Word: annans
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...food imbroglio is just part of a growing battle of wills between Washington and the Secretary-General it handpicked in 1996. While the Bush Administration is unlikely to call openly for his ouster, it doesn't mind seeing him squirm. Some members haven't forgotten Annan's unwillingness to endorse U.S. foreign policy goals, such as defeating the insurgency in Iraq or rallying the Security Council to penalize Sudan. "The Bush people have had it with Kofi Annan," says a former U.S. diplomat. "They'd like to see him go." Annan's associates say that while he has no intention...
Even if it wanted to, the Bush Administration has little power to push Annan out before his second term ends in 2006. (The only startling resignation at the U.N. last week was that of U.S. Ambassador John Danforth,who said he was quitting primarily to spend more time with his ailing wife.) So far, there is no evidence that Annan's son did anything improper or illegal, much less the Secretary-General himself. Annan's supporters point to his record of integrity and honesty, which few have ever questioned. Sir Jeremy Greenstock, former British Ambassador to the U.N., spoke...
...sonorous voice is familiar around the world. No matter what the crisis of the day, Kofi Annan's soft baritone always manages to convey a sense of imperturbable gravitas. Yet his calm must have been sorely tested last week when the U.N. Secretary-General learned more about the latest trouble lapping at his door. Annan had gathered a few top aides at a private site to discuss the scandal over the U.N.'s management of the oil-for-food program during the reign of Iraq's Saddam Hussein. In the middle of the discussion, a staff member's cell phone...
That "perception problem" has given further ammunition to Annan's U.S. critics, mainly Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators, who have made him the latest target in their long-running feud with the U.N. For years--decades, in fact--these conservatives have alternately denounced or dismissed the international body for its inefficiency and bias. Their view of the U.N. sank to new lows after the Security Council refused to authorize the invasion of Iraq. But nothing has done more to tarnish U.N. credibility than the metastasizing oil-for-food scandal, which has grown from a fringe obsession among conservative ideologues...
...others, notably in France, Russia and China; oil companies, including American giants; and individuals, among them the senior U.N. official appointed to run the program, received preferential deals to buy Iraqi oil at below market price. Many have denied it, and there is no hint of personal impropriety by Annan. Much of Saddam's stolen revenues came from oil sales to Jordan, Turkey and Syria, which the U.S. government and the U.N. Security Council knew about. "Should members of Congress resign," asks Senator Carl Levin, "because they turned a blind eye to illegal sales Saddam made with their full knowledge...