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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rascal who wrote (115985)	9/30/2003 2:51:13 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Vast, Unsecure Iraqi Arms Depots Could Take Years to Dispose Of nytimes.com [ Elsewhere in the NYT today, this mordantly amusing story. Rumsfeld wants control so bad, but he doesn't exactly seem to be using the control he has very effectively. It must all be somebody else's fault, though. The '"we know everything and everyone else is stupid" civilian team running the Pentagon' ( (c) Friedman) couldn't possibly be responsible. Excerpts: ] Senior American military officials say that as much as 650,000 tons of ammunition remains at thousands of sites used by the former Iraqi security forces, and that much of it has not been secured and will take years to destroy. The scope of the problem is much larger than the Pentagon acknowledged three weeks ago, when senior military officials insisted that all known munitions sites in Iraq had been secured. The daunting task facing the military is illustrated in an infrared videotape of a sprawling, unguarded Iraqi air base taken by an Army helicopter crew in June that shows several huge hangars stripped bare of their roofing and siding, revealing bombs, missiles and other weaponry stacked dozens of feet high. On the videotape, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by an American official in Baghdad, a crewman said: "It looks like there's hundreds of warheads or bombs." Two months later, F.B.I. investigators returned to the site on a tip that it might have been the source of a 500-pound Soviet-made bomb that they suspect was used in the attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on Aug. 19. They, too, were surprised to find piles of bombs, all unguarded. As of yesterday, military officials said that they had erected barriers and signs at the site and were patrolling it periodically, but that there were still no permanent guards. . . . After F.B.I. bomb technicians identified a piece of a 500-pound bomb from the United Nations site, investigators asked where such a weapon could be found. The air base, sprawling over almost 10 square miles, was an obvious candidate. When a small F.B.I. team accompanied by two platoons of the 82nd Airborne Division visited the base on Aug. 27, the team found no guards or security gates, said an official familiar with the visit. Looters had ransacked the buildings and fled when the Americans arrived. Investigators also found live shells, bombs, mines and TNT, the official said.

To: Rascal who wrote (115985)	9/30/2003 2:51:53 PM
From: John Carragher	Respond to of 281500

This is a letter to editor of a Santa Fe newspaper Idealistically the United Nations is an organization actively supporting peace and human rights amongst all nations. Practically, the UN is no such thing. It is foremost a bureaucracy serving it's employees with jobs, pensions, and perks. What is worse is that mismanagement disposes of all but a fraction of the monies collected by the UN - a very small percentage actually gets to local organizations and groups for whom it is pledged. Having worked for the UN in Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Vietnam, I can assure you that the main thing on the minds of the managers is job security and how to get the most benefit for themselves. The welfare of the countries served was decidedly secondary. • As one example, look at a recent study of UNWRA, the United Nations Work & Relief Agency for the Palestinian Refugees. UNWRA was formed 55 years ago as a charitable agency to support 4 million stateless refugees mainly living in camps in Jordan. • The land that is defined by UNRWA as "camps" is urbanized, fully constructed with permanent housing. Moreover, the land is bought and sold on the market, and most of the present residents of the "camps" have no relation to the 1948 war or the displaced Palestinians • There are more likely 2 million "refugees" than 4 million - no census has ever been taken. International law states that a person can't be a stateless refugee and a bone fide citizen of the country where he and his family reside for generations These refugees are bone fide citizens of Jordan, West Europe, the USA, and other countries. UNRWA has become the largest employer in the West Bank and Gaza, employing over 24,000 Palestinians. • In 1991, UNWRA established a pension fund for its 24,000 Palestinian employees and it's administrators. In a decade, this "Provident Fund" accumulated close to a billion dollars of monies supposed to have been spent serving the humanitarian needs of refugees. This unaudited fund is invested in the world's stock markets - about 1/4 billion in one stock, Baring International. The second example is the way the UN has administered it's aid to Iraq under Saddam Hussein • . The UN undertook to allocate the sale of Iraqi oil. These oil sales were dominated by France, Germany and Russia - at considerable profits to their traders who merely designated who was to receive how much oil and at what price. • Construction contracts and infrastructure development were also allocated by the UN but the vendors were dictated by Saddam Hussein who, with his family, took a hefty commission on each contract. • For this work, the UN and Kofi Annan reserved 2% of Iraq's oil revenues for administrative expenses - a huge sum of money amounting to $250,000 or more peryear per UN administrator assigned to Iraq. Further, about $20B of this "kitty" is still held in reserve in various European banks - monies the UN is now unwilling to spend on food and relief. • The major concern of France, Germany and Russia are the contracts interrupted by the US and coalition toppling of Saddam Hussein. The commission on these very lucrative oil sales contracts awaiting delivery of Iraqi oil would go a long way to alleviating their national debt. Do not be surprised if the willingness of France, Germany and Russia to support the coalition with troops is contingent on releasing Iraqi funds claimed by them, sharing in reconstruction contracts and validating suspended oil trading contracts. In one sense, Kofi Annan has little choice but to favor the claims of France, Germany and Russia, they represent the majority of his security council. Nonetheless you can be sure reinstatement of the sweetheart deal for again controlling oil sales is not too far in the back of his mind. You may think of the UN as an idealistic organization but my advice as a former contractor is to count your fingers before shaking hands with Kofi Annan. Charity for the UN begins very, very close to home. Note: Information on UNWRA is based on recent research by Prof. Nitza Nachmias of Haifa University and (sometimes) Santa Fe. Hank Daneman 983-5261

To: Rascal who wrote (115985)	9/30/2003 2:56:51 PM
From: Sig	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Well it certainly is interesting how experienced and successful business man are participating in the Governments contracting. While other talents are going to waste. Hillary knows something about the stock market, The Whitewater developers from Arkansas have learned at least the pitfalls in running a business. And then there is Governor Davis of California who will soon be available for a job opening. He could handle energy contracts and provide a tax structure for Iraqis. Perhaps Bob Citron and unemployed Gibralter Savings people for handling Federal bond issues. Sig@wastedtalents.com.

To: Rascal who wrote (115985)	9/30/2003 11:20:31 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

Bush-Appointed Panel Finds U.S. Image Abroad Is in Peril nytimes.com [ An article you might enjoy. Lead-in: ] By STEVEN R. WEISMAN Published: October 1, 2003 WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 — The United States must drastically increase and overhaul its public relations efforts to salvage its plummeting image among Muslims and Arabs abroad, a panel chosen by the Bush administration has found. "Hostility toward America has reached shocking levels," the panel stated in its report, which will be released Wednesday. "What is required is not merely tactical adaptation but strategic, and radical, transformation." Advertisement The report added that "spin" and manipulative public relations "are not the answer," but that neither is avoiding the debate. A copy of the report was made available Tuesday to The New York Times. The panel warned that the war in Iraq and the intensified conflict in the Middle East had increased anger at the United States, and that people throughout the world were ignorant of or misinformed about American policies. . . . { This somehow seems to imply that more knowledge and information about how Rove and the neocon hotheads are running things would improve global perceptions. A dubious inference, I'd say. ]