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| The Senate vs. the U.N. |
| 2004-11-15 |
| 'The extent of the corruption is staggering,'' Sen. Norm Coleman told me. He is a freshman Republican from Minnesota completing his second year in Washington, and he was talking about the United Nations and its pious secretary-general, Kofi Annan. Coleman's comments are not the mere musings of an insignificant rookie senator, but the considered judgment of a committee chairman whose careful investigation reached the hearing stage today. After winning his seat against former Vice President Walter F. Mondale in 2002, Coleman was rewarded with the chairmanship of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He is conducting what could be the most explosive congressional investigation in years, probing the U.N.'s fraudulent oil-for-food program in Iraq and Annan's obstruction of the senatorial inquiry. Coleman said this week's hearings will show that ''the scope of the ripoff'' at the U.N. is substantially more than the widely reported $10 billion to $11 billion in graft. But more than money is involved. These hearings also should expose the arrogance of the secretary-general and his bureaucracy. At the same time that he has refused to honor the Senate committee's request for documents, Annan has inveighed against the Fallujah offensive sanctioned by the new Iraqi government while ignoring the terrorism of insurgents. This is an unprecedented showdown between a branch of the U.S. government and the U.N. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #16 Norm Coleman'll do a great job on this. Caught this via Powerline this morning. They echo the sentiments of #14 above, among others. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-11-15 9:18:16 PM |
| #15 What DPA said. Don't shut down the UN; just make it irrelevant. Create a parallel collective security organization devoted to resolving critical crises in the near and far east, democracy promotion and containment of nuke proliferation. Should have an Asian and Eurasian focus. Prominent members sh be Japan, India, Australia, maybe Singapore and of course China, with European representation limited to the UK, the EU President and Russia. 5 Asian nations, 3 European reps, and the US. That's plenty. No vetoes, no posturing, just roll-up-your-sleeves get it done hard work. The UNSC will soon devolve into a rhetorical forum devoted to bashing Israel. And no one will care. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-15 8:07:33 PM |
| #14 Don't screw with Norm (Norm Coleman). He is as tenacious as a pit bull on a fresh bone. |
| Posted by: Capt America 2004-11-15 4:30:22 PM |
| #13 Whoopsie. Belay my last, in the spirit of the times. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-11-15 3:11:06 PM |
| #12 Laughing now in case I'm not around for the fun. Please sort 'em by size and gender. Bundle them in neat packages of 5 and leave around back in the servants quarters in the links box provided. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-11-15 3:09:58 PM |
| #11 phil-b---You are right about bilateralism making things happen. The problem is with the UN is that there is no personal responsibility placed upon UN members. They can vote and gang up on countries, trump the racism card, etc etc, and the whole junket is financed by the big economic powers. The thing that really disturbs me are the airheads that want to turn over our sovereignty to the UN. What a scam. But there is hope on the horizon. The Dems will not run the show, there is a bipartisan effort to get to the bottom of the UN corruption by the Senate committee. Things do not instantly change, but the tide is turning and that is a good thing. If the UN tries to stonewall this corruption issue, then other avenues of investigation will open. There will also be a day of reckoning with the US congress and disbursements to the UN in the future. Kofi and Co think that stonewalling a Senate inquiry will make it go away. It is more like pissing off a hornet. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-11-15 2:28:06 PM |
| #10 France will naturally lead C.U.N.T. proudly!! If this has legs, it will make my whole year. Global multilateralism was an idea worth trying that in pratice didn't work. The WTO is moribund. The WHO had no idea how to deal with SARS. And some of us have known for years that the UN is sinkhole of corruption and incompetance. I don't think we need to replace the UN. Democracies will moreorless cooperate anyway. Why institutionalize it. Bilateralism is what is happening in trade. Why not in international affairs? |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-11-15 2:10:54 PM |
| #9 The ONLY remaining USEFUL function the U.N. serves is that of a really cool tour when you're visiting New York (my kids really enjoyed it). However, this tour would be just as cool as a Museum Tour...and in fact you'd have access to more of the building. So pitch 'em out! They will of course form a counter-organization to the United Democracies (mentioned above). Theirs should be titled âCountries United to Nurture Tyrantsâ. France will naturally lead C.U.N.T. proudly!! |
| Posted by: Justrand 2004-11-15 1:43:48 PM |
| #8 Disagree, not even in the lower. The new organization must be all democracies and its stated charter must be to spread democracy. |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-11-15 12:00:41 PM |
| #7 Well, technically the UK is a constitutional monarchy, but I don't have a problem with that - Parliament gets elected. Ditto for Oz. But lose the dictators, theocrats, kleptocrats, and assorted varieties of thuggish "socialist" governments, definitely. At least from the upper council. Let 'em yammer in the lower, who cares? |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-11-15 11:47:25 AM |
| #6 Um... hello... why does the UN even HAVE confidential documents? Bush, Please, please, please leave the UN and develop a new organization that only includes democratic countries. There are no other superpowers, we don't need a UN anymore. It was there so that us and the soviets could talk to eachother without nuking eachother. Now what the world needs is an organization of only democratic countries whose charter is to spread democracy to the world. Senior Council members; US, Japan, UK, India, Australia and maybe Russia, Germany, Brazil |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-11-15 11:35:35 AM |
| #5 Who'd of thought, Kofi's just a common low life thief. That's his hairshirt. Wear it proudly Mr secritary. I hope thats not an African thing. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-11-15 11:26:22 AM |
| #4 In addition, they should REMOVE all U.N. diplomatic immunity NOW! On the local N.Y. city level, U.N. assholes have IGNORED N.Y. traffic and parking laws for over 25 years. The cost: some sources say there are Millions of dollars of unpaid fines. (That is just MORE U.N. corruption). The solution: Just kick them out of America ASAP. |
| Posted by: leaddog2 2004-11-15 11:07:49 AM |
| #3 I would donate $100 of my own money and a week of my own time to help the UN move to France. Rent's prolly better there anyways. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-11-15 11:05:25 AM |
| #2 Suggested arm-twisting: "Fine. Well, then, you can kiss our contribution to the UN budget goodbye, unless we get to look at the books. And by the way - the rent on that NY building? It's about to go WAY up..." |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-11-15 11:01:48 AM |
| #1 Privately, Annan's aides told reporters that they were not about to hand over confidential documents to the Russian Duma and every other parliamentary body in the world. But the U.S. Senate is not the Russian Duma. Stupid f***s. They miscalculated in a big way this time. Hell hath no fury like a US senator scorned. That Carl Levin signed the letter with no amendment speaks volumes. Finally, some hope for an end to the UN farce. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-15 10:59:32 AM |