Going after Annan/A sordid move by Coleman

[Manix]

<snip>


Good old Norm; it appears there's nothing he won't do for a headline, or for his GOP masters. Minnesota's junior senator made quite a splash this week with his call for the resignation of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, a splendid public servant whom the city Sen. Norm Coleman once governed has considered a semi-native son since his years at Macalester College. Even if he had never set foot in St. Paul, Annan would deserve far better than the stuff Coleman is dishing out.

The ostensible reason for seeking Annan's resignation? It was on his watch that Saddam Hussein diverted billions from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program designed to relieve the humanitarian burden on Iraqis suffering as a consequence of U.N. sanctions.

Note that no one has the slightest whiff of proof that Annan knew about, condoned or profited from this scandal. Furthermore, when the scandal surfaced, Annan appointed former Fed chairman and man of impeccable honor Paul Volcker to thoroughly investigate the matter. Volcker's report, which both he and Annan have promised will be made public, is still a work in progress.


<snip>


Numerous Star Tribune readers have pointed out -- appropriately, in our view -- that if Coleman wants to investigate scandal, he need not go as far afield as the United Nations. He could start with those really nice contracts that Vice President Dick Cheney's former firm, Halliburton, got in Iraq. He could move on to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Just this week, for instance, came accusations from the International Red Cross that treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo amounted to torture. Then the Washington Post reported a secret memo from a Pentagon investigator, written before the Abu Ghraib scandal hit the front pages, that warned the brass of widespread abuses. What brass has been held accountable?

There is so much from the last four years that Coleman could find to keep himself busy. Just about every aspect of the Iraq misadventure smells to the high heavens. But of course investigating those things would be unpleasant for those Coleman so fawningly seeks to please. What an embarrassment.






startribune

[Forkboy]

1. egggggsellent

:)

[cavanaghjam]

2. Ever notice

all these Bushites got the same beady eyes, the same humorless outlook, the same cruel visage? I think there's been some cloning around behind the scenes.

Rumor and speculation and innuendo are their ammo, facts are a hindrance. Why wait for Volcker's report? Their haughty indignation cannot wait to be expressed.

Or is there a Halliburton/Carlyle Group bomb ticking down? Maybe this is just an attempt to defuse whatever embarrassing facts may come to the fore.

Or is it just petty revenge against Kofi? Either would be right in character for this Reich.

(edited to remove evidence of stupidity)

[izzie]

3. Colemen is looking to make a name for him self fast.

It also makes us forget that all those corp. that stoled so much from the people in this country have got off pretty free. Lets get the UN. I think Wal-mart wants the building for a new store to sell China made goods.

[teryang]

4. The disappearance of American held Iraqi oil funds

...is the real scandal. This UN "scandal" is a distraction from UN efforts to find out what happened to 20 billion in Iraqi oil funds virtually confiscated by Bremer's provisional government. When that hit the news Bremer and his colleages left Iraq in a hurry to avoid the UN auditors. It is at that time that this manufactured UN scandal started being pushed by chimp supporters.