Read this:Kofi Annan…

Read this:

Kofi Annan, the beleaguered United Nations secretary general, is expected to sacrifice his son’s reputation today as he fights to save his own position after a damaging report into a family conflict of interest.

Now make Saddam Hussein the subject, change the dateline to a few years ago, and see how it reads. Sounds like it could’ve been true, eh?

What a guy. It continues.

The long-awaited report by the commission set up to investigate the scandal-hit oil-for-food programme for Iraq, will criticise the UN leader for a series of management failings.

Such as?

The Wall Street Journal said the report would say that Kojo Annan received nearly $400,000 from Cotecna, more than twice the money previously acknowledged.

It will also focus on four previously undisclosed meetings between Mr Annan and Cotecna starting in 1992, five years before he became secretary general.

Mr Annan has denied any impropriety but his many critics in Washington say that, by failing to disclose the meetings before, he has given the impression of a cover-up.

Liberals in Washington have had less to go on to accuse Cheney & Haliburton with “impropriety” in the past. Let’s see how fast they are to connect the dots here.

Liberal Media Alert:

Republican Right-wingers in Congress who are baying for his blood will seize on the report to press home their argument that he is too discredited to keep his job.

“Right-wingers” is capitalized, fer goodness sake! Loaded language combined with what amounts to an official title of “Right-winger”, with a dash of colorful, violent metaphor. That’s what passes for “objectivity” at the London Telegraph, apparently.

And how far is Kofi going to run from his son?

Mr Annan has said that he was “disappointed and surprised” when he learned that Kojo continued to be paid by Cotecna after 1998 when the firm was awarded a contract to monitor the oil-for-food programme.

But in his response to the report he is expected to go much further in distancing himself from his son. UN officials are privately briefing that he has never had a close relationship with his son and that he is exasperated by his behaviour.

Sound like a conveniently timed family issue. It could actually be the first time he’s wanted to mention this in public, but add that to the first time he’s wanted to mention those meetings in public and either there’s a lot of stuff coming out all of a sudden, creating an impression of impropriety, or it’s actual evidence of it. Given his track record, it could very well be evidence.

And speaking of track records, just as a reminder…

The UN is on the back foot over a range of issues, including a sex scandal in its peacekeeping operation in the Congo, and the first Volcker report last month that savaged the record of Benon Sevan, the former head of the oil-for-food programme.

It has since emerged that up to the publication of the first Volker report the funds for Mr Sevan’s legal defence came from the remains of the oil-for-food project.

How are we to believe anything coming from the UN?

Filed under: Uncategorized

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!