UNIFIL assisting Lebanese government investigation into alleged 'spying' by Israel
And you thought that UNIFIL's function was to keep the peace.
UNFIL has turned over to the Lebanes government a long-time employee who is accused of '
spying' for Israel, and has said that it will assist the Hezbullah-dominated Lebanese government's 'investigation.'
The Lebanese man who had worked in the UNIFIL
administration for over 20 years is among three people accused by
authorities of spying for Israel.
On Sunday, Lebanese authorities said they had arrested
the three suspects, a Syrian man and his Lebanese wife and a Lebanese
man.
But the Lebanese man "was in the UNIFIL compound when authorities requested him," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP.
"We asked U.N. headquarters in New York to determine
whether immunity would be applied in his case, and the U.N. determined
that since the allegations were not related to his official functions,
immunity from legal proceedings would not apply," he added.
The man was taken into custody on Wednesday.
In an official statement, UNIFIL said Wednesday that it
“will continue to provide the assistance required to facilitate the
Government's investigations into the allegations.”
“UNIFIL considers it of the utmost importance that the
investigative and judicial process is conducted in accordance with the
international standards of justice, fairness and due process of law and
fully supports the Lebanese authorities in the effort,” it said.
“To this end, UNIFIL will continue to act in full
transparency, in coordination with the Lebanese authorities, and in
accordance with the long-established procedures and agreements,” it
added.
On Sunday, Lebanon's General Security service announced it had arrested a "spy network."
It accused the three suspects of gathering information on individuals and security and military targets.
It said the three also allegedly filmed "sensitive"
roads and other areas in south Lebanon "and sent the footage to their
employers to be used in later attacks."
Because the Lebanese 'justice' system is right up to UN standards of due process. And to think that the United States under Obama continues to contribute millions of dollars every year to this travesty.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Hezbullah, Lebanon, spying, UNIFIL, United Nations budget
US continues to donate $400MM annually to UNRWA and $5 billion to the 'Palestinian Authority'
Andrew McCarthy reports that despite its $18 trillion in debt, the United States continues to contribute
$400 million annually to UNRWA and $5 billion to the 'Palestinian Authority' (Hat Tip:
Memeorandum).
A watchdog group, UN Watch, reports that staffers at a major United
Nations agency with a long history of encouraging Palestinian terrorism,
the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), is inciting the latest spate of attacks in Israel. From the UN Watch press release:
UN staffers are using the imprimatur of their official positions to incite Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks against Israeli Jews, with one UN-identified employee calling on Facebook to “stab Zionist dogs,” according to a new report issued today by UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental organization that is accredited by the United Nations with the mandate to monitor the world body’s compliance with its charter.
UN Watch submitted the report today to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl, and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, whose government’s $400 million annual grant makes it the largest funder of UNRWA.
“The UN and top funders of UNRWA such as the United States government must act immediately to terminate employees who are inciting murderous anti-Semitism and fueling the deadly pandemic of Palestinian attacks against Israeli Jews that have claimed innocent men, women and children, aged 13 to 78,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
“Despite UNRWA’s promise, in the wake of our previous report, to take action and dismiss UNRWA perpetrators of incitement, there has been no accountability whatsoever,” said Neuer. “On the contrary, UNRWA’s main response has been to try and intimidate UN Watch.”…
Although we are over $18 trillion in debt (officially, with the unofficial total many times higher), the U.S. government not only redistributes $400 million a year to support the UNRWA’s promotion of terrorism; our government also redistributes a staggering $5 billion per annum to Palestinians: the people carrying out the yet another intifada, the people who elected Hamas – a formally designated terrorist organization under American law – to govern Gaza, and the people whose U.S.-supported Palestinian Authority has voluntarily formed a unity government with Hamas.
I can think of one place where the next President of the United States can look to cut the budget. But will s/he?
Labels: Palestinian incitement, Palestinian terrorism, United Nations, United Nations budget, United Nations Watch, UNRWA
Just how much does the US spend on the UN?
Just how much money does the United States spend on the United Nations every year? You won't believe the answer (or perhaps you will):
Those who know aren't saying.
In its fiscal 2014 State and Foreign Operations budget proposal
released in April, the Obama administration asked for $1.57 billion for
contributions to international organizations, including $617.6 million
for the U.N. operating budget — up from $568.8 million in fiscal 2012.
But other agencies giving to the U.N. include the
Departments of Labor, Energy, Agriculture, Defense, and Health and
Human Services, CNS News reported.
Fiscal 2007 legislation stipulated that the
Office of Budget and Management (OMB) report all federal agencies'
contributions, but the requirement expired in 2011.
Now Republican Sens. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and
Mike Lee of Utah, and others, are submitting legislation that would
reinstate the requirement.
"It's disturbing that no one, including our
ambassador to the United Nations, knows exactly how much money we send
the U.N. every year," Enzi said in a statement.
"With a national debt exceeding $17 trillion, we
need to be able to account for every dime we spend, including what we
send to the U.N."
And here's a hint of how much the US is really spending:
The last OMB report to Congress on U.N. contributions was issued in
June 2011 and covered fiscal 2010. It showed that State was just one of
17 government agencies giving money to U.N. organizations, funds,
affiliates and other bodies, and the total expenditure that year was
$7.69 billion — more than 10 times the amount requested for State in
fiscal 2014.
In addition to the billions being contributed to
various bodies within the U.N. system, the United States provides 22
percent of the U.N.'s operating budget, more than twice as much as the
No. 2 contributor, Japan (10.8 percent).
Your tax dollars at work! What could go wrong?
Labels: United Nations budget, your taxes at work
BWAHAHAHAHA! US fed up with drunk UN diplomats (including at UN meetings)
Henry should have added 'people are drunk.'
When I lived in New York (1974-78 and 1980-83) and its environs (1983-91), the constant refrain we used to hear about the UN was how many thousands of dollars' worth of parking tickets their 'diplomats' used to rack up and how many millions of dollars it cost New York City to have the police department protect them. Now, there's a new problem:
UN 'diplomats' are getting drunk.
Some diplomats consider a few stiff drinks to
be essential before United Nations budget negotiations. But the US
ambassador for management and reform is sick of dealing with intoxicated
counterparts—and he'd like them banned from budget negotiations, Foreign Policy
reports. "There has always been a good and responsible tradition of a
bit of alcohol improving a negotiation, but we're not talking about a
delegate having a nip at the bar," Joseph Torsella complained at a
budget committee meeting yesterday. His "modest" proposal? That the
negotiating room "should in future be an inebriation-free zone." That's
inebriation-free, not booze-free: US officials say alcohol is OK, but
what one diplomat describes as "falling-down drunk" envoys are not,
reports AFP.
Insiders
say it's common for obviously drunk delegates to turn up at budget
meetings, though the imbibers tend to be those who are required to
attend but aren't involved in much negotiating. One Western diplomat
says African delegations tend to be the tipsiest, but other insiders say
diplomats from around the world hit the bottle before—and
during—meetings, especially toward the end of marathon budget sessions.
"It's not just Africans. The Russians do it," a Security Council
diplomat says. "There's nothing new or surprising about this. Canada
used to bring whisky. The French used to bring bottles of wine."
Maybe it's time to cut the booze out of the UN budget.
Labels: United Nations, United Nations budget
Boo. Hoo. UNESCO 'crippled' by US funding cut over 'Palestinians'
UNESCO is whining that it's 'crippled' due to
funding cuts imposed by the United States after UNESCO admitted the 'Palestinians.'
The UN body has been forced to slash spending, freeze job hires and
cut programs after losing the US funding, which had made up 22 percent
of its budget, UNESCO's Irina Bokova told reporters.
The
organization, which designates World Heritage sites, promotes global
education and supports press freedom among other tasks, had started the
year with a deficit of $150 million out of $653 million for its budget
over 2012 and 2013, Bokova said.
"It's crippling our capacity to deliver," she added.
"We
are coping in very difficult circumstances. We're fundraising this
year, but it's not sustainable on a long-term basis. We're not closing
UNESCO, but member states will have to rethink the way forward. UNESCO
will be crippled."
US legislation prohibits funding to any UN
agency that grants full membership to any group that does not have
"internationally recognized attributes" of statehood.
...
Bokova said it was in US interests to be part of UNESCO and hoped
Washington would review its position before next year when it would be
stripped of voting rights for not paying its dues.
"There is money
in the world, but it's not just about money," Bokova said. "We need the
United States to formulate common policies and to debate common
values."
Boo. Hoo. Maybe they should have thought about this before they admitted the 'Palestinians.'
Labels: Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, UN terrorist funding, UNESCO, United Nations budget, US foreign aid
UNESCO cancels the party
Awwwww.... UNESCO has had to cancel the party... because
they don't have a budget....
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova told the UNESCO General Conference in Paris the move was because of a $65 million hole in the agency's 2011 budget created by the loss of US funds.
"We have to take radical steps and we have to take them now," Bokova told the conference in Paris on Wednesday, according to the text of her speech made public on Thursday.
UNESCO, which promotes global education and press freedom, among other tasks, would conduct a review of its activities between now and the end of December, during which new commitments would be put on hold.
A UNESCO spokesperson said priority programs would be maintained, and there were no plans for job losses at the organization for the time being.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was plunged into financial chaos in October when Washington, which provides 22 percent of its funds, froze its contributions following the Palestinian vote.
US legislation prohibits funding for any UN agency that grants full membership to any group that is not internationally recognized as a state.
Bokova said that by reviewing its contractual commitments, staffing levels, travel expenses and communications costs, UNESCO could probably generate savings of up to $35 million for this year's budget.
The agency would then use its $30 million working capital fund to cover the remainder of the $65 million shortfall, but that would leave its finances in a fragile state at the start of 2012.
For the coming year, the absence of US funding meant UNESCO was facing a $143 million shortfall, Bokova said, adding the agency would prioritize its activities and reduce operating expenses further if needed.
And President Obama can't change the rules because Congress doesn't want to change them. Well, I can think of some activities they could cut. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Labels: Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, UNESCO, Unilateral declaration of independence (UDI), United Nations budget
'Palestinians' drop UN agency bids
For now, the 'Palestinian Authority' has
suspended its bids to join 16 UN agencies as a full member.
The Palestinian foreign minister stressed that the PA's decision to shelve its general membership bids would enable it to focus its efforts on the UN Security Council bid and the drive to become a full member at the UN.
UNESCO's acceptance, he said, constitutes a positive push for the PA's diplomatic efforts in the UN. The PLO first applied to UNESCO in 1989.
Turning his attention to the nearing UN Security Council vote, al-Malki said that if the Palestinians fail to get the necessary votes, or in case the US vetoes a favorable vote – as it said it would do – the Palestinians would pursue other avenues of acceptance into the United Nations.
"An observer status is no longer enough," he explained.
The Palestinian foreign minister's statement followed an admonition by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said that the Palestinian efforts to join other United Nations agencies were "not beneficial for Palestine and not beneficial for anybody."
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl) is
onto something.
Labels: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, UNESCO, United Nations budget
Romney calls for cutting aid to 'Palestinians' and UN
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, one of the frontrunners for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, has called for
cutting funding to the 'Palestinians' and the United Nations if the UN recognizes a 'Palestinian state' later this week. And that's not all - no, that's not all.
Mitt Romney would like to see the U.S. “cut foreign assistance to the Palestinians, as well as re-evaluate its funding of U.N. programs and its relationship with any nation voting in favor of recognition” if the U.N. opts to grant Palestine statehood.
“What we are watching unfold at the United Nations is an unmitigated diplomatic disaster,” Romney said in a statement released this morning. “It is the culmination of President Obama’s repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel under the bus and undermine its negotiating position. That policy must stop now. In his speech to the U.N. this week, President Obama must unequivocally reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the security of Israel and its continued existence as a Jewish state. And he must make clear that if the Palestinian Authority succeeds in gaining any type of U.N. recognition, the United States will cut foreign assistance to the Palestinians, as well as re-evaluate its funding of U.N. programs and its relationship with any nation voting in favor of recognition. Actions that compromise the interests of the United States, our allies, and all those who desire a lasting peace must have consequences.”
Rick Perry will hold a press conference later this morning on the same topic.
Reevaluate its relationship with any country that votes in favor? You mean the US under Romney would finally start demanding some loyalty in exchange for all those billions of dollars in foreign aid that they get? It's about time (check the record - Israel votes with the US at the UN more than any other country).
Labels: Campaign 2012, Mitt Romney, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, Unilateral declaration of independence (UDI), United Nations budget, US foreign aid
Money talks - even at the UN
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen knows just how to deal with the 'Palestinian' bid for 'statehood' at the United Nations:
Threaten their funding.
In 1989, Yasser Arafat’s PLO also pushed for membership for a “Palestinian state” in UN entities. The PLO’s strategy looked unstoppable until the George H.W. Bush administration made clear that the U.S. would cut off funding to any UN entity that upgraded the status of the Palestinian observer mission in any way. The UN was forced to choose between isolating Israel and receiving U.S. contributions, and they chose the latter. The PLO’s unilateral campaign was stopped in its tracks.
This example demonstrates a simple but needed lesson: At the UN, money talks, and smart withholding works.
With Arafat’s successors up to the same tricks today, the U.S. response must be as strong. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has consistently refused to use our strongest leverage — our financial contributions — to advance U.S. interests at the UN. If the executive branch will not demonstrate leadership on this issue, Congress must fill the void.
I will soon introduce the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act, which will reflect the executive branch’s previous successful policies by cutting off U.S. contributions to any UN entity that grants membership or any other upgraded status to the Palestinian observer mission. This legislation will also leverage U.S. taxpayer dollars to make sure they do not fund biased or wasteful UN activities, and to achieve other much-needed reforms that will make the UN more transparent, accountable, objective, and effective.
It is time to use all our leverage to stop this unilateral Palestinian scheme — for the sake of our ally Israel and all free democracies, for the sake of peace and security, and for the sake of achieving a UN that upholds its founding principles.
There's one small problem: George H.W. Bush (also known as Bush I, Bush 41 or Bush the Father) was not a great lover of Israel. Obama makes him look like one. Can anyone really see Obama NOT
vetoing this bill? I suppose Congress can refuse to fund UN activities, but I doubt that will stop Obama and Clinton from continuing to do so.
Labels: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, unilateral declaration of statehood, United Nations budget
US to bar funding for UN agencies that recognize 'Palestine'?
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, plans to introduce legislation that would
withhold funding from any UN agency that recognizes a state of 'Palestine' that does not come about as the result of a negotiated settlement with Israel.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is planning to include the measure in a comprehensive bill to reform the UN she is expected to file in the coming weeks, according to Capitol Hill aides.
The language dealing with the Palestinians would seek to make it US policy to “oppose efforts by the Palestinian leadership to evade a negotiated settlement with Israel and undermine opportunities for peace by seeking de facto recognition of a Palestinian state by the UN,” according to her office.
To give that policy teeth, the legislation would require the US to withhold funding for any UN body that granted such recognition, either through passing a UN resolution or through granting membership to “Palestine” in participating agencies.
...
John Bolton, who served as US ambassador to the UN during the George W. Bush administration, recommended in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week that Congress pass the type of legislation to be proposed by Ros-Lehtinen.
He referred to the historical precedent during the George H.W. Bush administration in which the Palestinians unilaterally declared statehood and then tried to join UN agencies as a member state. To stop the move, then secretary of state James Baker threatened that US money to any UN agency that did so would be halted, and his approach serves as the model for Ros-Lehtinen’s bill.
“I think there would be broad support for something limiting funding [to the UN] based on what happens at the UN,” said one aide to a representative on the House appropriations committee of the possibility of Congress holding up funding if the General Assembly recognizes a Palestinian state in September.
But while Republicans have long championed UN reform and in many cases limiting contributions to the body, Democrats have been wary of conditioning funds on the grounds that it diminishes US clout in the international arena, among other concerns. Any bill passed by the Republican-dominated House would likely face an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Hmmm.
Labels: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Palestine, unilateral declaration of statehood, United Nations budget
What Obama bought for $6,347,415,000
You know how it is without government budgets. You spend a billion and then another billion and pretty soon it starts to add up to real money. So what did the Obama administration buy for $6,347,415,000? According to Claudia Rosett, it's what the government of the United States
spent on the United Nations in 2009.
That’s the amount of money America gave to the United Nations in fiscal 2009, according to President Barack Obama’s White House budget office. What did it help pay for?
Why, lots of things. Among them, the General Assembly that elected Libya’s envoy as its 2009-2010 president, and molded the “reformed” Human Rights Council that brought us the now famous — make that infamous — Goldstone report on Gaza, hosted Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Durban Review conference in Geneva, and gave seats to Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Cameroon and Libya (before suspending Libya but now entertaining the candidacy of Syria).
Those American dollars helped maintain and service the grand General Assembly Hall which in September 2009 provided a global stage for Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and their despotic brethren — and was pressed into service more recently as a theatrical venue for the celebrity-studded U.S. premiere of an Israel-trashing commercial movie. They helped provide tax-exempt “post-adjusted” take-home lucre topping U.S. congressional take-home pay for hundreds of UN senior officials who worked on such projects as jetting around the globe preparing for the December, 2009 climate bacchanal in Copenhagen. And they helped bankroll the activities of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who has been bragging up a UN financial “disclosure program” in which senior UN officials are not required to disclose anything, and who made a trip to Washington in the spring of 2009, during which he referred to America — by far the UN’s biggest donor – as “deadbeat.”
But Lazy Susan Rice misplaced $2.8 billion when she added up how much the US gave the UN for a Congressional hearing. Heh.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Claudia Rosett, Susan Rice, United Nations budget
What a great idea!
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl) is proposing to make US funding of the United Nations contingent upon
how the United Nations treats Israel.
Members of Congress threatened to withhold US funding for the UN unless it increased transparency, countered a culture of corruption and reformed its Human Rights Council.
Several members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which held a hearing on “The United Nations: Urgent Problems that Need Congressional Action” on Tuesday, took the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to task for singling out Israel and allowing major human rights abusing nations off the hook.
“US policy on the United Nations should be based on three fundamental questions: Are we advancing American interests? Are we upholding American values? And are we being responsible stewards of American taxpayer dollars? Unfortunately, right now, the answer to all three questions is ‘No,’” committee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) said in her opening statement, read in absentia as a family emergency kept her out of town.
“In the past, Congress has gone along by willingly paying what successive administrations asked for – without enough oversight,” she said.
Ros-Lehtinen announced she would be reintroducing legislation that would make American contributions to the UN budget – which now comprise about 20 percent of the total – voluntary.
The US now contributes more than $6 billion a year to the UN, and Republicans have been keen to cut the budget deficit in a time of financial crisis. Several have pointed to international assistance as a key target.
Ros-Lehtinen particularly objected to the US “paying onefifth of the bills for the UN’s anti- Israel activities, including the UN Human Rights Council, a rogues’ gallery dominated by human rights violators who use it to ignore real abuses and instead attack democratic Israel relentlessly.”
Committee ranking member Howard Berman (D-California) agreed that he was “repelled by these examples of corruption, mismanagement and bias” at the UN, including the rights council’s “obsession with and biased treatment of Israel.”
But he defended the organization for also addressing issues important to US interests, including providing peace-keeping missions, humanitarian aid and sanctions resolutions against Iran.
Berman pushed for engagement with rather than defunding of the UN, and similarly pressed the US to make strong use of its position of the rights council rather than walk away, noting its achievements such as keeping Iran out of the body.
He pressed Hillel Neuer, the head of UN Watch and one of the witnesses at the hearing, on whether the US should leave and defund the UN.
Neuer said that his organization supported the US paying all its dues and taking advantage ofits position on the rights council rather than ignoring it. However, he also criticized the US for not doing more.
Read the whole thing.
Yes, I think it would be a great idea to withhold funding to the UN if it does not serve US interests.
Labels: House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Politics, United Nations budget, United Nations Human Rights Council, US Politics, World Politics
