Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem cries "foul" in the attack directed at Kofi Anan:

 The mild-mannered, soft -spoken UN General Secretary  General, Mr Kofi Annan, has been receiving the  unwholesome attention of the triumphalist neo-con  fundamentalists and also that of sections of what  passes for 'liberal' opinion in the USA, a country  that is in the grip of right wing extremism. The  ostensible reason for shooting pointed arrows at Mr  Annan are the salacious but very selective revelations  emanating from US investigations into the Iraqi Oil  for Food programme. The allegations include  corruption, diversion of food money into private
 coffers, fraudulent contracts and all manners of under  hand activities by individuals and companies (mostly  Western), and others. These allegations are not earth  shattering given what is going on with US mishandling  of Iraqi economy, society and its vital oil resources
 since they occupied the country. US companies and  principally the notorious Halliburton of the US Vice  President Dick Cheney are accused of similar  practices. So why is the US so much interested in  investigating the UN in Iraq without allowing any  censure of its own illegal activities in that country?  Even big Western humanitarian agencies that often keep  their mouth shut in relation to powerful Western  Governments (who were often their biggest Donors or  protectors) were sufficiently outraged to break with  their unwritten convention (of looking the other side  when their governments are misbehaving) and demanded  accountability from the US proconsul for Iraq, Paul  Bremmer, before he handed over to their crony, Iyad  Allawi and other US puppets in the Interim Government  of Iraq now. Both Bremmer and the Bush administration
 treated the request with contempt because they believe  they are above the standards of public probity they  demand of everybody else especially those governments  or individuals they may not like. Since the US demands  accountability from everybody else who dares demand
 accountability from the US and its chosen agents? This  is why the US has given itself the power to act as  global law enforcer but exempts itself from the  international criminal court. The Americans can fight  wars on behalf of the UN but are not bound by UN  procedures or resolutions.
 The double standard stinks. The attack on the UN has  taken an ironical personal turn for Mr Kofi Annan. His  son is alleged to have worked for and received  payments from one of the companies accused of being  involved in the Iraqi gravy train.  And because of  this Anan's persecutors are demanding that Uncle Kofi  should resign. They want him punished for a yet to be  proven criminal act by his son. The logic is that  because Anan Sr was inn charge of the UN and these  things happened under his watch he should carry the  can. Yet nobody demanded the resignation of Bush for  allowing the US to be attacked by not concentrating on  his watch! Not even the chiefs or operatives of the  various security and intelligence services that failed  the country on that fateful day were compelled to  resign!  The fact that Bush's family has a long  history of juicy business relationship with the Bin  Laden family and the obvious conflicts of interest in  that was never an issue for US voters who returned  Bush to power.   The Enron and Halliburton scandals  and the personal involvement of senior administration  officials, Republican financiers and other supporters  have not led to any resignations in the US government.  So why are they calling for Kofi Annan's head?
 
 The reason is not difficult to see. Kofi Anan, like  Boutros Boutros- Ghali before him, both of them pro  American gentlemen, when they started out, later than  sooner,  discover that the credibility of the UN and  their own personal credibility demand being able to  stand up to the bullies in the US who see the UN as an  after-sales service complex for American

 misadventures. They hounded Boutros-Ghali out of  office when he began to resist US more brazen abuse of  the UN system and contempt for multilateral solutions.  When they were sending attack Dogs at Boutrous-Ghali  Mr Annan was the master's poodle presented to the

 world as 'safe pair of hands', 'moderate', 'sensible'  and all the other superlatives used to dress up being  'a house Nigger'.  And he seemed to play ball for many  years but over Iraq he began to grumble which became  much open during and after the last UN General  Assembly when he declared the war against Iraq and the  Anglo-American occupation of that country as illegal.  Consequently the Bush administration and their  screaming loony sects decree an end to his term. Some  of the criticisms they are making of Annan today were  the same ones many who had opposed his candidacy in  1997 put forward which did not matter to the US then.
 For me the biggest stain in his dull bureaucratic  career at the UN will remain inaction over genocide in  Rwanda which he has been doing everything to atone for  in the past few years. However his Rwanda record did  not matter then so why now? The answer is simple: Mr
 Anan is now tired of being a House Nigger. For talking  back to his masters they want to banish him from the  palace. It is yet another abject lesson for those  Africans or other developing world peoples who always  want to play it safe and be on the right side of the big powers. You are nothing but a disposable towel to  them. You are not any 'special friend' or 'great
 leader' but a convenient tool for sometime and they  will get rid of you when you are no longer of service.  A defence of Kofi and the UN is a correct thing to do  today because those calling for his head and bashing  the UN are more dangerous to our world. It is not an  endorsement of all Annan /UN did or did not do but an  expression of hope that together the whole world can

 make the UN to be of better service to humanity. It is  a proclamation of a fact that is definitely lost on  Bush and his gangsters that The US does not own this  world. It is a shared universe in which all of us,  big and small countries, rich and poor, super power  and powerless, are legitimate stake holders whose  interests are better served by genuine cooperation,  multilateralism and respectful interdependence, than  by bullying by one super power. It is a shared world in which none of us is a tenant to the Americans.

 
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