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Sponsored by the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue and in collaboration with Cordoba Initiative and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, ASMA has undertaken to broaden the MLT network to include dynamic Muslim leaders from Muslim-majority countries as well as from the West. The Doha forum, entitled "Change from Within: Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow Set the Agenda," will launch the MLT program on a global scale and empower the MLT network further with a combination of practical media trainings,.....

2001 : (NY CITY : ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS IS HEADQUARTERED ACROSS FROM UN HQ IN NEW YORK CITY---- See IRAN) Headquartered across the street from the U.N.'s main offices in New York, the Alliance might more appropriately be called a U.N.-approved Slush Fund for Advancing Iranian and Other Islamic Interests. Both high profile and hard to pin down, it [ the Alliance of Civilizations] is first and foremost an Iranian brain child, which came to the U.N. by way of an earlier venture pitched in 1998 by Iran's then-president Mohammad Khatami for a "Dialogue of Civilizations."
With the eager support of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the U.N. General Assembly adopted Iran's proposal, proclaiming 2001 the Year of the Dialogue of Civilizations. To run the Dialogue, Annan appointed a former U.N. official and old Iran-hand, Giandomenico Picco--whose adventures offer a hint of the kind of intrigue surrounding today's Alliance and its precursor, the Dialogue.----- "Freedom's Edge: The U.N.'s 'Alliance of Civilizations'," BY Claudia Rosett, 03.26.09, 12:01 AM EST VIA FORBES, http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/25/alliance-of-civilizations-opinions-columnists-obama-un.html

2004 : (IRAN : DIALOGUE OF CIVILIZATIONS MEETING IS HELD IN TEHRAN) the Dialogue chugged along with meetings here and there, including one in 2004 in Tehran. ----- "Freedom's Edge: The U.N.'s 'Alliance of Civilizations'," BY Claudia Rosett, 03.26.09, 12:01 AM EST VIA FORBES, http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/25/alliance-of-civilizations-opinions-columnists-obama-un.html

At the U.N., when the "Dialogue of Civilizations" changed to the "Alliance of Civilizations" in 2005:......

2005 SPRING : (GIANDOMENICO PICCO {see UN OIL FOR FOOD SCANDAL} HELPS KOFI ANNAN ADVISOR IQBAL RIZA, A PAKISTANI, SET UP "THE ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS"... EVEN THOUGH MONTHS EARLIER RIZA HAD BEEN FORCED TO RESIGN IN THE UN/IRAQ OIL FOR FOOD SCANDAL) And last spring, according to both U.N. and Spanish sources, Annan brought in Picco to help advise Riza on setting up the Alliance. -- "New U.N. Scheme: Alliance of Civilizations," By Claudia Rosett and George Russell, Tuesday, FOXNEWS.COM , November 22, 2005

Who's Picco Giandomenico?

1980s- 1988 : (IRAN-IRAQ WAR : ITALIAN GIANDOMENICO PICCO SERVES AS THE UN GO-BETWEEN FOR IRAQ AND IRAN) An Italian national, [ Giandomenico] Picco served as a U.N. go-between for Baghdad and Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war. When that ended, in 1988, Picco stayed on at the U.N. for a few more years, serving as the secretary-general's point man for catering to the hostage politics of terrorists. Specifically, Picco specialized in trying to broker U.S. favors for Iran's mullahs as quid pro quos for the release of Western hostages snatched by Iranian-backed terrorists in Beirut.----- "Freedom's Edge: The U.N.'s 'Alliance of Civilizations'," BY Claudia Rosett, 03.26.09, 12:01 AM EST VIA FORBES, http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/25/alliance-of-civilizations-opinions-columnists-obama-un.html
1992 : (THE UN'S ITALIAN GIANDOMENICO PICCO LEADS TALKS ON PLANS TO SET UP 1996-2003 UN/IRAQ OIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM----See BAYOIL'S CHALMERS) One of Picco's final acts while working during that same period at the U.N. was to lead a round of talks in 1992 on early plans to set up what became the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003 and was aimed at helping the people of U.N.-sanctioned Iraq. Picco then left the U.N. and set up a private consulting business in midtown Manhattan. .----- "Freedom's Edge: The U.N.'s 'Alliance of Civilizations'," BY Claudia Rosett, 03.26.09, 12:01 AM EST VIA FORBES, http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/25/alliance-of-civilizations-opinions-columnists-obama-un.html

2005 early : ( THE ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS) Riza's role in setting up the Alliance [of Civilizations] was intertwined at least briefly in early 2005 with Giandomenico Picco, whom Annan also tapped as a link between the old Dialogue and the new Alliance [of Civilizations]. Picco quietly left a few weeks later, however--about the time that a scandal flared up in the media over a corrupt U.N. procurement officer, Alexander Yakovlev. A Russian who later pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges arising from taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks on U.N. procurement deals, Yakovlev had connections to a private company that had been doing business with the U.N. while Picco was serving as chairman of the board. Picco has not been accused of any wrong-doing.----- "Freedom's Edge: The U.N.'s 'Alliance of Civilizations'," BY Claudia Rosett, 03.26.09, 12:01 AM EST VIA FORBES, http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/25/alliance-of-civilizations-opinions-columnists-obama-un.html

[Riza was last I heard still an advisor to current Sec General Ban Ki Moon.]

Meanwhile as the Alliance of Civilizations took over from the Dialogue of Civilizations, a meeting was held in Istanbul, Turkey:

JUNE 23-27, 2005 : (ISTANBUL, TURKEY : "WORLD TRIBUNAL ON IRAQ" aka WTI [* aka GATHERING OF LOONS DECLARING SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQ INSURGENCY]--- See NION, UPJ, CODE PINK, ANSWER, GREEN PEACE) At the culmination of a gathering of global 'antiwar' groups in Istanbul to hold court on the liberation of Iraq led by the United States and the United Kingdom, the jurors who heard testimony against the liberators issued their findings which included a declaration of support for the terrorists in Iraq who are killing American, British and coalition soldiers and Iraqis. The World Tribunal on Iraq is endorsed by leading leftwing organizations from around the world including American-based groups like Not in Our Name Project, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink and International ANSWER. ---------- "GLOBAL ANTIWAR MOVEMENT DECLARES SUPPORT FOR TERRORISTS AGAINST US, UK," Monday, June 27, 2005 | Kristinn

These are the same people involved in the Gaza Flotilla along with the Turkish group IHH and the "ground zero" Imam.

Although former Iranian President Mohammed Khatemi, who initiated the [ILD] Dialogue Among Civilizations, remains prominent,[6]{[6]Claudia Rosett and George Russell, "New U.N. Scheme: Alliance of Civilizations," Fox News, November 22, 2005, at www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176362,00.html (February 15, 2007); Benny Avni, "New Forum Kicks into High Gear at the U.N.," The New York Sun, December 19, 2006, at www.nysun.com/article/45391 (February 14, 2007); and U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, Report of the High-Level Group, p. 11. } Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the proposal to create the alliance at the 59th U.N. General Assembly and were subsequently backed by former Secretary-General Annan.
The purposes of the Alliance of Civilizations are described succinctly in the Report of the High-Level Group:

The Alliance seeks to forge collective political will and to mobilize concerted action at the institutional and civil society levels to overcome the prejudice, misperceptions and polarization that militate against such a consensus. And it hopes to contribute to a coalescing global movement which, reflecting the will of the vast majority of people, rejects extremism in any society.[7]{[7]N. Alliance of Civilizations, Alliance of Civilizations: Report of the High-Level Group, November 13, 2006, at www.unaoc.org/repository/HLG_Report.pdf (February 15, 2007)., p. 47. }
------------The U.S. Should Oppose the Proposed U.N. Alliance of Civilizations by Brett D. Schaefer Backgrounder #2009February 22, 2007 http://www.heritage.org/Research/InternationalOrganizations/bg2009.cfm