Going After Annan - A Sordid Move by Coleman
4 December 2004, Editorial: Star Tribune, Minneapolis - St. Paul
Good old Norm; it appears there's nothing he won't do for a headline, or for his GOP masters. Minnesota's junior senator made quite a splash this week with his call for the resignation of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, a splendid public servant whom the city Sen. Norm Coleman once governed has considered a semi-native son since his years at Macalester College. Even if he had never set foot in St. Paul, Annan would deserve far better than the stuff Coleman is dishing out.
The ostensible reason for seeking Annan's resignation? It was on his watch that Saddam Hussein diverted billions from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program designed to relieve the humanitarian burden on Iraqis suffering as a consequence of U.N. sanctions.
Note that no one has the slightest whiff of proof that Annan knew about, condoned or profited from this scandal. Furthermore, when the scandal surfaced, Annan appointed former Fed chairman and man of impeccable honor Paul Volcker to thoroughly investigate the matter. Volcker's report, which both he and Annan have promised will be made public, is still a work in progress.
So why is Coleman so exercised, aside from the prospect of juicy publicity? Well, he says, Annan isn't cooperating very well with Coleman's Senate subcommittee, which also seeks to investigate the matter. The United Nations hasn't provided documents the subcommittee needs.
The sanctions were imposed by the U.N. Security Council, the food-for-oil program was initiated by the Security Council, and Annan works for the Security Council. He does not work for the U.S. Senate. Moreover, Volcker has told the Senate subcommittee that it can have the documents it seeks once he is finished with them -- most likely next month. That seems about right.
Readers also should know that this isn't a new issue, and it has very little to do with the oil-for-food program. For months before the election, the right-wing constellation of blogs and talk radio was alive with incendiary rhetoric about Annan and the oil-for-food scandal, not to mention accusations that the mainstream media were soft-peddling it to protect Annan. This is really all about Annan's refusal to toe the Bush line on Iraq and the administration's generally unilateral approach to foreign affairs. The right-wingers hate Annan and saw in the food-for-oil program a possible chink in his armor. They went after it with a venomous fury. Coleman seems only too eager to aid their cause.
Numerous Star Tribune readers have pointed out -- appropriately, in our view -- that if Coleman wants to investigate scandal, he need not go as far afield as the United Nations. He could start with those really nice contracts that Vice President Dick Cheney's former firm, Halliburton, got in Iraq. He could move on to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Just this week, for instance, came accusations from the International Red Cross that treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo amounted to torture. Then the Washington Post reported a secret memo from a Pentagon investigator, written before the Abu Ghraib scandal hit the front pages, that warned the brass of widespread abuses. What brass has been held accountable?
There is so much from the last four years that Coleman could find to keep himself busy. Just about every aspect of the Iraq misadventure smells to the high heavens. But of course investigating those things would be unpleasant for those Coleman so fawningly seeks to please.
What an embarrassment.
Salon.com: You write with great love about your native state and its traditions of Scandinavian decency. But Minnesota also elected Norm Coleman-- what went wrong?
Garrison Keillor: Norm Coleman is a man without a single principled bone in his body. He was a liberal Democrat who saw greater career opportunities on the other side and one night he sewed himself a new set of beliefs and crossed over. He is the first truly cynical politician in Minnesota in my lifetime. What went wrong? Sen. Paul Wellstone's plane crashed in the woods.
see also Liberal Oasis
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