[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 81 (Friday, June 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H4711]]
                NECESSARY REFORMS AT THE UNITED NATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is time for America 
to wake up. The United Nations is a mess, riddled with scandals. In 
fact, the U.N. itself is a scandal. The Oil-for-Food scheme and the sex 
trafficking by U.N. officials in Bosnia and the Congo are only two in a 
long list of egregious acts.
  The Oil-for-Food program began as a humanitarian plan to soften the 
sanctions against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The U.N. would allow Iraq to 
sell a predetermined amount of oil each year, provided that the Iraqi 
government used the profits to buy food, medicine and other necessities 
for its citizens. Instead, Saddam and his cronies twisted this program. 
These villains got rich while the people of Iraq suffered. U.N. 
Secretary General Kofi Annan's own son benefited from the Oil-for-Food 
program.
  Only after extreme international pressure did Secretary Annan appoint 
former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to investigate the scandal 
ridden program. Volcker's report found grave conflicts of interest in 
the program.
  The real question is, should the U.N. be above the law? It is 
blatantly obvious that the U.N. considers itself above the law of 
nations and answers to absolutely no one. Secretary Annan has said that 
he will waive diplomatic immunity for any U.N. official who has done 
wrong. However, his promise carries little meaning, because which 
government would prosecute the guilty U.N. officials? The officials are 
not U.S. citizens, their offenses did not take place on U.S. soil and 
none of the documents in question were required to follow U.S. law. 
There is no vote for U.N. leaders and no international referendum on 
its policies. The U.N. sets its own shabby standards for conduct.
  These are some of the very reasons why so many of our constituents 
oppose U.S. membership in the U.N., and it is why many fear U.N. 
efforts to have the power to tax, field an army or create a court 
system. Possessing these powers would transform the U.N. into a global 
governing body. America must draw a line.
  The United States provides large sums of money to the U.N. so that 
``business as usual'' can continue. America must no longer blindly 
follow every policy, scheme, international conference and peacekeeping 
mission that the U.N. peddles.
  The United Nations' greatest fear is that average Americans will no 
longer tolerate these international scandals and demand that America 
withdraw from the international organization. If this ever occurred, 
the U.N.'s thin veil of relevance would be completely ripped away.
  Let us face it, the U.N. has failed. It has failed in its mission to 
promote world peace. While the U.N. claims to provide a forum where 
nations can air their differences and avoid the battlefield, more 
dictators have terrorized nations and more generations have been lost 
to genocide. Instead of removing threats to peace, the U.N. has 
encouraged, actually even nurtured, regimes that wage violence on their 
neighbors and oppress and torture their own people.
  Instead of a peaceful, prosperous, stable trading partner, the U.N. 
condones brutal, murdering dictatorships that starve and torture their 
own people, while once-great powers tremble and use diplomatic double-
talk to ignore their responsibilities. Most of these international 
thugs have two things in common: Each has a voice and a vote in the 
United Nations.
  The United Nations has come under the control of outlaw nations and 
self-serving special interest groups. Each promotes an agenda to line 
their pockets with the world's wealth as they diminish the power of the 
United States and enslave the citizens of their Third World countries. 
How else could terrorist states like Libya and Syria have served on the 
U.N.'s Human Rights Commission, while Israel is condemned time after 
time? Why else would the U.N. refuse membership to a prosperous Nation 
like Taiwan, and give vicious brutes like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe a 
prominent voice at U.N. conferences?
  The U.N. scandals are not isolated incidents. The scandals are 
ingrained in the very structure of the United Nations. The idea that a 
U.N. Secretary General can act as a global representative or that the 
U.N. staff can function as an honest and effective international 
servant is preposterous.
  While the time has come for America to wake up, it is also time for 
Congress to act. That is why just today we approved the United Nations 
Reform Act of 2005. Now it is up to the U.S. Senate to follow our lead 
and demand reforms.
  I applaud the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde) for his hard 
work to finally bring accountability and integrity to the U.N. However, 
reform in the United Nations has been long overdue and action must come 
soon.
  Secretary Annan's task is clear: Bring in the era of integrity and 
accountability you were charged with, or you will lose the United 
Nations' single largest contributor, the United States.

                          ____________________