UN Sex Harassment Case Appeal Seen Taking Years

UN Sex Harassment Case Appeal Seen Taking Years
01 Nov 2004 18:37:59 GMT
Source: Reuters

GENEVA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A senior U.N staffer has appealed against Kofi Annan's decision to dismiss her sexual harassment accusations against refugee agency chief Ruud Lubbers, but the case could take years to conclude, her lawyer said on Monday.

The woman, a 51-year-old American, accused Lubbers earlier this year of groping her as she left a meeting at the agency's Geneva headquarters in late 2003.

But U.N. Secretary-General Annan, after ordering an internal investigation, concluded the allegations would not stand up in a court of law and announced in July that the case was closed.

The appeal was lodged on October 18, 10 days before part of the findings of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) were circulated in New York, showing the watchdog had supported the accusations and recommended "appropriate action."

Lawyer Edward Flaherty told Reuters the fact that Annan went against the conclusions of the U.N.'s own internal investigation strengthened the grounds for fighting the ruling.

But Lubbers, who denies any wrongdoing, said in New York on Friday that the OIOS report was "very weak." He added that the facts "could not be substantiated at all."

The appeal will be heard by the Geneva office of the U.N.'s Joint Appeals Board, a five-member tribunal made up of two representatives of U.N. employees, two from management and a chairman appointed by Annan.

But the board's backlog of work is such that it could be two to three years before any conclusion is reached and its findings can in their turn be referred to a higher U.N. tribunal.

"The internal U.N. system is in the Dark Ages. This could take four or five years," Flaherty said.

Lubbers, who was Dutch Prime Minister from 1982 to 1994, stands down as High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at the end of next year.

But that would not prevent the U.N. eventually agreeing to award damages to the woman, if she won on appeal, because it is the organisation that is the defendant in the case, not Lubbers, Flaherty added.

Powell to ElBaradei: Steer Clear of Election

Powell to ElBaradei: Steer Clear of Election
Monday, November 01, 2004

NEW YORK — The United Nations’ chief weapons inspector has called U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to complain about the impression some had that he was trying to influence the American presidential election.

But Powell told Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to steer clear of the election and to stop talking to the press about 377 tons of explosives the IAEA said last week was missing from an Iraqi facility, a U.S. official told FOX News.

The two men had a telephone conversation Friday after ElBaradei was questioned by FOX News’ Jonathan Hunt. ElBaradei told Hunt he was “absolutely not” trying to influence the election.

Hunt caught up with ElBaradei again Monday. But the IAEA head said he wound not comment on a private conversation with Powell.

ElBaradei repeated that it was unfortunate that the missing explosives report had become part of the political debate but there was nothing the IAEA could do about that.

“There is a world outside the U.S. election," he said, adding that matters need to be addressed whatever is going on in U.S politics.

State Department officials Monday said they have not mounted an active campaign to prevent ElBaradei having a third term as the IAEA’s director general. However, the diplomatic agency's spokesman said the United States endorses a two-term limit for U.N. positions

“The issue of a third term, should it present itself, is something we'd have to look at when it becomes an issue,” said deputy spokesman Adam Ereli, adding that the department respects ElBaradei and does not consider its position on third terms as a personal one against the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector.

“Obviously, we've worked very, very closely and very productively on a number of issues of concern to the international community. He is certainly somebody we respect and admire for his dedication and for his integrity. And we will continue to work with him throughout the end of his term,” Ereli said.

ElBaradei announced in September that he would like a third term when a vote comes for his re-election to the post next September at the convening of the next general assembly.

Last month, a senior Iraqi official alerted the IAEA that the explosives had disappeared from the Al-Qaqaa arms storage facility. The IAEA says it has warned the Bush administration since before the war that a Saddam-free Iraq could become a weapons free-for-all.

While U.S. officials did not publicly confirm the explosives had gone missing until after a New York Times report on Oct. 25, the IAEA has had the letter from the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology for nearly three weeks. ElBaredei made a report to the U.N. Security Council on the matter on Oct. 25.

Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March of 2003, ElBaradei and his U.N. colleague Hans Blix took few pains to disguise their anger at the Bush administration for its perceived impatience with the weapons inspections process. In turn, Washington accused ElBaradei of working sluggishly in Iraq when he failed to turn up nuclear material.

The last time the IAEA knew with certainty the contents of the Al-Qaqaa bunkers was in January of 2003, when its inspectors logged all the explosives there. The IAEA action report, which was obtained by FOX News, placed the inventory of HMX and RDX explosives at Al-Qaqaa at 221 tons — not 377 tons, as the IAEA reported Monday.

To read the IAEA action report, click here (11 pages, pdf).

The IAEA believes the explosives were taken, possibly by looters or terrorists, after Saddam Hussein was driven from power, but U.S. officials maintain the explosives were already gone before U.S. troops arrived at Al-Qaqaa shortly before Saddam's defeat.

The Bush administration may have recently gotten support for their claim. Maj. Austin Pearson on Friday announced that a team from his 3rd Infantry Division had destroyed about 250 tons of munitions and other material from the Al-Qaqaa facility after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.

While the Pentagon acknowledges it still has not solved the mystery of the missing explosives, it believes Pearson's testimony helps explain what happened to them.

FOX News' Jonathan Hunt and Toni Delancey contributed to this report.

Full Text of Bin Laden Tape Released

Full Text of Bin Laden Tape Released
Monday, November 01, 2004

CAIRO, Egypt — Usama bin Laden vowed to bleed America to bankruptcy, according to a full transcript of unaired portions of a videotape released Monday by an Arab television station. The Al Qaeda leader's remarks appeared targeted to the final days of the U.S. presidential campaign in which the struggling economy is a major issue.

Bin Laden boasted in his first appearance in more than a year that for every $1 Al Qaeda has spent on terrorist strikes, it has cost the United States $1 million in economic fallout and military spending, including emergency funding for Iraq and Afghanistan.

"As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers," bin Laden said, estimating the deficit at more than $1 trillion.

In reality, spending in the war against terror and other factors have resulted in an expected $377 billion shortfall for 2003 — the highest deficit since World War II accounting for inflation. The total U.S. national debt is near the $7.4 trillion statutory limit.

Bin Laden dwelled on Al Qaeda's economic strategy against the United States, according to the complete transcript of the 18-minute video that aired on Al-Jazeera and was obtained by U.S. intelligence. Al-Jazeera broadcast about 14 minutes of the video Friday and put the full English language transcript on its web site on Monday.

The terror mastermind whose Al Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks credited the religiously inspired Arab volunteers that he fought with against the Soviets in Afghanistan with having "bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat." He suggested the same strategy would work against the United States.

"So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy," a calm and forceful bin Laden said in the tape that appeared near the end of a U.S. campaign that has focused on the war on terror as well as the foundering U.S. economy.

Bin Laden, in rhetoric that seemed to echo critical campaign headlines in the United States, accused President Bush of going to war in oil-rich Iraq simply to create business for military contractors linked to his administration.

In his message aimed at American listeners, bin Laden claimed Al Qaeda was winning its war with the United States, and that contractors "like Halliburton and its kind" were also benefiting, while the losers were "the American people and their economy."

Bin Laden noted reports that Al Qaeda spent $500,000 "on the event" — referring to Sept. 11 attacks — while the United States has lost more than $500 billion "in the incident and its aftermath," he added, citing an estimate by a British think tank.

Evan F. Kohlmann, a U.S.-based counterterrorism researcher, said it was as if bin Laden were following the news from the United States, perhaps on satellite TV, and drawing shrewd assumptions about what concerns Americans.

"He is trying to create doubts in America's mind that this war is worth the cost," Kohlmann said.

Al Qaeda has long made a point of hitting economic targets. The World Trade Center was likely targeted in the Sept. 11 attacks both because attacking it would kill thousands and because the twin towers were symbols of America's economic power. In a video that surfaced in December 2001, bin Laden said the Sept. 11 attackers struck the American economy "in the heart."

Bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, comes from an Egyptian militant group that had attacked tourism and other economic targets in hopes of bringing down Egypt's government. In an audiotape that surfaced in October 2002, al-Zawahri threatened new attacks on the U.S. economy.

At about the same time, a small boat crashed into a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen and exploded. That attack was seen as a strike at international oil shipping. Saudi militants linked to Al Qaeda have attacked foreigners working in that kingdom's oil industry.

In August, U.S. officials said they had uncovered indications Al Qaeda was targeting financial sites, including the New York Stock Exchange and World Bank buildings.

Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at Scotland's St. Andrews University, said terrorists want more than a horrific body count. They choose economic targets because they want to shake the foundations of the societies they see as the enemy.

"There's an acute awareness of where to hit, where it hurts the most," Ranstorp said. "There's an awareness of the benefits of targeting critical infrastructure."

Bin Laden's latest statement was a selective reading of history. Internal problems and U.S. help, not just the Arab "holy warriors," contributed to the collapse of the Soviet experiment in Afghanistan. The U.S. economy was experiencing trouble before Sept. 11.

Such nuances matter little to angry Muslims who see bin Laden as a hero who stands up to the West, and who were as much his audience as the American voters he addressed directly.

"When you're a fundamentalist, there is no gray area," Kohlmann said.

100 Fraud Claims Probed

I did a search at The LA Times in an attempt to find the articles they have published on the Oil-For-Food scandal. There is one article. This one. Nothing else. FoxNews broke the story how many months ago? Proof that the Leftist media doesn't want the public to know what's happening. Proof that the Leftist media has a hard-line agenda against President Bush.

After the bloody massacre of the Leftist media after the election, you'd think someone at The LATimes would pull their head out of their ass and get back on-track with the way things really are in the world. Wishful thinking? Perhaps.

This article's last line is "It gives no details." Has The LATimes not heard of the Duelfer Report? This is all too absurd.

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
100 Fraud Claims Probed
November 1, 2004
From Reuters

WASHINGTON — U.S. investigators have opened more than 100 cases this year into alleged abuse involving the billions of dollars in U.S. and Iraqi funding to rebuild Iraq, says an auditors' report that is to be released today.

The report says most allegations involve fraud, waste and abuse of funds, and 40% are linked to reprisals, theft and other issues. It says 75 cases have been closed or referred to other U.S. agencies and 38 remain open.

The report was prepared for Congress by the inspector-general's office of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupying power dissolved in June.

The inspector-general's office said it expected to release an audit this month on the CPA's handling of money from the Development Fund for Iraq.

The fund includes proceeds from Iraqi oil sales, frozen assets from foreign governments and surplus money from the U.N. "oil-for-food" program.

A leaked draft of that audit says at least $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds given to Iraqi ministries by the CPA cannot be accounted for.

In addition to the CPA investigations, the FBI has at least five open and pending cases involving Iraq, with two recent ones focusing on public corruption and government fraud, the report says. It gives no details.