April 4, 2005 By Fausta
Roger looks at Pierre's testimony
The MSM has a thing or two to learn from Roger L. Simon investigation and reporting of the Oil-For-Food crimes. Roger has been talking to Pierre Mouselli, and has learned first-hand that,
According to Mouselli, Saddam's people (then on the brink of being invaded) suddenly invited the businessman to lunch at their embassy in Abuja, Nigeria. They told him they were extremely interested in locating Kojo Annan for (unspecified) reasons. They said Kojo owed them for (unspecified) favors previously done him and they needed then to speak with Secretary General's son as soon as possible. They offered Mouselli a visa to Iraq to discuss this with them further.
Roger's latest is here, but scroll down for more.
Claudia Rosett, who's been investigating from the start, looks at Kofi's proposed reforms,
One has to wonder if somewhere in all this, Mr. Annan's ample agenda might include a plan to bury the U.N.'s critics in an avalanche of U.N. reform reports.
That would be welcome, were Mr. Annan proposing real reform. But the basic problem with the U.N. is not that it doesn't have enough money, or enough Security Council members, or enough commissions, offices, reports and reform proposals.
Everything I've seen so far has led me to believe the UN is a corrupt organization that will never change. Instead of true reform, it will continue to propose larger, more bureaucratic central planning and opportunities for corruption. Those of us old enough to remember the UNESCO corruption scandal (which caused the USA to withdraw from UNESCO 20 years ago or so) can use it as an example: two decades later, UNESCO has come up with a international treaty called "The Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions." Or yet another mandate for economic protectionism.
Update As to other sections of the UN, Val asks, UN Human Rights what????
Significantly, six of the eighteen most repressive governments–those of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe–are members of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), representing nearly 11 percent of the 53-member body.
The USA should stop funding the UN. The sooner, the better.
Don't forget it's Monday, and time for another round of Good news from Afghanistan, Part 11 over at Arthur's!