Why Bother With the United Nations?
February 20, 2005 | Tim Phares
Posted on 02/20/2005 9:44:29 PM PST by TBP
On Sunday, the head of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers, resigned under pressure after he was found guilty of misconduct for the sexual harassment of a subordinate female worker at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Secretary General Kofi Annan reportedly read the report showing clear evidence of Commissioner Lubbers’s conduct and did nothing about it. It seems that protecting the reputation of a friend was more important to Annan than protecting the people who work for the UN. This is unacceptable. When will Annan resign?
Unfortunately, this is not the UN’s only current scandal. The theft of massive amounts of money from the Oil for Food program by UN officials, including Annan’s son Kojo, has been well documented. This was the program that allowed Saddam Hussein’s regime, which was under sanctions, to sell its oil to get money for food and medicine for the Iraqi people.
Evidence indicates that some of the money may have wound up in the hands of terrorists, as well as officials of the Saddam Hussein regime. Other Oil for Food money was misused to build projects like a stadium. Saddam himself pocketed an estimated $17 billion while the United Nations did nothing. Benon Savan, the head of the Oil for Food program, has been suspended. Unfortunately, the suspension means nothing since he is retiring soon.
Muhammad Hassan, an employee of the World Meteorological Organization, embezzled at least $3 million from the UN-affiliated organization over a preiod of three to four years. Now he has gone underground and a woman who says she’s Hassan’s wife has filed a phony death certificate.
UN peacekeepers in Congo have abused Congolese women and girls in exhcange for food or small amounts of money. More than 150 complaints ahve been filed against these peacekeepers. Only six people have been identified. How can the UN justify this?
According to a Fox News poll, 54 percent of Americans believe that the United Nations does not reflect their values. A recent Harris Poll says that less than one-third trust the world body. Yet American taxpayers pay over one fifth of the UN’s total budget.
Why do the taxpayers of the United States countenance this? How can they continue to support this corrupt, ineffective, anti-American organization? The time has come to get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US. Otherwise, our sovereignty will continue to be infringed and the corrupt UN bureaucrats will continue to feed off the poor and weak of the world for their own benefit and that of America’s enemies.
