs. Sadako Ogata, then UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

She was appointed as the UNHCR Chief of Mission in India in 1995, the youngest UNHCR country representative at that time, and in 1998 headed the UNHCR Centre for Research and Documentation.

She led the UNHCR team in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia during the Kosovo crisis in 1999, and was appointed Deputy Director of International Protection later that year.

(Emphasis added.)

Ms. Khan worked in the UNHCR from 1980-2001.

That is exactly the period when it went from being an esteemed humanitarian organisation to being a gravy train for chickenhawks.

I am not saying that Ms. Khan caused it, although her Secretary-Generalship of Amnesty International seems to be bringing that formerly august institution into some disrepute as well.

I am merely making an observation.

Cognitive dissonance, v. DCCLII: Salvadore Allende

2005-05-23T20:30:00.000+02:00

This one hasn't got much press, but it should. Maybe I can help...

Of all places, Der Spiegel reports that Leftist icon Salvador Allende thought like a Nazi.

A new book (by Victor Farias) on Chilean President Salvador Allende is causing a stir by suggesting that the now-legendary icon of the left -- who killed himself during a 1973 putsch -- was both racist and anti-Semitic...

His newest book is titled: "Salvador Allende: Antisemitismus und Euthanasie" (Salvador Allende: Anti-Semitism and Euthanasia)...

In many ways, the young Dr. Allende was, indeed, in line with the Fascism-infected streams that were so prevalent during the first half of the last century. For example, he argued that mental illnesses, criminal behavior, and alcoholism were hereditary. Or further, he argued that homosexuality is an illness curable by implanting testicle tissue into the abdomen. Another example: Allende proclaimed that the hot climate prevented people in southern regions from acting morally. Referring to other studies, Allende wrote ominously about Jews in his dissertation saying, "The Hebrews are well-known committers of certain types of crimes including: fraud, deceit, defamation, but most notably usury."

... Allende served as health minister in that (1939-1942) administration and promoted a law on the forced sterilization of the mentally ill. The law was never passed.

(Farias) writes that the new revelations about Allende give more meaning to Allende's refusal to turn Nazi criminal Walter Rauff over to Germany in 1972, after Rauff had found refuge in Chile. Even attempts by the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal to intervene with the president failed at the time. In a letter, Allende responded that the president was not allowed to get involved in judicial matters. Formally speaking, Allende was right. Chile's Supreme Court had previously ruled that Rauff -- who had been a senior official in the SS and headed the development of portable death chambers -- could not be handed over because the statute of limitations on his case had expired.

...Farias, meanwhile, calls the accusations from the Allende camp "rubbish" and points to the clear words taken from Allende's dissertation.

For the record, the young Allende received a mediocre grade for his dissertation.

(Emphasis added.)

So Comrade Allende thought like a Nazi, and like the top man, when opposing forces closed in on his armoured bunker, he took the coward's way out.

So he was a right-wing Jew-hater as well as a left-wing tyrant.

Say to yourself, "There is no contradiction..." Repeat as necessary.

Why not? It worked for Francois Mitterand.

Don't stand in front of the memory hole. This one is headed straight for it, at supersonic speed.

Dew Tea

2005-05-09T18:39:00.000+02:00

Duty calls.

Posting will be very light over the next few weeks.

Self-righteous failure speaks out

2005-05-02T23:08:00.000+02:00

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States (a job at which he set a new standard for complete and utter failure), writes about the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty review in today's IHT.

Of course, he cannot let four paragraphs go by without inserting a huge howler:

Until recently, all American presidents since Dwight Eisenhower had striven to restrict and reduce nuclear arsenals - some more than others. As far as I know, there are no present efforts by any of the nuclear powers to accomplish these crucial goals.

The United States is the major culprit in this erosion of the NPT.

Jimmy Carter is an vain, sanctimonious prig, but he is no ignorant redneck.

How then can he ignore the existence of the 2002 Treaty of Moscow? That treaty between Russia and the United States committed each country to deactivating over two-thirds of its nuclear warheads. Both countries have committed to drawing down their arsenals by this staggering amount by 2012. "No present effort to reduce nuclear arsenals'?!?!?

Mr. Carter ignores the existence of this fine achievement because it is inconvenient.

He continues with a very misleading statement:

(America's leaders) also have abandoned past pledges and now threaten first use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.

Mr. Carter fails to mention that this threat was merely a clarification of existing policy. In reality, it was a declaration that the US reserved the right to use nuclear weapons to respond to a chemical or biological weapons attack.

Doesn't sound quite so unreasonable and warmongering now, does it? There is a reason why these cruel, indiscriminate weapons are called the 'poor man's nuclear bomb.'

Mr. Carter ignores the actual content of this 'threat' because it is inconvenient.

Go back to Plains and cease your meddling, you vain, sanctimonious, malign little man.

Kofi's patented 180 spin move

2005-05-02T22:02:00.000+02:00

The New York Times reports that Kofi Annan has decided not to discipline his shredder-in-chief, Iqbal Riza.

Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that he had decided there were no grounds for disciplining his former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, who was criticized by the independent committee investigating the oil-for-food program for ordering the shredding of three years of files...

The Volcker committee had faulted Mr. Riza because the shredded documents covered a period, 1997-9, that coincided with the early years of the program and because the shredding was conducted after a June 1, 2004, directive from Mr. Annan telling staff members to preserve documents related to the program.

(Emphasis added. Hat tip: UNSCAM)

That may not be the end of the story.

On at least two prior occasions, Kofi has cleared UN personnel of serious wrongdoing, then once public interest has been aroused, to turn around and find the offenders guilty.

1) The Case of the Purple Helmeted Warriors for Peace
As documented here, in 2002 the UN cleared of sexual wrongdoing its UN peacekeepers in Africa, before admitting in 2004 that, yes, a few bad apples did some bad things. Incontrovertible evidence emerged bit by bit, in the form of hundreds of 'UN babies' and homemade porn videos starring UN workers and Congolese children. Finally, to its undying shame, in 2005 the UN had to spill the whole story of rampant sexual abuse in every UN peacekeeping operations worldwide.

2) The Case of the Rude Lover
The cycle repeated itself in The Case of the Rude Lover. In 2004, Ruud Lubbers, the head of the UN High Commission for Refugees was accused of sexual harassment. UN investigators checked out the allegations and supported the allegations. Kofi Annan took it upon himself to reverse their findings and announce that the Rude Lover was 'cleared' of any wrongdoing. However, word leaked that '(t)he UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (had) investigated the complaint and backed the woman's complaint,' and requested that 'appropriate action' be taken against the Rude Lover. Why Kofi then decided to clear his pal, the Rude Lover, was never satisfactorily explained. Public pressure mounted, and of course, Kofi pushed the Rude Lubber overboard in February 2005.

And just to demonstrate how ruthless he is once he concludes that his position is in jeopardy, Kofi is now trying to pin the blame for all of the UN's woes on his 31-year-old diplobrat son Kojo.

Perhaps there are no grounds at present for disciplining his former chief of staff, but just wait and see. If public pressure mounts, watch Kofi discover some grounds most speedily, and to toss Mr Riza overboard, without apology.

Bad economy gives Germans bad ideas (redux)

2005-05-01T21:08:00.000+02:00

Even brain-damaged old-timey Newsweek has noted Germany's recent rediscovery of its deep anti-capitalistic impulses.

An article entitled 'Capitalism? Nein!' lays it out, as this blog has done many times previously.

Capitalism? Nein!
Schröder and his Social Democrats rediscover Karl Marx. Alas, it's more than election opportunism.

May 9 issue - Listen to some of Germany's most powerful politicians these days, and it's as if Karl Marx had risen from the grave. "The growing power of international capital" with its "unbridled greed for profit" represents nothing less than a 'threat to democracy'," the chairman of the ruling Social Democrats, Franz Muntefering, railed at a recent party conclave in Berlin.

Days later Chancellor Gerhard Schröder himself thundered against the evils of an "unrestrained neo-liberal system."

Other SPD leaders have warned of "predator capitalists" waging an "undeclared war" on Germany.

The "asocial" and "faceless" foreign investors were descending on Germany "like swarms of locusts," Muntefering warned darkly.

...Schröder's welfare cutbacks and tax breaks for business, which have so far failed to put a dent into Germany's 12 percent jobless rate. Indeed, just last week the economic clouds darkened again, as the government's Council of Economic Advisers cut back its 2005 growth forecast from 1.5 to just 0.7 percent—the lowest in Europe. With reforms not producing quick results, SPD strategists now hope to shift the blame to business for not creating sufficient jobs...

Nor are Germans alone in blaming their capitalists. In Paris last week, French President Jacques Chirac stood shoulder to shoulder with Schröder in calling for Europe to take swift steps to restrict soaring Chinese textile imports and lashing out against free-market "neoliberalists" in Brussels for failing to protect French jobs...

...'(A) solid majority of (Germans) agree with Muntefering that capitalism is inherently evil and that the pursuit of profit "threatens German democracy," according to a fresh poll by ZDF Television.

More than anything, what the German media have dubbed "the locust debate" is setting the stage for Schröder's battle for re-election in 2006. Just as he overcame all but certain defeat in 2002 by appealing to Germans' deep antiwar (and, some say, anti-American) convictions, Schröder this time may be tempted to tap into the majority of Germans' deep-seated aversion to capitalism...

...Trouble is, the debate's momentum threatens to take it far beyond election tactics. (!!!) By raising expectations that Germany can "stop" capitalism and globalization, warns Wahl, it will be even harder to get Europe's biggest economy back on a course toward growth and jobs...

As I have pointed out on a number of occasions, Germans rank Karl Marx as #3 in the 'Greatest German of All Time' list. (He even took the top spot in the former DDR.)*

I suppose that I can only be glad that another German with facial hair and strange political and economic ideas did not win outright. Ach! The BBC reports that he was excluded from the polls.

Ohne Fleiss kein Preis.

* #1 was Konrad Adenauer and #2 was Martin Luther.

Further evidence of French complicity in Rwandan genocide

2005-05-01T18:55:00.000+02:00

Well, knock me over with a feather!

From the AP, comes a report of more evidence of French complicity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

A former French soldier said Friday that he saw French troops training Rwandan militias in 1992, two years before those same civilian militias took a leading role in a genocide in the tiny central African country.

Rwandan officials, including President Paul Kagame, have long accused France of training the militias that helped carry out the 1994 slaughter of about 500,000 people, most of them from the country's Tutsi minority. The genocide was orchestrated by a government of extremists from Rwanda's Hutu majority.

The French government, which had close ties with the extremist government, has denied training Rwandan civilians, and the Defense Ministry refused to comment Friday on the allegations made by Thierry Prungnaud, a former noncommissioned officer in the French Army.

"In 1992, I saw French military members training Rwandan civilian militias to shoot a gun," Prungnaud told France Culture radio. He said he had been sent to Rwanda that year to train the presidential guard.

"I am categorical. I saw it."

The training session took place in a national park closed to the public, according to Prungnaud. He said he was not surprised by what he saw, since he was unaware of the consequences. "To me, it seemed normal," he said.

"The only time that I saw them, there were about 30 militants being taught how to shoot in Akagera park," in eastern Rwanda, an area he said at the time was closed to the public and booby-trapped to keep unwanted visitors away.

Prungnaud said he was able to identify the men as civilians because members of the Rwandan military are always in uniform. He identified the trainers as members of the French Navy's 1st Parachute Regiment.

Although he stayed in Rwanda only for a brief period, he said, "I assume that the training continued."

In February, six Rwandans brought charges of "complicity in a genocide" against the French military at the Army Tribunal in Paris.

In a speech last year commemorating the 10th anniversary of the genocide, Kagame, a Tutsi, accused France of complicity in the genocide, saying the French "consciously trained and armed" Rwandan soldiers and militias and "knew they were going to perpetrate a genocide." The French Foreign Ministry called the accusations "grave and contrary to the truth."

Kagame led the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels who overthrew the Hutu extremist regime and ended the genocide.

(Emphasis added.)

Most estimates are that over 800,000 Rwandans were killed by their countrymen in the space of 100 days, not 500,000 as the article states.

There is no disputing, however, that French troops were in the country and French troops were training Rwandan military forces and that those military forces did indeed kill thousands of their compatriots. From the BBC:

When the Tutsi-dominated rebel army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), first launched its war against the Hutu authorities in the early 1990s, France sent soldiers to Kigali.

The French helped stop the RPF advance and then stayed on, officially as military advisors right up to the start of the genocide.

The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mark Doyle says it is no secret that the French had officers attached to train and arm Rwandan military units which subsequently committed genocide.

France vehemently denies any direct involvement in the mass killings.

(Emphasis added.)

Allegations of the French government supporting genocidal dictatorial lunatics?

Les bras m'en tombent!

Free speech in the new EU

2005-05-01T17:26:00.000+02:00

Forbes has an eye-opener on one of the non-publicised aspects of the proposed EU Constitution.

Apparently, one of the rights it bestows upon its subjects is not a right but a prohibition. It follows the tried-and-true path of the postmodern left: if there is an area that the elites do not wish to debate, then declare political discussion off-limits, or better yet, illegal.

Dan Seligman writes:

It sounds incredible, or possibly not, but among the greatest threats to free speech in Europe is a document called the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The charter, proclaimed at an EU summit in 2000 and now incorporated into the provisional EU Constitution, comprises a blizzard of rights: rights for children, for women (they have a right to preference in areas wherein they are underrepresented), for asylum-seekers, for workers and employers (both are said to have a right to collective bargaining), for murderers (they have a right not to suffer capital punishment) and for the disabled. There is a right to marry, a right to privacy, a right to a good education and a lot more--including a right to freedom of expression. These rights are enumerated in 53 articles. But the final article is not a right.

Headed "Prohibition of abuse of rights," it states:
Nothing in this Charter shall be interpreted as implying any right to engage in any activity … aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms recognized in this Charter or at their limitation.

This seems highly problematic. If someone were to mount a campaign favoring the death penalty, or opposing collective bargaining, or opposing preferences for women, or limiting the options of asylum-seekers, this would plainly constitute an effort to destroy rights recognized in the Charter--an activity characterized as an "abuse of rights" and therefore prohibited.

The Bruges Group, a think tank in London, has published an essay arguing this case. The essay was written by Brian Hindley, a British economist, and was endorsed (in a prefatory note) by Oliver Letwin, who is now Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Tory "shadow cabinet."

The threat posed by the final article has thus far received little publicity, and it seems safe to say that very few Brits are aware of an EU threat to freedom of speech on their island. It also appears that very few members of the EU bureaucracy are aware of Hindley's argument. It was certainly news to the bureaucrat I discussed it with--a European Commission spokesman on cultural issues--who immediately pronounced it nonsense.

But who never properly accounted for the plain wording of the Charter, or his continent's ragged record on free speech.

(Emphasis added.)

By way of example: large majorities right across Europe still favour capital punishment, which you would never know from reading the papers and listening to the EUrocrats. (Follow the link for a very interesting analysis.)

This Constitutional monstrosity (my annotated edition is 22o pages) will forbid European citizens from ever discussing the reintroduction of the death penalty for select crimes. That tiny little article, Article II-114, which declares so many areas of politics off limits for debate, shows up in the middle of page 60, seeking to escape notice in the welter of bureaucratic jargon.

Some hope still springs forth. The French, long trailblazers in the march to a unified Europa, look likely to reject the proposed EU Constitution in a referendum (for completely different reasons, of course).

Do we dare hope?

Will the French rescue Europe?

(sigh) It has never happened before.

Blue Helmets and Purple Helmets, v. 7

2005-05-01T16:08:00.000+02:00

Heretofore, our Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers have suffered no punishment when they have, for example, gang-raped 12-year-old girls, organised prostitution and human trafficking rings, used food to entice starving children into sex and the like.

The UN's attitude has typically been, 'Boys will be boys.' (That disgusting phrase was actually uttered by the UN Undersecretary General in Cambodia when confronted with evidence of similar exploits there by UN peacekeepers.)

You see, the UN wishes to avoid punishing pedophiles and chickenhawks and serial rapists, because 'creating a taboo' will make it harder for the UN to attract peacekeeping contributions in the future! Logic tells me that the UN must be seeking to attract pedophiles and chickenhawks and serial rapists...

They are getting tougher now, though. If, for example, a Moroccan soldier is caught, say, paying a 15-year-old Congolese girl with a jar of mayonnaise, to bump uglies without the benefit of protection, the UN may withhold his pay packet.

And now we have confirmed reports of more sexual abuse, rape and pedophilia by UN peacekeepers in Liberia. The fact that even the UN admits that such is the case in every UN peacekeeping operation is what would be known in mental health circles as 'a pattern of abuse.'

And the UN feels that these criminal abusers deserve no punishment, or at most, the forfeiture of a portion of salary.

Let us reflect now, on the words of Jacques Klein, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative to Liberia. He spoke movingly to the UN Security Council in September 2003, pleading with UNSC members to approve the despatch of UN peacekeeping forces to Liberia:

Mr Klein said that one of the primary tasks of the new peacekeeping force would be to bring justice to the people of Liberia.

"Without justice there can be no healing. Without justice those who believe that they can act with impunity will be tempted to do so again," he said.

"Without justice Liberia cannot bring this dark past to closure and look to a brighter future... Ultimately, if you do not punish the guilty, you cannot absolve the innocent," Mr Klein said.

Blue Helmets and Purple Helmets, v. 6

2005-05-01T15:59:00.000+02:00

Another installment in our occasional series documenting the exploits of our Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning UN peacekeepers

BH & PH, v. 1: here
BH & PH, v. 2: here
BH & PH, v. 3: here
BH & PH, v. 4: here
BH & PH, v. 5: here

Last year, the BBC profiled Bangladesh's contributions to the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning UN peacekeeping forces.

If the BBC knew then what we all know now, they may have chosen a less unintentionally hilarious headline:

The cream of UN peacekeepers

Blue Helmets and Purple Helmets, v. 5

2005-05-01T15:31:00.000+02:00

Another installment in our occasional series documenting the exploits of our Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning UN peacekeepers

BH & PH, v. 1: here
BH & PH, v. 2: here
BH & PH, v. 3: here
BH & PH, v. 4: here

The UN 'fesses up to serial rape, prostitution and pedophilia (No, this is not a rerun. It is in another location than the Congo, this time).

From the Jerusalem Post:

UN peacekeepers sexually abused and exploited local women and girls in Liberia and more accusations are expected, a UN spokesman said Friday.

A UN spokesman "said"? You mean admitted. Better yet, confessed.

This episode is not the well-documented cases in Kosovo or Congo. This orgy took place in Liberia, one of those operations that Kofi Annan used to boast about sanctimoniously as being a great success for humanitarian intervention.

Stephane Dujarric said a preliminary investigation by the UN mission in Liberia indicated that some allegations against its personnel could be substantiated, while others could not.

As we pointed out on 21 Apr, the Economist reported that there are plenty of 'facts on the ground,' in the form of hundreds of 'UN babies.'

...The allegations of sex abuse in Liberia are just the latest to be leveled against UN peacekeepers who have been accused of exploiting the very people they were sent to protect in missions from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor and Congo.

Dujarric said the number of allegations against UN peacekeepers around the world would likely increase.

"The United Nations treats this issue with the utmost seriousness and as we continue to clamp down on misconduct throughout all peacekeeping missions it is very likely that the number of these allegations will increase," he said.

Last month a UN report by Prince Zeid Al Hussein, Jordan's UN ambassador on peacekeeper sex abuse, said the UN's military arm was deeply flawed and recommended withholding salaries of the guilty and proposed requiring nations to pursue legal action against perpetrators.

That's right! Gang-rape a 12-year-old and you (and your mates) may lose two weeks' pay!

Why, that is even more severe than a letter of disappointment in your personnel file!

Currently, UN troops and employees accused of wrongdoing are sent home, and are confronted by their own government but are often never punished.

Nah, instead they get medals for their brave work, subduing resistant pre-pubescent Congolese girls and boys.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan commissioned the report after more than 150 allegations of sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13 by UN peacekeepers in Congo surfaced.

Allegations that, as the AP fails to mention, have also been substantiated, by both outside investigators and the UN itself.

Wherever our dauntless Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning blue-helmeted warriors for peace go, you are sure to find plenty of:

UN bureaucrats (who pay no taxes) in five-star hotels (on expense account!)
HIV-infected women (And men. And girls. And boys.),
rape victims,
abandoned babies, and
homemade porn videos.

What you will not find in abundance are things such as:

used condoms ('Blue helmets ride bareback!')
support programmes for rape victims / crisis pregnancies / STDs / etc.,
arrest warrants,
shame, or
the truth.

Gold star for the Telegraph

2005-05-01T13:57:00.000+02:00

The Telegraph of London gets kudos for predicting the turn of events. On 29 March, Alec Russell reported:

Annan 'will sacrifice son to save himself'

Kofi Annan, the beleaguered United Nations secretary general, is expected to sacrifice his son's reputation today as he fights to save his own position after a damaging report into a family conflict of interest.

Saints aren't supposed to sacrifice other people to save their careers, are they?

Anton Chekhov interviews Kofi Annan, finds family woe

2005-05-01T12:11:00.000+02:00

New York Magazine this week has a profile cum interview with Kofi Atta Annan.

Surprisingly, the cause of Kofi's distress is not President Dubya, or the neo-cons, or the religious right, or the Jews, or the Freemasons, or international financiers, or whomever.

The culprit is his son, Kojo.

The article is unintentionally hilarious at times, and Chekhovian in its spin.

The article's title is 'No Peace for Kofi' but the browser strapline is 'Kofi and Kojo Annan - The Wayward Son May Ruin What's Left of the UN Secretary General's Reputation' (snicker)

Kofi Annan is sitting in his private dining room on the 38th floor of the United Nations Building, sipping a glass of red wine at lunch. He sounds hurt and angry as he talks about the “lynch mob” out to “destroy” him.

Oh sure, you are the top office of an organisation found to be engaged in repeated episodes of nepotism, embezzlement, cover-ups, sexual harassment, prostitution, gang rape, and abetting mass murder and genocide.

Even some of your own close friends and immediate family are implicated.

Some of the people providing the capital for your organisation feel that you aren't doing what you were hired to do.

If they want to see you resign for malfeasance and/or incompetence, they are trying to 'lynch' and 'destroy' you.

(Kofi has) discussed quitting with close friends and his wife, Nane. “I’ve thought about it,” he says. “Resignation is the easy path. Nane and I could have a wonderful life, travel, sit on the farm I dream about.” A weary smile plays on his face. “No one is indispensable.”

Kofi Annan reminds me of former US President Jimmy Carter - completely ineffectual, addicted to the taste of tyrants' backsides, and drenched in self-righteous indignation.

Kojo had called Annan during the weekend. Annan had learned in November that his son had misled him about his unsavory financial dealings. “He has apologized,” Annan says. “He is extremely embarrassed.” Yet their discussions continue to be a tug-of-war: “I’ve talked to him about coming clean with everything he knows, no surprises,” Annan says. But Kojo, who has refused to meet with investigators since October or to turn over additional documents, held firm.

Hmmm... I wonder why Kojo now refuses to meet with investigators? I wonder why he will not provide additional documentation?

Especially as Kojo repeatedly claims to have done nothing wrong.

...Annan sounds baffled as he tries to grasp the magnitude of his son’s deceit. “I have no theories. You know, it’s incredible when you see these little children. You carry them in your arms and lead them along the way. And over time, they develop their own personalities and become their own person.” He stops, then adds quietly, “Of course, he maintains he did nothing wrong.”

Even now? I ask.

“Yes, now.”

You know you have a hard road ahead of you when even New York Magazine is gobsmacked by such protestations of innocence.

If even the bluest magazine in the bluest of blue states can't play along, you are in trouble.

...Annan was vibrating with tension on the first day I met with him at his office, on a Friday morning in early February, to discuss whether he would cooperate with this story. It was admittedly a difficult day: He was in the process of ousting Ruud Lubbers, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission accused of sexually harassing staffers (more on that below), and Lubbers was scheduled to arrive within the hour. But for a man renowned for his personal charm and ability to remain calm under pressure, Annan came across as wary and abrupt. I had scarcely made my pitch when a secretary handed Annan a note to say that John Negroponte, the former American ambassador to the U.N. and new U.S. intelligence czar, was on his way down the hall; Annan hustled me out.

And there is a revealing anecdote about Kofi's response to Operation Iraqi Freedom:

When the Iraq war began in March 2003, Annan had a striking personal reaction: He lost his voice. Doctors performed tests, found nothing wrong, and diagnosed stress. “It was completely psychosomatic,” says a staffer. Annan was ordered to limit his speaking and had to cancel appointments for weeks. In the two years since, he’s been vulnerable to similar attacks. Sometimes he whispers his way through meetings; his bodyguards keep Halls cough drops at the ready.

So that is why the International Condescension Monitor registered an all-time low during that period.

The first time Annan realized he might have a personal problem with the oil-for-food program came as far back as January 24, 1999, when the London Sunday Telegraph ran a story with the headline FURY AT ANNAN SON’S LINK TO £6M U.N. DEAL. The story questioned whether nepotism played a role in helping Cotecna, a Swiss company that employed Kojo Annan, to win a lucrative U.N. contract to inspect oil-for-food shipments... Annan immediately asked that the charge be investigated, but the in-house inquiry he ordered ended after one day, after concluding that Cotecna won because it was the low bidder. Kojo insisted he had done nothing wrong, and told his father that he had severed his relationship with Cotecna on December 31, 1998 (according to the Volcker report, Kojo actually stayed on the payroll through February 2004).
The Wall Street Journal’s news section published a major investigation of the oil-for-food program on May 2, 2002, charging that Saddam had siphoned money from the program for his war chest and that U.N. auditors were lax...

It wasn’t until April 2004 that Annan named an independent commission, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, to investigate oil-for-food, with a freewheeling mandate to look at the questionable behavior of U.N. officials monitoring the program, examine whether Security Council members were aware of the corruption, and take a hard look at his own and Kojo’s roles.

January 1999 to April 2004? That is over five years that Kofi tried to keep the lid on.

The secretary-general was so convinced that he had nothing to hide that he didn’t initially hire a personal attorney—he met with investigators twice without legal advice before friends intervened.

(wailing) Oh, he's a saint! The man is a saint!

(Soon to be a martyred saint.)

Give me a break. He simply felt above the law - understandably so, since he has full diplomatic immunity.

And the Rude Lover makes an appearance in the story too, of course being used as a prop in another vignette of how noble and loyal Saint Kofi is:

Ruud Lubbers, the U.N.’s high commissioner for Refugees, was accused of groping several women in December 2003, and investigators found the complaints valid. But Annan consulted outside lawyers who concluded that the U.N.’s internal investigation wouldn’t hold up in court. He officially cleared Lubbers in July, a decision that sent shock waves through the organization, essentially conveying the message that Annan, the renowned human-rights champion, was a member of the old-boys’ club.

“Kofi didn’t go back to the investigators and say, ‘Get more goods, you haven’t made your case,’ ” says one high-ranking staffer. An Annan pal says bluntly, “He should have just fired the guy.” Only this winter, when newspapers printed the affidavits describing Lubbers’s boorish behavior, did Annan force Lubbers out.

Saint Kofi, he is too noble to even save himself. We must help him!

The dark atmosphere at the U.N. grew darker after Bush’s reelection, as congressional committees investigating the oil-for-food scandal began to churn up information about Saddam’s looting. “There were weeks when Kofi seemed disturbed, bothered, unfocused,” says a prominent diplomat and Annan backer. Annan became increasingly worried and withdrawn. Staffers and diplomats grumbled that it took forever for him to make decisions.

In December, in the diplomatic equivalent of a substance-abuse intervention, Annan sat through two separate confrontational meetings (the first with top staffers at the home of Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette and the second with friends and informal advisers at Holbrooke’s Central Park West apartment) as people told him in excruciating detail all the ways in which he was screwing up. Annan was urged to make amends with Washington, clean house, and be more forceful in his leadership.

The Volcker Report fingered (by flagrant omission) this same Ms Frechette. Details here. See, she prevented the UN's own audit of flagrant embezzlement and corruption in the Oil-for-Food programme from being seen by the Security Council. So there was a cover-up, and then a cover-up of the cover-up.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. - Sir Walter Scott

Another personal note on how Kofi found out that Kojo had been pulling the wool over his eyes is here:

At the same time, the secretary-general’s heartbreak over Kojo was intensifying. Annan got a call from Fred Eckhard, telling him that, according to news reports, Kojo had deceived him; the Cotecna checks had kept coming for years. “It hit him like a rock,” said an aide who was with Annan when he got the news. Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, promptly demanded Annan’s resignation. “I was taken aback and puzzled,” Annan says, in a soft voice. He called Kojo, and a series of angry father-son conversations ensued. The Volcker report subsequently revealed that, according to Kojo’s financial records, Kojo conspired to hide the payments by disguising them as money wired to him from three separate companies and other sources, a sum estimated to be about $400,000.

And there is news on Kofi's top assistant, the shredder-in-chief:

Annan received more bad news in December. The Volcker commission was also quizzing his chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, about shredding documents. Riza insisted to Annan and the commission that the documents were duplicates—that he’d agreed to the shredding after secretaries complained their files were full. The news of the shredding wouldn’t become public until the Volcker report came out in March, but Annan knew that the revelation would be damaging. Did he worry that everyone would think “cover-up”? “Exactly,” he says. “Cover-up, and remember the eight minutes in the Nixon tapes.” Annan decided to purge his staff in late December, sending Riza, 70, into retirement, getting rid of many of his closest advisers, and bringing in Mark Malloch Brown, the forceful and witty British head of the U.N. Development Program and a former political spinmeister, as his new chief of staff.

Ummm, if Kofi is a saint, why did he try to deflect the blame by purging his staff? That is not what saints are supposed to do.

Oh, I get it. He is a saint who doesn't also want to be a martyr.

But, oh, how Saint Kofi has suffered. How much has he suffered?

You want suffering? How about no more dinner parties.

What kind of monster could wish such utter pain and anguish on a tireless humanitarian?

This winter, Annan and Nane stopped hosting what were once regular parties at their home, and have turned down virtually all the invitations they receive. “I’m not in the mood for socializing,” he says.

(Perhaps this strikes New York Magazine writers as exceedingly traumatic.)

Then the article goes on to speculate that Kojo started trading on the Annan name in order to get back at his father for his divorce from Kojo's mother. (No, I am not kidding. It is actually in the article. Sheesh.)

Perhaps an alternate explanation may be, oh, I don't know, US$400,000!?!

Annan, an indulgent father and by nature nonconfrontational, remains baffled about Kojo’s motives. “I’ve always lived quite a straight life,” he says. “I’m not one of those who is in a hurry to get rich. It’s not my way of life or desire.”

HE'S A SAINT! THE MAN IS A SAINT!!!!!

However, it would be rude to point out, that such virtuous thinking does not seem to have been shared by Kofi's son, or Kofi's predecessor Boutros² Ghali, or Kofi's Oil-for-Food manager Benon Sevan, or kofi's Security Council liaison Joseph Stephanides, or (the list goes on)... all of whom snaffled up major coin from the Oil-for-Food trough.

Then the author goes to Kofi's rent-free 'official residence, a sprawling brick mansion on Sutton Place' and speaks with Kofi's wife, Nane.

After describing the stress and strain on Saint Kofi and the friction with corrupt Kojo, the author (no, I am not kidding) points out that '(h)er blonde hair is pulled back in a bun, emphasizing the worry lines around her eyes...'

Oh, to be a saint's wife, it is also a trial.

Then:

Mention Kojo, and she flinches, breaking eye contact to stare at the coffee table. The conversation stops—so I ask what Kofi has been like as a parent. “I think he’s been a caring father,” she says, cautiously. “Of course, this is very painful to him as a father and a secretary-general. It’s difficult, it’s difficult,” she says. “This is so unfortunate.”

The prodigal son is tarnishing Saint Kofi's good works! Woe! Woe to us!

But wait! It is always darkest just before the dawn. An angel appears to offer sustenance to an anguished soul!

As I was typing away on this story, several days after the Volcker report came out, the phone rang. There was a familiar voice on the other end....

The secretary-general began by attempting to spin his situation, emphasizing all the calls of support coming in. Earlier in the week, he had spoken, with evident pain, about the friends who had seemingly vanished: “Some feel embarrassed to call,” he allowed. “They don’t know what to say.” Now he wanted to tell me that, among others, a sympathetic Bill Clinton had phoned. “He understands. He had gone through similar situations where he’s been under a microscope, attacked,” said Annan. Then he added, with a sense of surprise, that the former president had confided in him. “He was sort of reminiscing with me, sharing his own experiences with his brother, his brother-in-law, things like that.” Did Clinton offer advice? “That you have to remain focused and carry on.”

Well, what will Saint Kofi do? Will he resign?

Despite his “Hell, no” earlier in the week, I asked whether resigning has seemed increasingly appealing. “You think it through. What would be the best for me to do, to stay, to leave? Resignation would be easy, but to stay on and confront, pick up the lessons, push for the reforms you believe in, and work with the member states to get it done is much, much harder. Having balanced the arguments, I have an obligation to finish what I started.”

That is right, Kofi will not stay on the job as Secretary-General of the United Nations for his fat tax-free compensation package, or the 'sprawling brick mansion on Sutton Place,' or the praise and attention and notoriety of the office, where he was always invited to the poshest dinner parties, and joked with Robert De Niro and chatted about family affairs with Bill Clinton.

No, he is going to stay on the job, for the cause of reform, for the good of the United Nations organisation, for the good of humanity.

For us.

Schuh, meet anderer Fuss

2005-04-30T18:25:00.000+02:00

The Guardian (UK) introduces us to Georg Dewas,

one of a growing number of Germans who, unable to find work at home, have left to find employment in neighbouring Austria or Switzerland, often as waiters, bar staff, or even cleaners.

It was, of course, the Germans who invented the word Gastarbeiter, or "guest worker", to describe the 2 million-plus Turks who came to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s to take on low-paid jobs that the Germans were reluctant to do...

"Germans, especially from east Germany, simply can't find jobs," Mr Dewas told the Guardian. "It's impossible. In Austria it's much easier to find a job these days, though it's also easier to be fired."

(Emphasis added; hat tip: NRO.)

Hmmm... easier to hire and easier to fire... think there may be any connection there, Herr Dewas?

It has been that way for years. According to the latest data from the Economist, comparative rates of unemployment are

4.6% in Austria
11.8% in Germany

One last dig:

...Germans are poised to overtake Turks as the biggest group of migrant workers (in Austria).

Schadenfreude, here I come, right back where I started frommm....

The UN's 50% solution

2005-04-30T17:22:00.000+02:00

So how much salary does Kofi Annan not pay the income tax on?

Not counting the free housing, travel, medical, security, and (much appreciated in recent days) legal assistance, as Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan pulls down US$293,000.

He also makes off with an extra $25,000 for 'entertainment'. (That buys a lot of Congolese 12-year-olds!)

Those figures mean means that Kofi earns a higher (official) gross salary than any national leader except Singapore (US$625K), Hong Kong (US$600K), the USA (US$400K) and Japan (US$307K). (The highest in the EU is Germany at US$272K.)

You can pretty much cut those figures down by one-third to one-half, however.

You see, there is one thing that the leaders of Singapore, Hong Kong, the USA and Japan do that Kofi Annan does not: they pay taxes.

UN General Assembly Resolution 239 C (III)

2005-04-30T16:47:00.000+02:00

I suppose that many were not aware that employees of the United Nations are not liable to the income tax. (World Bank and IMF boffins enjoy the same luxury.)

This handout was, in fact, one of the UN's earliest steps.

UN General Assembly Resolution 239 C (III) of 18 November 1948 (PDF link) is short and sweet.

Its operative clause requests UN Member States to:

take the necessary action, legislative or other, to exempt their nationals employed by the United Nations from national income taxation with respect to their salaries and emoluments paid to them by the United Nations...

The income tax exemption has never been repealed. UN 'progressives' working for 'social justice' pay no income tax.

But UN 'humanitarians' keep working and agitating to establish a global tax for the rest of us. They are none too shy about it either. From the UN's own press comes this tidbit of information:

Despite strong reservations by the United States, Japan and Germany over proposed new global taxes, the United Nations is set to take centre-stage in the longstanding controversy over new sources of innovative funding for the world's poorer nations.

''The debate has already entered the United Nations,'' says U.N. Under-Secretary-General Jose Antonio Ocampo, head of the department of economic and social affairs (DESA)...

The proposals on the table include a carbon tax on fuel use, the 'Tobin tax' on currency transactions, a levy on international sales of weapons, a global lottery and a tax on international airline travel.

One problem with this idea is that the US and Japan together fund nearly half of the UN's operating budget and much more than half of many UN agencies (WHO, WFP, etc.).

Of course Marxists (Lula in Brazil) and dirigistes (Chirac in France) are all for it. Chirac even proposed the idea again at Davos this year.

A more exhaustive discussion is here on MSN Money. A potential roadblock: the US Congress passed a law, signed in 1997 by President Clinton, that banned the US from paying its dues to the UN until and unless the president assured the Congress that the UN

is not engaged in any effort to develop, advocate, promote or publicize any proposal concerning taxation or fees on United States persons in order to raise revenue for the United Nations or any such agency.

Looks like there might be another UN-US contretemps on the far horizon.

The life of a Diplobrat

2005-04-30T16:13:00.000+02:00

The Sunday Times of London takes a look at the life of 'Diplobrats,' e.g., Kojo Annan.

Interesting reading. Another here. An excerpt:

Last Saturday night a young Arab prince took a shower in his marble bathroom, chose a multicoloured Versace shirt from his walk-in wardrobe, put on slightly too much cologne and drove a rented Ferrari to a nearby club. As his social life revolves around what are known in his world as “the Three Bs”, he could tell what country he was in by the sign above the nightclub door: B Club means Geneva. If it had read Bungalow 8 he would have been in New York, Boujis in London.

Whatever the city — and he and his type know many — the routine is always the same. A line of locals queue round the block but diplomatic immunity causes the velvet rope to snap open for him. Inside there is dancing, drugs, girls, and plenty more. Cristal champagne comes at £330 a bottle. At 4am by his Oyster Rolex, our prince headed home with a beautiful Russian who might or might not be a prostitute.

This is the world of the children of Arab sheikhs and African dictators, and, judging by last week’s reports, it is a scene that Kojo Annan is familiar with. The son of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, grew up on the international circuit and is a member of an international brat pack “The Sons of . . .” Educated in Switzerland and Britain, his friends include the son of the former Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha, and Hani Yamani, the son of Sheikh Yamani, the former Saudi oil minister.

So let me get this straight... These 'Diplobrats' live in more of a pampered Neverland than Michael Jackson surrounded by more golden plumbing that the late Uday Hussein had, and they party harder than Tara Reid and the ghost of River Phoenix trying to settle a bet, they grow up to get tax-free sinecures in a corrupt bureaucracy, half-million dollar 'consulting contracts' for doing nothing but being a blood relative of other bureaucrats and highly-compensated seats on boards, and they want to tell us how to live? They want us to 'work for social justice'? They want to force undemocratic 'transnational progressive' socialism on us?

I seek a stronger word than chutzpah.

(Another factoid: Kofi Annan's first wife was a Nigerian by the name of Titi Alakija.)

Mass grave found in Iraq, v. 1466

2005-04-30T13:36:00.000+02:00

Mass grave with 1,500 bodies found

Investigators in southern Iraq have found a mass grave believed to contain as many as 1,500 bodies. A US official said the victims appeared to be Kurds, the majority of them women and children.

The official said they had been lined up in front of the pit and then shot.

The site is near the town of Samawa, about 300 km south of Baghdad, an area targeted by former President Saddam Hussein during his crackdown on the Kurdish population....

(Emphasis added.)

No wonder inspectors there can't find any WMDs.

Every time they pick a place to start digging they run into thousands of skeletons.

'Hell, no, you are not exonerated!' v. 2

2005-04-30T12:13:00.000+02:00

Along with Claudia Rosett and Roger L. Simon, Niles Lathem has been breaking new ground in the Oil - for - Food - and - Weapons - and - Palaces - and - UN - bureaucrats - and - their - families scandal.

Today's New York Post has a provocative story by Mr. Lathem on Kofi Atta Annan and the Volcker Committee interim report:

The U.N.-appointed commission probing the oil-for-food scandal shelved two highly critical drafts of its report on business conflicts involving Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his son, it was revealed yesterday.

The explosive news of a potential whitewash was disclosed by a source close to Robert Parton — the man who handled the investigation of Kofi and Kojo Annan — who quit the U.N. Independent Inquiry Committee headed by Paul Volcker.
Parton authored the two hushed-up reports before leaving in protest that Volcker's inquiry was too soft on Kofi Annan.

A source speaking for Parton said he and Miranda Duncan, granddaughter of tycoon David Rockefeller who also resigned last week, wrote two earlier drafts of the commission's report that were far more critical of Annan than what was contained in the final version released by Volcker on March 29.

The final report said no evidence was found that Annan played any role in the selection of the Swiss firm Cotecna that employed Annan's son Kojo, although it criticized him for meeting with company executives and for failing to fully investigate the matter.

Annan used the report's conclusions to declare with great fanfare that he had been exonerated.

Yes, with great fanfare, and with profanity, too. ('HELL NO!')

Though now the:

state plainly that, in fact Kofi Atta Annan was not exonerated by the Volcker interim report.

Volcker and several spokesmen for his office have consistently denied over the past week that there was a whitewash of Annan, but refused to discuss details of Parton's resignation.

Also yesterday, legal warfare erupted between Volcker and congressional committee chairmen over efforts to call Parton to publicly testify about the circumstances that led to his resignation.

With Congress trying to pick up this new trial of intrigue, Volcker personally called the chairmen of three committees investigating the $64 billion scandal to inform them that his U.N.-appointed independent committee will invoke immunity over Parton and Duncan, preventing them from being subpoenaed.

"We draw the line at exposing an investigator during an ongoing investigation," said Volcker spokesman Mike Holtzman.

"They have important things to say, and it's unfortunate the U.N. chose not to waive the agreement," said Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), head of the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security.

(Emphasis added.)

There must be some real bloody dirt to be dug up.

I cannot imagine Volcker would be so bold as to tell off a Congressional subcommittee for no reason. If he wants bad press, that is one sure way to guarantee it.

It must be more than a jurisdictional technicality.

Ghost workers, nepotism, and embezzlement at the UN (No, this is not a rerun)

2005-04-30T11:38:00.000+02:00

We know that Kofi Annan got Kojo to stop lying on the couch, eating Chee-tos and watching the telly all day by hitching up to Cotecna's Oil-for-Food gravy train.

Also, the UN's top auditor used Oil-for-Food funds to pad the payrolls with an old pal who apparently did no Oil-for-Food work. The UN's top election monitor also thought that UN funds were for her and her mates' leisure activities.

Reuters reports that at the UN, another top dog has been found padding the payroll with family. And he is a busy little Canadian socialist humanitarian billionaire, too - it seems he was also taking bribes from Saddam Hussein via the notorious Korean bagman.

And surprise! He is a very close friend and confidant of Kofi Atta Annan:

Maurice Strong, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special adviser for North Korea, put his stepdaughter on his payroll in violation of U.N. staff rules, the United Nations said on Friday.

Strong, an influential Canadian businessman, is himself under investigation in connection with the U.N. oil-for-food scandal over his ties to a South Korean lobbyist suspected of bribing U.N. officials with Iraqi funds.

Strong last week withdrew from his post as Annan's adviser while the investigation was under way. The stepdaughter, identified as Kristina Mayo, has resigned, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

U.N. officials could not immediately say what her job duties had been, where she performed her work, or how much she had been paid.

Let me guess the answers:
1) none,
2) from home and/or five star hotels in posh resorts, and
3) oodles of dosh,
respectively.

The rules violation turned up during an examination of Strong's administrative file, launched after the Independent Inquiry Committee on the oil-for-food program began investigating him, Dujarric said.

Strong has not been accused of wrongdoing in the investigation and has denied any connection with the oil-for-food program.

Ummmm... why not? Sounds like he did some wrong.

But he has acknowledged business ties to Tongsun Park, a South Korean indicted earlier this month in U.S. federal court as an unregistered agent for the Iraqi government under President Saddam Hussein. Park was also a central figure in an influence-peddling scandal in Washington in 1977.

According to a criminal complaint filed by U.S. federal prosecutors earlier this month, Park told an informant he had invested about $1 million in an unnamed Canadian company set up by the son of a high-ranking U.N. official, who was not named.

Strong has confirmed that he was that U.N. official and that Park invested the money in Cordex Petroleums Inc., a now-bankrupt Calgary oil company.

Strong and his son Frederick Strong were major investors in Cordex in the 1990s, along with CSL Group Inc., a holding company owned by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

The $67 billion oil-for-food program, which began in 1996 and was shut down in 2003, was set up by the U.N. Security Council to ease the impact of sanctions imposed after Saddam's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990. Baghdad was allowed to sell oil to buy basic goods and could negotiate its own contracts.

After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraq disclosed a who's who of political groups and individuals around the world from whom Saddam hoped to enlist to help get the sanctions lifted.

(Emphasis added.)

Maurice Strong is a billionaire, for God's sake. Why would a billionare bother breaking UN rules in order to put a whelp on the UN payroll?

Because he can. Rules are for the little people.

Maurice Strong's name is coming up in connection to many UN and Canadian shenanigans. For those keeping score at home, all we now need to round out Mr. Strong's dance card are a sex scandal and dead body.

12% is just a start

2005-04-28T15:40:00.000+02:00

For some further information on the current German fit of anti-capitalist ranting, check out the Financial Times:

Growing criticism of German business leaders by senior figures in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democratic party yesterday triggered a threat to resign by one of the heads of the Invest in Germany organisation.

Jürgen Weber, supervisory board chairman of Lufthansa, the national airline, said the anti-capitalist debate gripping the ruling SPD was already forcing a rethink by foreign investors. "If it turns out that this criticism of capitalism has a fundamental nature, then we don't need an Invest in Germany organisation any more," he warned Mr Schröder in an interview in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Mr Weber's comments represented the bluntest business reaction yet to the debate launched after Franz Müntefering, SPD chairman and Schröder loyalist, warned in a speech this month that "profit-maximising strategies inspired by international competition" posed "a danger to our democracy."...

Opinion polls show Mr Müntefering's views are shared widely among Germans - but also a widespread belief that the attacks on business are a deliberate tactic ahead of crucial elections in North Rhine- Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, on May 22. Official unemployment is around 5m in Germany, while the European Commission expects the economy to grow by less than 1 per cent this year...

An Infratest Dimap poll for ARD television showed two-thirds of Germans regarded Mr Müntefering remarks as justified, but three-quarters saw them as an attempt to boost the SPD's chances in North Rhine Westphalia. A Forsa poll for N-TV television found 50 per cent supported boycotting products from companies that showed no social responsibility and dismissed large numbers of employees.

(Emphasis added.)

With these lunatics running the asylum, 12% unemployment is just a starter for 20%.

Heinrich, only a strong leader can fix the economic mess...

2005-04-28T15:06:00.000+02:00

The Germany economy points out a glaring deficiency. What do we call it? The vocabulary fails as the mind struggles to update the former Wirtschaftswunder.

It is much deeper than a slowdown, longer than a slump. Stagnation doesn't cover it. Tailspin? Collapse? Malaise?

The Economist considers the situation and offers a no-lube reaming:

...IN THEORY, Germany should be booming by now. Sizzling global economic growth in 2004, and more of the same expected for 2005, has raised demand for its exports, a boon to its large manufacturing sector. The European Central Bank (ECB) has kept interest rates in the euro area at an easy 2% for 22 months, and looks set to keep doing so well into 2005. Fiscal policy is also expansionary: the government’s budget deficit has breached the Maastricht treaty’s 3%-of-GDP limit for three years running, and by all accounts will do so again this year. Yet for all this, for the past four years Germany has struggled to produce GDP growth of even 1% a year.

The future looks little better than the past. This week a consortium of German think-tanks released its semi-annual report, slashing its forecast for German growth this year from a lacklustre 1.5% to an almost pulseless 0.7%. More worryingly, the report argues that the German economy is not stuck in a particularly vicious cyclical slowdown. Rather, its structural problems, particularly the highly regulated labour market, have reduced trend growth (the average growth rate of the economy) to a meagre 1.1%, in contrast to roughly 2% for the rest of the euro area, and about 3% for the United States. Unless these trends reverse, Europe’s largest economy could eventually wind up as its economic backwater.

(Emphasis added.)

Hmmmm, maybe the German economy sucks because both corporate and personal income taxes are among the highest in Europe?

Or because the rules and regulations stifle entrepreneurship? ('You need 12 more forms and 7 more stamps. And pay these fees. And you can't open on Sunday.')

Or because the insane labour market policies make it extremely expensive to hire a new worker and impossible to fire him or her?

Or is because the leader of the governing party hates capitalism? And the vice-chancellor and foreign minister is a Green revolutionary Marxist? And citizens of Deutscheland think Karl Marx is one of the greatest Germans of all time?

Ohne Fleiss kein Preis.

Kofi to Dileep: 'This will go down on your permanent record...'

2005-04-28T14:50:00.000+02:00

Kofi's iron fist policy is in effect, as he smites the UN's chief internal auditor:

...(T)he (Volcker Committee interim) report found that (UN chief internal auditor Dileep) Nair had paid an employee with money from the $64 billion program although the staffer's work was not directly involved in the troubled plan that allowed Iraq to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food and other humanitarian goods...

Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote to the outgoing chief (Nair) of the U.N. watchdog agency Thursday expressing concern over unresolved claims that the official used money from the oil-for-food program in Iraq to pay an employee whose work was not directly tied to it, a U.N. spokesman said.
The letter said serious questions remained about the allegations against Dileep Nair. Those questions were raised by a committee overseen by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who was appointed by Annan to investigate mismanagement in oil-for-food, according to U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Nair is chief of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, and Annan's letter will go in Nair's permanent file as a record of official disappointment with the official responsible for upholding the integrity of the world body.

But there was little else the United Nations could do because Nair's nonrenewable five-year term ends on Saturday (23 April 2005).

"Only limited steps are available to address this," Dujarric said.

(Emphasis added.)

That's right! Annan's posse don't fool around in Turtle Bay!

At the United Nations, if you are caught swindling, embezzling, harassing, aiding & abetting, or perhaps gang-raping children, you may get (shudder) a letter in your file!

And unlike Benon Sevan and Iqbal Riza, poor Dileep will not even have the option of purchasing the UN's annual diplomatic immunity policy for US$1! The horror!

Tread lightly, diplomats. Speak in hushed tones. Don Kofi is kicking butt and taking names now.

More graft means more immunity

2005-04-28T14:19:00.000+02:00

The Financial Times reports that the Oil-for-Food investigations are getting somewhere in France:

Charles Pasqua, a former French minister of interior, has emerged as one of the highest-ranking targets of the widening investigations into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.

United Nations, US and French investigators are examining Iraqi documents that show officials in Baghdad were instructed to transfer his lucrative oil allocations to an offshore company, to shield him from criticism.

Mr Pasqua's alleged role has emerged as inquiries turn to the role of foreign governments in the corruption within the humanitarian aid programme. France and Russia, which opposed the 2003 invasion, have long been accused in the US of being too close to Saddam Hussein's regime.

Early on Tuesday, Bernard Guillet, Mr Pasqua's diplomatic adviser, was arrested at home in Paris in connection with the oil-for-food inquiry, on the orders of Philippe Courroye, a French investigative judge. Mr Guillet was yesterday in police custody.

The Iraqi documents indicate that Mr Pasqua's oil allocations were personally approved by Mr Hussein.

(Emphasis added.)

M. Pasqua denies everything, of course.

President Chirac engineered M. Pasqua's election (not via democratic race but via committee of hand-picked electors) to the French Senate, from which he enjoys parliamentary immunity.

Strange, isn't it, how all of the main players in the Oil - for - Food - and - Weapons - and - Palaces - and - UN - bureaucrats - and - their - families scandal have immunity of one form or another?

Even Kofi's mouthpiece admits he hasn't been 'exonerated'

2005-04-28T13:11:00.000+02:00

From a Washington Times editorial today:

When it comes to acknowledging some of the corruption and malfeasance that has characterized his tenure as U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan took a grudging step forward yesterday, when his attorney admitted that last month's interim report on the oil-for-food scandal had not really exonerated him.

Mr. Annan's retreat became inevitable after Paul Volcker told Fox News on Tuesday that the Independent Inquiry Committee report "criticized [Mr. Annan] rather severely," adding, "I would not call that an exoneration." Asked point blank whether Mr. Annan had been cleared of wrongdoing in the scandal, the former Federal Reserve Board chairman said: "No." Yesterday, Mr. Annan's lawyer, Gregory Craig, claimed that the secretary-general was misquoted, and that he had never claimed to have been exonerated.

That's precisely the opposite of the way Mr. Annan had characterized the report. "As I had always hoped and firmly believed, the inquiry has cleared me of any wrongdoing," Mr. Annan said at a press conference on March 29, the day the report was released. His claims found a receptive audience in mainstream media outlets. For example, The Washington Post ran a story headlined "UN Panel Clears Annan" and the Boston Globe chose "Report Clears UN chief of corruption allegations."

(Emphasis added.)

Or how about the biased BBC? 'Annan cleared over oil-for-food,' it crowed.

Well, in today's Washington Post- shiver me timbers! They actually ran a story on it! Let's take a closer look:

"After so many distressing and untrue allegations have been made against me, this exoneration by the Independent Inquiry Committee obviously comes as a great relief," Annan said (at the time of the first interim report of the Oil-for-Food inquiry)...

But soon after that press conference, a member of the inquiry committee, Mark Pieth, said that the secretary-general had gone too far. Pieth had been standing outside the room where Annan made the comments.
"We did not exonerate Kofi Annan," Pieth said then. "We should not brush this off. A certain mea culpa would have been appropriate."

In the letter obtained Tuesday, Craig included a transcript of Annan's March 29 comments to the media. He stressed that when Annan said he was exonerated, he was only referring to the charge that he had meddled in the awarding of the Cotecna contract.

"I respectfully submit that his use of that word with respect to that particular finding should cause no fair-minded person any discomfort," Craig wrote.

Annan's statement, seemingly innocuous at the time, has touched off a firestorm of controversy and become the focus of intense criticism. It has consumed headlines at the United Nations, drawing attention away from sweeping proposals Annan has made to reform the United Nations.

(Emphasis added.)

Oh, I see. It is lawyerly weasel words.

Like when US President Nixon said, 'I am not a crook!' he was speaking solely on tax law.

He merely meant, 'I do not cheat on my taxes,' and not, 'I do not authorise break-ins and cover-ups.'

'Hell, no, you are not exonerated!'

2005-04-27T09:56:00.000+02:00

Paul Volcker clarifies:

Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker says his investigation into the scandal-plagued oil-for-food program has not cleared U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of wrongdoing, despite Mr. Annan's claims to the contrary.

In an interview aired yesterday with Fox News, Mr. Volcker took direct issue with Mr. Annan's insistence that he had been exonerated by investigators probing both his role in overseeing the Iraq aid program and conflicts of interest involving a key contract awarded to a Swiss firm that employed Mr. Annan's son.

"I thought we criticized [Mr. Annan] rather severely," Mr. Volcker said of his panel's interim report, released March 29. "I would not call that an exoneration."

Asked point-blank whether Mr. Annan had been cleared of wrongdoing in the $10 billion scandal, Mr. Volcker replied, "No." ...

Senior U.N. officials have been implicated in the scandal, and Mr. Annan himself faced harsh scrutiny when it was learned his son, Kojo Annan, had been employed by Cotecna, the Swiss firm that won a critical U.N. monitoring contract for the oil-for-food program in 1998.

Mr. Annan, who has fiercely resisted calls that he step down, immediately claimed vindication after the Volcker panel reported on March 29 that it had found "no evidence" that the secretary-general had used his influence to help Cotecna win the contract.

In a press conference that same day, Mr. Annan told reporters, "As I had always hoped and firmly believed, the inquiry has cleared me of any wrongdoing."

He has said he was "disappointed" to discover that his son had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from Cotecna for several years after leading his father to think he had cut all ties with the U.N. contractor.

Asked whether he was considering resigning from his post before his term ends next year, Mr. Annan answered emphatically, "Hell no." ...

Mr. Volcker, in the Fox News interview, said his panel "was not meant to be soft or hard" on Mr. Annan or the United Nations.

"We are out to get the facts, and I've said from the very beginning our responsibility is to follow the facts wherever they lead."

(Emphasis added.)

Slowly they are turning on each other.

There are some more shoes to drop in Turtle Bay, and then the long knives will be out.

A UN mouthpiece's transparent spin

2005-04-24T19:52:00.000+02:00

UN mouthpiece caught in a tangled skein of lying 'spin':

A senior investigator from Paul Volcker's independent committee into allegations of corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program criticized his former employer Saturday for misrepresenting the grounds for his resignation earlier this month.

The investigator, Robert Parton, confirmed a report by The Associated Press earlier this week that he had resigned along with another investigator to protest recent findings by the committee that cleared U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion program.

Parton's statement comes after a member of the committee discounted reports that the two investigators had left the Independent Inquiry Committee because they believed the report was too soft on the secretary-general.

"Contrary to recent published reports, I resigned my position as Senior Investigative Counsel for the IIC not because my work was complete but on principle," Parton said.

Richard Goldstone, one of the three committee members, along with Mark Pieth and Volcker, told CNN earlier this week that the two senior investigators Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan had left because their work was complete.

A person close to Parton said his contract ran until August.

A spokesperson for the Volcker Committee would not immediately comment on the statement.

(Emphasis added.)

Why even try to spin it with something so patently false? All it would take is for Mr. Parton to open his mouth, which he did.

Roger L. Simon's place is the clearinghouse for breaking news on the Oil - for - Food - and - Palaces - and - Weapons - and - UN - bureaucrats - and - their - families.

One down, one to go

2005-04-22T12:09:00.000+02:00

The AP says that 'UN Official No. 2' is Maurice Strong, Canadian businessman, environmentalist, and until this week, the UN's special envoy to North Korea.

Details here:

...Last week, U.S. Attorney David Kelley filed charges against three people allegedly connected to oil-for-food, including a South Korean businessman with ties to current and past U.N. officials such as former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, according to staff.
The Kelley complaint against the South Korean, Tongsun Park, cited two high-ranking U.N. officials - identified only as "official 1" and "official 2." It said Park met them in an apparent bid to influence the ultimate design of the oil-for-food program, and doesn't rule out the possibility that they may have been bribed.

According to the complaint, Park invested $1 million in a company run by the son of one of the officials. The company later folded

And on Wednesday, Annan's special envoy for North Korea, Maurice Strong, stepped aside after he acknowledged business ties with Park. The Volcker committee is investigating Strong's possible role in oil-for-food, while Strong denies he had anything to do with the program.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Strong conceded it was his son, Frederick Strong, who ran the company in which Park invested money. That would make Maurice Strong "official 2."

(Emphasis added.)

The smart money says that 'UN Official No. 2' is Benon Sevan, head of the UN's corruption syndicate known as Oil - for - Food - and - Palaces - and - Weapons - and - UN - bureaucrats - and - their - families.

Shouldn't be too much longer before the rats in the UN start turning on one another.

Who are UN Official No. 1 and UN Official No. 2?

2005-04-21T22:09:00.000+02:00

The UN can't be trusted to investigate properly it myriad of sins, crimes and transgressions, but perhaps America's FBI can:

THE FBI is closing in on two senior officials at the UN as prosecutors vow to “wring the towel dry” in their investigation of the Oil-for-Food corruption scandal.
The two unnamed “high-ranking officials” were allegedly offered bribes by a North Korean-born businessman, previously linked to South Korean intelligence, working secretly for Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.

The investigation by the FBI’s white-collar crime and counter-intelligence units represents a challenge to the UN’s credibility and legitimacy and could jeopardise its survival.
A senior Western diplomat said yesterday that the scandal meant that Kofi Annan was “not wholly safe” as UN Secretary-General, a job he holds until the end of next year...

The allegations have raised questions about a trip in June 1993 that Dr Boutros Ghali made to Geneva to meet Tariq Aziz, then the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister. The UN is refusing to release a list of officials who accompanied him...

The FBI's legal papers mention that two top UN officials had all sorts of dirty deals going on. Who are 'UN Official No. 1' and 'UN Official No. 2'?

I guess an easier question would be who at the UN was not on the take?

Blue Helmets and Purple Helmets, v.4

2005-04-21T13:33:00.000+02:00

The Economist (subscription req'd) reports that UN peacekeepers have left enough children behind in Liberia to populate a small town:

THE UNECO children's centre looks like any other Liberian school. Its pupils wear smartish uniforms and are eager, after 14 years of civil war and not much schooling, to learn. What is unusual is that every child at UNECO has been fathered by a foreign peacekeeper and then abandoned. The centre was founded by Dr Abraham Cole, a local teacher, “to show our gratitude to peacekeepers by taking care of their children.”

Despite its name, the school receives no UN support besides food from the World Food Programme. Most of the 136 children at UNECO and a similar centre further north were conceived during the 1990s, when both the UN and Liberia's West African neighbours sent troops to Liberia. The number of abandoned babies is now set to surge, however. For the past 18 months, Liberia has hosted one of the largest and most successful UN peacekeeping missions, whose 15,000 blue helmets have now been around long enough to make more babies. A UN staffer said he expected 1,500 UN babies by the end of next year.

These children are not orphans. Their fathers are mostly alive, but have finished their tour of duty and gone home, often to waiting wives. Their Liberian mothers abandon them either because they are poor, or because they have married a Liberian man who does not want a half-Nigerian child in his home.

In a broken state like Liberia, where 80% of the population live on less than 50 cents a day and women can be seduced by the promise of a mobile-phone scratch card, it is not easy to keep well-paid soldiers chaste. But it would be nice if the UN tried a bit harder. After a scandal in Congo last year, when Moroccan UN peacekeepers were charged with raping 13-year-olds, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, proclaimed a policy of “zero tolerance” for sexual exploitation. A report by Jordan's UN ambassador called for deductions from absentee fathers' salaries and courts martial in the country where any sexual offence takes place. But in practice, erring peacekeepers are rarely punished. Absentee fathers, rapists and even murderers simply disappear back home...

Dr Cole visits barracks to persuade peacekeepers and their “camp girlfriends” to use condoms (the UN issues five per man per week), but it is not an easy task. Soldiers are inured to risk. And though Dr Cole has written to the UN asking for help with his school, he has yet to receive a reply.

(Emphasis added.)

Don't hold your breath, Pops.

The UN needs to get a grip on its blue-helmeted warriors of love.

Exempt from ethics rules and immune from prosecution

2005-04-21T11:21:00.000+02:00

Another UN bigwig found to be on the take:

The United Nations' special envoy to North Korea, Maurice F. Strong, decided Wednesday to step aside until U.N.-appointed investigators and federal prosecutors finish examining his financial ties to a South Korean lobbyist accused of trying to bribe U.N. officials...

Strong, a Canadian entrepreneur and environmentalist, acknowledged Monday that Park had invested money in a business he was "associated with" in 1997 and later advised him on his dealings with Pyongyang...

Annan said this week that he had been unaware of Strong's financial ties to Park, who was at the center of a congressional influence-peddling scandal in the 1970s. Annan is reviewing a policy that exempts senior officials who, like Strong, take on part-time assignments from disclosing potential financial conflicts of interest, Dujarric said.

(Emphasis added.)

Why the exemption in the first place?

Immune from criminal prosecution and immune from the UN's own ethics rules - quite a sweet setup. That seems a good explanation for the tremendous arrogance.

Fox kills chickens, blames barking dogs.

2005-04-20T18:49:00.000+02:00

I didn't bother posting on Kofi Annan's hyper-defensive comments that the US and UK were also responsible for Oil-for-Food, because they got plenty of press elsewhere.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday the United States and Britain bore part of the blame in the Iraq oil-for-food debacle by allowing unsupervised oil exports that Saddam Hussein exploited.

Patently ridiculous, of course. Just at first blush, there are two different types of sins:
- sins of omission (not preventing something illegal or wrong), and
- sins of commission (active malfeasance, eg, Benon Sevan and Kojo Annan and whomever else snaffling up blood money, taken from hungry needed Iraqi children).

Whatever.

The best, pithiest comment about Don Kofi's whining was from a blogger somewhere and I apologise to whoever he is because I read it in passing and it stuch with me and now I cannot find his website.

On Kofi Annan's comments that the US & UK bears responsibility for the multi-billion dollar bribes and embezzlement Oil - for - Food - and - Palaces - and - Weapons - and - UN - bureaucrats - and - their - families scandal, he said:

"Fox kills chickens, blames barking dogs."

Great stuff.

(I will update with his name and URL if I can find the site again.)

UPDATE: Got it! It comes from the always excellent Perry de Havilland on the redoubtable Samizdata website.

Quote for the day

2005-04-20T17:58:00.000+02:00

Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the end; there it is.

- Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
British statesman and author

Blue Helmets and Purple Helmets, v.3

2005-04-20T17:02:00.000+02:00

Another installment in the recurring series of 'Blue Helmets and Purple Helmets'

BH & PH, v. 1: here

BH & PH, v. 2: here

Let's review the UN's statements on the matter of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning UN peacekeeping force's violent sexual proclivities.

In 1993, U.N. peacekeepers in Cambodia were charged with sexually abusing girls. At the time, the U.N.'s top official in Cambodia, Yasushi Akashi, played down the gravity of the allegations, saying, "Boys will be boys."

In 2002, the UN investigated claims that UN peacekeepers in West Africa are serial rapists and pedophiles, and found the claims baseless, even though independent studies concluded they were well-founded.

In 2004, confronted by incontrovertible evidence, the UN admitted, in a 'modified limited hangout' that, yes, there were a few cases, but only by a very few bad people and only in one place.

In 2005, the UN admitted that sexual abuse, gang rape, pedophilia, and sex trafficking is, in fact, a big problem in every UN peacekeeping operation.

23 October 2002 (BBC)
The United Nations has rejected allegations that any of its peacekeepers and aid agency workers have been engaged in the sexual exploitation of refugees in West Africa. An internal UN report says a six-month probe has been unable to confirm any of the cases of alleged abuse that had been detailed during an independent investigation last February.

The allegations of widespread sexual abuse involving locally-employed UN staff in West Africa sent a wave of horror and embarrassed shame through the entire organisation. The reports, which emerged from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, spoke of aid workers and peacekeepers obtaining sexual favours from refugees, mostly young girls, in exchange for food.

The practice seemed to have been confirmed in an investigation by independent consultants appointed jointly by the UN's own refugee agency and the British-based charity Save the Children. But now, the UN has concluded that the main allegations are baseless.

Indeed, a UN spokesman, Dileep Nair, chided those involved in the original investigation. "The consultants' allegations of widespread sexual exploitation by UN aid workers and peacekeepers cannot be substantiated," he said. "Indeed, we feel the consultants' report unfairly tarnished the reputation and credibility of a large majority of UN aid workers and peacekeepers who are out there in the field."

Mr Nair said that in some cases, the alleged victims' accounts have since been discredited, in others, efforts to identify the victims had been unsuccessful. Mr Nair acknowledged a handful of incidents which he said had been properly dealt with, and he acknowledged that sexual harassment in the camps of West Africa was an issue. However he said it was not an issue for which the aid workers themselves were directly responsible.

That, my friends, is a vociferous denial.

Silly Dileep, you don't set a fox to investigate who was the critter that raided the henhouse!

Cue Didier Bourguet, the Frenchman who, though he may be both a senior UN official and a pedophile criminal, also provided a real public service... by videotaping some of his exploits. (On his PC "hard drive were thousands of photos of him having sex with hundreds of young Congolese girls.") More info here.

So shut up, Dileep Nair (who himself stands accused of sexual harassment and of using Oil-for-Food money to hire a deputy that did no work).

The video evidence finally made Kofi Annan speak up:

19 November 2004 (BBC)
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said there is clear evidence that UN staff sexually abused refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Allegations of abuse at UN camps surfaced last year, prompting the UN's internal watchdog to launch an inquiry. After being briefed on its progress, Mr Annan said a small number of civilian and military personnel had committed "shameful" acts of gross misconduct. He added that those involved must be held accountable. Two years ago, a UN investigation rejected similar allegations of sexual exploitation of refugees by UN staff in West Africa.

In a statement released in Nairobi, Mr Annan said he had received a "detailed briefing... about the investigations which the UN initiated some time ago into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by both civilian and military peacekeeping personnel in the DRC". He added: "I am afraid there is clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken place. This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it."
...

Of course, that was a transparent attempt to maintain the tissue of lies that in West Africa, the UN peacekeepers are self-sacrificing heroes, whilst it was only in Congo that a few bad apples had brought shame on the noble peacekeeping operations. (These bad apples apparently amused themselves by activities such as the gang-rape of children as young as 12.)

Of course, later, facts rudely presented themselves and out UN betters were forced to admit that it wasn't, after all, only in the Congo:

27 Feb 2005 (Reuters) (sorry, link has expired, but it was here at the time)

U.N. officials fear the sex-abuse scandal among peacekeepers in Africa is far more widespread and appears to be a problem in each of the global body’s 16 missions around the world.

Rocked by widespread abuse of women and girls, including gang rape, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations also has found sexual exploitation cases in at least four other missions—in Burundi, Liberia, Ivory Coast—as well as more recently in Haiti, they added.

"We think this will look worse before it begins to look better,” Jane Holl Lute, assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, told reporters. “We expect that more information will come from every mission on allegations. We are prepared for that."

(Emphasis added.)

They are not just in Africa, Kofi.

Credible allegations have come in from every UN peacekeeping allegation around the globe, including Cambodia, Kosovo, and Haiti.

That makes it every single inhabited continent.

Where could they have developed such voracious appetites for violence and rapine? How could they have learned such habits?

In the early 1990s, Kofi Annan was the head of UN Peacekeeping Operations.

Another shoe to drop...

2005-04-20T16:43:00.000+02:00

Screenwriter and blogger extraordinaire Roger L. Simon lays it out for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

... this political game is being played out against a backdrop of escalating and seemingly endless corruption at the UN itself, which makes the question of Bolton's manners into a ludicrous sideshow. With Kofi Annan's adviser Canadian businessman Maurice Strong under fire, his Chef de Cabinet having resigned for destroying three-year's worth of documents, his first-ever deputy secretary general under a cloud for enabling 8-billion dollars worth of embezzlement (of money for starving children!), his own son having profiteered off the same scandal (not to mention the mother-of-all corrupt UN sleaze bags Benon Sevan and all the others we will soon know about), if Kofi himself isn't guilty, he's the only one in the Sectariat Building who isn't.
And now we have the rumors that two of the key lawyers on the "independent" inquiry committee into the scandal have resigned. If that's true, you can bet on one thing - they didn't quit because the investigation was being too thorough.

He didn't even mention the UN employees' union giving Kofi Annan a vote of no confidence, or the UNHCR chairman resigning over sexual harassment, or the UN's chief election monitor and its chief auditor in hot water over the same issue, or the pedophilia rings among UN peacekeepers all across the globe (the existence of which the UN vigorously denied in 2002 until a mountain of indisputable evidence, eg, video, was brought to light).

But hey, totting up all of the UN's crimes and sins would make War and Peace look like a penny dreadful.

German work ethic, R. I. P.

2005-04-19T17:50:00.000+02:00

The London correspondent for German daily newspaper Die Welt writes in the BBC of the German politician who reminded his audience that

(Germany) has the youngest old-age pensioners, the oldest students, the shortest working hours and the longest holidays.

Besides the corrosive effect on the vaunted German work ethic, the short work careers exarcebate the catastrophic German pension funding crisis rolling drown the tracks, picking up speed.

Swedish voice objects to UN's complicity in genocide, graft, hypocrisy

2005-04-19T13:01:00.000+02:00

Per Ahlmark, former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden, has some interesting observations on the UN's current state:

Make the UN Stand For Freedom

For Sweden, my homeland, the United Nations is a sacred cow. But today, many Swedes, like others around the world, are having second thoughts. Three events incited these doubts.

The first was the slaughter in Rwanda a decade ago of more than 800,000 people within 100 days – probably the fastest genocide ever. The well-documented fact is that Kofi Annan, then the UN’s Deputy Secretary General, ordered UN soldiers in Rwanda not to intervene or protect the victims. That Annan, after this enormous failure, was promoted to Secretary General of the UN remains a puzzle.

Doubts about the UN, and Annan personally, were compounded by the ongoing scandal within the UN administration concerning the Oil for Food program. Although reports have so far not implicated Annan directly, his management failures are abundantly clear.

The third – and perhaps the most disillusioning – scandal concerns the Commission on Human Rights, for it lays bare much about the structural and permanent lack of balance and morality within key UN agencies. Most people assume that this Commission exists to promote human rights and democratic freedoms. Yet some of the worst human rights violators are Commission members. These enemies of freedom are permanently silent about torture, oppression, and mass murder carried out by their fellow dictatorships, but are quick to rant against the world’s democracies, in particular the United States.

The recent “High Level Panel” report on the future of the UN was right when it said: “We are concerned that in recent years States have sought membership of the Commission not to strengthen human rights but to protect themselves from criticism or to criticize others.” So, finally, the truth is emerging. After more than a third of a century at the UN, even Annan has come close to admitting that the Commission on Human Rights is a source of shame.

Is it reasonable to elect a pyromaniac to the board of a fire department? Of course not. So why is it that tyrannies like Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe are members of this Commission? Recent members also include Libya, Vietnam, Congo, and Syria – the Libyans were even elected chair-country. How can this be?

About half of today’s UN members are democracies, the other half non-democracies. ... Ongoing democratization in regions that have known only dictatorship provides hope that the balance is tilting in a way that would enable it possible for at least one UN body should incarnate freedom...

Those who have attained power through violence and fraud are not legitimate and should never more shame the UN by being members of this Commission. Unfortunately, most democracies are often unwilling to fight against the perversion of the UN Human Rights Commission. The European Union represents 25 democracies and often inspires countries to seek their freedom, as it has in Ukraine and Lebanon. But the EU’s habit is not to defeat the UN’s extremists, but to make strange compromises with them. As a result, rogue states make a few concessions to get the Europeans and others on board and then claim moral parity with the democracies. Free peoples everywhere should remember that totalitarian forces and ideas cannot be defeated by being nice and accommodating. The Commission on Human Rights must rid itself of members that detest freedom. Otherwise, the sole UN agency that concentrates on freedom will be nothing more than a handmaiden to tyranny.

(Emphasis added.)

Encouraging to see such sentiment from fully-paid up, social welfare to the max, EU member, gung ho multilateralist Sweden.

Kofi Annan dismissed those who are upset that the UN abetted the embezzlement of, what is it now, US$60 billion from the Oil-for-Food programme as right wingers who want to dismantle the UN. (Logical fallacy, that. Shouldn't left wingers who want to strengthen the UN also be upset that high-ranking UN bureaucrats were working hand-in-fist with Saddam Hussein to take billions away from hungry, needy Iraqis?)

Perhaps Mr. Annan will pay this broadside a bit more attention, since his wife, Nane, is from Sweden.

Quote for the day

2005-04-19T12:58:00.000+02:00

A state that mistreats its own people cannot be trusted to live in peace with its neighbors.

- Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)
Soviet physicist, dissident and human rights campaigner

MMB looking for Mr Kofi's refill

2005-04-18T20:03:00.000+02:00

Der Spiegel interviews Mark Malloch Brown, Kofi Annan's new amanuensis. Points of note:

"A Tremendous Blow to the UN"

Kofi Annan's chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, 51, discusses the crisis at the United Nations, his hopes that Kofi Annan's successor will be a woman and Germany's prospects for a permanent seat on the Security Council.

SPIEGEL: To what extent have the UN and its secretary general been weakened in the wake of the corruption scandal surrounding the "Oil for Food" program in Iraq, in which Kofi Annan's son, Kojo, has become embroiled?

Malloch Brown: It's clear that these serious accusations have been a tremendous blow to the UN and have raised questions about its effectiveness, but also about Kofi Annan's integrity. Happily, however, the investigative commission has failed to uncover any wrongdoing in this regard. (Lack of evidence does not equal exoneration. - ed.)

SPIEGEL: Nonetheless, there has been talk about inadequate supervision, incompetence and possible conflicts of interest. Isn't that a second-class acquittal?

Malloch Brown: No, the investigators truly left no stone unturned, and the UN spend many millions (of the Iraqi people's money. - ed.) on the investigation. It was a tough time for Kofi Annan. But it ultimately produced nothing for which he could be held accountable. (Perhaps the proof was shredded by Mr. Malloch Brown's predecessor, Mr. Iqbal Riza? - ed.) However, the commission's conclusion that there are organizational weaknesses within the UN has once again highlighted the need for reform, including internal reform within the organization itself.

SPIEGEL: A strong secretary general and strong allies are needed for reform. In nominating John Bolton as its ambassador to the UN, the powerful United States has chosen someone who has never made a secret of his disdain for the organization. (Dear Spiegel: That was not a question. - ed.)

Malloch Brown: He was certainly not our first choice as a candidate for this position. But sometimes the UN does need an ambassador who can get things done in Washington. Perhaps Bolton can play this role. After all, he's someone who has the trust of right-wingers in Washington. Incidentally, he has stated, in his testimony before the US Senate, that he now accepts multilateral cooperation. That in itself is already a big step forward.

...

SPIEGEL: Berlin is also trying to use the option of such a review clause to appease critical European Union partners, who would like to see a European seat on the Security Council. Is there any chance of that happening?

Malloch Brown: It's a proposal that's not up for debate at this point. However, a review clause could make this idea an option in the future. But Germany will first have to consistently demonstrate its own claim to leadership.

SPIEGEL: What does that mean?

Malloch Brown: A reformed Security Council will not reflect military might as much as economic strength. In that case Germany, as a major economic power, will also assume a leading role and, for example, will financially increase its financial contribution to development aid to the internationally agreed-upon level of 0.7 percent of GNP. This is absolutely critical. (Translation: Cough up the pay-off and you are in like Flint. 'Demonstrate leadership' means give the UN and our NGO hangers-on more money! Haven't the Germans enjoyed that experience with the EU? - ed.)

...

SPIEGEL: What kinds of attributes should a candidate to replace Kofi Annan in 2006 have?

Malloch Brown: In my view, there are strong reasons to support an Asian candidate. After all, Asia makes up half of the world, and in the past the UN has at times leaned heavily toward the Atlantic region and Africa. It's also about time that the position be filled by a woman. That would be truly spectacular, because it would symbolize, in the highest-ranking office at the United Nations, the social and cultural shift in values in a changing world, just as Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela once symbolized a new generation of African leader.

INTERVIEW: RALF BESTE, MANFRED ERTEL

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

(Comments added by me.)

It sounds to me as if Mr. Malloch Brown has someone in mind even now. I bet it is a Japanese woman like Sadako Ogata, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees (yes, the Rude Lover's old post). With a Japanese woman as Secretary General, Japan might be mollified enough to halt its burgeoning campaign for a permanent Security Council seat.

And someone like Ms. Ogata, with her long UN career, could be trusted to stay onside - the UN side being the side of the elite class whose deserve, nay, are destined to rule the planet.

Who cares if the next Secretary General is a woman or not? I don't care whether she is packing X-chromosomes or Y's, as long as she isn't cut from the same transnational progressive, socialist, anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-capitalism, anti-success, pro-tyranny, pro-corruption cloth as Boutros² Ghali and Mr. Kofi.

Otherwise, the fact of a woman as Secretary General won't make a vas deferens.

Quote for the day

2005-04-13T21:23:00.000+02:00

This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) (said by Polonius in Hamlet, Act I, Scene iii)
English playwright and poet

Nepotism, embezzlement, malfeasance, but no punishment

2005-04-12T14:33:00.000+02:00

Last week, the New York Post carried an op-ed from Cuban exile and Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (notable for being the first Hispanic woman and the first Cuban-American elected to the US Congress). She points out a few more juicy tidbits on Oil - for - Food - and - Weapons - and - Palaces - and - UN - bureaucrats - and - their - families:

... the United Nations had pledged to pay the legal bills of Benon Sevan, the now disgraced director of Oil-for-Food.

Annan's chef de cabinet suggested that the U.N. did this only to encourage Sevan's cooperation with the Volcker investigation — but Volcker strongly denied that claim.

Worse yet, the U.N. sought to pay Sevan's bills — $300,000 — out of Oil-for-Food funds. That money rightly belongs to the people of Iraq — the very people who suffered from the corruption of Oil-for-Food under Sevan's administration. Yet it took intense media attention to get the U.N. to back off from this plan.

Former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali appears to have involved himself in a sub-scandal here. As described in Volcker's first interim report, Boutros Ghali apparently chose Banque National de Paris (BNP) to serve as the bankers for Oil-for-Food — even though the bank didn't qualify under U.N. procurement standards for the contract.

Moreover, Fakhry Abdelnoor — identified in the CIA's 2004 report on Oil-for-Food as Sevan's courier for his Iraqi-supplied oil vouchers — is Boutros-Ghali's nephew.

Sevan has been charged with receiving millions of dollars in vouchers entitling him to receive oil allocations that were later sold to Abdelnoor's oil company, The Africa Middle East Petroleum Company of Panama.

Sevan repeatedly denied knowing Abdelnoor, yet Volcker's investigators found two of his business cards in a search of (Sevan's) U.N. office, and Abdelnoor's name appeared repeatedly in Sevan's phone logs.

Indeed, Sevan was introduced to Abdelnoor by Boutros-Ghali's brother-in-law, Fred Nadler. Could this all be a coincidence? It certainly looks like nepotism, favoritism and outright willful ignorance of proper management were the rule at the United Nations.

(Emphasis added.)

I have not seen any media reports that Benon Sevan, who administered the Oil - for - Food - and - Weapons - and - Palaces - and - UN - bureaucrats - and - their - families programme at the UN, has discharged Mr. Sevan.

Therefore I must assume that Mr. Sevan, like Kofi Annan's former chief of staff Mr. Iqbal Riza (aka the document shredder), is still working at the UN on a US$1 per year salary and therefore retains diplomatic immunity and so cannot be indicted.

Crooked bastards.

New conspiracy theory from German Green bigwig

2005-04-12T13:49:00.000+02:00

David's Medienkritik spots a phantasmagorical new conspiracy theory from a top German Green Party harridan, who happens to be Germany's highest ranking female member of parliament.

Antje Vollmer lays out her lunatic theory that the neo-con-subverted-USA government created the Catholic Church's pedophilia scandal to damage the Pope's international standing because the Pope opposed the Iraq war.

I have to give proper credit to Der Spiegel for a nice takedown of this Moore / Monbiot / Meyssan moonbattery.

How does she explain that the pedophilia scandal date back to at least 1984 (nice timeline from CBS in sidebar) and likely earlier, whilst the Iraq war debates occurred throughout 2002 and 2003?

And that plenty of priest pedophilia cases have turned up in Australia and Britain, as well as France, Canada, and even Germany's little sister Austria? Seems to be a stark mixture there of Coalition of the Willing and Axis of Weasels nations.

Bush and Rove must have a time machine and a fleet of SR-71s.

Oh, I know... I bet it is the neo-cons working with the worldwide Jewish network.

Why am I wasting time pointing out logical inconsistencies in Antje's acid trip? Cognitive dissonance does not work on moonbats.

I should remind myself to not waste time trying to dissuade Antje from her whacked-out conspiracy theory. See today's Quote for the day for the reason.

Quote for the day

2005-04-12T13:40:00.000+02:00

It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into.

— Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745)
Irish author and satirist

Another brick in the wall

2005-04-12T13:33:00.000+02:00

The Washington Post has an op-ed from a legal aid worker in Sierra Leone who saw abuses of power, sexual abuse and embezzlement every day, even as Kofi Annan promised 'zero tolerance'.

It won't come as shocking news for readers of this blog, but it should be read.

Anyone who was shocked by the most recent revelations of sexual misconduct by United Nations staff has never set foot in a U.N.-sponsored refugee camp. Sex crimes are only one especially disturbing symptom of a culture of abuse that exists in the United Nations precisely because the United Nations and its staff lack accountability.

This lack of accountability is the central blemish on today's United Nations, and it lies behind most of the recent headlines. Whether taking advantage of a malnourished refugee or of a lucrative oil-for-food contract, the temptation is there, the act is easy and the risk of punishment is nil...

I found abuse of a sexual nature almost every day -- zero compliance with zero tolerance, as one investigator was to write.

(Emphasis added.)

Like Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca, I am shocked, shocked to hear evidence of embezzlement and rapine at the expense of starving, frightened war refugees by our UN betters.

More UN scandals appear in daylight

2005-04-10T18:00:00.000+02:00

U.S News & World Report has a good roundup on the UN's proposed 'reforms' that most readers are already aware of, but it also reveals some great tidbits, such as:

...(T)wo thirds of U.N. employees surveyed by Deloitte Consulting last year admitted being privy to unethical conduct--and that almost half said they were too scared to ever report it. Those who do air dirty laundry typically find themselves shunned, and their employment contracts often aren't renewed. Although new whistleblower shields are being proposed, those who step forward currently have few protections. And internal audits reveal how little has happened on Annan's watch when misdeeds are reported. From 1998 to 2001, a U.N. staff member forced defense lawyers to pay him kickbacks to process their payments at the International Criminal Tribunal for the genocide in Rwanda. In September 2003, frustrated investigators found that the man had not been fired but, instead, had been shifted to other clerical duties.

In another case, a staff member at the U.N.'s Geneva office was allowed to take early retirement after he was found viewing child pornography on his office computer...

A management review conducted in October found that it took, on average, two to three years to fire an employee for whatever reason. "Meanwhile, you still have to pay them; they just don't do any work," says one longtime U.N. staffer. "So normally you just keep them on and the standards go down in your office."...

The system seems designed for failure. U.N. staff members say there is virtually no training for new employees and no clear career path. Promotions are based on seniority, not performance. And those in charge of complex issues may be chosen for whom they know, not what they know. "They throw people from this mass of incompetence into posts where they have no experience," complains a former U.N. worker, recalling a large peacekeeping operation in Africa where the chief procurement officer "was a former air conditioner repairman who just happened to be related to the right person." Sometimes it's even worse. In Kosovo, Jo Hans Dieter Trutschler was hired to a senior-level position requiring knowledge of public works engineering. A 2003 audit reveals that he was hired without any background check because he was a friend of the program manager. His resume turned out to be a lie. Trutschler was later convicted in a German court of diverting $4.3 million into an offshore account.

(Emphasis added.)

Repeated financial and sex scandals, and repeated cover-ups. They cannot possibly reflect on the executive management of the UN, can they? They must all, each and every one, be the fevered imaginings of the dreaded neocons, n'est ce pas?

Quote for the day

2005-04-10T17:45:00.000+02:00

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

- Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)
Political philosopher

Women can do it too

2005-04-08T13:18:00.000+02:00

It is not only male UN bureaucrats such as the UN Refugee Chief Ruud Lubbers (the rude lover's favourite line was 'I would love to have you sit on my staff') and top UN Auditor Dileep Nair that are pressurising their subordinates for sex. The ladies need some action too! Viz, the top UN elections official:

Adding to the U.N.'s credibility woes, an internal review of its electoral assistance division accuses the director, Carina Perelli, with sexual and workplace harassment, misuse of funds and favoritism.

The confidential management review, which was obtained by The Times, described the electoral unit as an "unhealthy family" and the work environment as abusive. Working for Perelli has been "nothing short of a devastating experience," a subordinate is quoted as saying.
...
The review, conducted by an outside consultant that has often worked with the U.N., was commissioned in December by the head of political affairs, Kieran Prendergast, to explore staff complaints that came to light during a previous assessment by the firm, the report said.

Its findings were "much more serious" than expected, it said. Besides extensive recommendations for improving organization and practices, the report urged an official investigation of the sexual and professional harassment allegations and reports of unjustified use of electoral funds, often for travel.

Staff members said Perelli had created a work environment in which sexual innuendo was constant, something she considered "conducive to collegiality." Some, however, found it offensive and were led by the situation to leave the division. The report cites unwelcome sexual advances, inquiries into staff members' intimate lives and public derision of their responses, as well as unwelcome information about sexual exploits.

Employees complained that her management style was abusive and derogatory and that her assignments were unreasonably challenging. They said she favored an inner circle of staffers who received preferential treatment and were sent on special trips, while others were exiled on extended missions abroad to keep them out of the office.

Perelli, a 48-year-old Uruguayan political scientist, has headed the electoral division for nine years and directed elections in hot spots around the world, among them Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, East Timor, Colombia, Liberia and Haiti.
...
"Many aspects of her personal and managerial behavior suggest that she does not, in fact, feel bound by the rules," the report said.

Rules are for the little people.

Lest we forget

2005-04-06T23:18:00.000+02:00

The Berlin Wall was built in late 1961. It stood till November 1989.

Over 100 Germans were killed by East German Border Guards (or their automated weapons) at the Berlin Wall.

The last was Chris Gueffroy in June 1989, just six months before the Wall came down.

Remaining walls

2005-04-06T23:09:00.000+02:00

Another interesting tidbit from the UK Observer:

... (A) decade into reunification when the Berliner Kurier newspaper reported that of 15,000 marriages in Berlin, only 400 were 'mixed' - one spouse from the west and one from the east.

I can corroborate this myself. After visiting Germany on many occasions, I finally made it to Berlin only just last year, on business. I had time before my flight and requested a 'taxi tour.' He agreeably drove by all the main cultural and historical sites.

The political geography made the earlier division obvious. East Berlin evinced unmistakable communist central planning. Whilst driving through one grey section, on our left was a large park with signs in Cyrillic.

I asked my driver / tour guide what it was. 'A Russian military cemetery, I think.'

Me: 'Oh, right. It's huge. How many are buried there?'

Driver: 'I don't know. I'm not an Ossi.'

The political geography isn't the only remaining evidence of the division.

Kofi's bloody CV

2005-04-06T18:37:00.000+02:00

This cri de coeur from the author of Emergency Sex and other Desperate Measures in Britain's Observer (of all places) about UN systemic corruption and abuse and Kofi Annan's role in it is a must-read.

How many more must die before Kofi quits?

Former UN human rights lawyer Kenneth Cain says the secretary-general could finally redeem himself by saving lives - after years of lethal passivity

Like its cousin, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Rwanda's stunning new genocide museum, perched on a quiet hillside overlooking Kigali, is at its most arresting when it honours the lost children. One installation invites us to consider David, a cute, shy boy, with big round black eyes: David's favourite sport was soccer; he enjoyed making people laugh; his dream was to be a doctor; he was tortured to death; his last words were: 'The UN will come to get us.'
...

Next to these tributes is another installation - a reproduction of the infamous fax by the UN Force Commander, General Romeo Dallaire, imploring the then head of UN peacekeeping, Kofi Annan, for authority to defend Rwandan civilians - many of whom had taken refuge in UN compounds under implicit and sometimes explicit promises of protection.

Here, too, is Annan's faxed response - ordering Dallaire to defend only the UN's image of impartiality, forbidding him to protect desperate civilians waiting to die. Next, it details the withdrawal of UN troops, even while blood flowed and the assassins reigned, leaving 800,000 Rwandans to their fate.

...

His own legions have raped and pillaged. In two present scandals, over the oil-for-food programme in Iraq, and sex-for-food in Congo, Annan was personally aware of malfeasance among his staff, but again responded with passivity.

...(W)hen I worked in Liberia in the mid-Nineties a new chief administrative officer was dispatched to Monrovia by the UN to replace the previous CAO, who was removed (then reassigned elsewhere) for taking a 15 per cent kickback on UN procurement contracts. In the name of cleaning up the old corruption, the new CAO tapped our phones, paid locals to spy for him and threatened to send home anyone who opposed him, all to facilitate his own quest for a 15 per cent kickback on everything we purchased.

The worst part was watching him try to coerce as many of his young 'local staff' to sleep with him as possible. A UN salary is enough money to support an entire extended family in a country such as Liberia, so these vulnerable women were in a tortuously compromised position by their boss's unwanted advances.

Sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and embezzlement. How times change! Just in the last two months we have seen the the UN's Refugee Commissioner forced to resign over sexual harassment charges and the UN's Chief Auditor accused of it, rampant rape and sex trafficking by UN peacekeepers in Congo and Kosovo, and of course the US$100 billion Oil-for-Food-and-Weapons-and-Palaces corruption/nepotism/embezzlement scandal.

I was the human rights lawyer and these girls would come to my office in tears asking for help. I wrote memo after memo of complaint to my chain of command, but no one did anything. I even confronted the CAO personally. To no effect. When I visited the UN human resources office in New York to complain personally, they laughed at my naive outrage: 'It happens all the time in the field,' they said. 'There's nothing we can do.'

In the meantime, a quarter of a million Liberians died, and warring factions committed war crimes. And the UN did - nothing. Just as it was simultaneously doing nothing, more infamously, in Rwanda and Bosnia.

Before I met him in Liberia, that CAO, Krishna Gowandan, had been knocking around West Africa for years in various UN jobs, always mired in corruption, never disciplined, always promoted and reassigned - a pattern all too familiar at the UN - during which time the head of personnel was Kofi Annan. (Gowandan was eventually indicted by US federal prosecutors in New York for $1.5 million worth of fraudulent kickbacks on UN construction jobs. He has since died.)

What kind of leadership would tolerate this conduct 10 years ago? The answer is: precisely the same leadership that, 10 years later, permitted the oil-for-food scandal and the sex-for-food scandal. Why did it take everyone 10 years to figure this out?

The second searing irony for me is that the American neoconservative right has occupied the moral high ground in critique of Annan, outflanking the left, which sits on indefensible territory in his support. But if prevention of genocide and protection of the vulnerable are not core priorities on the left, then what is? If anyone's values have been betrayed, it is those of us on the left who believe most deeply in the organisation's ideals. I am mystified by the reluctance of the left both in the US and the UK (the Guardian 's coverage, for example) to criticise Annan's leadership. The bodies burn today in Darfur - and the women are raped - amid the sound of silence from Annan. How many genocides, the prevention of which is the UN's very raison d'être, will we endure before the left is moved to criticise Annan? Shouldn't we be hearing the left screaming bloody murder about the UN's failure to protect vulnerable Africans? Has it lost its compass so badly that it purports to excuse the rape of Congolese women by UN peacekeepers under Annan's watch? Is stealing money intended for widows and orphans in Iraq merely a forgivable bureaucratic snafu?

I am co-author of a book critical of Annan's peacekeeping legacy, Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone . My co-author, Dr Andrew Thomson, penned a line that drove the UN leadership to fire him. Lamenting UN negligence in failing Bosnian Muslims whom it had promised to protect in its 'safe area' of Srebrenica - where 8,000 men were slaughtered - Thomson wrote: 'If blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run. Or else get weapons. Your lives are worth so much less than theirs.'
...

Annan is not personally corrupt or incompetent. But the UN cannot have failed more catastrophically when the stakes have been highest. If he does not lose his job for that, then for what? And if not now, when?

(Emphasis added.)

Britain's Guardian and its weekend edition, The Observer, are normally a welcoming echo chamber for the transnational progressives / socialists / anti-Americans / NGO disciples / Eurocrats / human rights "advocates" / leftists. It is quite a pleasant surprise to read some harsh truths about UN abuse, and the hundreds of thousands of deaths it has caused, assisted in, and allowed to happen.

Quote for the day

2005-04-06T12:07:00.000+02:00

He who befriends and advances friend and foe alike will only arouse distaste for his friendship and contempt for his enmity. He will earn the scorn of his enemy and facilitate his hostile designs; he will lose his friend, who will join the ranks of his enemies.

- Ibn Hazm (994 - 1064)
Islamic historian and theologian

Impeccable timing

2005-04-05T00:17:00.000+02:00

On 22 April 2004, the day after the Security Council passed a resolution authorizing Volcker's inquiry into the Oil-for-Food-and-Weapons-and-Palaces scandal, Kofi Annan's chief of staff Mr Iqbal Riza of Pakistan, ordered three years worth of files on Oil for Food destroyed. The documentation was so voluminous that the shredding took seven months.

The Washington Times provides more damning detail:

As the Volcker panel points out, "The timing of the destruction order is striking because of Mr. Riza's awareness of the Committee's impending investigation." Mr. Riza's order came just one day after the Security Council passed Resolution 1538, welcoming the decision by his boss, Mr. Annan, to appoint an independent panel to investigate the oil-for-food program. Even more troubling is the fact that 10 days earlier, Mr. Riza personally wrote to the heads of the nine U.N.-related agencies that administered the program in northern Iraq to request that they cooperate with the investigation and "take all necessary steps to collect, preserve and secure all files, records and documents...relating to the Oil-for-Food Programme."

In another coincidence of timing, Mr Riza abruptly announced his retirement on 22 December 2004, the very day he admitted to the panel that he shredded the documents.

When first interviewed by the Volcker committee on December 20, Mr. Riza failed to disclose that he had authorized the destruction of three years worth of documents. Two days later, he told the committee that some of the files had been destroyed, and produced a copy of his memorandum authorizing their shredding. That very day, Mr. Riza -- one of the most powerful figures at the United Nations -- suddenly announced his retirement.

(Emphasis added.)

The timing is impeccable. The arrogance is breathtaking.

UPDATE: Reuters offers some more juicy tidbits.

Annan chief of staff Iqbal Riza "acted imprudently and in contravention of his own April 12, 2004, directives regarding the preservation of all documents relating to the program," said a report by the Independent Inquiry Committee led by Paul Volcker.

Riza, a 70-year-old Pakistani, is a long-time confidant of Annan. He was his deputy in the U.N. peacekeeping department before Annan became secretary-general in January 1997.

That would mean that his permanently callous-free hands are stained with rivers of Rwandan blood.

But wait! Don Kofi won't let his man get canned and become a stool pigeon. There is another critical detail getting very little media play...

Riza stepped down as Annan's chief of staff in December but remained on the payroll until the end of February, after which Annan rehired him for $1 a year as an adviser, according to chief U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard. The arrangement enabled Riza to maintain his diplomatic immunity as a U.N. employee.

(Emphasis added.)

High ate us

2005-03-17T00:25:00.000+02:00

Posting will be light for a bit due to travel plans.

Do svidanya.

Pot says to Kettle...

2005-03-16T19:05:00.000+02:00

From the AP, here is an interesting report which defies the conventional wisdom:

The proportion of overweight or fat men is higher in some European countries than it is in the US, experts said in a major analysis of Europeans’ expanding waistlines.

The International Obesity Task Force estimated that Finland, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Malta have all now exceeded the US’ 67% in overweight or obese males.

“The time when obesity was thought to be a problem on the other side of the Atlantic has gone by,” Mars Di Bartolomeo, Luxembourg’s Minister of Health, said yesterday.

In Greece, 38% of women are obese, compared with 34% in the US.

The report was released at the launch of the 25-nation EU’s plan for action on the problem in its member states.

And you can't go shooting the messenger; it works hand-in-glove with the EU.

The International Obesity Task Force (is) a global coalition of obesity scientists and research centres advising the EU...

Up to 8% of the current health care costs in the EU can be attributed to the effects of being overweight or obese, he said.
...
The IOTF estimates that among the EU’s 103 million youngsters, the number of overweight children rises by 400,000 each year. More than 30% of children aged between 7 and 11 are overweight in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta.

(Emphasis added.)

The interesting ones to note are places like Malta and Slovakia, where the citizens have much lower disposable incomes than the US or Germany or Finland, so there is more to the story than simply GDP per capita.

I recall that in previous IOTF findings, strangely enough, results showed that there was a larger proportion of overweight females in poor Mexico and poor Lebanon than in rich America, for example. In December, the Wall Street Journal (reg req'd) did a story detailing how some parts of the Arab world find female obesity attractive, leading some families to force-feed their daughters to gross extremes.

One less reason to sneer at the Yanks, I guess. Not that it will stop anybody on the anti-American left - objective truth counter to their biases rolls off of them like raindrops from a duck's back.

"Well ... (splutter) they like NASCAR!!!!"

UN factoid

2005-03-16T18:36:00.000+02:00

Kofi Annan's middle name is Atta.