by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
September 20, 2004
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…"I know that some people on the Hill have a different ideas as to how Iraq and President Saddam Hussein should be handled."
"This is not my concern," annan said at the time, and he added, "The UN is not in the business of taking out any president. In our organization that is illegal." (Philip Gourevitch, New Yorker Magazine, March 2003).
Diplomatic and even mealy-mouthed when it comes to global terrorism, annan has long been soft on Iraq and its deposed dictator.
In 1998, before leaving Baghdad, where he had been on a self-styled mission to negotiate with the Butcher of Baghdad, annan told a reporter that Iraq had been "demonized" by the international community and that the world was as isolated from Iraq as Iraq was from the world.
Having heard from Yassar arafat that Saddam might be in negotiation mode, annan was soon on his way to Iraq in a jet put at his disposal by President Jacques Chirac.
Once in Baghdad, annan and Saddam "smoked cigars together" and "drank orange juice."
While some might have condemned this exercise as one of consorting with the enemy, annan returned to a hero’s welcome on his return to Paris. The hero’s welcome included a state dinner thrown for annan by the jet-lending Chirac. Champagne flutes clinked, praising the UN’s head honcho for averting the next world war.
It is customary for annan to get the VIP treatment in Epicurean delights on Paris stopovers. according to Gourevitch, "on his way back to New York from the Balkans just before Thanksgiving, he stopped in Paris for a lunch of red mullet, squab, cheeses and terrific 12-year-old wines, with Chirac at the Elysee Palace. "They finished off with a mandarin ice, and descended for a brief `press encounter’ in a baroque ballroom, ornately pilastered and gilded, with lots of cherubs in the ceilings."
But back to annan’s return from the Parisian State dinner, where he was lauded for averting the next world war. On his New York arrival, much of the staff at the United Nations poured out of the building to hail him as a modern-day Caesar.
annan was not wearing a wreath of laurel, but told the adoring throng that he had not been alone in Baghdad, but surrounded by the world’s prayers.
The first worm in his garden came from the uttered line that has dogged him ever since, when he said of Saddam Hussein, "He’s a man I can do business with."
These were the halcyon days before knowledge of the oil-for-food scandal hit the headlines when the outside world learned that the UN and annan’s son were "doing business" with Saddam.
When annan used the word "illegal" in the same sentence as the U.S. just a week ago, it was on the eve of the return of the General assembly, which convenes in full each fall. The illegal pronouncement also comes weeks in advance of the american presidential election, and ahead of Iraqi elections, earmarked for January 2005.
But annan says that given the current level of violence and unrest, it is unlikely that Iraq would be able to hold credible elections as planned.
"I think there have been lessons for the U.S. and lessons for the UN and other member states," he said.
If there is one life lesson the high-flying annan has missed, it’s the lesson of irony.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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