« Is the Times Ready to Roll Over On Miller? | Home | More Charges In Oil-for-Food »

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Can We Finally Withdraw Trust From The U.N.?

Once again, the UN has shown itself to be a body ready, able, and willing to maintain the status quo—dictators, murderers, assassinations, and all—while at the same time giving guff to the only nations willing to do something about the state of the world.

Now, the news is that the United Nations office preparing the report on the murder of Rafik Hariri doctored the report, making a series of changes all in Syria’s favor. The incompetent propagandists neglected to disable Microsoft Word’s ‘track changes’ feature, which is meant to the editing process to be tracked and shown on-screen.

The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.

The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.

The mistaken release of the unedited report added further support to the published conclusion that Syria was behind Mr Hariri’s assassination in a bomb blast on Valentine’s Day in Beirut. The murder of Mr Hariri touched off an international outcry and hastened Syria’s departure from Lebanon in April after a 29-year pervasive military presence.

Condoleezza Rice, told this, called the event “deeply troubling.” But she’s a diplomat; wait until Congress adds this to the UN bonfire it is slowly constructing.

UPDATE: One more thing:

The final, edited version quoted a witness as saying that the plot to kill Mr Hariri was hatched by unnamed “senior Lebanese and Syrian officials”. But the undoctored version named those officials as “Maher al-Assad, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleyman and Jamal al-Sayyed”.

The deleted names represent the inner core of the Syrian regime.

MORE: President Bush is reportedly angry, presumably over both this and Syria’s involvement in the assassination. He has called an immediate U.N. session.

Posted on October 22, 2005 10:02 AM. Permalink