WASHINGTON - Daunted by setbacks in Iraq and the prospective difficulties in achieving "regime change" in Iran and North Korea, neo-conservative hawks have joined the US extreme right in training their sights on a much weaker target, the United Nations, beginning with its secretary general, Kofi Annan.
Jumping on reports that Annan's son remained on the payroll of a Swiss auditing firm hired by the world body to monitor the implementation of the "oil for food" program in Iraq for four years after he left the firm, two prominent neo-conservative voices - New York Times columnist William Safire and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal - called on Monday for the secretary general's resignation.
The two columns immediately were seized on by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News television channel, presumably to draw more attention to the issue. It noted that the New York Sun, another Murdoch-owned media outlet, had broken the story about the US$2,500 monthly payments by Cotecna Inspections to Kojo Annan that followed his departure from the firm five years ago.
The article, which castigates the organization above all for its "overweening animus toward Israel" and "the UN's complicity in legitimizing terrorism", concluded that the threat or use of US military power over the past 60 years has been far more effective at safeguarding "international peace and security" than the Security Council.
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