The timing of these revelations is interesting in light of the Partisan of Pozsony's comments about internal changes at the UN.
For those inclined to believe that the UN has had every nation's best interests at heart in the past and would never have been found doing the kinds of things I suggested in the previous post, namely:
: I believe that the [Oil-For-Food] funds were just diverted from their
: original actual F1 intent (which was never to help the Iraq
: people).
: ... (even if for public consumption the original intention of
: the UN appeared to be well-meaning socialism for the sake
: of the hurting in Iraq).
Here is some more food for thought on the idea that the UN and the intelligence community are not looking out for the best interests of those under their care... Perhaps this current story (probably being shared/exposed at this point to bring pressure on the internal UN changes that the Partisan referenced earlier ) will help clarify that which happened under F1 before the current changes. But, of course, we must blame the current (F2?) leadership for the atrocities of the past... psyop / disinformation anyone...
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This is what happens when "THE UNITED NATIONS-U.S." are relied upon for protection of human rights, human lives by people who have been disarmed.
V.K. DURHAM
National Security Archive Update, March 29, 2004
U.S. INTELLIGENCE WARNED "GENOCIDE" IN RWANDA IN APRIL, BUT CLINTON ADMINISTRATION WAITED UNTIL LATE MAY TO USE WORD;
NEW DOCUMENTS AND REPORT HIGHLIGHT ARRAY OF INFO BEFORE U.S. POLICYMAKERS
For more information contact William Ferroggiaro - wferro@gwu.edu Mobile: 202/271-9463 NSA: 202/994-7000
http://www.nsarchive.org
Washington D.C., March 29 - U.S. intelligence reports concluded that the slaughter in Rwanda ten years ago amounted to genocide as early as April 23, 1994, while policymakers debated for another month over whether to use the word publicly, according to a new report and declassified documents posted on the Web by the National Security Archive.
Obtained through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, the documents illuminate the vast array of 'information and intelligence' available to Clinton Administration officials during the crisis, as well as the policymaking committees and working groups that used the information.
The documents reveal:
* The CIA's top secret National Intelligence Daily, circulated to President Clinton, Vice President Gore and hundreds of senior officials, featured the slaughter in Rwanda on a daily or near-daily basis in April and May 1994, including an April 23 analysis that Rwandan rebels will continue fighting to "stop the genocide, which...is spreading south";
* The State Department's intelligence briefing for Secretary Christopher and other top officials saw in Rwanda "genocide and partition" as early as April 26, reporting declarations of "a 'final solution' to eliminate all Tutsis", but the U.S. did not officially declare the killing genocide until May 25;
* U.S. officials, including Secretary Christopher and Secretary Perry, met with and telephoned counterparts such as UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali, Gen. Romeo Dallaire, and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe throughout the crisis, with Gen. Dallaire pleading with USAID head Brian Atwood that "without U.S. equipment, UNAMIR can do virtually nothing" to save civilians in Rwanda;
* U.S. officials met throughout April and May with human rights and humanitarian agency representatives concerned with Rwanda, including a May 17 meeting where International Committee of the Red Cross official Jean de Courten told State Department Under Secretary Timothy Wirth the "mass killings" in Rwanda compared to the "genocide in Cambodia".
Archive consulting fellow William Ferroggiaro, who wrote the report and obtained the documents through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, said, "The documents show that despite Rwanda's relative unimportance to U.S. interests and despite other crises demanding their attention, U.S. officials had the capacity and resources to know what was happening in Rwanda. In a sense, the system worked: Diplomats, intelligence agencies, defense and military officials--even aid workers--provided timely information up the chain to President Clinton and his top advisors. That the Clinton Administration decided against intervention at any level was not for lack of knowledge of what was happening in Rwanda." Ferroggiaro also serves as a research consultant to "Ghosts of Rwanda", a special two-hour Frontline documentary that will be broadcast on PBS on April 1, 2004.
http://www.nsarchive.org
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[AND]
Former U.N. official says black box ``got put on a shelf''
NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, March 13, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(03-13) 03:26 PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) --
A retired U.N. worker said officials had sought to analyze a flight data recorder that may have come from a plane crash that killed Rwanda's president on the eve of the 1994 genocide, but no one responded to the requests.
The black box was discovered in the United Nations on Wednesday in a filing cabinet in the department's Air Safety Unit -- 10 years after it was sent by diplomatic pouch to U.N. headquarters. It was a major embarrassment for the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
[I should think it is more of an embarrassment to those who 'misplaced' it's importance 10 years ago - M]
Denis Beissel, who retired from the United Nations last year, told The Associated Press he had received the black box and believed it was important, but there were so many peacekeeping missions at the time that it was forgotten. He said that during that period, he once got 1,000 pieces of mail in a single day.
He said that because the plane was not a U.N. aircraft, officials put out requests about who should handle the investigation, but no one responded.
"When we tried to get a lot of attention to the issue and tried to get it analyzed, nobody would. I suppose it got put on a shelf," he said. "Our workload was so intense during that time that you'd make an honest effort to get something like that organized and if you weren't able to, there were six or seven other emergencies to attend to."
[I guess the death of a member nation's president wasn't a very high priority - even when they knew that the President's death on April 6 (not to mention the PM's death the next day) may have been the spark that led to the genocide that was acknowledged to have occurred by late May 1994. The Black Box arrived 3 months after the crash (early July) and the massacre had already been acknowledged... WHY wouldn't the black box investigation have been a part of the whole picture??!!!
See previous article contents for timeline confirmation and this site:
http://www.reliefweb.int/library/nordic/book1/pb020k.html - M]
(SNIP)
Earlier this week, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said there was no such black box and dismissed claims made in a French investigation that the United Nations was guilty of obstruction of justice for failing to inspect it. Later, Eckhard acknowledged the black box had been found.
(SNIP)
The international community's failure to stop the genocide is a source of embarrassment and pain for Annan, who was head of U.N. peacekeeping at the time. Those killed were mainly minority Tutsis and politically moderate members of the Hutu majority.
(SNIP)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/03/13/international0626EST0464.DTL
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One has to wonder how the UN has managed to maintain such a 'good reputation' in the eyes of so many in the world community - I would suggest that the more people research the history of that institution, the more they would be horrified!
Oh well, at least we have the media to help us forget these atrocities and to craft our opinions for us! Not to mention, lay the blame at the feet of those apparently attempting to fix the problems (if the Partisan's assessment is correct).
Blessings,
Mammonator
