Arthur Chrenkoff covers positive news out of Iraq, while many members of the “mainstream” “media” ignore it. Roger L. Simon has been on the Enronesque U.N. Oil-for-FoodPalaces scandal since Day 1, and lately he’s been working with Wall St. Journal reporter Claudia Rosett, one of the few MSM reporters to actually dig into this multi-billion dollar scandal. He writes:
“This blog has new information from sources close to the investigation of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Scandal by Paul Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee. After some delay, the committee is releasing its preliminary results at noon Tuesday. This report may reveal, among other things, startling information tending to indicate Secretary General Kofi Annan had more knowledge of, or was closer to, his son Kojo’s activities with Cotecna - the company whose role in the scandal seems so pervasive - than previously thought…..”
There will be follow-ups from both Simon and Rosett on the rest of Mouselli’s testimony, but they do offer some previews. Looks like a bombshell is about to hit. It will be interesting to see if the liberal media covers this, and how.
The Washington Post reports that President Bush will name John Bolton as the new American Ambassador to the United Nations, signaling that the administration maybe be ready to make an international issue of human rights in North Korea, which allowed as many as two million of its people to starve to death while the regime squandered its coffers on arms and luxuries for its elite. The move also suggests that the administration may be ready to bring North Korea’s nuclear weapons program before the U.N. Security Council.
North Korea recently withdrew from six-nation talks over its weapons programs. Recently, it has suggested that it may return to the talks in exchange for further concessions and aid from the United States.
North Korea once famously called Bolton “human scum” over his comments about the state of human rights in North Korea. Bolton promises to be the most ideologically straightforward and hawkish ambassador since Jeanne Kirkpatrick.
Leigh Cartwright emails:
Some of you may have already got a similar e-mail from another blogger about a story that Little Green Footballs mentioned briefly regarding the UN Development Programme’s Arab Human Development Report. The reports in 2002 and 2003 blamed the Arab world for problems, now they blame America and “foreign intervention”.The basic facts, as I can work out from news stories and interviews with the report’s authors, are as follows:
- Nader Fergany brings out the 2002 and 2003 AHDR.
- Colin Powell uses it to help justify liberating Iraq, and Bush praises both reports.
- The Egyptian government didn’t like the way it supported “reform from abroad”.
- Fergany attacks Colin Powell for using it the same way Egypt saw fit to use it.
- The Arab League really doesn’t like the report.
- When he is again the primary author of the 2004 AHDR, foreign intervention, especially by the US, is mostly to blame for the problems of the Arab world, not any of the reasons cited in the 2002 or 2003 AHDR.
More at The House of Wheels and Indy Media Watcher.
Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Latin America, courtesy of Randy Paul.
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Other Topics Include: Repercussions of the car-bomb murder of a Venezuelan prosecutor; the latest in Colombia; Allegations of violent homophobia in Jamaica; A new drug war and vigalantism looming in Mexico?; Is Lula’s plan for Brazil’s economy working?; Castro releases dissidents he should never have imprisoned to begin with.
Continue Reading “Randinho’s Latin America Briefing: Dec 8/04”
A union representing United Nations (search) staff has voted “no confidence” in senior management, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search).The vote is largely symbolic and has no effect over Annan’s job or anyone else’s. But it isn’t a good sign for his and other top officials’ effectiveness as leaders of the world body.
It is the first time in the labor organization’s history that it has cast such a vote, which happened behind closed doors Friday afternoon at U.N. headquarters in New York.
The move was in response to a series of scandals plaguing the United Nations under Annan’s leadership.
Russia hands Annan ratification of Kyoto climate pact, allowing it to go into force
Russia today formally delivered its ratification of the Kyoto treaty against global warming to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, enabling the pact that seeks to reduce so-called greenhouse gases to go into effect in what the United Nations chief called “a great day for the whole world.”“This is a historic step forward in the world’s efforts to combat a truly global threat,” Mr. Annan told Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Andrey Denisov, at the ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya, where the Security Council is meeting in a special session aimed at ending Sudan’s various wars.
After President George W. Bush withdrew United States support for the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, Russian ratification became vital for it to enter into force since 55 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change must ratify it, including developed countries whose combined 1990 emissions of carbon dioxide exceed 55 per cent of that group’s total.
Russia, with 17 per cent of the emissions, pushes the amount beyond that threshold and the Protocol will now become legally binding on its 128 parties 90 days from tomorrow, on 16 February.
“All countries must now do their utmost to combat climate change and to keep it from undermining our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” Mr. Annan said in reference to the targets set by the UN Millennium Summit of 2000 seeking to halve extreme poverty and hunger, reduce infant and maternal mortality and achieve other social goals, all by 2015.
“I therefore take this opportunity to urge those developed countries that have not ratified the Protocol to ratify it and limit their emissions,” he added.
Also speaking at the ceremony, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Klaus Toepfer warned that recent environmental reports clearly demonstrate “the disasters in store for people and the planet if we do not build on the solid foundation of Kyoto.
“But I am confident that we can avert the nightmare scenarios of a 7-metre rise in sea levels and other catastrophic effects by mobilizing industry and business, governments, local authorities and ordinary people everywhere,” he said.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries are to reduce their combined emissions of six major greenhouse gases during the five-year period from 2008 to 2012 to below-1990 levels. The European Union and Japan, for example, are to cut these emissions by 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. For many countries, achieving the Kyoto targets will be a major change that will require new policies and new approaches.
(via INBB/International) All links will pop out into a new window.
Security Council imposes immediate arms embargo against Côte d’Ivoire
Seeking to end the violence in Côte d’Ivoire, the United Nations Security Council today imposed an immediate, 13-month arms embargo against the country and gave the parties there one month to get the peace process back on track or face a travel ban and a freeze on their assets.
Under a resolution adopted unanimously, the additional sanctions will go into effect on 15 December unless the Council determines before then that the signatories of two peace deals are working to implement them. Those measures would remain for one year.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan referred to Yasser Arafat’s death as “tragic,” and said that he was “deeply moved” at the PLO leader’s passing, according to the U.N. News Centre.