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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.................................. CONTACT: Siobhan Guiney
February 22, 2005 .................................. (916) 441-6197

Kofi Annan Gets it Wrong

Move America Forward’s Co-Chairman Responds
to Wall Street Journal OpEd by Annan

(SACRAMENTO) – The organization leading the effort to “Get the UN Out of the US,” Move America Forward (website: www.MoveAmericaForward.org ), today responded to an Opinion/Editorial piece by UN General Secretary Kofi Annan that appeared in the February 22nd edition of the Wall Street Journal.

The commentary piece by Annan is part of a larger campaign to rescue the United Nations. In recent weeks the UN Foundation has hired 2 Kerry/Edwards campaign aides; the UN Dispatch - a new online rapid response website promoting the United Nations was launched; Kofi Annan and others attended a secret strategy meeting at the home of former UN Ambassador, Richard Holbrooke; UN officials have engaged in shuttle diplomacy with U.S. leaders; and the UN Foundation has engaged in an online advertising campaign giving credit for the success of the Iraqi elections to the United Nations.

Annan’s Wall Street Journal column, “Our Mission Remains Vital” was summed up by the hypothesis that “a strong U.N. is of vital importance to humanity.”

“The only thing vital for the United States is to send the U.N. packing and have this corrupt institution leave American soil. The United States taxpayers are currently the largest source of funding for an organization that has become a hornets nest of anti-American dictators and tyrants,” said Howard Kaloogian, Co-Chairman of Move America Forward.

Annan incorrectly asserts “the U.N. is the right body to lead, because it is in no one’s pocket. It belongs to the world.”

Kaloogian corrected Annan on his errant assessment.

“The U.N. is in the pocket of those member nations who see the greatest danger in this world as being the United States.

“The U.N. is in the pocket of those who voted the United States off of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in place of such human rights stalwarts as Libya, Syria and Sudan.

“The U.N. is in the pocket of those who have passed resolution after resolution condemning Israel and displaying a virulently anti-Semitic disposition,” Kaloogian said.

Kaloogian noted that the United Nations flew its flag at half-mast upon the death of terrorist Yasser Arafat, but did not extend the same dignity when one of the greatest peacemakers of this century, Ronald Reagan, passed away.

“In short, the United Nations is in the pocket of those who wish the United States harm and who look the other way when it comes to Islamic terrorism,” Kaloogian said.

Annan had the gall to insist that the United Nations could not embrace the policy goals of the United States. According to Annan, “If it [the UN] ever came to be seen as a mere instrument or prolongation of U.S. foreign policy, it would be worthless to everyone.”

“Only Kofi Annan and the United Nations could suggest that embracing the agenda of liberty and spreading freedom around the globe was a worthless endeavor,“ Kaloogian said.

KOFI TAKES AIM AT UN CRITICS

Move America Forward noted that criticism of the UN is starting to get under the skin of Annan and other UN officials.

Annan ripped at the coalition of those who have called the UN’s actions into question, lamenting when “ill-informed critics try to cut the U.N. off at the knees.” Annan said the victims from such criticism were “not diplomats or bureaucrats but innocent people caught in war or poverty, in desperate need of the world’s help.”

Kaloogian bristled at such misguided comments by Annan.

“Kofi Annan and his cohorts at the UN have developed a twisted sense of self-importance. Annan fails to recognize that the UN now causes far more harm than good.

“The people of Eastern Europe suffered while the UN sat idle. The people in Sudan are dying by the thousands each day because of the UN’s failure to act. The people of Iraq would be enslaved in terror, waiting for help that would never come, if they had depended on the UN to take action,” Kaloogian said.

“Can you imagine what the oppressed people of Sudan and Cuba must be thinking when they hear that their despotic leaders are on the Human Rights Commission at the UN? When Ronald Reagan spoke about liberty, he cheered millions across the globe who saw the shining city on a hill beckoning them to freedom.

“When the UN speaks, millions see faceless bureaucrats with no desire to help oppressed people. They see an organization that tolerates sexual harassment and rape – including the raping of children. They see an organization that puts a smiley face on the murderous agendas of the tyrants, despots and dictators that seem to run the UN,” Kaloogian added.

Annan tried to play cute with the rampant fraud, mismanagement and corruption at the U.N. Annan reduced the significance of recent scandals to being simply “ethical lapses and lax management.”

Annan and his son, Kojo have been caught in repeated misstatements and mischaracterizations of Kojo Annan’s role with Cotecna Inspection Services

Annan also inaccurately suggested that the UN’s self-appointed Oil for Food Investigator, Paul Volcker, had exonerated the organization from being guilty of “the more hyperbolic assertions.”

“Nothing could be further from the truth. Kofi Annan keeps trying to sweep the fraud, corruption and improper acts by the United Nations under the rug. Whether it is the Oil for Food scandal, sexual harassment allegations, or charges against UN officials of raping children, we always get the same answer from Kofi – ‘what’s the big deal?’

“The United Nations refuses to enforce its own resolutions in Iraq. The United Nations cannot even look at the slaughter of millions in Sudan as being genocide.

“Clearly, Kofi Annan and his ilk at the UN need a wake up call to get the message that the United States will no longer tolerate the conduct by the UN. We should start by evicting the United Nations headquarters from U.S. soil and halting American funding of this corrupt and failed institution,” Kaloogian concluded.

Move America Forward has collected almost 100,000 signatures on its petition to “Get the UN Out of the U.S.” and will soon be launching a new wave of television and radio advertisements to support this effort.

For more information log on to www.MoveAmericaForward.org