Following is an excerpt from Secretary Rice's March 9, 2005 testimony before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, and Commerce, and Related Agencies:
[REP. BUD] CRAMER:
Thank you.
Madam Secretary, welcome before this subcommittee.
As you can tell by the number of members here, we're very interested in your issues, the issues that you represent, and that you represent this country over.
Yesterday, in the full committee, we did, as we made mention earlier and as you know already, marked up a supplemental appropriations bill. And in that bill there was $580 million that was included for the U.N. international peacekeeping mission.
The administration, I think, had requested $780 million, but we included the $580 million because that's the amount of bills that are due.
And given the recent and some would say systematic problems at the U.N., I would enjoy your help in allowing us to understand why it's important that we maintain this funding.
A number of our colleagues considered this to be an issue that we shouldn't fund and shouldn't be involved in, and members are, in fact, making those positions known. In fact, they want the funding stripped out of the bill.
Would you care to comment on this?
The following documents detail correspondence between the UN and FOX News with respect to a Breaking Point investigation, "United Nations Blood Money," that aired on FOX News Channel and was posted on FOXNews.com. UN Under-Secretary Shashi Tharoor has written two letters outlining inaccuracies in the FOX report. FOX acknowledges receipt of the first letter but did not correct nor defend the inaccuracies listed in Mr. Tharoor's first letter, prompting him to repeat the information in yet another letter.
Letter to FOX News Senior Vice President John Moody from Shashi Tharoor, UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information
Dear Mr. Moody,
I am, once again, compelled to write to you concerning David Asman's Breaking Point story "UN Blood Money," the latest incarnation of which aired on Fox on 9 February 2005.
It was with genuine disappointment that we, at the UN, noted this new edition repeated many of the errors we had drawn to Fox's attention in September last year, and even added some new inaccuracies.
I am most grateful to Fox for giving me the chance to correct some of these problems on air, during the Geraldo Rivera segment that immediately followed the broadcast.
However, in the interest of fair and balanced reporting, I would appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight on matters I simply did not have the time to confront during that three-minute appearance. To that end, I would be grateful if you would post this letter on the Fox News website along with the attached update to the 'The Facts about the Oil for Food Programme' sheet that you originally posted in September last year.
As my colleague, UN Chief of Staff Mark Malloch Brown, made clear at a press conference in February, the Volcker Inquiry's interim report demonstrated that some of the problems Fox News and others identified about the Oil for Food Programme were clearly correct. We thank you for helping bring these to light. Secretary-General Annan has already instituted changes to our management practices that will improve accountability and transparency, and should make such failings less likely in the future.
That said, highly exaggerated accounts of what went wrong (and why) only do a disservice to everyone, including your viewers. In the short term it is the UN that suffers, but such claims can only ultimately damage the credibility of Fox News itself. I certainly hope that Fox and other media outlets maintain their scrutiny of our efforts, just as I hope that they insist on reporting their findings in an accurate, fair and objective fashion.
Yours sincerely,
Shashi Tharoor
Under-Secretary-General
for Communications and Public Information
LA Times: "The General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution Tuesday that urges member states to adopt legislation "to prohibit all forms of human cloning in as much as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life."
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"Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is key to any hope of curtailing global outbursts of violence, panelists at a summit on democracy, terrorism and security said Wednesday.... U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was due to arrive and meet with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday evening ahead of his presentation of a special U.N. report on terrorism at the conference Thursday." Read more...
From Reuters AlertNet: "Education, leadership crucial for refugee girls and women, says UNHCR on International Women's Day - The UN refugee agency is marking International Women's Day today with activities involving refugee women worldwide, with a special focus on refugee girls and women in education and leadership.... Meanwhile, a plethora of activities are taking place around the world to mark International Women's Day, ranging from skills training competitions to women's health workshops, seminars on girls' education, discussions on the role of women returnees, and even attempts by men to ease women's burden."
"A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report released last month said the tsunami had dislodged hazardous materials in Somalia, which for years had been used as a dumping ground by other countries for their nuclear waste. The report said the dumping was made easier by the break down of law and order in Somalia after the overthrow of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991." Full Story
Washington Post: "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who announced the nomination, alluded to Bolton's reputation when she noted that "some of our best ambassadors" to the United Nations have been those with "the strongest voices," such as Jeane Kirkpatrick and Daniel Patrick Moynihan."
Secretary-General Annan welcomed the choice: "United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today warmly congratulated John Bolton on his nomination to be the next United States Permanent Representative to the world body and looks forward to working with him on UN reform, among other issues."
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UN Dispatch a été mentionné dans Washington Whispers: "The [UN] foundation," says spokeswoman Debra DeShong, "is getting the truth out." And it's doing that on the critics' turf: Internet blogs. "This is the newest and most influential media, and the right wing really does it well," she says. "It's like beating back a wave with a hammer." But hammering away they are, with the blog www.undispatch.com, Internet ads, and now a campaign to get U.N. backers on radio and TV to debate the critics. "We're acting like a real campaign to talk up the United Nations," says DeShong. The bashers aren't backing off. "A pro-U.N. blog?" asks Jed Babbin, pundit and author of the anti-U.N. Inside the Asylum. "I'm surprised it isn't in French."