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Words are powerful - Thoughts shape - Ideas have consequences

Cliff Kincaid

Author, Accuracy in Media
Posted January 17, 2005

Hidden Secrets of the U.N.
Annan's anti-American record is a long one

Lee Feinstein of the Council on Foreign Relations was on MSNBC assuring the public that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has a good record of supporting the U.S. Feinstein, a former Clinton administration official, said the only exceptions have been a few comments critical of U.S. policy in Iraq. But he indicated that now that the White House has endorsed Annan and he has announced that he wants to send U.N. personnel back into Iraq to help with the elections, the U.S.-U.N. relationship is back on track.

In fact, however, Annan's anti-American record is a long one. The facts show that Annan

• Made a deal with dictator Saddam Hussein, respecting Iraq's "sovereignty" and leading to the expulsion of weapons inspectors and Iraq's re-emergence as an international security threat.
• Made a deal with Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, giving him immunity from prosecution in the Pan Am 103 terrorism case.
• Supports the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which was voted down by the U.S. Senate.
• Supports the global warming treaty, which would raise U.S. energy prices while benefiting Communist China and the Third World.
• Supports an International Criminal Court with the power to arrest and imprison Americans.
• Supports the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, even though it was signed with a country that no longer exists and was violated by the old Soviet Union and Russia.
• Supports the Biological Weapons Convention, even though China and Russia have violated it.
• Opposes a national missile defense system for the U.S.
• Collaborated with Hillary Clinton to promote abortion as an "international right."
• Smeared the U.S. as a greedy nation in a Notre Dame speech claiming Americans don't spend enough on foreign aid.
• Supports all "necessary revenues" for the U.N. (i.e. global taxes).
• Lent his support to the international campaign to abolish the death penalty in the U.S. and other nations.
• Berated the U.S. for not paying U.S. "dues" to the U.N. when America had contributed billions of dollars to peacekeeping operations that had not been reimbursed or credited to the U.S.
• Promotes "global debt relief," a cover for transfers of more U.S. wealth to deadbeat Socialist Third World dictatorships.
• As director of U.N. peacekeeping, refused requests to authorize U.N. peacekeepers in Rwanda to seize weapons and prevent genocide.
• Proceeded with a U.N.-sponsored independence vote in East Timor that led to a bloodbath.
• Covered up the fact that U.N. soldiers were spreading AIDS around the world.

In anticipation of Annan's visit to Washington, D.C., Nora Boustany of the Washington Post wrote an article favorably highlighting a new Annan-commissioned report on how to make the world body more effective. This really means expanding the power of the U.N. while restricting the U.S. under the cover of "reform."

Boustany conveniently omitted the fact that Yevgeny Primakov represented Russia on the Annan panel that produced the report. Primakov, the former Russian foreign minister, was always known for his close ties to Saddam Hussein and was alleged by Seymour Hersh in the April 5, 1999, issue of the New Yorker magazine to have accepted an $800,000 payment from the Iraqi government.

Scott Ritter, the former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq who turned into a critic of U.S. policy toward the Saddam Hussein regime, claims that Primakov's sister ran a Russian oil company that bought oil from Iraq under the oil-for-food program and sold it at full market value primarily to U.S. companies. Ritter claims the Clinton administration turned a "blind eye" to the deal because then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wanted Russian help in dealing with the Iraqi regime.

Ritter has lost credibility, stemming from his flip-flop on Iraq policy and personal moral scandals. But his charges about corruption in the growing oil-for-food scandal cannot be dismissed out of hand. It was under Albright as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. that Linda Shenwick, the budget analyst at the U.S. Mission, was harassed and eventually fired because she was raising alarms about waste, fraud and abuse in U.N. programs. The public interest law firm Judicial Watch defended Shenwick, who had to sue the State Department for damages for persecuting her. Curiously, the Colin Powell State Department hired Clinton lawyer Gregory Craig to defend itself against Shenwick. There was a settlement, but Shenwick was not allowed to return to the U.S. Mission.

Did Albright suspect that Shenwick would uncover the oil-for-food scandal or the deals with Primakov? What U.S. companies were involved? The U.N's belated help in Iraq should not preclude answers. The media should demand them.

© Cliff Kincaid 2004 Reprinted with Permission

Cliff Kincaid serves as editor of the Accuracy in Media Report, and as a veteran journalist and media critic, he has appeared on FOX News Hannity & Colmes and The O’Reilly Factor, and as guest co-host on CNN's Crossfire, filling in for Pat Buchanan. His articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Washington Times, Insight, and other publications, and he served on the staff of Human Events for several years, and as an editorial writer for Oliver North at his Freedom Alliance foundation. Cliff is the author of nine books including: Profiles of Deception; The News Manipulators; Global Bondage: The U.N. Plan to Rule the World; and The Hijacking of American Foreign Policy. And through his organization, America’s Survival, Inc., Cliff has been an advocate on behalf of families of victims of terrorism.