Eric Shawn Exposes the United Nations 

Joan Swirsky
May 15, 2006
Newsmax
Original Source: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/5/14/224323.shtml

Eric Shawn is the author of the new book The U.N. Exposed: How the United Nations Sabotages America's Security and Fails the World, a scathing look at the United Nations' ineptitude, corruption and crimes against humanity. 
Shawn, a veteran Fox News Network anchor who has covered issues surrounding the United Nations for years, sat down with NewsMax to talk about his eye-opening book. 
NewsMax: What one or two especially egregious things that you learned about the U.N. inspired – or compelled – you to write the book? 
Eric Shawn: Like a lot of American kids, I was raised as a U.N. supporter. I won the fourth grade UNICEF contest and believed that the United Nations represented compassion and goodness. But as a reporter covering the inner workings of the world body, I was stunned by the reality. 
I wanted the American public to know that the U.N has been unable to confront the gravest issues of our time, from terrorism to nuclear proliferation. 
My view is that the war in Iraq could have been prevented if the Security Council had done its job and not been crippled and paid off by Saddam Hussein's billions. He blatantly bribed three permanent members of the Council – France, Russia and China – with his oil billions to shore up support in the Council in his attempt to ease and eventually remove sanctions. 
We see a similar scenario playing out now with Iran. The U.N. gave Iran a 21-year head start on its nuclear program. For 18 years, the International Atomic Energy Agency – the so-called U.N. watchdog – didn't even know about Tehran's nuclear research, and 10 months after it was revealed in 2002, the IAEA declared that Iran was in violation. Yet nothing happened. 
The track record on terrorism is also a sorry one. Two years before 9/11, the Council did pass a resolution demanding that the Taliban turn over Osama bin Laden. It was ignored. Less than six months before 9/11, Secretary General Kofi Annan sat down with Taliban representatives and asked that the Council mandate be obeyed. Back at U.N. headquarters, he didn't want to discuss his Osama talks, saying, I don't want to go into that. 
After the attacks the diplomats [at the United Nations] created three terrorism committees. It turns out the vice chairman of one of them, the Counter Terrorism Committee, refuses to condemn terrorism. 
Half the member states do not even file their reports on time in another committee, and the third held a major terrorism meeting in which less than half of the nations bothered to show up. When more in-depth meetings on al-Qaida were offered, not one diplomat showed up. No wonder the U.N.'s own diplomats describe its terrorism strategy as failing, ineffective or only lip service. 
NewsMax: What sources did you consult in writing your book, and what insights did they share with you? 
Eric Shawn: I relied on more than two-dozen interviews with U.N. ambassadors, officials, staff, and others, including Secretary General Kofi Annan himself. My research included thousands of pages of U.N. reports, minutes of U.N. meetings, and congressional testimony. 
They would routinely ask: Do you want this on the record or can I tell the truth? They are actually quite critical and unsparing about the institution they serve and I think I gave the diplomats an outlet to speak freely about the U.N., which I hope gives the book a unique perspective. 
NewsMax: Why do you think that the so-called mainstream media have studiously avoided any exposés about the U.N.? 
Eric Shawn: I believe the mainstream media have been reluctant to hold the U.N. to the same journalist questioning as other institutions because the U.N. has been a sacred cow of political correctness. Shining a critical light on the world body has, until recently, somehow been seen as being anti-U.N. as opposed to providing a reasonable examination of the U.N.'s record. 
NewsMax: What is your opinion of an alternative to the U.N., for instance a new organization comprised of the world's democracies? Do you see this as viable in the near future or the far-off future? 
Eric Shawn: As part of the reform movement, the U.N. Democracy Fund has been established to give a greater voice to democracies in the institution. A total of 141 member states embraced the idea, although at first only 26 nations actually agreed to fund it. 
The U.N. can return to the tenets of its founding if it so wishes, and that is the challenge. President Bill Clinton did not even go to the Security Council for the NATO bombing of Kosovo, because Russia and China would have vetoed any measures, just as they oppose sanctions on Iran now. That could leave issues such as we now face moving to other international venues. 
It was not the U.N.'s efforts that exposed the extensive global black market in nuclear technology peddled by Dr. A.Q. Khan. No U.N. committee ordered Muammar Qaddafi to surrender his weapons of mass destruction. Those successes were among the results of PSI, the Proliferation Security Initiative, the brainchild of now U.N. Ambassador John Bolton. Perhaps a new coalition of the willing or another PSI effort will be brought in to deal with Iran. 
NewsMax: In writing your book, did the information you learned convince you that things were worse than you thought, or just about as bad as you thought in the first place? 
Eric Shawn: Actually, worse than I thought. It seems inconceivable that nations do not even file their reports on time for such vital U.N. committees as those that deal with terrorism. [In the book] the chapter entitled $400,000 in a Desk Drawer details the 58 internal audits that were released by the U.N. investigation headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. He revealed that there was $400,000 sitting in a U.N. office in Iraq that people would just dip into. 
They would carry about cash in paper bags. Billions were squandered, from overpaying Kuwait reparations to paying employees who did not show up. 
The procurement division has been rocked by scandal, with one U.N. official pleading guilty to stashing almost $1 million from U.N. contractors into an offshore bank account. I expected better. 
NewsMax: Which three world leaders would you like to read your book? 
Eric Shawn: George Bush, Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac. 
NewsMax: If you could roll back history, what three things would you have told Bill Clinton to do to improve the United Nations? 
Eric Shawn: One: Insist on more professional financial auditing and management. Two: Release the minutes of the Security Council 661 Committee, which ran the Oil-for-Food program, to expose how France, Russia and China plotted against us, despite their denials. And three: Push/help the U.N. in any way possible to strengthen its terrorism committees and deal more effectively with Iran. 
NewsMax: Do you think the U.S. has a way to get out of the U.N., or to stay as a member if it decides to act unilaterally, or with just a few allies, in responding to the threat from Iran? 
Eric Shawn: The United States certainly should not abandon the U.N. It needs us now more than ever. We cannot allow the dictatorships and tyrannies to have a complete run of the place. 
NewsMax: What would you like the readers of your book to walk away with? 
Eric Shawn: A sense of what really is going on in the U.N. ... there is a painting that hangs in the Security Council chamber depicting a phoenix rising from the ashes. It was meant to symbolize the birth of a peaceful new world created after World War II, but it would be fitting if it were now to symbolize the birth of a new U.N.