The New York Sun calls for the resignation of Kofi Annan:
The burgeoning scandal at the United Nations over its oil-for-food program has reached the point where the honorable thing for the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, is to resign so that a new leader can open this matter to the public. This has come into focus suddenly this week with Mr. Annan's stonewalling of an investigation into the oil-for-food program under way in the American Congress, which now estimates that through the U.N. scheme the Iraqi tyrant, Saddam Hussein, enriched himself and his henchmen at home and abroad to the tune of $21.3 billion, $17.3 billion of which occurred on Mr. Annan's watch. If this occurred on the watch of a chief executive of a corporation, as, say, at Enron, the game would have been over months ago. At some point, the only way for Mr. Annan to assert his credibility is to step aside, and in our view that point is past.
The only part of the editorial with which I take issue is that the case against Annan came "into focus suddenly this week". Annan's stonewalling of the scandal began in 2000, and the case against him has been persuasively made by Claudia Rosett and others for at least ten months now.
Posted by dan at November 19, 2004 03:10 PM