Kofi said "hell no"

[donsu]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GD01Ak04.html



"Hell no!" said United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan when asked whether he would resign after the Volcker Report in effect cleared him of using any influence on behalf of Cotecna, the company that had employed his son Kojo. It was good to see him in fighting mode instead of the usual UN posture of Job suffering assorted plagues, conservatives and deranged ambassadors because the White House is trying his faith.

Even so, hell hath no fury like an American conservative cheated of his prey, and not until hell freezes over will the right-wing media in the United States admit that Paul Volcker's "there is no evidence of wrongdoing" means "not guilty", or "innocent".


Apart from turning the other cheek, the other besetting sin of the UN is assuming, at least in public, that its interlocutors on the right of US politics are susceptible to rational arguments, evidence, and similar foreign logical tropes. Indeed, many of Annan's persecutors have already insulated themselves from reality by preemptively calling the Volcker Inquiry a "whitewash", and condemning the use of residual oil-for-food funds to pay for it. I sympathize, but not for the same reason as the shedders of crocodile tears who complain that its costs come from funds that should have gone to starving children in Iraq.

I may lend them a handkerchief to dab at their wet eyelids if I hear any of them complain about the US$30 billion or so that was sequestrated in reparations from the oil-for-food fund to pay compensation for the first Gulf War, the 5% of revenue that is still being deducted from all Iraqi oil sales to pay compensation, mostly to Kuwait, for reparations, the $8 billion plus left over from the oil-for-food fund that was handed over to the Coalition Provisional Authority after the invasion, and which the US administration admits (quietly) has never been accounted for properly, but a lot of which we know ended up in Halliburton's coffers on no-bid contracts. However, my handkerchief will stay dry and in my pocket, since to the best of my knowledge not one of these critics has raised a peep at this looting of the Iraqi people's patrimony.
-snip-
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the article ends with this important note:

It's up to us, the people, really, not to let a bunch of faith-based conservatives determine or divert the agenda of a body that belongs to the world, not La Verkin, Utah, the capital of flakey UN haters, which currently seems over-represented in the media and Washington.
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[forgethell]

1. Unfortunately for your thesis,

this is not a trial, but a political operation. That works for Kofi's benefit, as well as against it. Even in a trial the wrong verdict is often handed down. We hear a lot about the wrongful convictions, but 'not guilty' is not the same as 'innocent'. Think OJ, for example. Obviously guilty, but let off.

The UN has been a target of the conservatives for a long time. And the UN is a pretty corrupt organization, as how could it not be. this is despite the good that it does.

Kofi will try to hang on, but I think they're going to get him. Mainly because his troubles will be such a drag on those who should be his supporters that they will cut him loose, throw him to the wolves, so to speak.

[dhinojosa]

2. Lotta guts with Kofi and yes, I would love to know what Halliburton did.

I have to admit though, this article had me at the dictionary quite a bit. :)

[flordehinojos]

3. i saw the newsclip when he said, "hell no" and i thought he was precious

and in his own way telling our great not, GWB: STUFF IT WHERE IT HURTS THE MOST!

[FreedomAngel82]

4. I haven't followed everything with him

so I don't know enough to comment but whenever someone tells Bush to fuck off I always cheer them on. ;)

[cestpaspossible]

5. "will you resign now that you've been exonerated?"

What a stupid question.