Power at the UN: UNGA on Russia

 While the world has been drowned in ignorance and misinformation, the United States has managed to bribe or threaten the United Nations states into its lapdogs.   This is not new to Russia.  But it was even more disappointing this time around to see non-blue-eyed blondes vote against themselves.   And to see other nations cower from voting against the Resolution and simply abstaining.

In 2005, Newt Gingrich addressed the neocon/pro-Israel think tank, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), in a fiery speech demanding that UN members be coerced into voting.  The AEI has since removed the link from its website.  The following is what was captured before it disappeared:

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.23396,filter.all/pub_detail.asp

 

AN EXAMPLE OF A U.N. REFORM SCORECARD
(With results of the 2005 U.N. World Summit)

Newt Gingrich
October 31, 2005

 “By now one would think it was quite evident to all U.N. members the nature of the enemies of civilization. The same terrorists and state sponsors of terror who want to kill all the Jews in Israel are the same murderers and sponsors who are killing innocent Muslims in Iraq for wanting to build a society of free men and women. It is the same terrorists who murdered Sergio Vieira de Mello and twenty one other United Nations staff members in Baghdad. The terrorists--and the ideology that they represent--neither want Jew nor Muslim, Israeli nor free Iraqi, to stand in the way of their vision of Taliban-like dictatorships throughout the Middle East.”

 “By contrast, Israel is a country that manifests the values that the U.N. should defend and embrace, not condemn.”

 “The United States and Israel share a special bond rooted in our democratic traditions of government, our pluralistic societies, and our common respect for faith -- not just one faith, but all faiths, and for all people of goodwill. These values are central to our national identities and unite us in a common vision for what we expect from the U.N. The U.N.’s past and current treatment of Israel has fallen dramatically short of these ideals. When the U.N. moves finally to end the second class treatment of Israel, it will provide an important indication that U.N. reform is truly moving in the right direction.”

 “The challenge before those of us who believe in the principles of the United Nations Charter, but who also believe that the UN as it operates today has betrayed these principles, is to effect change in the voting practices at the UNGA. I believe the United States can lead other countries in an effort to successfully reform the United Nations but it will take significant work over the long haul.”

 “In the first place a decision will have to be made that the UN is important enough to us to link our multilateral diplomacy with our bilateral diplomacy.” 

 “A key first test for a concerted effort by the U.S. to win U.N. votes should be an upcoming vote in the [GA Assembly] concerning the abolishment of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and of the Division of Palestinian Rights.”  “This should be not just a matter of high importance of U.S. Ambassadors around the world, but also of every member of Congress, who can play an influential role with foreign Ambassadors assigned to Washington or with high-ranking foreign government officials whom they know. Members of Congress should take every opportunity to relay the message to these foreign representatives that we are paying attention to their vote, that their vote matters, and that we will remember how they vote.”  

  

“The U.N. must be a fundamentally limited institution because it has no democratic accountability but has at times pretensions of asserting legitimacy akin to that of a democratic nation state. For example, large international meetings sponsored by the U.N. often aim to create new systems of “law” and new “norms” of international behavior under the guise of “global governance.” These present a direct threat to American sovereignty and our system of Constitutional liberty and therefore must be rejected.”   

 “3. The United States should promote the “naming of names” that is, the United States should push the Security Council to have the 1373 Committee publicly list state sponsors of terrorism.”

“11. On the critical subject of the nuclear fuel cycle and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States should continue to promote the Bush administration’s initiative to prevent the acquisition of uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing facilities by additional countries.”

“12. The United States should encourage the Council to strengthen legal authorities to interdict illicit WMD-related shipments and disrupt illicit WMD-related networks.

III. International Atomic Energy Agency.”

 “1. The United States should continue pressing for establishment of a committee of the IAEA Board to review the Agency’s role in monitoring and promoting compliance with nuclear nonproliferation obligations.”

Although at time of the speech this was centered around Palestine and Iran, it is noteworthy that we saw so many nations cower yesterday.  Stupidity, bribery, threat, or all three?

Also noteworthy that the US funding of the UN reached an all-time high in 2010  with the US paying 22% . The next largest contributors were Japan (12.53%), Germany (8.018%), the United Kingdom (6.604%), and France (6.112%) http://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL30605.pdf

(Currently, China's contribution is second at 12.0% and Japan at 8.5% - a dismal performance by China in abstaining and not voting against).   By contrast, Russia's contribution is a mere 1.602%,.  Not likely to have much sway!