Crunching numbers provided by the State Department's annual report on voting patterns in the United Nations, Fred Gedrich concludes that General Assembly member states vote against the United States 75% of the time. So doing, he argues that this voting pattern evidences a chronic anti-Americanism at the United Nations. Alas, he fails to impart a rather significant disclaimer to that figure: it does not include resolutions reached by consensus.
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review devotes Sunday editorial space to Mark Malloch Brown's so-called "hissy-fit" last week. Though the irony is probably lost on the Tribune's editorial board, their brief exposition is Malloch Brown's thoughtful critique of US-UN relations made manifest.
Media Matters: "In response to recent remarks by Mark Malloch Brown, the deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, who criticized "U.S. administrations of both parties" for allowing the U.N.'s "loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News," to define the international organization for the "U.S. heartland," Limbaugh and various other Fox News media figures smeared Brown, referring to him, in turn, as a "pointy-headed, elitist liberal" and "a phony."
During his speech in New York on Tuesday, Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown gave one of the most astute summaries (pdf) of US-UN relations that I have read in a very long time. It was at once complimentary, prodding and constructive. And as Malloch Brown said at the outset, it was intended as "a sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy towards the UN by a friend and admirer." Unfortunately, Ambassador John Bolton did not see it that way.
A thoroughly bizarre story appeared in Rupert Murdoch's Australian tabloid, the Herald Sun yesterday. Reporters Rob Taylor and Olivia Rondonuwu suggest that the UN mission in East Timor tried to cover up a May 25 massacre in which 12 unarmed East Timorese police officers were gunned down by a group of renegade Timorse soldiers. The reporters base this claim on a leaked email in which the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in East Timor allegedly instructs UN employees against cooperating with an Australian investigation into the massacre.
Amidst a post on Haditha and the American military's ability to investigate itself, Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds can't resist landing a cheap shot against the UN, which he claims has been unwilling to investigate abuses in peacekeeping missions. The opposite is true.
Washington, D.C.-United Nations Foundation President, Timothy E. Wirth, today called for Fox News to withdraw and publicly apologize for remarks made by the network's Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly said he "wished" that Hurricane Katrina had hit the United Nations building in New York City.
Mr. O'Reilly's comments were made during his radio program, The Radio Factor, on the day that hundreds of world leaders, including President Bush, were gathered at the UN for the opening of the 59th UN General Assembly meeting.
Washington Post, Letter to the Editor
By Mark Malloch Brown, Chief of Staff, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
"An Aug. 10 editorial, citing a news conference I gave recently, implied that the United Nations believes that the oil-for-food scandal was an "insignificant affair dreamed up by U.S. lawmakers and their friends in the media." It also said that I talked about an "extraordinary network" of people and companies who made the program such a "success." That mischaracterized the United Nations' views and my remarks.
If you haven't checked out the Oil-for-Food Facts site recently, there's lots of new material posted, including a link to this Philadelphia Daily News letter:
Letters | What Rosett left out
WHILE disparaging the U.N., Secretary-General Kofi Annan and reform efforts initiated by him, Claudia Rosett (op-ed, May 3, "Just some more stale Kofi") focuses primarily on corruption in the Oil-for-Food relief program.
From 1996 until 2003, the Oil-for-Food Program let the Iraqi government sell oil to pay for food, infrastructure, medicine and humanitarian goods. It addressed the humanitarian impact of the sanctions on the Hussein regime while maintaining the sanctions to keep Saddam from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. It was successful in both respects.
Despite U.S. allegations, weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq; the caloric intake of Iraqis increased 83 percent during that period; malnutrition rates in 2002 in the central and southern part of the country were half those in 1996 among children under 5; in the three northern governorates, chronic malnutrition decreased 56 percent. The program also contributed to vaccination campaigns that helped reduce child mortality and eradicated polio.
Ms. Rosett fails to point out that most of the money pocketed by Saddam through illegal oil sales came through smuggling outside the framework of the program. Nor does she acknowledge that the U.N. raised concerns about potential wrongdoing on multiple occasions. Also missing is the fact that the U.S. was aware of the corruption taking place by Security Council members China, Russia and France, and to a lesser extent by U.S. companies, and chose to look the other way.
Nor is selective silence unique to this program. In the last few days, the White House has declined to comment as an uprising against the repressive government of President Karimov of Uzbekistan turned fatal as government forces fired on its citizens, killing at least 500.
Similarly, it is withholding support to the people of Kazakhstan against the corrupt regime of President Nazarbayev. The U.S. has military alliances with both of these countries.
Norma VanDyke, President
United Nations Association
Greater Philadelphia Chapter