Claudia Rosett

Georgia and the American Cowboy A soft-power diplomatic abyss

With Russia’s military blasting its way into neighboring Georgia, this sure seems like a moment when the world could use a democratic super-cop. Good luck. Right now, we don’t have one.

The Tiananmen Massacre Map

This is one the official guides to the Olympics won’t be handing out, but it is vital to understanding the true context of the spectacle we are about to witness in Beijing. Created and circulated by people who have kept faith with the Chinese democracy movement:

Scandal Central: UN Corruption Seethes On

THE United Nations likes to sell itself as a mentor of good governance. But the recent deep-sixing of a damning in-house report suggests it might more honestly advertise itself as an example of how to foster bad governance - and get away with it.

UNICEF’s World-Class Hypocrisy

Were hypocrisy an Olympic sport, UNICEF would qualify for the top ranks of the UN’s star-studded team. Recently, UNICEF cut all ties to an Israeli businessman, Lev Leviev, because of what Reuters described as his “suspected involvement” in building settlements on the West Bank. Now the Gulf News reports that following UNICEF’s blacklisting of Leviev, the Arab League is considering going beyond its usual bigotry in boycotting all direct business with Israel, and may blacklist all Leviev’s companies, as well as his agent in the United Arab Emirates.

Israel’s neighbors should be so lucky

Scandal is on the boil in Israel, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert beset by calls for his resignation over allegations of corruption.

The Iranian Connection What’s wrong in Lebanon.

In Lebanon, the Iranian-backed vanguard of terror known as Hezbollah has again drawn its weapons to provoke the worst crisis since it launched a war against Israel in the summer of 2006. The fighting that began last week in Beirut, and then relocated east to the Chouf Mountains and north to Tripoli, is the latest act in the relentless smothering of the Lebanese democratic state.

U.S. should help N. Koreans flee

'We look forward to the moment when we can celebrate the blessings of liberty with the North Korean people," President Bush said in a statement released last week.

Bush foreign policy settles into weird state of denial

It's an alarming sign for U.S. foreign policy when Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden says, as he did last month on NBC's Meet the Press, that, personally, he believes Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, but officially he stands by the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate that maybe they aren't.

Time for U.S. to reject U.N.‘s anti-democratic conference

If a group of despotic governments wants to organize a global mega-conference dedicated to fueling hatred of Jews, Israel and the United States, the United Nations might not be able to stop it. But surely the U.N. would at least refuse to organize, bankroll and host such an outrage?

Bush should honor a pledge and save a Libyan dissident

You won't see it on the evening news because TV cameras are not allowed into the dungeons of Libya. But somewhere in the prison system of Moammar Gadhafi, held in solitary confinement for almost four solid years now, Libya's leading democratic dissident is reportedly dying - 66 years old, too weak to speak, his skin discolored, his legs swollen.

And Now, Hesham Islam’s Amazing, Disappearing Profile.

Hey, Presto! Where did it go?

Who is Hesham Islam?

In the sorry tradition of shooting the messenger, the Pentagon is cashiering its top expert on Islamist doctrine, Stephen Coughlin. Some members of Congress are now contemplating hearings to ask why.

Soft foreign policy hurts the U.S.

If American diplomacy were delivering on its promises, we'd be heading into boom times for peace and security. Instead, the new year begins with Washington foreign policy increasingly cocooned in a cloud of "soft power," trying to deflect threats through the wiles of diplomacy, the art of the deal. Welcome to the world of wishful thinking.

‘Tis the season to bankroll hatred of Israel and America.

At the United Nations, ‘tis the season to bankroll hatred of Israel and America — via pricey preparations for a 2009 gathering dubbed the “Durban Review Conference,” or Durban II.

Back to the U.N.

In its abuse of American taxpayer dollars and trust, the United Nations has come up with many creative projects over the years, ranging from terrorist schoolhouses in Gaza, to procurement fraud, to per diems for pedophiliac peacekeepers. Now, the U.N. is on the brink of channeling millions in U.S. funds to pay for an encore of its notorious America-bashing, Israel-trashing conference held six years ago in Durban, South Africa.

NIE report fails to explain retreat on nuclear weapons

There's lots to wonder about in the Key Judgments of the latest National Intelligence Estimate, which informs us with "high confidence" that Iran halted its nuclear bomb program four years ago. This contradicts its 2005 warning that Iran was "determined to develop nuclear weapons." That followed the 2003-2004 zig-zag from our intelligence community on Iraq and Saddam Hussein's interest in weapons of mass destruction; which followed the intelligence failure to zero in on the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers before they slammed airplanes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

Bloggers Beware! The UN Internet Grab Continues… Right Now, In Rio

UN beachside conferencing goes way beyond plans for a December blowout on Bali, and the UN agenda goes way beyond taxing us in the name of controlling the weather. Live, right now, the UN is continuing its grab to control the internet, with a Nov. 12-15 conference in Rio de Janeiro

The taxpayer is being stung so this Lord can live in Admiralty House

By Claudia Rosett and James Forsyth, The Spectator Mark Malloch-Brown, the minister for Africa, Asia and the UN,

In Year of Sanitation, U.N. should clean its own house

The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. What this portends was heralded last week by a four-day conference in New Delhi, awash in bureaucrats from about 40 countries and dubbed the "World Toilet Summit."

U.N. should keep tyrants off the stage

In Burma, an ominous silence has fallen. The ruling military junta has been answering the peaceful protests of dissident monks with beatings, arrests and untold killings. Even United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour, too often reticent about criticizing tyrannies, issued a statement Monday deploring the repression and asserting that in the current crackdown, Burma's protesters "have become invisible."