The reality is that the current calls for Annan's head are provoked by
his opposition to America's pre-emptive war in Iraq.
On December 4 the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the hometown newspaper of
Senator Norm Coleman, who has called for Annan's resignation, provided
perhaps the most succinct explanation of what lies behind the attacks.
Describing Coleman's call as a "sordid move," the editorial explained:
"For months before the election, the right-wing constellation of blogs
and talk radio was alive with incendiary rhetoric about Annan and the
oil-for-food scandal.... This is really all about Annan's refusal to
toe the Bush line on Iraq and the administration's generally
unilateral approach to foreign affairs. The right-wingers hate Annan
and saw in the food-for-oil program a possible chink in his armor.
They went after it with a venomous fury."
From The Nation, 12/22/04:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050110&s=williams
The Right's Assault on Kofi Annan
by Ian Williams
Last June UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said of the media coverage
of the so-called Oil for Food Scandal, "It's a bit like lynching,
actually."
By December the vigilantes were lining up, swinging their ropes.
The neoconservative and paleoconservative assault on him and the UN
has been like a slightly slower version of the Swift Boat veterans'
campaign against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry--right
down to the halfhearted and belated disavowals by George W. Bush.
Listening to the cable pundits, you would never suspect that there is
no proof at this point that Annan, or indeed anyone else at the UN,
did anything wrong.
Charges of corruption against UN official Benon Sevan are suspect at
best, given that they come via Ahmad Chalabi, who was also the source
of the discredited information about Iraq's illusory weapons, as well
as the assurances that Iraqis would greet US and British forces as
liberators.
___________________________________________________________
Ahmad Chalabi? Now there's an unimpeachable source, eh?
Harry
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