Why Is President Bush Attempting to Fund The Dangerous Law of the Sea Treaty?
As President Bush counts down his final year in office, Americans naturally wonder whether he'll use his remaining time to advance conservative principles despite a hostile Congress, or instead seek to create a "legacy" in the minds of the literati...[more]
Recently, John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador the United Nations, joined CFIF's Renee Giachino to discuss his new book, Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad, and the dramatic changes needed at the United Nations and in American government to address our national security challenges. ...[Read more and listen to the interview here.]
Bush Begins to Sacrifice American Sovereignty to International Authorities
President George W. Bush, who has so often defended American sovereignty on such critical issues as missile defense and our right to defend strategic interests while the United Nations (UN) navel-gazes, has begun to dangerously reverse course...[more]
White House Caves on Climate Change, While China Thumbs Its Nose
Last week, President Bush issued a stunning and disheartening capitulation toward global warming hysterics by pledging to reduce America's "greenhouse gas" emissions. "The United States takes this issue seriously," he said in announcing the disappointing reversal of White House policy...[more]
How will Changes at the United Nations Impact American Sovereignty?
Recently, Thomas Kilgannon, author of Diplomatic Divorce: Why America Should End Its Love Affair with the United Nations and a leading authority on the United Nations, joined CFIF Corporate Counsel & Senior Vice President Renee Giachino to discuss changes at the United Nations and their impact on American sovereignty...[Read more and listen to the interview now.]
From Winston Churchill to Kofi Annan: Still Believe in Darwinism?
In 1946, Winston Churchill gave his heroic "Iron Curtain" speech in Missouri. This week, sixty years later, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered his own speech in Independence, Missouri...[more]
Recently, Nathan Tabor, a conservative columnist, political activist, founder of the Web site TheConservativeVoice.com, and author of The Beast on the East River: The U.N. Threat to America’s Sovereignty and Security joined CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino to discuss the problems at the United Nations and why Americans cannot ignore the challenges we face through our membership in the U.N... [Read more and listen to the interview]
John Bolton's Resignation: Another Really Good Man Done Gone
John Bolton waited patiently - for more than a year - while the U.S. Senate blocked his confirmation as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. The President gave him a recess appointment, so he went and did his job and did it well.[more]
This week, an organization calling itself the Better World Campaign release a new poll. The headline of the press release oddly declared, "Majority of Americans Believe in the United Nations."...[more]
U.N. Selects New Secretary General
Late last week, as expected, the U.N. General Assembly formally endorsed the Security Council's recommendation that South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon become the world body's eighth Secretary-General...[more]
Looking for Leadership at the United Nations
This week, the U.N. Security Council continued the process of selecting a new Secretary General to replace the thoroughly disgraced Kofi Annan whose term expires at the end of the year...[more]
Chafee Derails Bolton Confirmation Bid
Hope had been renewed when Senator George Voinovich reverse his position and announced that he would support Bolton's confirmation...[more]
More U.N. Sex Abuse in the Congo
Reuters reported last week: "The United Nations is investigating a suspected child prostitution ring involving its peacekeepers and government soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.N. mission said on Thursday."... [more]
Can the U.N. Keep the Peace in Lebanon?
Last week, the fabled United Nations Security Council passed a resolution which, it is hoped, will end the fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon...[more]
The partisan minority in the U.S. Senate used to content itself with obstructing the President's nominees...[more]
U.N. Secretary General Selection Continues
On Monday, with on-going fighting in the Middle East as a backdrop, the U.N. Security Council took its first look at the candidates to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General...[more]
For Every Action, an Equal and Opposite Reaction... Except at the U.N.
On Tuesday, North Korea test-fired as many as seven missiles, including one ICBM capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States, in defiance of international warnings. [more]
U.N. Gun Control Summit Attacks Second Amendment and Firearms Worldwide
Lest one assume the U.N. merely seeks trans-global standards, consider the following press release: "Member states should ... bring their own national legislation into compliance with the Council's measures."...[more]
Fox News Channel's Eric Shawn: 'How the U.N. Sabotages America's Security'
Eric Shawn is the author of a new book entitled The U.N. Exposed: How the United Nations Sabotages America's Security. Recently, Mr. Shawn joined CFIF Corporate Counsel & Senior Vice President Renee Giachino on "Your Turn – Meeting Nonsense With Common Sense" to discuss his book...[more]
Electing a New U.N. Secretary General: Episode One
Current Secretary General Kofi Annan, the king of corruption and ineptitude himself, will step down at the end of the year...[more]
U.N. Attacks Freedom of the Press
Just in case you ever had any doubt that the United Nations will only be happy once it has rolled back our freedoms one at a time, news came last week that the world body has now turned its attention to the freedom of the press...[more]
CFIF Exclusive: UN Mismanagement Plagues Aid Program in Western Sahara
For at least five years, a UN humanitarian program responsible for providing food to refugees in western Algeria has been beset by mismanagement and corruption, according to documents obtained by the Center for Individual Freedom...[more]
Book Review: U.N. Endangering Our Security
Fox News correspondent and anchor Eric Shawn thought he had seen everything. After all, he had been on the police beat in New York City. He'd covered presidential campaigns and major news events around the world...[more]
During a recent visit to Cyprus, Rosett dropped by the home of Benon Sevan – the key protagonist in the massive U.N. Oil for Food scandal. But to appreciate the irony and implications of the encounter that resulted, one must recall the back story...[more]
Kofi, Mark and the Ritz Carlton
This week, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan announced that he was promoting his Chief of Staff, Englishman Mark Malloch Brown, to the post of Deputy Secretary General...[more]
It's the U.N.'s wildest dream come true. France, Brazil, Chile and even the United Kingdom have taken the first steps toward implementing a global tax on airline travel...[more]
This week, The New York Times finally caught onto a story that U.N. experts and others in the press have been focused on for months - the world body's upcoming selection of its next Secretary General...[more]
Film Review: The U.N.'s Long History of Broken Promises
But the film's most powerful moments are interviews with two victims of U.N. failure. The first is Eugenie Mukeshimana, a survivor of the Rwanda genocide. She recounts how she and her husband hid in separate houses as rampaging Hutus, bent on genocide, went from house to house, hacking her friends and neighbors to death with machetes...[more]
Tsunami + United Nations = Double Disaster
One year ago, the devastating tsunami took more than 220,000 lives and wrought untold destruction across a massive area that encompassed most of the Indian Ocean. And in a testament to the better virtues of human nature, people from across the globe were moved to do and give what they could to help...[more]
Nearly two years ago, stories first started to appear that provided the first hints about the monumental corruption of the U.N.-Iraq Oil for Food program. And like so many other tales of scandal, the Oil for Food story has now come full circle...[more]
Annan Fudges the Facts about U.N. Control of the Internet
Once, in a fit of spontaneous candor, President Reagan famously declared, “Facts are stubborn things.”...[more]
At 60, It’s Time for the U.N. to Shape Up or Shut Down
A recent Presidential proclamation declared Monday, October 24, to be United Nations Day here in the
Just Say No to United Nations Control of the Internet
You're an international organization. You've spent the last few years perfecting corruption by managing the largest financial scandal in the history of the world. Your peacekeepers are routinely committing repulsive acts of sexual abuse and pedophilia...[more]
New U.N. Scandal, Same Old U.N. Scandal
Like the Oil for Food scandal before it, the latest disclosures indicate corruption and conflict-of-interest at the highest levels of the world organization’s leadership...[more]
Undocumented Outcomes at the U.N.
Earlier this month, the United Nations claimed to have attracted the largest ever gathering of world leaders and heads of state...[more]
Kofi Annan Stained by Oil for Food Scandal
This week, the U.N. Commission investigating the Oil-for-Food scandal issued a devastating report concluding that two senior U.N. officials took bribes...[more]
CFIF Praises Bolton Appointment
The Center for Individual Freedom praised President Bush for bypassing obstructionists in the U.S. Senate and using his constitutional authority to appoint John Bolton as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations...[more]
Jed Babbin Explains Why the United Nations and Old Europe Are Worse Than You Think
Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin recently joined Renee Giachino to discuss his new book Inside the Asylum: Why the United Nations and Old Europe are Worse than You Think...[more]
House Committee Votes to Slash U.N. Budget
This week, the House International Relations Committee took long overdue action. By a vote of 25 to 22, the committee moved to cut
WHO’s Infantile Preoccupation with Baby Formula
The human race is facing serious health challenges from HIV/AIDS, bird flu, SARS, and drug-defeating super bacteria to name only a few. So what will the World Health Organization debate in two weeks at its annual assembly? ...[more]
Last week, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan opined that Saddam Hussein collected most of his ill-gotten oil booty “on the American and British watch,” not as a result of the massive corruption in the U.N.-run Oil for Food program...[more]
John Bolton, President Bush’s nominee to be Ambassador to the United Nations, is a certified tough guy. That’s one of the reasons we support him wholeheartedly and without reservation, for the job...[more]
LOST at Sea: The Treaty that Wouldn’t Die
In Congress, bad ideas are like zombies — always rising from the dead and finding new ways to cause trouble. The latest example is the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), formally known as the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea...[more]
U.N. Reform Should Start with Annan’s Resignation
Mired in scandal, plagued by corruption, and facing irrelevance, the United Nations is in desperate need of repair. In response, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan last week unveiled his long-awaited proposal for reforming the troubled world body...[more]
CFIF Applauds Selection of John Bolton for U.N. Ambassador
“This is an outstanding selection. John Bolton has repeatedly demonstrated that Americans can count on him to be an unwavering advocate for
U.N. Reacts to Scandals: “It’s Not Our Problem”
For months, the United Nations has been rocked by one report after another of scandal, corruption, mismanagement, misconduct and abuse. And incredibly, for the U.N.’s senior leaders, it’s never their problem...[more]
Volcker Releases First Report on U.N. Oil for Food Scandal
Last week, the U.N. committee investigating the Oil for Food scandal released its first “interim” report of its findings and recommendations...[more]
More Coverage of the Volcker Report:
Sevan, Spare Parts, and Smuggling
U.N. apologists have tried to downplay the Oil for Food scandal by arguing that Saddam Hussein's ill-gotten funds came more from oil smuggling than from corruption in the U.N. Oil for Food program. Last week’s report from the Volcker Committee thoroughly undermines this argument...[more]
Findings on Kofi and Kojo Delayed
Readers will find many interesting tidbits in last week’s interim report from the U.N. committee investigating corruption in the Oil for Food program. But they won’t find a single word addressing possible wrongdoing by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan or his son, Kojo...[more]
Audit Problem Reflects Culture of Mismanagement
An entire chapter of the Volcker committee’s interim report is dedicated to a review and analysis of the U.N.’s internal auditors...[more]
Volcker Panel Postpones Report after Missing Key Information
To no one’s great surprise, the much anticipated release of an interim report from the U.N. committee investigating the Oil for Food scandal has been postponed, and the reason for the delay raises fresh doubts about the committee’s investigation...[more]
Limited Oil for Food Disclosure Hints at High Level Corruption
As reporters and commentators have digested the 58 internal audits and a briefing paper released this week by the U.N. commission investigating the Oil for Food scandal, many have concluded that they contained little significant information...[more]
U.N.-Fit to Lead Relief Effort
The recent tsunami in Southeast Asia killed more than 150,000 people and decimated countless communities. The world’s response to the devastation has been unprecedented. Governments and individuals around the globe are contributing billions to help the victims and aid the recovery...[more]
The United Nations has reversed its decision to fire Dr. Andrew Thomson, co-author of the revealing book Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, according to the Associated Press...[more]
U.N. Employee Speaks Out, Gets Fired
In June, we commented on the extraordinary book Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, which was co-authored by three veterans of U.N. peacekeeping and humanitarian missions: Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson. At the time the book was released, Cain had already left the U.N., but Postlewait, an administrator, and Thomson, a physician, remained. This week, in an outrageous display of heavy-handed revenge, the U.N. began to purge the remaining authors, notifying Thomson that his contract would not be renewed...[more]
Last month, an Indian drug maker that specializes in producing knock-off versions of brand-name medications removed all its antiretroviral drugs from the World Health Organization's list of approved pharmaceuticals...[more]
Volcker Should Save His Credibility and Resign His Post
Last April, bowing to intense pressure, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan named a supposedly independent panel to investigate charges that the world body’s administration of the Oil-for-Food program was corrupt...[more]
You would think that with managing the Oil for Food scandal, working to undermine U.S. foreign policy, pushing for global taxes and advocating a sweeping restructuring of the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be going out of his way to avoid creating more problems for himself and the world body...[more]
Kofi Annan: Stealing from Iraqis, Again
Just when we thought the corruption of the U.N.-Iraq Oil for Food program couldn’t get any more egregious, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan announced on October 13 that he was going to pay for the world body’s internal investigation with proceeds from Iraqi oil sales...[more]
U.N. Gives Alleged War Criminal Back Pay
A U.N. panel recently awarded 13 months back pay to a former employee charged with killing some of his colleagues during the Rwanda genocide in 1994, the New York Times reports. The United Nations Administrative Tribunal made the award on September 30 after another U.N. board recommended that the employee, Callixte Mbarushimana, receive sixth months of back pay...[more]
Kofi Annan: Ignorant or Naïve?
Investigators are now tripping through evidence that Saddam Hussein was using money obtained through the corrupt U.N.-Iraq Oil for Food program and illegal oil smuggling to buy friends in a number of countries including France, Russia and China...[more]
New Details Emerge: France and Russia Bought and Paid for by Oil for Food
Since the first hints of the massive Oil for Food scandal, many have suspected that Saddam Hussein used the program to buy friends in France, Russia, and states that neighbor Iraq...[more]
At least 25 U.N. employees have been arrested by Israel for participating in or aiding Palestinian terrorist attacks, according to the Associated Press...[more]
Isn't it great that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is around to opine on the legitimacy of things? Just last week, Annan told the BBC that the U.S.-led war in Iraq was “illegal.” This week, he told the U.N. General Assembly that all nations should respect the rule of law. In some parts of our country, this is what's known as “the pot calling the kettle black.”...[more]
U.S. Should Oppose United Nations Non-Reform
The U.N. General Assembly opened its 59th session this week in New York. Did anyone notice? Did anyone care? A report on the mood of Americans toward this event might describe the reaction this way: "Apathy sprinkled with occasional loathing, irritation and exasperation."...[more]
Global Tax Supporters, In Their Own Words
We recently reported on the new United Nations drive for global taxes, describing proposals for world-wide taxes on e-mails and Internet use, a global gas tax, levies on airline travel and several others. We warned that, if adopted, American taxpayers could wind up paying hundreds of billions of dollars each year to the United Nations...[more]
Global Taxes Are Back, Watch Your Wallet
Like a bad sequel to a rotten horror movie, the debate over global taxation once again is rearing its ugly head — courtesy of the United Nations. And, despite lacking the requisite hockey mask and chain saw, the seemingly countless proposals for the imposition of global taxes are truly terrifying...[more]
U.N.-Just Tribunal Is Another U.N. Failure
Defenders of the United Nations have long held up the world body's war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as a key success and evidence that the organization can make a positive difference in the world. On July 29, however, the appeals panel of that celebrated tribunal handed down a ruling that revealed the supposed triumph of international justice to be nothing more than another U.N. failure...[more]
Recently, eleven Democratic Members of Congress sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan requesting the world body dispatch election monitors to oversee this fall's U.S. Presidential voting. Yes. That's right. These eleven Democrats want the United Nations, that bastion of honesty, fair play and good sense, to supervise the Presidential election in the world's leading democracy...[more]
The Unabashed Arrogance of Kofi Annan
This week, a who's who of world leaders convened in Bangkok, Thailand, with the objective of "advanc[ing] the global response to HIV/AIDS" at the 15th International AIDS Conference. Indeed, a noble and worthy cause. However, as is generally the case at such meetings, the stated focus of developing strategies to combat the worldwide epidemic quickly shifted to one of blaming the United States and American drug companies for the rapid spread of the deadly disease in developing nations...[more]
Book Review: Desperate Measures to Overcome U.N. Failure
"Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures" — A new book by three experienced United Nations staffers provides an unusual and candid look at the incompetence and corruption that has plagued the organization's peacekeeping efforts over the last twelve years...[more]
U.N.-Checked U.N.-Ethical Behavior
As details of the U.N. Oil for Food scandal continue to drip forth, a new internal survey of U.N. employees provides further evidence that the organization is rife with corruption, scandal, unethical managers, crooked bureaucrats and shady deals...[more]
Update: U.N. Oil for Food Investigation Hampered
As details of the scandal involving the U.N.'s Iraq Oil for Food program continue to dribble from inside and outside the world body, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has pledged a complete investigation and promised that those found guilty of corruption or improper behavior will be punished. To that end, Annan recruited former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to lead a U.N.-sponsored probe...[more]
Oil for Food's U.N.-Inspections
Over the last two weeks, the Center for Individual Freedom has reported on the growing U.N. Oil for Food scandal. This week, the inexorable dripping of incriminating information continues...[more]
Update: U.N. Oil for Food Scandal Continues to Grow
Last week, the Center for Individual Freedom outlined the growing scandal surrounding the United Nations' Oil for Food program (see "Oil for Osama"). But in the last few days, even more information evidencing the breadth of the scandal and the possible extent of the cover-up has come to light...[more]
The United Nations' Oil for Food program scandal continues to swell. Recall that documents discovered after the liberation of Iraq revealed that the U.N.'s self-described flagship humanitarian program was wracked with bribery, kick-backs, smuggling, under the table deals and influence peddling. Among other revelations, evidence uncovered in Baghdad implicated long-time U.N. official Benon Sevan who was responsible for managing the program and reported directly to Secretary General Kofi Annan...[more]
The United Nations has long been a bastion of hope for the naïve idealists who seek a Star Trek-like nirvana under a benevolent global government...[more]
U.N. Monitor: Guest Commentary
Protecting Our National Sovereignty
By Senator John Cornyn: Our state, and our country, are struggling to keep up with the effects of globalization — the increasingly free flow of ideas, information, goods and capital across borders and around the world...[more]
UN Taxation of Americans – A Persistent Problem
By Paul M. Weyrich: The United Nations continues advancing a global taxation agenda. Americans who believe in national sovereignty are indebted to Clifford Kincaid for his diligent monitoring of an important issue that "mainstream" news media long has ignored...[more]
The U.N.'s Spreading Bribery Scandal: Russian Ties and Global Reach
By Claudia Rosett and George Russell: How widespread is the corruption at the United Nations? The multibillion-dollar Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal was just the beginning...[more]
The U.N.: Celebrating 60 Years of Anti-Semitism, Corruption and Incompetence
By Alexander Schwab: To envision the gross ineptitude and unfathomable worthlessness of the United Nations, consider the deluge of bureaucracy and champion of inefficiency that typifies our common conception of government...[more]
Coleman Renews Call for U.N. Reform in CPAC Speech
By Senator Norm Coleman: The United Nations, for better or for worse, plays a role in world politics. It gives us an opportunity to have dialogue with both our allies and our adversaries...[more]
By Senator Norm Coleman It's time for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign. Over the past seven months, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, has conducted an exhaustive, bipartisan investigation into the scandal surrounding the U.N. Oil-for-Food program...[more]
By George Hawley: Utopian visionaries, who honestly believe the United Nations is an altruistic organization, have never looked so ridiculous. The Oil-for-Food Program has proven to be one of the biggest scams in history. And, as time goes on, we continue to learn of diplomatic betrayals by our ostensible allies. Nations that have just as much at stake in the War on Terror as we do seem to continually backstab the United States...[more]
By George Hawley: In the fall of 2002, President George W. Bush laid down a challenge to the United Nations, stating: "It's time for them to determine whether they'll be the United Nations, or the League of Nations. It's time to determine whether or not they'll be a force for good and peace, or an ineffective debating society."...[more]
The U.S. and The U.N.: The End of a Bad Romance
By Bruce Herschensohn: It should be understood that from the beginning she wasn't faithful and had no intention of being faithful. After the United States of America and its World War II allies created the United Nations Organization, the United States fell in love with her. He thought the two of them had a lot in common. But the United Nations Organization, dressed in apparel given her by the United States and wearing jewelry given her by the United States, spent many New York nights of romance with enemies of the United States. And so it went for 59 years of hand-holding beneath the moonlight and stars on the East River near the magnificent home that John D. Rockefeller of the United States had given her...[more]
This week, historian and foreign policy expert Bruce Herschensohn (also a member of CFIF's Board of Directors) spoke with the Center for Individual Freedom's Renee Giachino, who hosts the radio talk show "Your Turn -- Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense" on WEBY 1330 AM in Northwest Florida, about the U.N.'s scandal-plagued Iraq Oil for Food program and the world body's desire for global taxes...[more]
In response to the U.N.'s refusal to turn over to Congress key information about the mushrooming Oil for Food scandal, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) recently proposed legislative to withhold a percentage of the United States' annual payments to the world body until the organization turns over the information that Congress is seeking. On July 8, Rep. Flake discussed his bill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality...[more]
Testimony of Claudia Rosett before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality
On July 8, journalist Claudia Rosett testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality about the U.N. Oil for Food scandal. Rosett has been the leading source of reporting on this mushroom scandal, and her testimony provides new insight...[more]
9-11 Commission: There is a Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda
By Congressman Jeff Miller: It is astonishing to hear how some media outlets "know" so much and have the gall to think they can make our decisions for us. Allegations of a partisan 9-11 Commission do not hold much water when both political parties see a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. Even a quick glance readily shows the support that the two terrorist groups extended to one another. The facts are in plain sight...[more]
The United Nations Organization
By Bruce Herschensohn: Imagine that you and your family move to a new home in a neighborhood of 190 other residences. As you carry in some of your possessions, you are welcomed outside your front door by the Chairman of the Neighborhood Community Services Organization. He extends his hand and introduces himself. "Welcome! We have 190 members in our Neighborhood Community Services and we would like to have you in our organization as our 191st member! We had a meeting yesterday and all of your neighbors would like you to join."...[more]
U.N. Monitor: Background
Major Events in the U.N.'s History
No one doubts that the United Nations was created with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, its history, while including some successes, is checkered with failures. In recent decades, the number of failures dwarfs the successes. The following timeline lists some of the critical events in the world body's past...[more]
As a part of its U.N. Monitor project, the Center for Individual Freedom encourages Americans to be better informed about the world body. To that end, we have prepared a suggested reading list with a variety of U.N.-focused works. We have also included a brief description and our opinion of each book. The books in the list include objective history, first-person accounts of U.N. missions, and pointed criticism...[more]
GAO Report: Observations on the Oil For Food Program and Areas for Further Investigation
At Congress's request, the General Accounting Office attempted to investigate the U.N. Oil for Food scandal. Despite persistent U.N. stonewalling, the GAO concluded that Saddam Hussein benefited from over $10 billion in illicit oil sales, kickbacks, and illegal oil smuggling. The GAO report also raises important questions that require further investigation, but efforts to address those questions have gone nowhere thanks to the U.N.'s intransigence. To download the GAO report, click here (pdf).