Claudia Rosett

Memo to World Diplomats: Don’t Cry for Kim

The Rosett Report: To release news of Kim Jong Il’s death, North Korea’s government stuck a woman newsreader in front of a TV camera, where she sobbed and wept her way through the announcement. In coming days we can expect to see a lot more North Korean wailing and weeping. For such lamentation over the death of a monster, North Koreans at least have the excuse that they have been bombarded all their lives with Kim’s propaganda, and if that didn’t do the job, they could be shipped off to the North Korean prison camps, with their families, to be starved and beaten into a more acceptable posture of deference. Whatever their private views, they have plenty of reasons to weep.

Kim Jong Il’s Honorary Consuls: “The Elders”

The Rosett Report "The Elders" are at it again--carrying water for North Korea, trying to arrange an inter-Korean summit at Kim Jong Il's behest, whether South Korea likes it or not. Or so reports the Korea Herald, "N.K. proposes inter-Korean summit in Jan."

UNESCO Fiasco

Forbes If the U.S. has one big lever right now within the many organizations of the United Nations system, it is the threat to cut the money with which U.S. taxpayers pay the biggest share of the U.N.’s bills. Yet despite a U.S. threat to cut funding, the assembly of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted Monday to grant full membership to the Palestinian Authority. What happened?

Did Ahmadinejad Know About the Iranian Terror Plot on Washington?

- The Rosett Report: Terror and carnage in Washington, D.C., with the Saudi ambassador assassinated by a bomb while dining at a restaurant packed with 100-150 other customers, possibly including a number of senators. That’s what “elements” of Iran’s government allegedly had planned for this autumn, according to court documents and press statements released Tuesday by U.S. authorities.

Goldstone Returns

National Review Online Richard Goldstone doesn’t know when to quit. Two years ago, the South African former judge led a United Nations fact-finding inquiry into the Israel-Gaza conflict. The resulting report — widely dubbed the Goldstone Report — was so slanted against Israel that it was denounced by the Obama administration as “deeply flawed” and by the House of Representatives as “irredeemably biased.” This past April, Goldstone himself, chief author of the report, finally confessed to a few mistakes, including allegations that Israel as a matter of policy had committed war crimes.

Tehran’s Ghost Fleet

This June, a merchant ship flying the Hong Kong flag and sailing under the name of the Atlantic called at the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas—the southern end of a trade corridor to the U.S., advertised as "the fastest route to the heart of North America." That might be unremarkable, except the Atlantic, formerly called the Dreamland, and before that the Iran Saeidi, belongs to a curious network of 19 bulk carriers, all flagged out of Hong Kong and all blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury for their links to Iran.

Iran Salivating Over Top Slot at UN Food Agency

- The Rosett Report Iran is under a heap of United Nations sanctions for its rogue nuclear program, but that’s apparently no bar at the UN itself to Iran doing business as usual. Later this month, the top job is coming open at the UN’s Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization. Among the six candidates vying for the slot, there’s a nominee of Iran: Mohammad Saeid Noori Naeini. Already, Tehran has been savoring his prospects — here’s an item from May on “Iran Moves Closer to FAO Presidency”

Durban III: The Good News and the Bad News

The Rosett Report: Pajamasmedia In the United Nations cosmos of Orwellian ventures, one of the prominent features has become the series of conferences named for an initial 2001 conclave in Durban, South Africa. That gathering was supposed to be about fighting racism. Instead, it became a debauch of anti-Semitic Israel-bashing so extreme that then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell ordered the U.S. delegation to walk out. That conference is now known as Durban I.

Just Move the UN Human Rights Council to Syria

The Rosett Report WIth the Assad regime murdering hundreds of protesters, it’s patently grotesque that Syria might get a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. And yet, when the General Assembly votes on May 20th on candidates for the Human Rights Council. it looks like Syria will be a shoe-in.

Magic With U.S. Money for the United Nations

-Forbes Welcome to the latest Magical Mystery Tour of American funding for the United Nations. Today’s featured mystery is, how to explain the missing $2.8 billion?

The Senate and the No-Fly Zone: The Legend Begins

Pajamas Media: The Rosett Report Out of extremely thin air, the Obama administration is now conjuring the narrative that Congress actually did approve a Libya no-fly zone before President Barack Obama signed onto the project with the United Nations. Speaking last Sunday on ABC TV’s This Week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned (though she wasn’t quite sure of the date): “The United States Senate called for a no-fly zone in the resolution that it passed, um, I think on March the first.”

What Should Asma al-Assad Wear to the Syrian Revolution?

The Rosett Report Long ago and far away, when the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos fell in the Philippines, the dictator’s wife, Imelda, became an object of global ridicule for her extravagant wardrobe — especially her shoes. She had 2,700 pairs of shoes. When the Marcoses fled Manila for refuge in Hawaii, in February of 1986, Imelda left her shoes. They ended up on display in Malacanang Palace, symbols of the excess with which dictators live the high life while beggaring their people.

Libya’s Backseat Drivers

National Review Online Maybe the next time Pres. Barack Obama is tempted to follow the leadership of the Arab League, he’ll think twice. Having brandished the Arab League’s call as the classiest of multilateral credentials for going to war in Libya, and praised its members as partners, Obama is now left with little more from this crew than promises and the on-again off-again hectoring of Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa.

Israel-Trashing Movie Night at the UN General Assembly Hall

Pajamas Media: The Rosett Report Monday evening at the United Nations, the same trend-setting General Assembly that elected a Libyan Gaddafi loyalist as its 2009-2010 president rolled out the red carpet for another landmark moment in UN creativity: Turning the UN General Assembly chamber into the venue for a commercial movie premiere. And not just any movie, but Julian Schnabel’s “Miral” — apparently the very latest in Israel-trashing pro-Palestinian personal journeys.

The world body needs to explain why it’s been cozy with despots

- The Daily Bail With Libyans dying by the hundreds in their uprising to evict Moammar Gadhafi, the United Nations is speedily backing away from the same Libyan regime it so recently embraced as one of its most favored darlings.

Has Anyone Told Ambassador Rice There’s a Crisis in Libya?

Pajamas Media When President Obama made Susan Rice his ambassador to the United Nations, in 2009, he thought the job was so vital that he gave her cabinet rank. Now, here we are, with the Arab world in tumult, two dictators gone in the past two months, and the UN aflutter over scenes of Libyans dying this past week by the hundreds, or thousands, in outright rebellion against a raving Moammar Qaddafi--who has been vowing to "fight to the last drop of blood."

What Are We Doing About Gaddafi’s Bloody Hands in Libya?

Note: The important link in this article is to this “Urgent Appeal to World Leaders to Prevent Atrocities in Libya.“

When In Doubt, Slam Israel

Pajamas Media: The Rosett Report For the Islamic despotisms of the Middle East, it’s an old rule of thumb. When things get tough, or confusing, or frustrating, or when you simply want to deflect anger in the direction of a communal scapegoat, go on the offensive and blame the Jews.

Never Mind Egypt. What Would We Do Without the UN?

Pajamas Media: The Rosett Report History is being made with Egypt's Lotus Revolution, as President Obama reminded us on Friday, intoning "This is one of those moments. This is one of those times." Big things are happening in the Middle East, freighted with opportunity and fraught with danger. So you might expect that Obama's ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, would be working overtime, manning the ramparts of the UN's multilateral councils, mapping out strategies and maneuvering among U.S. friends and foes to enhance the chances that Egypt's uprising will become a portal to democracy, rather than a replay of Iran.

Beware the Brokering of Egypt’s ElBaradei

Forbes Now that Hosni Mubarak has resigned as dictator of Egypt, what role in the perilous transition ahead might be played by former United Nations nuclear chief and Nobel laureate, Mohamed ElBaradei?