It's time for Kofi Annan to resign from the U

It's time for Kofi Annan to resign from the U [+ favourites]

I agree with Senator Coleman - It's time for Kofi Annan to resign from the United Nations.
No matter what your feelings about the United Nations, Kofi lacks moral leadership.
Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) called for Annan's resignation in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal (1 Dec 04) saying that Annan, "lacks the necessary confidence and credibility to continue leading the U.N."
The Senate subcommittee on investigations, which Coleman chairs, concluded that under Annan's oversight, Saddam Hussein was able to skim over $21 billion from the scandal ridden Oil for Food program from 1991-2003. Kofi has helped to fund terrorists, allowed the continued persecution of Iraqi civilians and funded organized crime world wide for years. Please join Senator Coleman in his public statements against the continued leadership of Kofi Annan. Please urge President Bush to publicly ask the other U.N. members to call for a confidence vote of Mr. Annan.

Well if that's the reasoning behind a need for some serious change, than America is in definite need too.

"The Greatest Enemy of Knowledge is Not Ignorance, It is the ILLUSION of Knowledge. Stephen Hawking"

What in America do you believe needs to be changed?

WHAT.
You fucking believe a US Senator over a world leader?
I'm sorry, usually I'm really reserved about other people's opinions and debates and whatnot, but NO ONE friggin messes with Kofi Annan. He's like, my humanitarian homie.

You all don't know enough or care to study enough about the United Nations to be making any sort of decisions or opinions about who should go and who shouldn't - try dedicating a good six years of you life to studying the branches of the United Nations, writing numerous essays, debating at the national level with others about the organization, and then make a decision.

Newsflash: The UN isn't just the Security Counil and the GA. AndI will NOT tolerate anyone coming around saying Kofi Annan ought to resign when I'm sure an American senator is the worse judge on the matter of another's political office!

Saddam milked the UN, not Annan, genius. That guy was 100% behind Hans Blix's efforts before Bush coming in a blows the entire process of inspections away with his big shot testoerone-filled ass. Let me ask you something, Federalist, have you even read anything from Hans Blix? Kofi Annan? Gabor? Gone further than that, hell, read anything published by those who took part and dedicated their lives to the UN?

And you, mighty one, go and side with a Senator chairing his own investigations, claiming that's completely worthy of listening to because oh my - now the US needs a new scapegoat, a new target, and new blame, and it wouldn't DARE be biased in its own investigations!

Jesus Christ.
If I read one more post criticising the UN, I'm going to get quite nasty and back up all of that psychobitching with so many quotes and references it'll blow you away. So don't make me start. I've had enough of ignorant people taking open shots at an organization and its officials without even knowing what the hell is outside the UNSC and UNGA.

"Milk, almonds and pistachios."

"Kofi has helped to fund terrorists, allowed the continued persecution of Iraqi civilians and funded organized crime world wide for years."

Far too many "terrorists" out there today are part of groups we armed and trained. Osama, ya, we helped arm and train his men, Saddam, ya, we helped with the gassings though you won't hear it publicly except from ex CIA agents who had first hand knowledge of it (including higher posistions), but our news comes from FOX and Bill O'Reilly, and all their right wing puppets, or pundits if you buy into them.

"No matter what your feelings about the United Nations, Kofi lacks moral leadership."

Right, like America could tell a "moral" leader if it crawled up its ass and bit it.

"The Greatest Enemy of Knowledge is Not Ignorance, It is the ILLUSION of Knowledge. Stephen Hawking"
[  Edited by Ironwood at   ]

I have followed this scandal for over a year, researching it through numerous sources. Senator Coleman is only the latest person to speak out against the waste & corruption.
The U.N’s own investigation team, hired by the U.N & headed by Mr. Baldwin has cried foul and reported that their own findings are being ignored. Mr. Baldwin said new information related to the U.N. oil-for-food program uncovered by the company includes:
•A network of Iranians who were involved in smuggling oil under the U.N. program.
•Connections between the U.N. program and a French organized crime figure who U.S. officials said was a conduit for oil-for-food-related payments to French President Jacques Chirac.
•Information on the Swiss-based company Cotecna, which was involved in border inspections of oil-for-food goods. Cotecna at one point during the oil-for-food program hired Mr. Annan's son as a consultant.
•Data on the activities of an Egyptian oil broker who took part in illegal activities related to the oil-for-food program.
"As an experienced investigator, it became clear to me that the U.N. is failing to act on the leads and intel streams developed by us in specific areas where we were asked to develop leads and intel streams," said Mr. Baldwin, a fraud investigator and former intelligence official. "That is inexplicable."
(http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041116-110708-9030r.htm).
Kofi’s own son is caught getting kickbacks from a Swiss company (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140321,00.html)
The National Review reports links to terrorism -There are at least two links documented already. Both involve oil buyers picked by Saddam and approved by the U.N. One was a firm with close ties to a Liechtenstein trust that has since been designated by the U.N. itself as "belonging to or affiliated with Al Qaeda." The other was a Swiss-registered subsidiary of a Saudi oil firm that had close dealings with the Taliban during Osama bin Laden's 1990's heyday in Afghanistan. (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rosett200404182336.asp)
It is customary for a leader at the top to be held accountable for the actions of others in their organizations. Remember Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, etc.? Kofi should step down for allowing so much graft to occur on his watch, regardless of his own personal connections. Google Oil for Food and read the numerous sources about the multiple investigations into the scandal.

Nothing to say to me? You asked the question and I gave a very brief answer, to which there is tons more.

If you are really concerned about scandals and misappropriated funds, let alone heinous acts such as war crimes and aiding terrorists, your attention need only be directed to your own government.

As for searching the world for scandal, I say good luck finding any government that doesn't abuse its power.

"The Greatest Enemy of Knowledge is Not Ignorance, It is the ILLUSION of Knowledge. Stephen Hawking"

I agree with leftwood - the references you point out, when I skim through and see Washington Times, FOX NEWS, that lets me know something - you are giving in to the brainwashed media of this country, which has like a disease spread all over the world in snakey ways.

It's so much easier to criticize what a leader HASN'T done, or what he has done WRONG (what the hell does Annan's son have to do with anything? The Bush twins snort coke and get their jailtime cut for being political associates, is that a good reason for me to say Bush is a terrible leader? No. It shows weakness in my argument!)

How about if someone started criticizing you, and then starts a revolution saying oh let's just try to get Federalist to kill himself because he's a terrible person due to his faults - and all you can think of is, "Why can't they see the good that I did in this world?" Because my dear, by default, it's easier to criticize than to appreciate. And there is a lot more in his career that Annan has done, that such stupid attacks on his title aren't worth.

Republicans tried to shoot down Clinton with this sex affairs, trying to say he was a bad leader. Yet, it backfired because Clinton is still a respected figure - everyone was in the bahhum hoo-ha about Monica Lewinsky for like a couple months, then got over it and remembered he kept our country in a surplus and led such a good foreign policy (for the most part, minus Iraq I could argue). You are jumping this American-drive bandwagon of cultural tradition - the tradition to blame. Americans love to blame, they love to fault others and try to cover up how badly they have erred.

And I will not tolerate it, the fact alone that you know nothing about Annan's achievements, how friggin' difficult it IS to be Secretary General, how no idiot in the world can just take that position, blows my mind away. Utterly blows my mind away, because you haven't taken into account both sides of this man's political career and you just listen to whatever asshole in Congress thinks is a good cop-out for our own blame.

You wanna talk about Oil for Food? Try thinking that we fucked over Iraqis more with our sanctions that lasted a decade than anyone else, including Saddam himself. We killed more Iraqis than he did, alone, by the political moves we decided to make to try and "punish" him. It wasn't punishing anyone - it was this last cry to keep Iraq in check before it sent a wave of economic threat upon the US.

Fox News.
Dear God.
Shoot me and send my body to Calcutta.

There's a reason I don't own a TV, or intend to get one.
I'd end up brainwashed like people like you, Federalist.
Do your own research, but first, take a deep breathe and think about the challenge of appreciating rather than criticizing - it's a big step, but it'll help you to make a more sound decision than letting some idiotic Senator do it for you.

This definitely is not a democracy, by conviction now I see it.
When elected representatives tell the people what to think,
and foolishly, they do.

"Milk, almonds and pistachios."

I agree that there is graft, corruption and wasted resources in every country and large organizations will always have some of this activity. My concern is not about wasted dollars, but about a corrupt system that has a byproduct of emboldening our enemies. Kofi's lack of oversight allowed millions of dollars to flow into the coffers of organized crime, terrorist organizations and other group who are anti American. Only time will tell if any of this illegal activity will fund terror attacks inside the United States. How much more good could Kofi had accomplished if he had monitored his subordinate managers in a way that didn’t allow millions to be misappropriated. What if he could had lead his team and helped them stay on track to accomplish the multiple missions of the U.N. Your comment – “And I will not tolerate it, the fact alone that you know nothing about Annan's achievements, how friggin' difficult it IS to be Secretary General, how no idiot in the world can just take that position, blows my mind away”, only proves my point that Annan is smart enough to stay on top of things, he has handled major projects in the past and should have been aware that something was wrong. Kofi Annan administers a budget that is larger than many member nations G.N.P., yet you believe he knew nothing about the millions in kickbacks.

I am new to this board, but I was under the assumption that the thread should stay on topic. I would like to stay on the U.N Oil for Food scandal and not rehash Clinton or Bush.

It is on topic, of funding terrorists, I'm sorry if its too distracting or not as important to you, but let me remind you for the second time that you asked me a question, I still haven't recieved much of a response to my answer either.

But let me ask you this then, I'm not too familiar with America's involvement in the UN past or present, however, I thought we did have involvement. And with that I ask you what possible or probable roles, if any, did America play in this scandal. Though quite possible, I still find it offhand hard to believe that America had no hand in it.

Right now as long as we have Bush's in office, oil and scandal are American policy, as well as funding and aiding terrorists just as we've been doing especially ever scince the end of WWII.

And since Bush would rather be the UN, and Clinton was almost up for Kofi's job, had Kerry been elected it was a possibility, along with the aforementioned terrorist aid I feel it quite on topic, but like I said, since I am not as familiar with America's role in your specific topic, if there is any including bitching, I can't make a more defined connection to this specific oil for food scandal.

And so part is just me asking such questions and I would appreciate some answers rather than, well, what I got so far, like being asked not to talk about certain things. Just because you bring up a point or topic does not mean that it will not incorporate more aspects, especially in referrence to the UN, a collection government bodies including America.

Besides I'm not just asking you, and you can feel free to ignore me, however that would be rather rude given you asking me a question definitively making anything I say on topic, your topic.

"The Greatest Enemy of Knowledge is Not Ignorance, It is the ILLUSION of Knowledge. Stephen Hawking"

There's another UN fraud story today. It's at the WMO, a UN agency, but Kofi denies any responsibility of the UN for its agencies.

http://wcvarones.blogspot.com/2005/02/kofi-annan-nothing-is-my-fault.ht
ml

"Standards are for the faint of heart"

"You fucking believe a US Senator over a world leader?
I'm sorry, usually I'm really reserved about other people's opinions and debates and whatnot, but NO ONE friggin messes with Kofi Annan. He's like, my humanitarian homie."

This has to be one of the funniest damn lines I have ever read on a BBS. Annan is a world leader...LMFAO

Koffi Annan is and has been ineffectual Secretary General
He stood by while genocide was going on in Rwanda, stood by while genocide was going on in Sudan and now one scandal after another one going on in the UN under his watch
Food for Oil , WMO,Sexual harrasment,and UN soldiers raping
women and children in S Africa.What is he doing?Probably
looking at his belly button while all of this goes on.Definitely
[b]HE HAS TO GO !!!

I've got a round-up of recent U.N. scandals and crimes here:

http://wcvarones.blogspot.com/2005/02/un-paying-journalists.html

Why do we still fund this incompetent, corrupt organization?

"Standards are for the faint of heart"