Envoy says his firing will hurt U.N. mission in Afghanistan

[laststeamtrain]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Envoy says his firing will hurt U.N. mission in Afghanistan
By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers Wed Sep 30, 9:13 pm ET

WASHINGTON — A former U.S. ambassador said that his firing Wednesday as the deputy United Nations envoy to Afghanistan in a dispute over the country's fraud-tainted presidential election was a "mistake" that could erode Afghans' confidence in the U.N. and the election.

In a telephone interview with McClatchy from his home in Vermont , Peter Galbraith said that his dismissal could hurt the credibility of the U.N. mission and the election in the eyes of ordinary Afghans, many of whom already think the August election was rigged in favor of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai .

"This risks undermining confidence both in the U.N. and among Afghans in the election process," Galbraith said. "This was a long-running disagreement which related to whether the U.N. should take a role in reducing the risk of fraud, which I believed it should."

<snip>

"This is an awful sign that someone who has raised serious concerns about a process that was flawed was dismissed," said Brian Katsulis of the Center for American Progress , who monitored the Aug. 20 presidential election with an observer mission fielded by U.S.-based Democracy International .

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20091001/wl_mcclatchy/3323489

[rmp yellow]

1. Galbraith told an inconvenient truth. That's why he got fired nt

[Demeter]

2. And We Simply CANNOT Permit Truth to Leak Out

Why, our whole way of life would be in peril!

[No Elephants]

3. ....

"I think this was a mistake," said Galbraith, who served as the first U.S. ambassador to Croatia during the 1990-95 wars that dismantled the former Yugoslavia . "I think it is a mistake to recall a U.N. official because he was concerned about fraud in a U.N.-supported and -funded election."


Gee, ya think?

"Peter Woodard Galbraith (born December 31, 1950) A.B., M.A., J.D., is a former United States diplomat. He is the son of John Kenneth Galbraith and Catherine (Kitty) Atwater Galbraith. Peter Galbraith holds degrees from the Commonwealth School, Harvard College, Oxford University, and Georgetown University Law Center."

I'd let him count votes any day of the year.

Wonder what the Norwegian's agenda was?

K & R

[laststeamtrain]

4. Some people say...

if you don't have a puppet government you got a piss-poor counter-insurgency.

These would tend to be people that make money off counter-insurgencies.