The UN hard at work, helping A-jad dodge difficult questions
Radio Farda is the branch of Voice of America that broadcasts in Farsi to Iran, and their reporter Ahmad Rafat had a neat idea for a question to ask Ahmedinejad:
“My question was: If Iran is the second-largest oil producer in the world after Saudi Arabia, and the second-largest gas producer after Russia, and has more than $40 billion in reserves, why does such a rich country have 7 million people living under the poverty line of less than $1 a day?” Rafat says.
Rafat says that Ahmadinejad has responded in the past in Iran with answers suggesting that “the economy is managed by the 12th imam,” a religious leader whose return devout Shi’a await to usher in a golden age, or by challenging conventional wisdom by asking, “Who says inflation is a bad thing?”
“I don’t think he could have given such an answer in front of an international audience of journalists, because everyone would have started laughing,” Rafat says. “But I do wonder what he would have said.”
So on June 3rd, in Rome, Rafat showed up at Ahmedinejad’s press conference sponsored by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization to ask him that question. But the UN had other plans:
Rafat says the trouble began when he arrived at the FAO building to begin a day of summit coverage that was to include attendance at Ahmadinejad’s press conference. He showed his official press accreditation for the summit, submitted his bags for inspection, and walked through the metal detector.
“On the other side, there was a gentleman from the Italian police who was looking at a piece of paper in his hand and looking at me. He told me, ‘You cannot enter,’” Rafat says. “I asked why, and he said the FAO did not want it. Then, after checking my ID, he said, ‘I must ask you to leave the building.’”
When Rafat protested, Italian police explained that the UN building has extraterritorial status and, although they provide security, all decisions over who comes and goes are entirely the FAO’s to make.
Rafat, who is also deputy director of the biggest private news agency in Italy, Adnkronos, immediately alerted the media. He said he was shocked at his exclusion….
“Some 60 politicians released communiques supporting me and condemning the decision of FAO,” Rafat says. “After that came statements from the Italian association of the press, the Foreign Press Club in Rome, the trade union of Italian journalists, and the International Federation of Journalists in Brussels.”
Rafat thinks the UN singled him out because he had been the covering the Italian protests of Ahmedinejad’s visit, the existence of which is news to me. If the FAO hadn’t thrown Rafat out of that press conference, I might not have heard about them at all.
As for the UN, they’re still running interference for tyrants. No news there.
By the way, keep your eye out for Oil-for-Food news. The program’s over, but it’s still quite relevant.
__________________
{Post by See-Dubya}
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Categories: Iran, United Nations
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From Amercian Thinker:
Why is this only now being talked about in the MSM? According to the article, the Chicago press has known about this stuff for years, so it isn’t like it’s something no ever knew, or couldn’t learn – if they looked.
The MSM, and the UN will do nothing to that helps POTUS position on Iran. that includes asking tough questions to a very little man who looks into a well.
HELLO! HELLO! Where are you 12th Imam?
Starvation has never been more than the UN’s way to shake down America.
Hey, give old Crazy Mahmoud some benefit here…
the UN’s just doing the jobs other terrorists wont do…
/sarc off
So I guess Gen Tommy Franks was right when he called it the Oil-for-Palace Program. He just didn’t know the money made it all the way to Chicago.
My dream is to be President for 1 week. At the beginning of day 1 my first order would be all of the UN out of America, any still in the country 24 hours later would be arrested & placed on the 1st. plane home.
Did 1-11 go broke?
The UN has outlived it’s usefulness, & I know a lot of others who feel the same way (even some liberals). It is interesting that no one to my knowledge, has ever polled Americans about how we feel about the UN.
Is this the same U.N. that says America’s immigration policy violates human rights? They are a joke and should find another host nation.
“My dream is to be President for 1 week. At the beginning of day 1 my first order would be all of the UN out of America, any still in the country 24 hours later would be arrested & placed on the 1st. plane home.”
Day 2 – permanently end Iran’s nuclear program.
Useless Ne’er-do-wells.
They’re just like a tick on a dog. A blood sucking parasite that we need to remove from our shores and our pocket book.
I like A-Jad’s picture accompanying this article, we just need a caption.
“I K-E-E-E-L you!!”
“This is what Uncle Sam poster look like….”
“You’re next, Habbib!”
“In six more months, I can change the world, as we know it, with just this finger!”
“They’re just like a tick on a dog. A blood sucking parasite that we need to remove from our shores and our pocket book.”
>>>>>>
Let us know if you can find any US officials that have the gonads enough to bring this issue to the floor for a discussion. That will enable the rest of us peons to see who is on what side of the UN debate.
I’d be interested in seeing if any of the windbags in DC will bring this to the floor as well Loboman. I think we’d be blue if we held our breath.
UN =corruption at its best
Get them the F out. They treat America like garbage during the day, but then they are all buying designer merchandise in NYC and getting the best seats to sold out B’way shows and top restaurants at night. They flaunt their status at all traffic laws too.
I see these idiots on a daily basis. Their children are even ruder.
Put the UN in France where it belongs. The French are socialists and do business with terrorists. It is the perfect match.
Let it go condo in the US.
It’s the UN-Fairness Doctrine in action.
To be quite honest I can not think of one good the UN has ever done. Maybe those blue greeting cards they tried to sell door to door in the 60s. I guess they had cute cartoons. When push came to shove the UN went for help. I guess they were nice to Arafat and his lap dog Carter.
Yet Obama wants the US taxpayers to fund a massive giveaway to the UN.
The UN has been perverted the way the ACLU has (do a little research, the founder said so). It is time to start over. Kick them out of the US and watch how many of them fall apart.
How about a coalition of democracies? You can not be a member unless you have representive government (free elections of course), freedom of religion, freedom of the press and a seperation of the military and the government.
‘
Corrected sentence: As for the UN, they’re still run by the tyrants. No news there.”
A plan particularly well practiced by the Palestinians with their decades old “refugee camps” and (coincidentally) wealthy leaders.