The Right's Assault on Kofi Annan

[Peacemonger]

Last June UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said of the media coverage of the so-called Oil for Food Scandal, “It’s a bit like lynching, actually.” By December the vigilantes were lining up, swinging their ropes. The neoconservative and paleoconservative assault on him and the UN has been like a slightly slower version of the Swift Boat veterans’ campaign against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry–right down to the halfhearted and belated disavowals by George W. Bush

thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20050110&s=williams.

 

[gilliam]

**Last June UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said of the media coverage of the so-called Oil for Food Scandal, “It’s a bit like lynching, actually.” **%between%

Actually, it is a bit like embezzlement and bribery.

 

[Lisa_N]

Last June UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said of the media coverage of the so-called Oil for Food Scandal, “It’s a bit like lynching, actually.” By December the vigilantes were lining up, swinging their ropes. The neoconservative and paleoconservative assault on him and the UN has been like a slightly slower version of the Swift Boat veterans’ campaign against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry–right down to the halfhearted and belated disavowals by George W. Bush

thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20050110&s=williams.

Well if the Swifties hadn’t reported the truth about Kerry and if the truth about Kofi’s corruption had not been so compelling, neither he nor Kerry would have been subject to these revelations.

Gee how sad they had to drag Kofi off the slopes of Aspen to deal with the tsunami. With all the stress of the Oil For Food scandal, the sexual harassment scandals and the misery in the Sudan all under his watch, the poor man is probably over stressed and needs the time off.

Peace you always manage to champion the real dregs of society. Guess they are lucky someone is supporting them.

Lisa N

 

[Peacemonger]

gilliam:

Actually, it is a bit like embezzlement and bribery.

I don’t know if you actually read the article or not, but as it stated, there is no actual evidence that Kofi is guilty of what he is accused of. So I think based on that, a “lynching” is pretty accurate. And lets be honest here. If Kofi had supported the Bush admins war against Iraq, we would have never heard of the “oil for food” scandal.

 

[Peacemonger]

Lisa N:

Peace you always manage to champion the real dregs of society. Guess they are lucky someone is supporting them.

Lisa N

I’m not supporting him, just offering an alternative view. Kofi is HATED by American conservatives so any charges they trump up should be carefully viewed. BTW, since this scandal broke he’s been supported but all the governments of the West, including the U.S.

 

[gilliam]

Peacemonger:

I don’t know if you actually read the article or not, but as it stated, there is no actual evidence that Kofi is guilty of what he is accused of. So I think based on that, a “lynching” is pretty accurate. .

I simply said the Oil for Food scandle is about embezzlement and bribery.

If it were the US Government and President Bush you would be the 1st to say that the buck stops at the top. Well the top of the UN is Kofi, and he needs to quit wining and start taking some responsibility. He can start by suspending his son.

And lets be honest here. If Kofi had supported the Bush admins war against Iraq, we would have never heard of the “oil for food” scandal.

Sure we would have.

 

[cestusdei]

He is making sure the evidence disappears. Anyone who blows the whistle gets fired from their nice well paid UN job. If Kofi was an American politician he would have to answer questions. He probably would end up in prison with his son. But corruption and the UN are sisters. I would let him off the hook if he donated the money to the tsunami victims.

 

[gilliam]

Peacemonger:

I’m not supporting him, just offering an alternative view. Kofi is HATED by American conservatives so any charges they trump up should be carefully viewed. BTW, since this scandal broke he’s been supported but all the governments of the West, including the U.S.

I don’t hate Kofi and I am an American conservative.

He is supported by the US because the alternatives are worse. He lives in the murky world of international deplomacy. Nothing should be taken at face value.

 

[JMJ_Pinoy]

gilliam:

I don’t hate Kofi and I am an American conservative.

He is supported by the US because the alternatives are worse. He lives in the murky world of international deplomacy. Nothing should be taken at face value.

 

[Peacemonger]

He is making sure the evidence disappears.

And how do you know that?

 

[Lisa_N]

Peacemonger:

I’m not supporting him, just offering an alternative view. Kofi is HATED by American conservatives so any charges they trump up should be carefully viewed. BTW, since this scandal broke he’s been supported but all the governments of the West, including the U.S.

Quite honestly Peace, I don’t hate Anan, I am just incredibly frustrated by his inaction on issues like the Sudan.I really don’t think it’s possible for the UN to involve itself in conflicts but the idea of a coalition to help in cases of starvation, disease, natural disasters seems like the ONE place where the UN has potential to have some use. That they are reduced to talking heads makes me sick.

It’s clear that the UN is corrupt as a dockside prostitute. So let’s clean house and it starts with number one, Anan. All of this happened on HIS watch and his protests against the Iraq war are totally disingenuous. It seems now that he was only doing this to protect lucrative contracts for his smarmy son. YOu know the saying, follow the MONEY.

That Bush is ‘supporting’ him must mean there is some tit for tat going on behind the scenes. We really don’t know what happens behind closed doors. But the Oil for Food scandal certainly clarifies the reasons the French and Russians would not support our effort to remove Saddam. Had they been in support, the country could have been liberated far more easily. I put the bloodshed right at their feet and Kofi gets measure for measure as well. I think the whole organization needs to implode and go away. They are utterly USELESS.

Lisa N

 

[Peacemonger]

Lisa N:

Quite honestly Peace, I don’t hate Anan, I am just incredibly frustrated by his inaction on issues like the Sudan.I really don’t think it’s possible for the UN to involve itself in conflicts but the idea of a coalition to help in cases of starvation, disease, natural disasters seems like the ONE place where the UN has potential to have some use. That they are reduced to talking heads makes me sick.

About Sudan…I agree. Something besides talk should have been done. I would have even supported Military intervention to stop the killing of innocent African Christians. But unfortunately, the U.S. was pretty quiet as well and showed little leadership.

It’s clear that the UN is corrupt as a dockside prostitute. So let’s clean house and it starts with number one, Anan. All of this happened on HIS watch and his protests against the Iraq war are totally disingenuous.

Again I agree. Well…almost. I do believe his lack of support for the invasion of Iraq was genuine.

It seems now that he was only doing this to protect lucrative contracts for his smarmy son. YOu know the saying, follow the MONEY.

That may be true, but there’s no hard evidence that he did.

 

[St.James]

That the UN is corrupt is beyond question. But so is every other large bureaucracy to some extent.

So the question arises, why is the UN being subjected to such a focused attack at this time?

They’ve apparently angered someone powerful.

Come to think of it, the UN’s relationship with the Israeli state wasn’t going so well…

 

[gilliam]

There’s corruption and then there’s corruption. I think the UN in the Oil for Food deal has set a record for corruption for a long time to come.

 

[gilliam]

St. James:

That the UN is corrupt is beyond question. But so is every other large bureaucracy to some extent.

There’s corruption and then there’s corruption. I think the UN in the Oil for Food deal has set a record for corruption for a long time to come.

So the question arises, why is the UN being subjected to such a focused attack at this time?

Because we were suppose to be relying on them to be objective as far as Iraq was concerned {at least the Pope was} and they were being bribed. It caused us to go into Iraq alone, and more Americans died. With a larger occupation force the looting could have been stopped (remember the major reason for the looting is that we didn’t have the divisions coming in from the North to occupy Bagdad, so the ones from the South had to be streached.) All that contributed to an unstable occupation and more Iraqis died and are dying.

They’ve apparently angered someone powerful.

Yes, me!

Come to think of it, the UN’s relationship with the Israeli state wasn’t going so well…

Right… it is the Joooooows fault! :banghead:

At least you didn’t use the synonym many people here use for Jews. That is the word neocon.

 

[St.James]

St. James:

So the question arises, why is the UN being subjected to such a focused attack at this time?

gilliam:

Because we were suppose to be relying on them to be objective as far as Iraq was concerned {at least the Pope was} and they were being bribed. It caused us to go into Iraq alone, and more Americans died?

This is all old news. It doesn’t demonstrate why the media attack is happening now, over a year later, and with such focus.

The establishment media doesn’t snap into formation like it has for this story without a cue being given.

 

[gilliam]

St. James:

This is all old news. It doesn’t demonstrate why the media attack is happening now, over a year later, and with such focus.

The establishment media doesn’t snap into formation like it has for this story without a cue being given.

Actually the establishment media reports what it is given. There is very little investigative journalism going on today. What is happening is that special interest groups are issuing reports on the bribing prior to the official report being produced.

Same thing happened before the 9/11 reports were published.

 

[St.James]

gilliam:

What is happening is that special interest groups are issuing reports on the bribing prior to the official report being produced.

And what is the special interest of these special interest groups in this case?

 

[gilliam]

St. James:

And what is the special interest of these special interest groups in this case?

Depends on the group. There are those on the right who are pushing for investigations of the UN and digging up what they can (you see that stuff reported in the NY Post and in the Washington Times for example).

Fox actually has taken the position of doing some real investigative reporting on their own on the scandle (their reason is probably ratings).

Left leaning papers, like the NY Times, are reporting that there is a scandal and interviewing the UN to try to report the UN’s position. Basically they are taking a wait and see attitude.

And you have outlets like Aljazeera who are blaiming the Jews (aka neocons) for being behind the harrasing of the UN about the scandle and saying there really is nothing that Saddam did wrong.

You also have bloggers who are investigating this because, well, they are bloggers

 

[Lilyofthevalley]

It’s a shame Mr. Anan allowed The U.N to behave in such a disgraceful manner. Or do you think the oil for food scam was okay Peacemonger?