Free Republic

The United Nations world summit... seems to have done no real harm: It has not further extended the authority and reach of the U.N., it has not foisted another "protocol" or "convention" for the Senate to consider... [or] fund. That may be a negative accomplishment, but it is certainly a real one, especially as Secretary General Kofi Annan had envisioned the summit as an opportunity to expand membership in the Security Council, expand his own powers and require rich countries to pony up additional billions in foreign aid, among other brainstorms. It took new U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John...

As the June 30 deadline for the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty approaches, it is becoming clear that the U.N. will be called on to play a crucial role in the transition -- by helping to choose a caretaker government, which will be in charge of Iraq from July 1 until elections are held in January 2005, and by advising on the conduct of those elections. Some critics of the U.N., particularly well represented on this page, have been seeking to question its fitness for this role by seizing on allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the "Oil-for-Food" program, through which,...

WASHINGTON — How fares the multination cover-up of the richest rip-off in world history? Obstruction of justice has never had it so good. Last month, after some badgering in this space and elsewhere, the House International Relations Committee announced it would look into the $5 billion kickback scandal in the United Nations' six-year Iraqi oil-for-food program, the largest humanitarian aid effort ever undertaken. Our State Department, eager for U.N. help in Iraq, wants no revelations of U.N. ineptitude and corruption. It waltzed the committee staff around. Senate Foreign Relations, however, not wanting to be upstaged by its House counterpart, called...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, tapped to chair a panel investigating alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program, wants the Security Council to endorse the panel with a resolution before he takes the post, diplomats said Thursday. Secretary-General Kofi Annan discussed Volker's request with ambassadors from the five permanent council members -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- and the envoy for the current council president, Germany, the U.N. diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Security Council sent a letter to Annan on March 31 signaling its support...