MIA: Kofi's Big Blow Up

Go to the UN's press centre and try to find the transcript of yesterday's press conference. It's not there -- vanished, as if it never occurred.

Ah, bit it did occur, and how. NRO's Claudia Rosett, UN-watcher extraordinaire, chronicles how Kofi completely lost it when questioned about now routine oil-for-food fare:

The occasion was Annan’s year-end press conference, at which Annan had just described his own job, and by extension himself, as “perhaps chief diplomat of the world.” It is a role, he said, that requires “a thick skin” and “a sense of humor.” But Annan displayed neither when James Bone of the London Times began asking questions referring to two of the scandals that continue to bedevil the secretary-general: the saga of Oil-for-Food, and the cameo of a Mercedes-Benz allegedly bought and shipped under false use of Kofi Annan’s name and U.N. status by his son, Kojo Annan.

Instead of answering Bone, Annan cut him off, first calling him “cheeky,” and then interrupting him again to say: “Hold on. Listen, James Bone. You have been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving, and please let’s move on to a more serious subject.”

In Rosett's book, Bone is a serious and well respected journalist, and that's good enough for me. It's Kofi's who's an embarrassment to his colleagues and his profession. The Mercedes Bone asked about was purchased in Kofi's name, got a $14,000 import tariff exemption in his name, and appears to have vaporized, just like the transcript of Wednesday's press conference.

Answer the questions, Kofi.

h/t memeorandum