Kofi Annan in tears

[aneerkoinos]

Spending his holiday in Finland Kofi Annan burst into tears after hearing that his trusted friend de Mello had died in terror attack in Iraq. He was accompanied at that time by President of Finland Tarja Halonen, who personally fetched tissues for the Secretary General. President Halonen comforted Annan by saying that the tears show that you have not lost your soul, tells Annan in an interview to the French press.

It may interest somebody that President Tarja Halonen gets good grades from unheard of 90% of Finnish people.

[patdem]

1. Kofi Annan cried and bush* did not even send an evoy to be at the

funeral....sickening! :puke:

[JohnKleeb]

2. wait Bush didnt send an envoy

:puke:
So obvious more than ever what these asses are about.

[Rose Siding]

7. I think Bush cut a golf game short.

shame

[JohnKleeb]

12. I dont know

I have heard here at DU that * hasnt been to one funeral.

[spanone]

13. He's too busy creating them.

[aneerkoinos]

4. Why would you expect

the enemy of the mankind to show respect to a true hero, loved by the people he helped?

It was really de Mello and his diplomatic skills, not Bremer and his lack of those, who got the Iraqi counsil together, as representative as possible under the circumstanses. After his death I saw BBC rerun of de Mello's interview at Hardtalk. What a man, what a loss for all mankind! :(

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Funerals are generally the V.P.'s job.

Has Cheney ever attended a funeral on behalf of the U.S. since he became V.P.? I guess we all know that Cheney was far more than a V.P. Don't we?

[Clete]

3. Well, today his tears should be of laughter

after Bush's speech last night.

[AP]

5. de Mello was a hero. His death was a huge loss for humanity.

[aneerkoinos]

8. As they say

The good ones go first.

A true hero.

[spooky3]

9. thanks for telling us about this...

and I am glad Mr. Annan was with your President if this had to happen.

[aneerkoinos]

11. I though she chose the right words

anyone who has to work with evil people like Bush&co and to be polite to them and to do best they can in the circumstanses, needs and deserves to hear he has not lost his soul...

[sushi]

10. Not only was he

a hard and popular worker, he was also a strong candidate to be the next UN Secretary General.

[9215]

14. I know he probably won't read this

but I want to send my heartfelt condolences to Mr. Annan and anybody else who felt the loss of de Mello.


President Halonen is so very right about Annan-- he hasn't lost his soul like the President of the US has. Very sad

[NNN0LHI]

15. He should have been crying because he helped to get him killed

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030714-3.html

Remarks by the President and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in Photo Opportunity The Oval Office

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 14, 2003

<snip>Q Mr. President, back on the question of Iraq, and that specific line that has been in question --

THE PRESIDENT: Can you cite the line? (Laughter.)

Q I could, if you gave me some time.

THE PRESIDENT: When I gave the speech, the line was relevant.

Q So even though there has been some question about the intelligence -- the intelligence community knowing beforehand that perhaps it wasn't, you still believe that when you gave it --

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the speech that I gave was cleared by the CIA. And, look, the thing that's important to realize is that we're constantly gathering data. Subsequent to the speech, the CIA had some doubts. But when I gave the -- when they talked about the speech and when they looked at the speech, it was cleared. Otherwise, I wouldn't have put it in the speech. I'm not interested in talking about intelligence unless it's cleared by the CIA. And as Director Tenet said, it was cleared by the CIA.

The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region. I firmly believe the decisions we made will make America more secure and the world more peaceful.

Thank you.

END 2:24 P.M. EDT

When I watched this press conference in July as Bush lied through his teeth in front of the world that Saddam would not allow UN weapons inspectors into Iraq last year and therefore we had to attack them, good old Kofi sat there with his finger up his ass and made no mention that Bush was lying or incorrect I knew in my heart that the two of them had just signed the death warrants for UN employees somewhere. And that is exactly what happened. Fuck a bunch of Kofi Annan's. He is just as bad as Bush.

Don

[aneerkoinos]

16. I think you judge too harshly

"Just as bas as Bush"? Please.

You may find it satisfying that according to the interview Annan does not free himself from responsibility and guilt over de Mello's death.

Also, the real question is what is the real room for manouvre for any UN SG free of US? It's been estimated US controls 80% of UN and because there are some uncontrollable things left in UN, PNAC crowd and many others in US want to get rid of the whole thing. Only power is absolute power.

So what would you like UN SG to do? Tell it like it is on Bush's face and be ex-SG in a minute - or accept the reality, be the bigger guy and act diplomatically. But be assured, they tell it like it is behind the scenes, problem is that are they listened to?