UN staff are expected to make an unprecedented vote of no confidence in Secretary-General Kofi Annan, union sources say, after a series of scandals tainted his term in charge of the world body. 'BOUT TIME! The SOB ought to be boiled in Iraqi oil, along with the rest of the UN cleptocrats and their French, German, Russian, and Arab accomplices! On Watch, Let's Roll

OW, did'nt you know he was the " YODA " of the world ?

This may have been posted, it's a few days old, but i haden't seen it here. Key Aide to Annan Retires Abruptly Amid U.N. Scandal BY BENNY AVNI - Special to the Sun December 23, 2004 URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/6697 UNITED NATIONS - One of the biggest power players at the United Nations abruptly announced his retirement yesterday in what may signal the beginning of a Turtle Bay shake-up, just one day after Secretary-General Annan said that the scandals and attacks from outsiders had "cast a shadow" on the institution. In an announcement that surprised even the U.N. spokesman, Fred Eckhard, who made it at a regular press briefing after a note was passed to him from upstairs, Mr. Annan said that he accepted a request from his chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, to retire "with very mixed emotions." His retirement will take effect on January 15, Mr. Annan said in the statement. Many diplomats at the United Nations said yesterday they believe the departure of Mr. Riza was the result of American pressure on Mr. Annan, who recently visited Washington in an attempt to mend fences with the Bush administration. Relations were harmed after Mr. Annan's famous pronouncements on the Iraq war, which he called "illegal," and his advice, on the eve of the presidential election, against an attack on Fallujah. Many in Washington are also incensed about a host of scandals at the organization, which receives 22% of its operating budget from America. Mr. Riza, 70, who has been chief of staff since January 1997, is considered the most influential policy adviser to the secretary-general, and many feel he was a leader in a policy that is perceived as adversarial to Washington, especially on issues related to Iraq and Israel. A U.N. insider said Mr. Riza leads a group of advisers who have called on Mr. Annan to take a hard line, urging him to refuse to share information with the congressional oil-for-food investigations. Some diplomats even went so far as to say that there was pressure on Mr. Annan regarding his top staff at the meetings last week with Secretary of State Powell and his presumed replacement, Condoleezza Rice. "I totally deny that," a deputy American ambassador, Anne Patterson, told The New York Sun yesterday. She said she called Mr. Riza on an unrelated matter earlier yesterday and conveyed surprise at the retirement announcement, adding that Washington had not pressured Mr. Annan on any staff issues. Diplomats familiar with America's relationship with the U.N. were skeptical. "By allowing Riza to retire/resign, Annan is removing his closest associate, and this you can say is viewed by many observers as a positive development," said one such diplomat who asked not to be identified. "They felt that Riza was part of the problem." While Mr. Riza's name was scarcely mentioned in the oil-for-food scandal, U.N. sources told the Sun that recently the 38th floor, where top U.N. brass is located, was "swept" by investigators under Paul Volcker, who is conducting the U.N-sanctioned investigation into the scandal. Computer hard drives and files were taken for examination. After resigning, one source pointed out, Mr. Riza would not be subject to interviews by Mr. Volcker's team. But he hastened to add that he does not know whether Mr. Riza was a suspect or even if he had already been interviewed. "Three reasons," Mr. Riza himself said when asked by the Sun yesterday to explain his resignation, "It is spelled A-G-E." Sources close to him said Mr. Riza has wanted to retire for a long time and felt that at his advanced age, the end of the year was a good time. But according to U.N. sources, Mr. Riza is not alone in what even the most pro-U.N. diplomats admit might become a general trend of "cleaning of the stables" in the higher echelons of Mr. Annan's administration. The U.N. controller, Jean Pierre Halbwachs of Mauritius, is said by top U.N. officials to have announced his desire to resign soon as well. Even more ominous, according to a U.N. diplomat, the undersecretary-general at the head of the department of management, Catherine Bertini, intends to leave in March. Ms. Bertini is the highest-ranking American in Mr. Annan's inner circle, and she is said to be "fed up." In addition, Mr. Annan would soon have to fill key posts such as his special representative to the Middle East, which will be vacated next week when Terje Roed-Larsen ends his stint there, as well as the head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which deals with Palestinian Arab refugees. According to two sources, Peter Hansen, who currently heads the agency, is going to be pushed out when his current term ends in March. Mr. Riza, a Pakistani national who is a veteran of the U.N. and diplomacy, is the most powerful of all these names. He has been at Mr. Annan's side through thick and thin, including in what is considered the secretary-general's most glaring failure, the Rwanda genocide in 1994. The old-line Pak

They report, you decide. I think it's interesting that nobody will dare say who was being lobbied. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NEW WORLD DISORDER Jimmy Carter linked to oil-for-food scam Ex-president worked with key figure in scandal combating Iraqi sanctions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: January 20, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Jimmy Carter speaking in Tokyo in 2003 (photo: United Nations University) Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N. Move America Forward today will call upon Carter to provide a full accounting of his meetings and conversations with Samir Vincent, who yesterday pleaded guilty to participating in numerous illegal activities as part of the U.N. scandal. "President Carter needs to tell the American people exactly what relationships he had with the individuals involved in the oil-for-food scandal," said Melanie Morgan, co-chairman of Move America Forward, which is running television ads attacking the U.N. on national cable news networks, conducting an online petition drive and soliciting contributions to spread the message of the TV spots. Samir Vincent admitted on Tuesday to receiving allocations for more than 9 million barrels of oil between 1996 and 2003 in return for serving as an agent of Saddam Hussein's regime. Vincent worked at Hussein's direction, lobbying U.S. and U.N. officials to end sanctions and to instead implement the oil-for-food scam. "Did President Carter know he was dealing with an agent of Saddam Hussein or was he just terribly gullible?" asked Morgan. "And if he truly was naïve as to Samir Vincent's true agenda, then now is the time for him to come forward and repudiate Mr. Vincent and his actions." According to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, "Vincent lobbied former officials of the United States government, who maintained close contacts to high-ranking members of both the Clinton and Bush administrations." Ashcroft asserted that Vincent reported the results of his efforts with these former U.S. officials to the Iraqi Intelligence Service. Based upon an investigation by Move America Forward, it appears President Carter and his associates are among the former officials with whom Vincent collaborated. "One of two things happened," suggests Morgan. "Either President Carter was totally duped, and allowed himself to be conned into working as an indirect agent of Saddam Hussein, or President Carter knowingly associated himself with a foreign agent who was seeking to undermine American foreign policy." The first documented contact between Former President Carter and Samir Vincent was in September 1999. Vincent had organized a tour of Iraqi religious leaders to meet with individuals in the United States who might be persuaded to speak out against the sanctions against Iraq. The trip also included discussions of ways to oppose U.S. and U.K. air strikes against Iraqi missile batteries in southern Iraq, which had fired on American and British aircraft engaged in enforcing the southern "No Fly Zone." The meeting with Carter was one of the highlights of the trip. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, welcomed the Vincent-organized delegation into their home in Plains, Georgia. The weekly Iraqi newspaper, al-Raee, reported that Carter expressed his sympathies with the Iraqi people and railed against the "stringent" sanctions imposed against Iraq as a result of the nation's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The report claimed that Carter had promised to send his wife and son to Iraq. Along with the story was a photograph of Carter with the three religious dignitaries who were part of Vincent's anti-sanctions lobbying tour. After the meeting at Carter's house, the Carters' son, Chip, escorted the delegation to a tour of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Carter and his wife founded the Carter Center and their son, Chip, serves as vice president. The Carter Center went on to become an ideological missile silo against any U.S. policies that were not favorable towards Iraq," according to Move America Forward. Carter and his associates have been particularly vicious in their criticisms of President Bush and his Iraq policy, say Move America Forward officials. According to the Ghana News Agency, Chip Carter said President Bush was "bringing back the ugly politics where other people see America as the enemy." Chip Carter added, "there has to be a regime change" not in Iraq – but in America so as to bring an end the Bush administration. Carter went on to note that it was the United Nations that was best able to handle the Iraqi question, and not the United States. The Carter Center w