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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia accuses U.N. Agency of funding Georgian president
2008-09-30
Russia's confrontation with the West is escalating, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accusing the U.N. Development Program of collaborating with the financier George Soros to fund Mikheil Saakashvili's rise to the Georgian presidency.

Russia has long accused Mr. Soros of financing the 2003 Rose Revolution, and Mr. Saakashvili in particular. Yesterday, Mr. Lavrov called for an examination of the ties between Mr. Soros and the UNDP. "At the time, George Soros was sponsoring members of the Georgian government," Mr. Lavrov told reporters, adding that UNDP "funds and finances" were also used to support Georgian officials. "We should clearly check and establish clear rules for controlling the spending by international organizations," he said. "We should not allow that such organizations be privatized."

American officials have raised questions about the relationship between Mr. Soros's Open Society Institute and the UNDP in the past. And as The New York Sun first reported in June 2006, a former UNDP administrator, Mark Malloch Brown, rented a house adjacent to Mr. Soros's estate in Katonah, N.Y., paying the financier what real estate agents in the area characterized as below market rate rent. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Mr. Soros's OSI has concentrated much of its pro-democracy activities in former Soviet republics striving to break with their totalitarian past, with local leaders and their nationalist supporters pledging to sever ties with Moscow.

Information about the UNDP's activities in Georgia is available to all the members of the agency's board, including Russia, a spokesman for the agency, Stéphane Dujarric, told the Sun yesterday. Launched in January 2004, the program in Georgia included "salary top-ups for leading officials," he said, and was designed "to enable the government to recruit the staff it needed, and also to help remove incentives for corruption." The Georgian president, prime minister, and speaker of the Parliament received monthly salary supplements of $1,500 each; ministers received $1,200 a month, and deputy ministers $700, Mr. Dujarric said.

The program was funded initially by Mr. Soros's OSI, which gave $1 million, while the UNDP gave $500,000. A Swedish government agency later added another $1 million. An "exit strategy" was built into the program, Mr. Dujarric said, and the Georgian government assumed responsibility for the salaries after three years.

Mr. Lavrov's contention that the UNDP must avoid being "privatized" came at the end of a week in which Russia significantly sharpened its rhetoric against America. At a press conference yesterday and in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday, Mr. Lavrov repeatedly denounced Washington's disruption of the existing world order by invading Iraq. "The solidarity of the international community fostered on the wave of struggle against terrorism turned out to be somehow privatized," he said in his assembly speech, referring to the Iraq invasion.

Separately, Mr. Lavrov declined yesterday to provide new details about his country's resumption of military cooperation with Syria, amid reports that the Russian navy sent several ships to the Mediterranean port of Tartus. "This cooperation is conducted in the framework of the international law and does not endanger anyone's security," Mr. Lavrov said.
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International-UN-NGOs
3 Countries Vie for U.N. Rights Council Seats
2008-05-02
Three European countries are mounting a campaign for two available seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council, even as the prestige of the Geneva-based body reaches a new low. France, Britain, and Spain are lobbying the 192 U.N. member states, seeking to gain support for their claim to two available slots among the seven that are reserved for Western countries on the 47-member council. America has declined to run for membership on the council, which in the two years since its inception has faulted only Israel for human rights violations.

The council committee in charge of organizing a follow-up to a 2001 conference on racism, known as Durban II, suffered a new setback this week when African countries reportedly decided not to host the parley. The first indication that South Africa would not host the conference — which is named for Durban, the South African city that was home to the first parley — emerged two weeks ago, when President Mbeki said "no decision" had been made on the conference's venue. Diplomats now are saying that next year's conference is likely to take place in Vienna or Bangkok.

In an indication that Durban II would see a repeat of the anti-Semitic overtones that plagued the first conference, the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy this week withdrew its application to the organizing committee for credentials as a nongovernmental organization. One member of the committee, Iran, set up a series of obstacles to the Canadian NGO's application "for no apparent reason other than the inclusion in its name of the words Jewish and Israel," the executive director of U.N. Watch, Hillel Neuer, said.

Canada has already said it will skip Durban II, and Israel and America are expected to follow suit. But the European Union has yet to decide on participation, the French ambassador for human rights, François Zimeray, told reporters yesterday in New York, where he was visiting to lobby for a seat on the Human Rights Council. A British Foreign Office minister and former deputy U.N. secretary-general, Mark Malloch Brown, recently visited several countries, including China, and lobbied U.N. member states in New York in an attempt to gain one of the two council seats.

The "Western European and Others" council bloc includes America, Canada, Australia, and Israel. Spain has mounted a similar campaign, as has France. "France and human rights is an old couple," Mr. Zimeray said yesterday. Mr. Zimeray described the first Durban conference as a "laboratory of hatred" and said it would have become the most significant event in international "political life" had it not been immediately followed by the attacks of September 11, 2001. Durban II risks the same fate, he said, and he acknowledged that the Human Rights Council "is not perfect." Asked why France should lend its prestige to a body that he said has an "obsession" with Israel, Mr. Zimeray said that if Western countries withdrew from the Human Rights Council and established a separate rights panel, they would create a situation like that in ancient Greece, where democracy was reserved for Athenians only.
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China-Japan-Koreas
France raises idea of boycotting Olympics ceremony over Tibet
2008-03-19
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France said Tuesday that the European Union should consider punishing China's crackdown in Tibet with a boycott of the opening ceremony of this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. His comments followed an appeal by the press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders to governments across the world to shun the highly symbolic ceremony during which the Olympic flame is lighted.

European leaders have been conspicuously quiet since protesters and the Chinese police first clashed in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, a week ago.
The usual invertebrate posturing ...
Whether How to exert pressure on Beijing touches a broader debate in the European Union about how the bloc should manage its relationships with important economic partners such as China and Russia, whose governments are accused of violating democratic standards.

Senior European officials, including Kouchner, have ruled out an outright boycott of the Olympics, arguing that not even the Dalai Lama had demanded one. But in the latest sign that the Games remain the most powerful lever Western powers have, the foreign minister called the idea of a more symbolic partial boycott "interesting."
Because the EU is all about symbolism ...
Cautioning that the proposal was not yet French government policy, he indicated that he would bring it up with fellow European foreign ministers at an informal meeting next week. "The initiative of Reporters Without Borders, which does not have the French government's support, was made this morning," Kouchner said. Let's consider it."

A day earlier, Mark Malloch Brown, the British minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations, who is also opposed to a complete boycott, told the BBC that the Olympics were "China's coming-out party and they should take great care that nothing will wreck that."
They're not the ones who would wreck it -- we would be. Question is whether we should.
There was no official reaction to Kouchner's proposal from other major capitals on Tuesday, but a senior British official said that London was not considering any kind of boycott to do with the Olympics, even one of the opening ceremony.
Link


Britain
Barack Obama 'will repair image of US in UK'
2008-03-07
America needs to work hard to regain the trust of the British public following the Iraq war and the Bush years, a senior adviser to Barack Obama says today.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Samantha Power, who is a key member of the Presidential hopeful's foreign policy team, ...
... not anymore she's not ...
says anti-Americanism is now "vehement" in the United Kingdom. "A restoration of trust will have to occur between the US Government and the British public," she says. "There is a sense of disappointment but people still want to believe in the USA."

The "special relationship" between Britain and America would, she believes become stronger if Mr Obama won the White House because he would make voters in this country warm to the United States. "Any British leader is harmed domestically in terms of public standing by association with President Bush, the reverse will happen with President Obama. Obama reminds people of Jesus Oprah the better angels of America."

Mr Obama would also try to heal the divisions between Europe and America, caused by the war in Iraq. "Obama can go door-to-door in Europe and say, 'Look like you I opposed the war in Iraq but what are we going to do together about Al Qaeda?'"
*Ding-dong*
"Who is it?"
"O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!..."
"Bloody 'ell!"
The United States must show more respect for international institutions, she adds. "We have to show that we know we can't do it alone. It matters not just intrinsically that we close Guantanamo, it matters because we need to be credible at the UN. You can't be against genocide on a Monday and for water boarding on Tuesday, then on Wednesday show up at the UN."
"To show up at the UN you must support Oil for Genocide on a Monday and condemn Israel for building a wall against those who celebrate the holocaust on Tuesday. Make sure to bring plenty of cash when you show up on Wednesday."
Miss Power is the self proclaimed "genocide chick", who won the Pullitzer Prize for her reporting from Bosnia. She plays basketball with George Clooney and is the inspiration for the latest David Hare play.
Punched her ticket all the right ways, did she ...
This auburn haired Irish journalist is a professor at Harvard, the founder of a human rights think tank and was cited by Men's Vogue as one of the most beautiful women in the world. She is also one of Mr Obama's most trusted advisers on foreign policy. The would-be President of the United States texts her with, "O-BA-MA!" "It's Obama, call me" in the middle of the night. Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British Ambassador to Washington has already called on her three times.

Neither she nor Obama have met Gordon Brown or David Cameron. Their main point of contact is Mark Malloch Brown, the Prime Minister's agent provocateur eminence grise in the Foreign Office. "David Miliband seems impressive to me. I am confused by what's happened to Gordon Brown. I thought he was impressive."

In America, Miss Power has been compared to Condoleeza Rice. "I'm nothing like her," she says. "I don't have any conventional political ambition."
"I'm simply pro-human . . . like the UN."
Nope, no political ambition at all, that's why she hangs around Senators and works on a political campaign ...
But if Mr Obama wins the Presidential race she is likely to remain a powerful force. "I'd do anything he asked me to do. It's not about working for the next President of the United States, it's Obama. If he ran General Motors I'd be working for him."
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Europe
Euros unlikely to meet UN appeal for Darfur mission
2007-12-08
European Union nations, burdened with operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, appear unlikely to meet the U.N.'s urgent calls for helicopters for a peacekeeping force in Darfur. (M)any European governments have said they support deploying a peacekeeping force in Darfur. But when it comes to Sudan, verbal support is one thing; helicopters are another matter entirely.

"There's something like 12,000 military helicopters in Europe, so it's bizarre that not one has been found available so far to commit to this force," said Thomas Cargill, Africa program manager at Chatham House, an international affairs think tank in London. And European countries, Cargill said, risk undermining their credibility "if they commit themselves to resolving a crisis but then can't commit themselves to providing the necessary hardware."

A U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force of 26,000 troops is scheduled to officially take over from an AU force in the Darfur region in three weeks. But U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that 24 aircraft — 18 transport helicopters and six light tactical helicopters — are essential. Otherwise, he said, the force will not be able to protect its own soldiers, let alone the area's civilians.

Sudan also has put up road blocks. The U.N. Security Council agreed that the force should be predominantly African — at Sudan's insistence. Khartoum has refused to approve non-African units from Thailand, Nepal and the Nordic countries, even though 90 percent of the ground troops and 75 percent of the proposed force are from Africa. On helicopters, Ban said he had approached every country that could possible contribute a helicopter — "to no avail."

Ban sent two high-level envoys to pressure leaders attending an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon, Portugal, this weekend. And European military officials and diplomats have continued to insist this week that they are trying to find some helicopters to contribute. But there has been no movement on the issue this week, the officials and diplomats said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of negotiations.

Those trying to put it together say the mission is at risk. "We need helicopters," said Brig. Gen. Solomon Giwa-Amu, a spokesman for the Nigerian Army, which now has 3,500 troops, the largest African contingent, in the current force and plans to send more to the joint force. "If we have six helicopters that will be of great help for the troops because of the terrain."

Poland said it would soon send four transport helicopters and four attack helicopters — similar to those the U.N. says are vital in Sudan — to Afghanistan, not Darfur. "These helicopters were long ago tabbed for the Afghanistan mission," Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski explained Friday. "We aren't particularly rich in helicopters."

Germany, too, will not increase its commitment to the Darfur mission because its military is stretched elsewhere, said Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe. "That's just the way it is," Raabe said. "We have no capacity for this concrete mission."

The problem, he said, is that Germany has the third-largest contingent in Afghanistan and is the largest contributor of troops to the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo. Britain offered a similar explanation earlier in the week.

"I've been working the phones hard to try and get helicopters from other governments," Mark Malloch Brown, Britain's Africa minister, told British Broadcasting Corp. on Wednesday. But Britain is unable to contribute its own military helicopters because their reserves are deployed in Afghanistan, he said.

Both countries say they are contributing to the Darfur mission. Germany has sent two officers and provided troop transportation. Britain has given 75 million pounds (€104.1 million, US$151.5 million) to help fund the operation.
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Europe
Doing the Sarkozy
2007-11-15
Nicolas Sarkozy's star turn in America last week didn't escape notice in London, which used to pride itself on the "special relationship."

Of late, the friendship has felt less than special. On becoming Prime Minister this summer, Gordon Brown threw a few bones to the Harold Pinter gallery. He brought the America-skeptic Mark Malloch Brown from the U.N. to serve in his cabinet. In his first meeting with President Bush, the PM was all straight talk, making a point to strike a contrast with the chumminess on display whenever Tony Blair dropped by Camp David. Little changed on policy, but the symbolism and body language were cool. And, it turns out, out of step with the new Continental zeitgeist.

In France "Sarkozy l'Américain" went from a derisive nickname to a compliment in the six months since his election. Speaking openly of his admiration for the U.S., the new President works closely with Washington on Iran, Kosovo and other issues. He vacationed in New Hampshire this summer. His moving address to a joint session of Congress last week sealed the rapprochement. Then this weekend, Chancellor Angela Merkel paid the first visit by a German Chancellor to the Bush ranch in Crawford to talk about Iran's nuclear program.

So Monday night, in his first major speech on foreign policy since moving into 10 Downing Street, Mr. Brown sought to out-Sarkozy the Frenchman. "It is no secret that I am a lifelong admirer of America," he said in London. "I have no truck with anti-Americanism in Britain or elsewhere in Europe. I believe that our ties with America -- founded on values we share -- constitute our most important bilateral relationship." In noting the recent pro-U.S. tilt across the Channel, Mr. Brown said, "It is good for Britain, for Europe and for the wider world that today France and Germany and the European Union are building strong relationships with America."

Whether the Prime Minister's sudden effusiveness about the Yanks was prompted by the Sarkozy visit doesn't matter. But his speech recognized that the action today in Europe is in France and Germany. Paris and Berlin buried disagreements over the Iraq war and reached out to Washington on the strategic challenges faced by the trans-Atlantic alliance. London feels left out.

In the meantime, one can marvel at the sight, unimaginable this time last year, of a new generation of European leaders clamoring to make friends with America.
Link


Afghanistan
Taleban 'getting Chinese weapons' - via Iran?
2007-09-04
Britain has privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons are being used by the Taleban to attack British troops in Afghanistan. The BBC has been told that on several occasions Chinese arms have been recovered after attacks on British and American troops by Afghan insurgents. The authorities in Beijing have promised to carry out an investigation. This appears to be the first time Britain has asked China how its arms are ending up with the Taleban.

At a meeting held recently at the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, a British official expressed the UK's growing concern about the incidents. When asked about the latest British concerns, the Chinese foreign ministry referred back to a statement made by their spokesman Qin Gang in July who said China's arms exports were carried out "in strict accordance with our law and our international obligations".

The Taleban have recently begun boasting that they have now got hold of much more sophisticated weaponry
For their part, the Taleban have recently begun boasting that they have now got hold of much more sophisticated weaponry although they refused to say from where. Afghan officials have also privately confirmed to the BBC that sophisticated Chinese weapons are now in the hands of the Taleban.

... Chinese-made air-to-surface missiles, anti-aircraft guns, landmines, rocket-propelled grenades and components for roadside bombs
They said these included Chinese-made air-to-surface missiles, anti-aircraft guns, landmines, rocket-propelled grenades and components for roadside bombs.

A senior Afghan official told the BBC, "Chinese HN-5 anti-aircraft missiles are with the Taleban, we know this... and we are worried where do the Taleban get them, some of these weapons have been made recently in Chinese factories".

Another Afghan official who deals with counter-terrorism said, "Serial numbers and other information from most of the Chinese weapons have been removed in most cases and it's almost impossible for us to find out where they come from but we have shared our concerns with the Chinese and the Americans also".

The Afghan government considers China to be a friend, and a much less meddlesome ally than the other big player in its neighbourhood, India. But, the counter-terrorism official added, "China is worried about the presence of the US in the region".

Southern Afghanistan has been awash with Chinese made arms for decades which are some of the cheapest on the market. In the past the Taleban got them via the Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI, or bought them directly from arms smugglers. But it is extremely unlikely the ISI would now allow them access to anti-aircraft missiles or armour-piercing ammunition.

The Pakistani army's relationship between militants in its tribal areas along the Afghan border has deteriorated sharply in recent years after Washington put pressure on President Musharraf post-9/11 to crack down on al-Qaeda and Taleban groups operating inside Pakistani territory. So the Taleban might well use any sophisticated new weapons it received against the Pakistani army.

It is not in China's interest either to arm Pakistan-based militants. Over the last couple of years Chinese workers in Pakistan have been targeted by militants, in retaliation for the Pakistani army allegedly going after hard-line Muslim Uighur leaders from China's Xinjiang province, hiding in the tribal areas.

So instead of Pakistan being the transit point for these weapons, the finger is being pointed by many commentators towards Iran.

The Afghan government has long acknowledged privately that Iranian intelligence agencies have been active in southern Afghanistan post-9/11. Iran has been pursuing a policy of building up proxy networks to be able to attack American forces in response to any US attacks against Teheran's nuclear infrastructure.

China has been selling arms to Iran which Iran is then passing on to insurgent groups
Unnamed US officials have recently been quoted as saying that China has been selling arms to Iran which Iran is then passing on to insurgent groups in Afghanistan and Iraq.

China's booming economy and its seat at the UN security council have made it an important player on the world stage. It is a major trading partner for the UK whose economy has benefited enormously from China's cheap goods.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's newly-appointed British Minister for Asia, Lord Mark Malloch Brown acknowledged to journalists in Beijing last week that countries "need to work with China to get things done in today's world". China is going to have to show that getting things done also means stopping its arms illegally ending up in the hands of men bent on killing British troops.
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Home Front: WoT
War Wimps, Sycophants
2007-07-17
Linda Heard, sierra12th@yahoo.co.uk
An interim White House report card on Iraq paints a grim picture. Yet, just as he did following the publication of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report last year, George W. Bush is making true to his promise to stay even if Laura and Barney, his dog, are his only two supporters.
Presumably that's because it's essential that he do so.
A British multiparty commission set up by the Foreign Policy Center has called upon Britain’s new Prime Minister Gordon Brown to come up with a clear exit strategy from Iraq and to “actively and urgently...pursue changes of policy from our allies”.
My feeling, to date without any concrete evidence, is that Brown is going to be Britain's Zapatero.
Thus far, Brown has kept his Iraq policy close to his chest although due to distinctly anti-unilateralism statements made by several of his ministers known to be anti-war, he is being accused in some quarters of sending mixed signals to his “friends” in Washington.
I don't consider Mark Malloch Brown a "mixed signal." Since he appears comfortable in the circle he's moving in, and since the circle he's moving in is the Labour government, I'm guessing the Labour government is much like Mark Moloch.
Given that the American and British publics are overwhelmingly hostile toward the war and more than 60 percent of Iraqis support insurgent attacks on coalition troops, to use an expression oft quoted by Dr. Phil when he disapproves of his guests’ behavior, “What are they thinking?”
What I'm thinking is that it doesn't matter whether every American with the possible exception of Laura and Barney decides they don't want to be at war with head-chopping Islam. Head-chopping Islam is at war with us and will be until we all wear turbans and burkas. I'll settle for killing the enemy wherever we can come to grips with them, and while I'm not fond of the idea occasionally expressed here of wiping out all of Islam, I'm not too disturbed by the thought of collateral damage. As we've seen with Lal Masjid, the collateral damage is often enough willing to be there and the bitching doesn't come until after they've become casualties. We're expected to be civilized so they don't have to.
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Britain
Mark Steyn -- on Britian's other Brown
2007-06-30
This can't be good

For those who didn't click through to Kathryn's link yesterday, it's worth doing so. Gordon Brown's elevation of Mark Malloch Brown to the House of Lords and thence to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is one of the most revolting public appointments in modern British history.

Malloch Brown was Kofi Annan's deputy at the UN and widely promoted (and self-promoted) as an agent of reform, or rather "reform". He's best known to Americans for his Trent Lott-esque attack on talk radio. As I wrote in NR exactly a year ago:

The bit in the speech that got everyone's attention was when he argued that the reason the U.N. was so unpopular in America was that the moronic hayseeds in flyover country had fallen for the right-wing blowhards — or, as he put it, "much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News." He didn't, in fact, say "Limbaugh" but "Lim-bow," as in "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow." A chap as important as Mr. Malloch Brown can't be expected to tune in a radio and actually listen to Rush in order to get his name correct: After all, he's a lot busier than those dimwit yokels in the "heartland"...

The deputy secretary general's fellow speakers at this meeting included George Soros, who happens to be Mr. Malloch Brown's next-door neighbor and landlord. Mr. Malloch Brown earns $125,000 a year, $120,000 of which he gives to Mr. Soros as rent for his home, next to the gazillionaire's own in Westchester County. When they entered into this relationship, Mr. Malloch Brown was head of the U.N. Development Program, which works with Mr. Soros on many multimillion-dollar projects. The deputy secretary general insists there's nothing "improper" in his mixing of his professional and personal lives, and, indeed, by the ethical standards of the U.N. — which is to say, the Oil-for-Fraud program, the Child-Sex-for-Food program, etc. — there isn't.

George Soros has been Malloch Brown's patron for decades. Upon his retirement from the UN, the deputy secretary-general became vice-chair of Soros' hedge fund company and "Open Society Institute". With respect to Andrew Stuttaford, anyone inclined to join the good-riddance-to-Blair chorus of the last week might now appreciate the difference he made: a huge chunk of the foreign policy of America's closest ally has just been outsourced to a man who is the living embodiment of the worst kind of sleazy careerist transnationalism, and an all but wholly owned subsidiary of George Soros. Amazing.
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Britain
Ex-UN official who tangled with US named British minister
2007-06-29
A former deputy UN chief who criticized US and British policy and tangled with the US envoy in New York in the past was named a minister in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's top team Thursday.

Mark Malloch Brown, named minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations, last year voiced reservations about the role of Washington and London over the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon. The Briton, who clashed with the former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton during his time at the New York-based world body, also accused the United States and Britain of "megaphone diplomacy" over the Darfur crisis.

Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair as British prime minister Wednesday, has underlined the need for "change" in his new government, and there has been speculation that he may have cooler relations with US President George W. Bush.

The former UN official, who was shoeshine boy horse holder deputy to Kofi Annan when he was UN secretary general, said last August that the United States and Britain should not lead diplomatic efforts over the crisis in Lebanon. In an interview with the the Financial Times, he said the two countries, as "the team that led on Iraq", were poorly placed to lead efforts to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

Then in September he criticised Britain and the US over how they were trying to persuade Sudan to accept a UN force in Darfur. He said their approach was "counterproductive almost" -- drawing a strong rebuke from Bolton, who said the remarks "bring discredit to the UN and are a stain on its reputation".

In January this year Malloch Brown attacked Bolton as "not a very good ambassador". "I was very pleased, in terms of sequence, that I could at least hold the door for him to go out first," he told Britain's Channel Four News, referring to his departure last December, days after Bolton.
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Home Front Economy
Soros Behind Anti-Wolfowitz Coup Attempt At World Bank
2007-05-09
Mark Malloch Brown spoke Monday to a crowded auditorium at the World Bank's headquarters, warning that the bank's mission was "hugely at risk" as long as Paul Wolfowitz remained its president. Only hours earlier, news leaked that a special committee investigating Mr. Wolfowitz had accused him of violating conflict-of-interest rules. A coincidence? We doubt it.

Mr. Malloch Brown, remember, was until last year Kofi Annan's deputy at the United Nations. In that position, he distinguished himself by spinning away the $100 billion Oil for Food scandal as little more than a blip in the U.N.'s good work, and one that had little to do with Mr. Annan himself. Last week, Mr. Malloch Brown was named vice president of the Quantum Fund, the hedge fund run by his billionaire friend George Soros. A former World Bank official himself and ally of soon-to-be British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Mr. Malloch Brown would almost surely be a leading candidate to replace Mr. Wolfowitz should he step down. Not surprisingly, Gordon Brown cold-shouldered Mr. Wolfowitz at a recent meeting in Brussels.
No way in hell Dubya would nominate Mr. Brown to head the World Bank.
The bank presidency would be a neat coup for Sir Mark, and not just because the post has heretofore gone to an American. He also stands for everything Mr. Wolfowitz opposes, beginning with the issue of corruption. Consider Mr. Malloch Brown's defense of the U.N.'s procurement practices.

"Not a penny was lost from the organization," he insisted last year, following an audit of the U.N.'s peacekeeping procurement by its Office of Internal Oversight Services. In fact, the office found that $7 million had been lost from overpayment; $50 million worth of contracts showed indications of bid rigging; $61 million had bypassed U.N. rules; $82 million had been lost to mismanagement; and $110 million had "insufficient" justification. That's $310 million out of a budget of $1.6 billion, and who knows what the auditors missed.

Mr. Malloch Brown also made curious use of English by insisting that Paul Volcker's investigation into Oil for Food had "fully exonerated" Mr. Annan. In fact, Mr. Volcker's report made an "adverse finding" against the then-Secretary-General. Among other details, the final report noted that Mr. Annan was "aware of [Saddam's] kickback scheme at least as early as February 2001," yet never reported it to the U.N. Security Council, much less the public, a clear breach of his fiduciary responsibilities as the U.N.'s chief administrative officer. Mr. Malloch Brown described the idea that Mr. Annan might resign as "inappropriate political assassination"--a standard he apparently doesn't apply to political enemies like Mr. Wolfowitz.

Mr. Malloch Brown never made any serious attempt to reform the U.N. beyond the cosmetic, while doing everything he could to block the real reforms proposed by Americans Christopher Burnham and former Ambassador John Bolton. He was, however, energetic when it came to lecturing Americans about what they owed the U.N., such as joining the "reformed" Human Rights Council (whose only achievement to date has been to castigate Israel), pursuing a "new multilateral national security," and otherwise empowering the likes of Mr. Malloch Brown, his multilateral mates and their tax-free salaries.

Views like these help explain why Mr. Malloch Brown is in such favor with Mr. Soros, who has publicly suggested the U.S. will need a "de-Nazification" program to erase the taint of the Bush Administration. So close are the two that Mr. Malloch Brown lives in a suburban New York home owned by Mr. Soros. Mr. Malloch Brown says he pays market rent, though reporting by the New York Sun's Benny Avni disputes that. In any case, it's safe to assume that Mr. Soros's widely published views are close to Mr. Malloch Brown's somewhat more guarded ones.

So it's not surprising that many on the World Bank staff would cheer Mr. Malloch Brown: He's perfect for an institutional culture in which "progressive" thinking goes hand-in-glove with a tolerance for corruption. That culture has been on vivid display in the Euro-coup against Mr. Wolfowitz. This weekend the committee investigating the claims dropped 600 pages in the president's lap and told him he had 48 hours to respond--in direct violation of World Bank staff rule 8.01, 4.09, which states that "the amount of time allowed a staff member to comment [on an investigative report] . . . will not be less than 5 business days." Following protests from Mr. Wolfowitz's lawyer, the committee gave him 72 hours.

This is the same kangaroo court that last month leaked its guilty verdict to the Washington Post before Mr. Wolfowitz even had a chance to plead his case. Our sources who have seen the committee's report tell us it is especially critical of Mr. Wolfowitz for daring to object publicly to the committee's methods and thereby bringing the bank's name into disrepute. The Europeans running this Red Queen proceeding prefer that they be able to smear with selective leaks without rebuttal.

Mr. Malloch Brown warned on Monday that, if Mr. Wolfowitz stayed as president, European countries might withhold funding from the next financing round for the bank's International Development Association. We hope he's right, though we know few European finance ministers who aren't eager to throw good money after bad. Still, it's a remarkable bit of chutzpah for the man who downplayed corruption at the U.N. to seek the ouster of the man who has fought to reduce corruption at the World Bank.

If the Bush Administration now abandons Mr. Wolfowitz as he faces a decision from the bank's board of governors, it will not only betray a friend but hand the biggest victory yet to its audacious enemies in the George Soros axis.
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Home Front: Politix
New Secretary-General Names Non-American to Top U.N. Management Post
2007-01-03
Oddly enough I'm on the phone discussing this with a friend of Burham. He thinks Chris is going to be a wee bit pissed at Brainless Ban's replacement for him. It isn't pretty folks.Wednesday, January 03, 2007
By Liza Porteus

NEW YORK — New Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday announced his picks for two of the top posts at the United Nations this week — and one of those choices is controversial.

Ban, the former foreign minister of South Korea who started his new job Tuesday, named Mexican Alicia Barcena — Kofi Annan's former chief of staff — to the key post of administration and management, a job previously held by American Christopher Burnham. The administration and management job traditionally has gone to an American.

Before the announcement was made, one U.N. official told FOX News the appointment of a non-American to the post would be a "disaster" for the U.S.-led effort to reform the United Nations.

Burnham, the last person to hold the post, was previously the chief financial officer in the U.S. State Department and had been state treasurer of Connecticut. He was appointed by former Secretary-General Annan in 1995 and spearheaded the institutional reform efforts that were promised by Annan and resisted by a large number of developing countries. Burnham left in December to take a job in the private sector.

Barcena's career has focused not on management expertise but on public policies for sustainable development and the linkages between environment, economy and social issues. According to the United Nations, she focused her work on financing for sustainable development.

Prior to being named chief of staff to Annan, she served as deputy executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) where she promoted the implemented the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Barcena was the founding director of the Earth Council in Costa Rica and served as director-general of the National Institute of Fisheries and the first vice minister of ecology while working for the government of Mexico. She also taught and researched on natural sciences.

Barcena also is a onetime protégé of Maurice Strong, the former special adviser to Annan who resigned his last U.N. post after it was revealed he had received about $1 million for a family-owned firm that originally came from Saddam Hussein and had ties to the Oil-for-Food scandal. She also has ties to outgoing Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown.

It will be interesting to see what Burham has to say about all this. Needless to say is smacks of lack of reform, of any kind.
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