8/23/12, "The UN’s appeasement of Iran is a symbol of its decline and decay," UK Telegraph, Nile Gardiner
"The reputation of the United Nations has hit new lows in the past decade – the Oil for Food debacle, the peacekeeping scandal in the Congo, the downfall of the dismal Commission on Human Rights (now the increasingly discredited Human Rights Council) – the list is endless. The UN has become a byword for corruption, mismanagement and the appeasement of dictatorial regimes. Following in this rich tradition, the United Nations has decided to send Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to attend the summit of the Nonaligned Movement in Tehran next week, where he will “meet with senior Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.” According to The New York Times:
The UN Secretary General is sending completely the wrong signal by hobnobbing with the leadership of a barbaric rogue regime that is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons while threatening to wipe an entire nation off the map. It is also a tyranny that is actively preparing to escalate terrorist attacks against Western targets. As The Telegraph’s Con Coughlin recently reported, “Iran's Supreme Leader has ordered the country's Revolutionary Guards to intensify its campaign of terror attacks against the West and its allies in retaliation for supporting the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.”Efforts led by the United States and Israel to isolate Iran suffered a setback on Wednesday when the United Nations announced that Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, would join officials from 120 countries in Tehran next week for a summit meeting that Iran has trumpeted as a vindication of its defiance and enduring importance in world affairs.
Mr Ban’s decision to attend the meeting of the Nonaligned Movement, announced by his spokesman, Martin Nesirky, came despite objections from both the Americans and Israelis, including a phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
Mr. Ban will also likely be rubbing shoulders with representatives from North Korea and Sudan, as well as a host of other tyrannical governments. The BBC has announced that Kim Yong-nam, North Korea’s head of parliament, will be attending the Nonaligned Movement Summit.
Ban Ki-moon’s reckless move will further reinforce the image of a declining world body that actively undercuts American interests on several fronts and grovels to human rights abusers and state sponsors of terrorism. It will undoubtedly strengthen calls on Capitol Hill for significant cuts in US funding for the United Nations. Washington currently gives more than $7.6 billion a year to the UN system, a huge sum of money in an age of austerity to pay for a bloated bureaucracy thoroughly lacking in accountability and oversight. It is time for the United States to hold the UN to account by significantly reducing funding for the organisation, and increasing the level of Congressional oversight.
American taxpayers deserve value for money from the UN, and an expectation that their contributions will be used to advance the cause of freedom rather than undermine it." via Lucianne
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11/26/2004, "Annan's Son Took Payments Through 2004," NY Sun, Claudia Rosett
"One of the next big chapters in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal will involve the family of the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, whose son turns out to have been receiving payments as recently as early this year from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program."...
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GE pays $23.4 million in fines for role in UN Iraq Oil for Food bribery:
7/21/10, "GE settles Iraqi bribe charges for $23.4 million," CNN, B. Ellis
"General Electric said Tuesday it will pay $23.4 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that the conglomerate was involved in a $3.6 million kickback scheme
The SEC said GE subsidiaries paid the Iraqi Health Ministry and the Iraqi Oil Ministry in cash, computer equipment, medical supplies and services to win valuable contracts through the United Nations' Oil for Food Program.
The kickback scheme lasted for about three years - from 2000 to 2003, the final years of Saddam Hussein's regime - according to the SEC. The Oil for Food program allowed Iraq to sell oil only for humanitarian needs in the latter years of Hussein's reign."...
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8/5/2005, "Benon Sevan’S Finest Hour," National Review, Claudia Rosett
"It’s rich that the former head of the United Nations Oil-for-Food program, Benon Sevan, is now protesting the secrecy surrounding U.N. records that he himself set up as confidential."...
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"The Impact of the UN Oil-for-Food Scandal," Council on Foreign Relations
"The UN's investigation into the abuse of the Iraqi oil-for-food program officially ended in October 2005, but it continues to reverberate within UN headquarters and in an increasing number of capitals. The inquiry was triggered by a report in the Iraqi newspaper al-Mada in January 2004 listing 270 persons and entities that received oil vouchers in exchange for helping Saddam Hussein. Some of those individuals, including prominent politicians, have resigned from their positions, face prosecution, or are the subject of domestic investigations....The scandal reached the very top of the UN and tarnished the reputation of the secretary-general in some key member states."...
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2/10/2005, "Peace at What Price?: U.N. Sex Crimes in Congo," ABC News, Brian Ross
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