By Alan Caruba
There was a Washington Post news report in late March that the United Nations had “presented its top donors with a request for nearly $1.1 billion in additional funds over the next two years—boosting current U.N. expenses by 25 percent and marking the global body’s highest-ever administrative budget, according to internal U.N. memos.”
Since I am no fan of the United Nations, my first thought was to ask why the U.S. and other “top donors” would toss more money at this bloated and morally corrupt international bureaucracy when it is manifestly unable to prevent wars—its primary mission—and remains a platform for belligerence, bigotry, and intolerance?
According to the report, the request for more money is blamed on the Bush administration’s “demands for a more ambitious U.N. role around the world.” That seems a rather convenient explanation given the poor performance of most of the U.N.’s so-called peace-keeping missions, some of which degraded into the rape of the women it was supposed to be protecting; its 60-year support of the Palestinians, making them the oldest refugee group in history; and its deplorable environmental program, a platform for the most appalling lies about the climate.
We have the final years of the Roosevelt administration for the creation of the United Nations as World War Two wound down. The failure of the League of Nations to prevent the war should have been sufficient reason not to go down that path again, but perhaps it was seen as the very reason to create a new, international organization to prevent wars?
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Posted by Walt as Anti-US, Corruption, Finances at 10:00 PM EDT
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Tell Congress SPP power grab sets stage for U.N. to manage Domestic Emergencies.
Alert: The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America summit in Canada released a plan that established U.N. law along with regulations by the World Trade Organization and World Health Organization as supreme over U.S. law and set the stage for militarizing the management of continental health emergencies.
The "North American Plan for Avian & Pandemic Influenza" was finalized at the SPP summit last week in Montebello, Quebec.
At the same time, the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, has created a webpage dedicated to avian flu and has been running exercises in preparation for the possible use of U.S. military forces in a continental domestic emergency involving avian flu or pandemic influenza.
With virtually no media attention, in 2005 President Bush shifted U.S. policy on avian flu and pandemic influenza, placing the country under international guidelines not specifically determined by domestic agencies.
The policy shift was formalized Sept. 14, 2005, when Bush announced a new International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza to a High-Level Plenary Meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, in New York.
The new International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza was designed to supersede an earlier November 2005 Homeland Security report that called for a U.S. national strategy that would be coordinated by the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Agriculture.
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Posted by Walt as Anti-US, Regionalism at 10:33 PM EDT
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The United States is trying to protect its borders from illegal crossings, just every other country on the globe does, but the UN think there is a human rights violation when we try to prevent and detain illegal aliens.
How can a Mexican be objective when investigating other Mexicans?
From SFGate.com:
A United Nations human rights expert will head to the United States later this month to investigate a highly criticized Texas center for detained immigrant families and two border areas where U.S. officials have announced they would crack down on Mexicans illegally crossing the border, a U.N. official said Friday.
Jorge Bustamante, the Human Rights Council's independent expert on migrant rights, will "witness first hand the situation of migrants at the borders and in immigration detention facilities," said Yvon Edoumou, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office in Geneva.
The U.S. government is facilitating the visit, which will take place from April 30 to May 18, Edoumou said.
Bustamante, a Mexican, will examine the U.S.-Mexican border in San Diego, California and Nogales, Arizona — two of seven places where U.S. immigration officials announced earlier this week that they would fill in illegal cross-border tunnels to keep smugglers from reopening them.
Posted by Walt as Anti-US, Immigration at 8:27 AM EDT
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During his visit to the UN this week Chavez’ of Venezuela made many derogatory statements against the U.S. and President Bush. Finally, he made a statement many Americans can agree with: get the UN out of the US.
In a post on the Israel Blog:
Tucked into Hugo Chavez’ tirade accompanied by his ugly, insulting comments about President Bush, he put forward an excellent idea: move the United Nations to South America, or at least out of the USA. This is one suggestion I can fully endorse. It’s time for Hugo Chavez to mount a petition to remove the UN from US soil. I’d like to be the first American to sign it. Venezuela certainly would be a prime location for the UN since its leader thinks our President is a “devil.” Why would he or any other leader want to come to such a country? Or maybe the UN could relocate to one of the other “non-aligned” nations which recently met in Cuba re-aligning themselves to bash Bush before they all landed in New York this week. . .
Unfortunately, I do not think the UN would want to leave the US with all it perks, like free speech and the high standard of living. But we can only pray that they do leave.
Posted by Walt as Anti-US, News Briefs at 10:11 AM EDT
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In a 12-page report issued in late July, the UN’s new Human Rights agency called on the United States to abandon secret detention facilities in Europe and elsewhere, cease allowing capital punishment, and improve the treatment of poor and Black Americans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Ever the meddler in the domestic affairs of nations, the UN panel also urged the U.S. to change its policy regarding voting rights for residents of the District of Columbia. State Department official Matthew Waxman termed the report “disappointing.”
Posted by Walt as Anti-US, Freedom & Human Rights, News Briefs at 12:35 AM EDT
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