Clintonistas Work to Save UN
Today's NYTimes has a fascinating account of a hush-hush early December meeting in which Kofi Annan was told he'd better shape up and save the UN. (here)
The indictment, per the NYTimes:
The apartment gathering on Dec. 5 came at the end of a year that Mr. Annan has described as the organization's "annus horribilis." The United Nations faced charges of corruption in the oil-for-food program in Iraq, evidence that blue-helmeted peacekeepers in Congo had run prostitution rings and raped women and teenage girls, and formal motions of no confidence in the organization's senior management from staff unions.
Plus Norm Coleman's subsequent call for Annan's resignation, the upcoming election in Iraq and more. At the risk of marginal obscenity, I'd call it "anus horribilis."
The who's who of the meeting is telling. They are largely anti-neo-cons with Clinton ties, working to preserve the old world order in the face of the Bush Doctrine and increasingly legitimate criticisms of the UN's corruptness and ineffectiveness. Here's the group, with biographic descriptions provided by the NYTimes [added to by me]:
The indictment, per the NYTimes:
The apartment gathering on Dec. 5 came at the end of a year that Mr. Annan has described as the organization's "annus horribilis." The United Nations faced charges of corruption in the oil-for-food program in Iraq, evidence that blue-helmeted peacekeepers in Congo had run prostitution rings and raped women and teenage girls, and formal motions of no confidence in the organization's senior management from staff unions.
Plus Norm Coleman's subsequent call for Annan's resignation, the upcoming election in Iraq and more. At the risk of marginal obscenity, I'd call it "anus horribilis."
The who's who of the meeting is telling. They are largely anti-neo-cons with Clinton ties, working to preserve the old world order in the face of the Bush Doctrine and increasingly legitimate criticisms of the UN's corruptness and ineffectiveness. Here's the group, with biographic descriptions provided by the NYTimes [added to by me]:
- Kofi Annan
- Richard C. Holbrooke, US ambassador to the UN under President Clinton, and the host of the soiree. [Holbrooke led the negotiations that led to the US paying $1 billion in payments due the UN, and got Ted Turner to ante up the remainder due, returning us to "good standing" with the UN. In other words, he re-committed us, and bailed out them.]
- John G. Ruggie, assistant secretary general for strategic planning from 1997 to 2001 and now a professor of international relations at the [liberal] John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard [A Hubert Humphrey Award-winner and author of "Taking Embedded Liberalism Global"]
- Leslie H. Gelb, a former president of the [liberal] Council on Foreign Relations [and former NYTimes op/ed editor]
- Timothy E. Wirth, the president of the United Nations Foundation [chaired by none other than Ted Turner]
- Kathy Bushkin, the foundation's executive vice president
- Nader Mousavizadeh, a former special assistant to Mr. Annan who left in 2003 to work at Goldman Sachs [and a former Associate Editor of The New Republic]
- Robert C. Orr, the assistant secretary general for strategic planning [and Holbrooke's deputy when Holbrooke was UN Ambassador]
When UN-supporters of this stature are all ganging up on Annan, it's a sign his leadership is probably drawing to a close, and that all the work Holbrooke did to re-tie us to the UN is coming untied.
posted by Laer at 5:47 PM
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