A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Overthrow: "The main objective of the United Nations conference World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to be held this month in Tunisia is to ensure affordable internet access to all the poor countries and to get the full benefits that new information and communication technologies can bring to economic and social development. In all probability this will take the back seat and the summit will turn in to an acrimonious showdown between the United States and the challengers of its monopoly over internet, including the European Union."
Scaramouche: "It's looking a bit precarious for Syrian despot Bashar Assad. Not only does he have the UN on his back -- big tsuris for any leader -- he has to find a way to strike a balance between co-operating with the international body while showing his own people he's still the commanding, authoritative strongman they've come to know, love, and cower in front of. Or at least, to remind them he's the son of a commanding, authoritative strongman. With that in mind, he's making some loud, macho noises: From the Globe and Mail: "President Bashar Assad said Thursday his country will co-operate with a U.N. investigation implicating the military in the killing of a Lebanese politician ... Mr. Assad, while maintaining Syria's innocence during a speech at Damascus University, also disclosed that a U.N. investigator has rejected Syria's conditions for co-operating with investigators."
PSoTD: "From Canada.com: "A treaty aimed at reducing deaths from smoking has been ratified by 106 countries who can now vote at the first meeting of the anti-tobacco convention, the United Nations said. The treaty, known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, was finalized in May 2003 and came into force earlier this year."
Diplomatic Times Review: "UN Secretary General Kofi Annan sought Tuesday in Cairo to assuage Arab fears over possible action against Syria but urged Damascus to cooperate fully with the international probe into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri," according to an Agence France Presse report in the Daily Times of Pakistan."
Patridiot Watch: "Saddam Hussein should burn in hell, but he shouldn't have to face trial with his lawyers getting death threats all the time, and murdered twice. "Lawyers for Saddam Hussein and his aides severed all contact with the court trying the former Iraqi president on Wednesday after the second murder of a member of the defense team since the trial began last month. Attorneys representing Saddam and seven co-accused on charges of crimes against humanity considered a second day of hearings set for November 28 to be "canceled and illegitimate," lead counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi told Reuters. Interviewed in the Sunni Arab rebel stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, he said he felt personally threatened and renewed demands for the United Nations to intervene to stop the trial following Tuesday's killing of lawyer Adil al-Zubeidi."
War in Context: "The Security Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a one-year renewal of the United Nations mandate for the United States-led multinational force in Iraq. The resolution, sponsored by Britain, Denmark, Japan, Romania and the United States, extends the mandate until Dec. 31, 2006, but calls for a review of the decision by June 15 and allows for the ending of the mandate at any point if Iraq requests it. The review clause was added as a compromise with the demands of France and Russia, which initially asked that the term be extended for only six months."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Abu Aardvark: "Yesterday I skimmed through the final report of the Independent Commission investigating the UN's Oil for Food Program. For 1000+ pages, it didn't contain a lot of surprises - the Duelfer report on WMD already revealed a lot of this information, and press leaks have revealed a lot of the rest - but it did contain a lot of useful documentation and fascinating detail about the operation of the program for all its corruption, ineffectiveness, and contributions to strengthening Saddam's domestic and foreign policy position, the Oil for Food Programme "reversed a serious and deteriorating food crisis" in Iraq. It saved a lot of people, especially the young and vulnerable."
Paper Chase: "The UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said Monday that final results of Afghanistan's legislative polls will be announced on Wednesday [press release, PDF], and that fraud allegations will not call the results into question. The September 18 vote was the first opportunity for Afghans to elect members to its Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament ... A JEMB spokesman said Monday that "All complaints of the losing candidates have been dealt with carefully and very few have been accompanied with facts such as time and locations. We are confident that the legitimacy of the elections is intact." A slow vote count and the fraud allegations have delayed the announcement of official results, originally scheduled for October 19. Reuters has more."
Illmethinks: "This article by Stirling Newberry gives a great example of how the right wing (little "r") closet dwellers love to stir up trouble and how they accomplish it: "The Republican Congress is on the oil for food which hunt."
Daily Kos: "After their deep concern with the "oil for food" scandal, I am positive the Right Wing (Faux, et al.) will be all over this theft from the good people of Iraq: "An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended yesterday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary. The work was paid for with Iraqi oil proceeds, but the board said it was either carried out at inflated prices or done poorly." This is the type of story that is unlikely to create trust for the United States in Iraq."
Democracy Arsenal: "There's an important debate underway on America Abroad about where the liberal internationalist consensus for humanitarian intervention stands after Iraq (see Anne-Marie Slaughter's latest post for a partial summary). The gist is an argument over whether, as David Rieff claims, after Iraq, humanitarian intervention can no longer be distinguished from self-interested, imperialistic interventions done under the guise of promoting human rights and ousting despots. ... Iraq has taught us key lessons that can and must guide future thinking on humanitarian intervention, mostly raising the bar for when we should intervene and how we need to do it. I list 10 of them: 2. While it Need Not Necessarily Derive from Any Single Source, Legitimacy is Essential - Anne-Marie Slaughter and Ivo Daalder illuminate how the US operation in Kosovo, though without UN imprimatur, had the effect of "pushing" international law to provide broader license for similar interventions, culminating in this Fall's adoption of a UN "responsibility to protect" (a duty that, unaccountably, has not been invoked in Darfur)."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Kinshasa on the Potomac: "The details on the measures taken to halt the latest outbreak of H5 in China are, in the words of Noureddin Mona, representative for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in China, "not a good signal." Almost 370,000 birds were culled in the affected area, a 3km zone in Liaoning province. Similar massive cullings have been carried out in other countries. Even if H5N1 never makes it into the human population in a strain that can sustain human-to-human transmission, the amount of economic damage being done is considerable and will only grow."
Paper Chase: "The US has circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution that would extend the UN mandate of 180,000 multinational force currently in Iraq for another year. The US-led multinational force was originally authorized in May 2004 under UN Security Council resolution 1546. The latest draft, which the US proposed on Wednesday, is expected to draw opposition from Russia and others on the Security Council, and it represents a departure from previous mandates, which have required renewal every six months. The current UN mandate expires following parliamentary elections on Dec. 15, but it would be extended under the US draft resolution to Dec. 31, 2006."
Think Progress: "Earler this year, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the United States was adhering to both U.S. law and treaty obligations outlawing torture. But the Washington Post reports today that the U.S. is keeping prisoners in a system of secret, "black-site" prisons around the world, where they can be treated to punishment which the U.N. Convention on torture and U.S. military law does not allow."
Coalition for Darfur: "From the BBC: "Ethiopia and Eritrea have moved more troops and tanks towards their common border, a United Nations official says. The UN has revised its assessment of the border situation between the two countries from "stable" to "tense". Ethiopia has not withdrawn its troops from land awarded to Eritrea by an international demarcation commission. The demarcation followed a border war in which 70,000 people died. Eritrea has recently restricted the operations of UN troops patrolling the border. A source at the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee) told journalists on Wednesday that both countries have moved more troops and tanks towards the border in the past two or three weeks."
Disinformation: "The declaration last week by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that "Israel must be wiped off the map" has triggered diplomatic shifts about Iran's nuclear weapons program. Ahmadinejad's comments have angered the United Nations, Russia, and others who had given Iran tacit support. James Forsyth also examines UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's reaction, and his use of 'reframing' tactics to influence the subsequent debate."
Informed Comment: "Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari asked the UN to extend the mandate for coalition troops in Iraq for up to another year. But the Iraqi government wants the UN to review the resolution 8 months from now, and at any time that the Iraqi government requests a review."
Simon World: "Bates Gill is not just a spoonerism of the world's richest man. He is a noted expert on China and amongst other things, the HIV/AIDS problem in China. Meanwhile China has a well-known penchant for fiddling statistics, especially as many public servants are measured by these statistics. But sometimes this can hide positive trends for fear of ridicule. The SCMP reports on Bates Gill's observations: "Beijing may be keeping new estimates of the number of HIV infections on the mainland secret because they are lower than previously published figures and could undermine the government's credibility... This could be the reason why the official HIV figure had remained at 840,000 for the past two years, said Bates Gill, a China expert at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies. The estimate of 840,000 HIV-positive cases was arrived at using modeling techniques, and was the result of a co-operative effort between China, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids."
Thoughts From Kansas: "Dana Priest has a stunning article in today's Post, CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: "The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement. The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago ... CIA interrogators in the overseas sites are permitted to use the CIA's approved "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by U.S. military law."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Heretik: "The Joint Task Force at Guantanamo admits there have been at least thirty six suicide attempts by twenty two detainees.... UN REPRESENTATIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS have finally been invited to the prison. However, the United States says no detainees will be allowed to be interiewed alone."
Democracy Arsenal: "I wrote about this last week, but the reports now are that the second wave of post-earthquake deaths from disease and exposure are already beginning. UN agencies will have to scale back their aid this week unless more donor money flows fast. If tens of thousands of Pakistanis die this winter because not enough help reached them, Pakistan's number one international "partner" - the US - is the most likely target for blame."
Agonist: "Big oil groups implicated in oil-for-food scandal - Financial Times - Well known international oil companies used traders to distance themselves from the illegal surcharges being paid under the United Nations oil-for-food deal in Iraq, the final Volcker report has concluded. But only one major oil company was shamed by the 623-page report: Texaco, part of Chevron, the US's second largest energy group. The report states: "A more nefarious purpose for an oil trader, or oil company, to purchase oil from a contractor, rather than directly from Somo [Iraq's oil company] was to maintain an apparent distance from the payment of illicit oil surcharges."
Eccentric Star: "Pentagon Invites UN Torture Investigator to Guantanamo - (Reuters) "The United States on Friday invited three UN human rights investigators, including the one who examines torture allegations, to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in a bid to show "we have nothing to hide." The Pentagon said the invitations were extended to Austria's Manfred Nowak, special investigator for the United Nations on torture, Pakistan's Asma Jahangir, who focuses on religious freedom, and Algeria's Leila Zerrougui, who looks into arbitrary detention."
Friends of Ethiopia: "Economist: "It is a reasonable question: if Eritrea and Ethiopia are intent on fighting and the UN cannot stop them, the blue helmets might as well leave. Yet to blame the UN for the crisis is to miss the point. The peacekeepers were never intended to enforce peace. Rather, they were charged with deterring cross-border scuffles and reporting them when they occurred-and this they have admirably done."
This Modern World: "I'm really sick of hearing the liberal-hawks-turned-peaceniks claim that they supported the war only because of Colin Powell's breathtaking performance before the UN, and are shocked and saddened to learn they were lied to. You supported the war because you didn't have the courage to buck what you perceived as mainstream opinion, didn't want to align yourselves with all those dirty hippies marching in the streets. As it turns out, of course, the dirty hippies, i.e. citizens from all walks of life, turned out to be a lot more on the mark than you were."
Red State: "Iran finds the U.N. Security Council statement condemning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his Hitler-like call for Israel to be "wiped off the map" unacceptable... Secretary-General Annan's 27 October statement expressed dismay over Ahmadinejad's call for Israel to be wiped off the map. Coming after Israel's call to expel Iran from the United Nations, the diplomatic pressure may be "unacceptable" to Iran. Combined, Annan's "intention" to adjust his agenda and the Security Council's "condemnation" constitute only a good first step in the right direction."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Informed Comment: "I am distressed at the prospect of a Cambodia in Iraq, which strikes me as a real possibility. As it is, there was that nastiness of Shiite and Sunni militiamen killing each other Thursday. I'd like to see such an outcome prevented. I said earlier that I thought the best outcome would be for Iraq to be internationalized and to have a United Nations military force enforce the peace."
Lebanese Political Journal: "Thank God, for Detlev Mehlis, head of the UN Commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri. Mehlis realizes that the fate of at least an entire nation is staked on what he comes up with. It's an unfair burden, but he's doing quite a bit to help Lebanon walk on its own."
BOP News: "The Oil for Food program run in the late 1990's has been roundly criticized, and now the investigation has come to a head. The reality is that while some companies and individuals violated the rules, the net effect was to dramatically reduce Saddam's access to capital. According to the Volcker report, Sadddam pocketted 1.8 billion dollars. This sounds like a great deal, until you realize that he had to pay for virtually his entire security apparatus out of it. In effect, he had just enough money to cling to power, but not enough to pay for, let alone upgrade, his military apparatus."
Davenetics: "So who misbehaved when it comes to the UN Oil for Food Program? Uh, gotta few minutes?: "More than 4,500 companies took part in the United Nations oil-for-food program and more than half of them paid illegal surcharges and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, according to the independent committee investigating the program. The country with the most companies involved in the program was Russia, followed by France, the committee says in a report to be released Thursday. The inquiry was led by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board." Oil and human nature. The world's most slippery slope."
Talking Points Memo: "Ariel Sharon: "A country calling for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the UN."
Wilson's Blogmanac: "The UN agencies monitoring bird flu outbreaks say more research is needed to solve the puzzle of how the virus is spread and how it changes into forms deadly to humans as well as birds. Meanwhile, it recommends that wild and farmed birds should not mix." The Age."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Democratic Daily: "The following is an advance copy of the full text of John Kerry's speech today at Georgetown University: "When the Administration could have kept an Iraqi army selectively intact, they chose not to. They were wrong. When they could have kept an entire civil structure functioning to deliver basic services to Iraqi citizens, they chose not to. They were wrong. When they could have accepted the offers of the United Nations and individual countries to provide on the ground peacekeepers and reconstruction assistance, they chose not to. They were wrong."
A Nurse Journal: "An Indonesian man has died of bird flu, raising the country's human toll to four, officials said today, as international health experts prepared to go house-to-house to search for infected poultry. The government - accused of covering-up outbreaks of bird flu when it first started killing chickens two years ago - said it would work closely with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation to hunt down sick fowl on the densely populated island of Java."
Liquid List: "The UN saves lives the best it can, despite the willful attempts by world's acknowledged greatest power to block that saving of lives. The UN has been the leading figure in a major increase in human security around the world. Don't believe me? Think the world is full of death and destruction? You're half-right, but that's mostly because we don't really talk about all the good things. This little gem, from a business paper in New Zealand, fills us in on the recent Human Security Report under the headline "Global peace breaks out: No one notices. (If you want to read the Human Security Report, click here.)"
Owen's Musings: "Today is the 60th birthday of the United Nations - the anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter here in San Francisco. Read this excellent summary (pdf) of 60 ways the UN makes a difference, ranging from human rights to humanitarian aid; from eradicating smallpox to creating a framework to support international business."
Open Democracy Blogs: "This October, openDemocracy - the online magazine of politics and culture - has hosted a discussion on UN SCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. This includes a series of articles, launched by Lesley Abdela, who recently reported for us on the real plight facing Iraqi women today, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, involved in the formulation of SCR 1325 during his time as UK Permanent Representative to the UN, and Maj Britt Theorin who secured the EU resolution calling for 40% representation of women participating in peacebuilding. Alongside their assessments, the Women Making a Difference blog has brought together 32 women who have fought against violent conflict from Cambodia to Sierra Leone, to ask: How does SCR 1325 affect us? Has it made any difference and what difference could it make? Our bloggers have been speaking in a personal capacity, drawing on their considerable experience, and that of the organisations to which they belong."
Swords into Plowshares: "Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of the entry into force of the Charter of the United Nations. At a time when considerable attention is being devoted to the future of the U.N. (Ambassador Bolton floated the idea before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week of shifting from a system of mandatory assessments--dues--to a system of voluntary contributions to finance the Organization), I want to offer a few observations about the history of the Charter. The majority of the work of drafting the Charter occurred prior to the conclusion of World War II. In fact, most of the preparatory work was done at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. during the fall of 1944..."
More bloggers weigh in on the Mehlis Report:
Democracy Arsenal: "With all the uproar about UN investigator Detlev Mehlis' report implicating the highest levels of the Syrian government in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, we should not lose sight of the UN's accomplishment in carrying out the investigation and issuing the findings it did. It remains to be seen what the Security Council will do with Mehlis' report, but the people of Lebanon already feel some sense of satisfaction that the facts they all suspected have been brought to light by an objective source. Here's another example of why - if we are ever shortsighted enough to abandon or significantly scale back the UN - we will find ourselves with the impossible task of having to recreate what we destroyed."
Political Animal: "IN DEFENSE OF THE UNITED NATIONS - Suzanne Nossel suggests that UN bashers should take a look at its role in investigating the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri ... She's right. The UN report has given a huge boost to calls for reform in both Lebanon and Syria, and it wouldn't have happened if the report had come from anywhere else."
Austin Bay: "I've found Michael Young's Beirut Daily Star commentaries to be both fact-filled and courageous. This essay on the UN Mehlis report appears in the OnLine Journal. Everyone knows Assad's Syrian regime had Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafik Hariri murdered. However, in the corrupt autocracies of the Middle East either (1) no one is supposed to say (2) or if someone says it they get killed or a relative disappears. The toppling of Saddam has begun to change this terrible, terrifying code. Mehlis has written a tough, accurate, and courageous report."
Michael Totten: "Fear and apprehension turned to anger and relief in Beirut after the Mehlis report named Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law as the chief suspect, and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud as a possible accomplice, in the assassination of Rafik Hariri. ... There was a rally that night at Martyr's Square and across the street at the grave site of Rafik Hariri. Thousands gathered, sang patriotic songs ... But for the most part the mood was jubilant. The truth was out after 250 days. U.N. special prosecutor Detlev Mehlis is a hero in Lebanon."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Matthew Good: "UN relief chief, Jan Egeland, today called the continuing humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Asia due to the recent earthquake worse than that following last year's tsunami. According to Egeland, "We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare ever. We thought the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse." Mr Egeland said only $86m had been pledged of the £312m the UN had asked for to fund the relief operation - and far less actually received in hard cash."
Blogging Baby: "The "Trick or Treat for UNICEF" program raises money for kids in need every year thanks to the efforts of kids, parents and teachers. Totshop is making the fundraising boxes available free for young philanthropists. I've never run across anyone collecting money with these boxes, but according to the website, the program has been around for 53 years and has raised $119 million so far."
Irish Pennants: "Syria is about to take center stage - in the war on terror. In a report due next week, UN investigator Detlev Mehlis is likely to finger regime officials in the murder last year of anti-Syrian Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri, and an unlikely alliance between the U.S. and France will prod the UN into adopting sanctions."
Eschaton: "Will Bunch raises questions about Miller's reporting on the UN. In some too overlooked pieces Russ Baker did some work on this."
oD Blogs: "I'd like to share an example of how the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, of which International Alert is a founding member, is working to implement [UN Security Council Resolution] 1325 at the UN level, what we are doing at UN Headquarters 5 years on and who will be taking part in our October Advocacy Program next week, on which I will be posting regular updates on this blog. To mark the 5th anniversary of SCR 1325, the NGO Working Group on WPS will bring women leaders and peacemakers to United Nations Headquarters in New York from October 21-28, 2005. These women peacemakers will advise senior UN officials and government representatives on how to resolve conflicts in their countries and fully involve women in peace and security decision-making."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Political Animal: "Former New York Times UN bureau chief Barbara Crossette writes about Judith Miller's reporting on Kofi Annan and the oil-for-food scandal: "Obscured behind the large issues of weapons of mass destruction and Joseph Wilson's links with the CIA is another story."
Moderate Voice: "Condi Rice Explains The Iraq War - But did she leave out a central argument, one which the administration used to the American public, Congress and the United Nations to go into Iraq, ENTIRELY?"
Global Voices Online: "In a career spanning over 40 years, Miriam Makeba, still regal at 73, is marking the end of her performing years with a 14-month farewell tour she says to thank the people in the countries where she has performed. Miriam Makeba or Mama Africa as she is fondly known is visiting as many countries as she can and has recently vowed audiences in Cuba where one reviewer called her concert 'unforgettable and magisterial'. As well as the prodigious production of numerous albums, Miriam Makeba is also involved in humanitarian work such as being an Ambassador for the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations). While in exile in Guinea, where she served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, she addressed the UN's National Assembly about apartheid. She has also set up the Makeba Centre Rehabilitation Centre for Girls which works with street children where she will be focusing her strengths after the tour. Miriam Makeba, an extraordinary artiste whose music lives on through the decades, is Africa's greatest musical ambassador."
Prufrock's Page: "Hari Kunzru cancels his trip to the Maldives, and explains why: "The reason the Maldives appears such an unspoilt paradise, is because tourists are kept segregated from ordinary Maldivians. Apart from the capital island, Male, outsiders are only permitted onto inhabited islands for brief visits. Were they to see a little more they'd realise they were in a place in the grip of deep crisis. The United Nations recently found more than 30 per cent of children under five were suffering from malnutrition. The acute deprivation, along with the lack of democracy, is pushing some traditional muslim communities into the arms of fundamentalists."
Stygius: "While I ruefully admit that this blog has increasingly become a platform for my partisan hackery -- when I've always wanted it to be a more analytically-focused page -- self-imposed time constraints on blogging limit what I can produce. One regret is that I don't focus more on terrorism and proliferation -- and the need to come up with a results-focused, de-politicized/bipartisan counterproliferation scheme -- a drum I beat continually during the opposition to the John Bolton UN nomination. It is widely agreed to be the most pervasive threat to the United States, and yet policy-wise it seems we are still groping around in the darkness as various neo-Reaganite ideologues more obsessed with castrating effective counterproliferation programs like Nunn-Lugar impede policy. From the people that matter, there is a stunning lack of leadership on this issue. Now, Sam Nunn's Nuclear Threat Initiative is turning from their usual wonkery in the halls of power to appealing directly to Americans with their short "docu-drama," Last Best Chance."