Posted on 09/11/2002 4:01:44 PM PDT by HAL9000
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 11, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The United States will rejoin the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 18 years after withdrawing from the body to protest its alleged mismanagement and overly political policies, a diplomat at the United Nations said Wednesday.U.S. President George W. Bush was set to make the announcement in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
UNESCO was created in 1946 to fight intolerance and racism, but in the mid-1980s it was accused of being corrupt, politicized and mismanaged.
The United States pulled out in 1984 during Ronald Reagan's presidency with then Secretary of State George Shultz charging that it had strayed far from its professed purposes. At the time, the United States provided a quarter of UNESCO's budget. Britain also left in the mid-1980s but returned in 1998.
At that time, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton said budget constraints prevented the United States from rejoining.
The possibility of U.S. re-entry into UNESCO was first reported by the Washington Times in its Tuesday edition. "If Bush brings the United States back into UNESCO, it will be seen by some as a shameless attempt to buy the support of the United Nations for war against Iraq," the paper said in a commentary.
When Koichiro Matsura took over as UNESCO's director-general in the fall of 1999, he promised to refocus on core concerns and implement more practical programs.
A pamphlet published by UNESCO last year said the organization had resolved issues raised by the United States - supporting press freedom, for example, and ending what American critics said was the politicization of the development agenda.
"UNESCO offers the United States an international forum to strengthen partnerships with its neighbors and improve understanding via dialogue, common projects and exchanges - in other words 'public diplomacy,"' said the pamphlet.
The brochure said that through UNESCO countries work to bridge gaps between civilizations and prevent culture and religion from being used as tools to incite hate.
The U.N. agency pointed out that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Algeria and other states recently asked the organization for assistance in breaking the association between Islam and terrorism that has developed in the minds of many, and have proposed a "cultural offensive against terrorism."
Many Muslim leaders have denounced last Sept. 11's terror attacks, and complained their religion was being unfairly associated with terrorism because the hijackers who crashed their commandeered passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and a Pennsylvania field were all Muslims.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Uhh^H^H^H^H it's all part of B^Bush's secret plan.
Yeah that's the ticket...
Don't worry about it. Go buy a car.
I certainly hope this is not true.
If that's the case, it's too expensive.
No defense, just bafflement.
Then I saw the bush-bashing louts take over the commentary and decided that comment was pointless.
So, I'll just state that if I'd made the prediction that we'd be ready to dump more money into the black hole of UNESCO...
I'd want to remain annonymous too.
Now I did include just the top two Bushbot defenses.
1) It's all part of the Bush secret plan. He knows what he's doing.
2) Shut up and buy a car.
Of course I neglected...
3) u r a disruptor... go back to DU.
4) This has always been the conservative position, you must be a socialist or communist or much worse, a McCainiac or Buchanite.
5) We're at war. Shut up and get behind the President.
6) This is such a small issue quit nitpicking.
He's turned lemons into lemonade. In some cases he hasnt gotten the help he should, eg, Kyoto, Japan almost followed us and we'd have a non-Kyoto starting point -- but the EuroSocialists stopped that, and now Liberal editorialist usee it as an excuse to bah bush as unilaterialist.
I hope he's figured out something like that here ... or I'll be sore. UNESCO is a pathetic organization.
If Bush can rejoin UNESCO and it turns into a PR organization to oppose terrorism and hate organizations, it wont be so bad. we spend more on AIDS education in our public schools than we do on that.
PS: What did you think fo the Dem Senate vote on Priscilla Owens? DO you think she was treated fairly?
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