Posted on 07/25/2006 9:13:29 PM PDT by Bad~Rodeo
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan charged early Wednesday morning that Israel deliberately targeted a United Nations post in Lebanon late Tuesday night, killing four UNIFIL members.
They were part of the international body's peace keeping force in Lebanon that was created in 1978 after the beginning of the Peace for Galilee Campaign, Dan Gillerman, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations said he was "shocked" by Annan's accusations and demanded an apology.
Hey Kofi, if it was deliberately targeted you should be saying "Good shot". Something you can't say about the terrorist's shots.
Will some one please tell me what good the UN observers were doing on their post? Did they ever do anything to help to stop the Hezbollah arms buildup? What were they doing that they deserved to be paid?
I figure Israel "accidently" killed the alleged UN collaborators the same way the US "accidently" bombed the French and Chinese embassies.
They were observing Hezballah kill and capture the Israeli troops.
"Perhaps our troops in S. Korea would be an example?"
They are not interim.
My suspicion is that the UN post was providing forward observer info or command & control.
Huh? It's right there in the first paragraph:
"The Israeli army blamed Hezbollah rockets but a U.N. officer said it was an artillery shell fired by the Israeli Defense Force."
Please hold the hell on
Classy guy.
Annan KNOWS there was no deliberate attack.
He is speaking a LIE to force Israel to agree to a ceasefire.
What a despicable opportunist using the dead to further his political agenda. Just like Sheehan.
Too bad for him Israel has figured out that a UN peace means only more dead Jews. Annan will be ignored.
I just want to know what they were doing to justify being fired on... maybe helping Hezbollah
I am trying to find out (put out the word a bit) if the North African Ghanaian UN observers who were killed were in fact providing info to the Hezbollah. Remember they have been living there in Hezziland so would have Hezzi friends and would naturally be anti-Israel through association with locals if not individual preferences.
Nobody lights up a solitary building on top of a hill with a laser to guide in a smart bomb "accidentally", so I'd bet pesos to peanuts that Israel had to act to protect its troops and stop the UN spies who were giving movement and other info to the Hezzies.
What say you? (anyone have nmore details?)
cheers,
Yes, Israel HAS FIGURED it out. Allow me to refresh everyone's memory about somethin that G' Dubya stated in 12/03/04
George Bush pointedly declined to support the United Nations secretary general yesterday after the head of a Senate committee investigating multibillion-dollar abuse of a UN programme in Iraq called for Kofi Annan's resignation.
President Bush called for a "full and open" accounting of the oil-for-food programme, under investigation by five congressional committees and a separate UN inquiry. According to Norm Coleman, the US senator who demanded Mr Annan's resignation on Wednesday, Saddam Hussein illegally diverted $21bn (£11bn).
Mr Coleman, the Republican head of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said Mr Annan should resign because "the most extensive fraud in the history of the UN occurred on his watch".
President Bush, asked yesterday whether Mr Annan should resign, did not reply directly. But he did say, somewhat ominously: "In order for the taxpayers of the United States to feel comfortable about supporting the United Nations, there has to be an open accounting."
Paul Volcker a former US Federal Reserve chief, who is leading the UN inquiry, has refused to hand any documents to the US investigations until his office issues its reports next month.
There is no love lost between the Bush administration and Mr Annan, who declared the US-led invasion of Iraq to be illegal. Britain, France, China and Russia, expressed support for Mr Annan yesterday, but the US pays a quarter of the UN's budget and could make life difficult for the Ghanaian secretary general - as it did for his predecessor Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whom it refused to back for a second term. "They are pounding the UN. They are pounding Kofi. It's worse than under Boutros, and that's saying something," said a senior UN official yesterday.
Mr Annan also faces an internal revolt from the UN staff association which represents 5,000 employees and has accused him of failing to properly investigate accusations of cronyism and sexual harassment against the UN's internal watchdog, Dileep Nair. Mr Annan has also been criticised for clearing the high commissioner for refugees, Ruud Lubbers, over allegations against him. The oil-for-food accusations, coupled with the staff association protests, have prompted other UN staff members to write an unprecedented petition expressing support for their beleaguered chief. By yesterday, 3,000 people had signed.
The oil-for-food scandal broke last January when documents surfaced alleging that, in return for political support, Saddam bribed officials from around the world with billions of dollars from the oil-for-food programme, which had allowed sanctions-hit Iraq to export limited quantities of oil to pay for food and medicine.
Press reports initially focused on allegations against the anti-war countries France and Russia, before moving more recently to turn the spotlight on American firms and individuals. The head of the UN programme, Benon Sevan, has also been accused of accepting bribes, which he denies. The amount of money allegedly involved has also swelled, fuelling anti-UN feeling in the US, where it is now suggested that the funds may have been used to fund the insurgency against US troops in Iraq.
In March, the US General Accounting Office estimated that Saddam raised $4.4bn from illicit surcharges and kickbacks through the oil- for-food scheme, which ran from 1996 until it was wound up after the Iraq war last year. The figure mentioned by Mr Coleman in the Wall Street Journal was $21.3bn.
But UN officials stressed yesterday that Mr Coleman's figures included all the illegal revenue gained by Saddam, not just the oil-for-food programme. Under the sanctions regime, all the contracts with Iraq were monitored by the UN Security Council - including the US, which notably turned a blind eye to billions of dollars worth of oil smuggled through Turkey.
Mr Annan's reputation has also suffered from the fact that his son, Kojo, worked for a company that was given contracts with the oil-for-food programme in Iraq.
Kojo Annan maintains that all reported payments to him were legally proper and only relate to Africa.
You DON"T THROW AWAY A BARREL of APPLES BECAUSE of 1 or 2 BAD ONES....br
PING to my reply #58
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