The UN: An International Menace

By Jamie Glazov
April 11, 2006
FrontPageMagazine.com
Original Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22001
 
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Pedro Sanjuan, who has worked in seven different government departments during seven presidential administrations, including two tours on the White House staff. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Quarterly, the Wall Street Journal, and numerous foreign publications. He is the author of the new book The UN Gang: A Memoir of Incompetence, Corruption, Espionage, Anti-Semitism and Islamic Extremism at the UN Secretariat. 
FP: Pedro Sanjuan, welcome to Frontpage Interview. It is a privilege to speak with you.
Sanjuan: Glad to be here.
 
FP: We’re here today to talk about your insider’s view of the U.N. failings. You have an incredible experience in having been a spy on spies. Let’s start by you giving us a brief background about yourself and how you ended up being motivated to write this book.
 
Sanjuan: Well, as you note, I have worked in seven different U.S. government departments, including being on the White House staff and two presidential appointments.  I have seen my share of bureaucratic incompetence and malfeasance.  Seeing the incompetence, corruption, espionage and anti-Semitism first-hand at the United Nations over a period of ten years led me to feel that it was important that the rest of the world be made aware of such outrageous failings at the United Nations.
 
FP: Why do you think the outrageous failings at the U.N. are ignored by the mainstream media?
 
Sanjuan: For over fifty years during the Cold War the goings-on at the UN were limited to irrelevant issues by both superpowers.  The press got accustomed to ignoring the UN as being of almost no political significance, but treated it benevolently, a symbol of good will but nothing else.  The outrageous failings were in-house matters – all secret issues at the UN.  This remains largely the media attitude today with UN scandals (Oil-for-Food) still regarded as exceptions, when they are actually part of the common UN denominator.
 
FP: You reveal that the U.N. library was actually the host to the largest KGB intelligence operation in America. Can you tell us a bit about this?
 
Sanjuan: To begin with the library at the UN was almost entirely staffed by Soviet UN personnel and always had a Soviet director.  The UN Library requested documents from all around the United States, from research institutions (including defense research institutions), and these requests were always granted since they were made in the name of the UN Secretary-General.  However, the first thing that happened with any document of intelligence interest is that it was translated into Russian and immediately shipped to the Soviet Mission and Moscow for use by the Soviets.  This was overt intelligence, but of great value because of its massive coverage.
 
FP: What is Putin’s Russia up to now? There are clear signs of a return to authoritarianism. How do you think this holds for the U.S. in the terror war?
 
Sanjuan: Authoritarianism has been an almost timeless historical tradition in Russia during its repeatedly turbulent and tragic history.  It is very hard to overcome the influence of the past.  The Russian state has plenty of terrorist challenges of its own to cope with, however.  Russia, therefore, is not likely to condone terrorism.
 
FP: How about the anti-Semitism at the U.N.?
 
Sanjuan: Anti-Semitism at the United Nations was nothing short of appalling.  There was evidence of it everywhere you looked.  Because of my descent from a convert Jew in the 15th century in Spain, I was confronted right off with two serious accusations:  not only was I an American spy but a Jew as well.  It was like Minsk in the 14th century, but in New York, a city of several million Jews in the second half of the 20th century.  Israel (like every other member state) had a certain number of positions in the Secretariat allotted to it.  For years they were not filled.  It was not permitted.  When the positions finally began to be filled, it was with Palestinian residents of Israel.  
 
FP: Why do you think anti-Semitism is so chic now in the ranks of the Left? Hating Israel and the U.S. also seems to be the common denominator in the Left’s romance with militant Islam. Can you comment on this phenomenon?
 
Sanjuan: Anti-Semitism is a tragic attitude that permeates so-called Western civilization.  Modern society has by no means purged itself of the silent undercurrent of anti-Semitism, and many who fancy themselves as liberals seek to indulge their atavistic anti-Semitism by taking sides in a Middle Eastern struggle that they fancy involves the oppressed and the oppressors.  The U.S. Department of State has been and remains sympathetic to the so-called “Arab world” in spite of a few Jewish secretaries of state.  In Washington the State Department is regarded as a hideout for left-leaning liberals.  It can be a very confusing puzzle.
 
FP: OK, tell us some things you believe are essential for UN reform.
 
Sanjuan: There are a number of reforms that are essential within the Secretariat, but one of the most important is to make available without delay to any member state direct access to all Secretariat records, current and past, and to any financial and budget documents.  There should be complete openness about all of the financial records of the United Nations.  The UN Secretariat is not a sovereign entity, but in fact belongs to the 191 member states that pay for it.
 
Another major reform would be no tolerance whatsoever for anti-Semitism or any other form of racism within the United Nations Secretariat.  It is totally inappropriate and scandalous that any kind of religious or racial discrimination should exist in such a world organization.
 
FP: But without anti-Semitism, and also without anti-Americanism, what would the purpose of the U.N. even be? It appears that for years the organization’s sole reason for existence was to denounce Israel and the U.S., no?
 
Sanjuan: My concern is that in the post-Cold War period the UN will become the focus of opposition to the only superpower left, and that Israel will find itself more than ever the only pariah UN member because of Israel’s close collaboration with the U.S.
 
FP: When is the U.N. going to denounce Islamic suicide bombings?
 
Sanjuan: The present UN administration has mildly denounced Islamic suicide bombings while insisting that a clear distinction be made between terrorists and freedom fighters, and it never clarified whether the murderers on 9/11 were of one variety or the other.
 
FP: Mr. Sanjuan, thank you for joining us today.
 
Sanjuan:  My pleasure.