This kind of stuff just doesn’t surprise me anymore when dealing with the UN:
United Nations officials yesterday were adamant that no exchange of favors was involved in awarding an appointment to a top Turtle Bay position to a man who had just bestowed on Secretary-General Annan an international prize worth a half-million dollars.
?None whatsoever,? the U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told The New York Sun when asked about any possible connection between the March 15 naming of Achim Steiner to head the U.N. Environmental Program, and the fact that Mr. Steiner was a top judge on a panel that last December awarded Mr. Annan with Dubai?s Zayed Prize for Global Environmental Leadership.
?Mr. Steiner is a first rate environmental specialist and someone we are lucky to have at the head of UDEP,? Mr. Dujarric said. He acknowledged, however, that Mr. Steiner?s name had been added to the list of candidates for the top job at the U.N. environmental unit after the $500,000 Dubai prize was awarded to Mr. Annan.
Give me a break. Blatant bribery, no other way to explain this. Just as the oil for food program worked so well for Saddam by lining the pockets of our “friendly” cousins, so to did this “prize” work well for Mr. Steiner.
What a crock, and what a corrupt useless organization.
In other UN news it appears the Iranians are getting a bit nervous about our attempts to get sanctions put on them by a coalition outside of the UN:
The international crisis over Iran?s nuclear program has resulted in large amounts of money being sent out of the country as well as a sharp decline in the number of tourists traveling to Iran, U.S. officials said. Wealthy Iranians have been making large cash deposits in Swiss banks and in other secure locations in Europe because of fears that the U.S. or Israel will launch military strikes on Iran?s nuclear facilities.
Additionally, more than 60 percent of travel reservations have been cancelled in recent months.
Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, told reporters that the U.S. is already taking steps to form a coalition outside the United Nations to impose sanctions on Iran for its defiance of the world body.
And we know how well sanctions work while Iran gets a spanking new shipment of missiles:
Iran has received a shipment of missiles from North Korea that are capable of reaching Europe, according to Israel’s military intelligence chief.
Known in the West as BM-25s, the Russian-designed missiles have a range of around 2,500 km (1,500 miles), giving them a longer reach than the Iranian-made Shihab-4 missiles which are capable of hitting Israel.
The intelligence chief, Major-General Amos Yadlin, was quoted by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper as saying in a lecture on Wednesday that some BM-25s had arrived in Iran.
The BM-25 was originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, where it was known as the SSN6, a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, Haaretz reported.
After the Russians decommissioned the SSN6, the missiles were sold to North Korea, which adapted them to carry a heavier payload, the newspaper’s military affairs correspondent said.
In February, a German diplomat, citing his country’s intelligence data, confirmed a German newspaper report that said Iran had purchased 18 disassembled BM-25s from North Korea.
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The Useless Nations strikes again..no surprise