US hawks put Annan's job on the line

[emad]

Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Friday May 13, 2005
The Guardian

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, is fighting for his job in the face of an increasing campaign by Republican congressmen who have launched a series of investigations into the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal.

Mr Annan is facing three separate congressional investigations into oil-for-food and a UN security council source said a further four are pending.

George Bush's Republican party is hostile towards the UN in general but Mr Annan in particular, especially after he last year declared that the war in Iraq was illegal.


Senator Norm Coleman, the Republican senator whose committee yesterday published a report naming George Galloway, the MP for the anti-war Respect party, and Charles Pasqua, the former French minister, in connection with oil-for-food, has called on Mr Annan to resign.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1483113,00.html

[Larkspur]

1. I can't wait for Galloway to bash Coleman

I can see the British headlines now -- Galloway and the Revenge of the Brit!

[punpirate]

2. Funny thing, though...

... Kofi Annan is well-respected among other members of the General Assembly, and they're the ones who voted him in, and still want him even after his son's indiscretions.

Everyone knows that this war of wills is not about the oil-for-food program--it's about the Bushies wanting absolute control of the UN, just as they want absolute one-party control of the political process in the US.

[dogday]

3. They are determined to undermind the authority of the UN

[FloridaPat]

4. Another step to destroy the UN. I think the UN has to approve

something by December, else we have to leave Iraq. Then there are all those other countries we have on our invasion list. I doubt the UN will give us anything next time around.