Another U.N. scandal: Time to leave
January 31, 2008
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Original Source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/archive/s_550053.html

A former Russian spy's allegations that the United Nations is an international spy nest and that Russia bilked $500 million from the world body's oil-for-food program have been resoundingly denounced by Moscow as self-publicity based on treachery. 
But that doesn't negate the sordid accounts of spy-turned-author Sergei Tretyakov, the former deputy head of intelligence at Russia's U.N. mission. His book, Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America after the End of the Cold War, is a wake-up call to Americans, he says. 
Consider first the source. 
Mr. Tretyakov -- who defected to the United States as a double agent in 2000 -- was, in fact, a Russian spy posing as a diplomat at the U.N. His mission was for information -- anything anti-American -- and spy recruitment, Tretyakov says. 
Was the deceptive diplomat an anomaly in a world body that flagrantly fails to police itself? 
Which brings us to the oil-for-food fiasco. Is it a stretch that Russia -- which vehemently opposed the U.S. war in Iraq -- benefited richly from Saddam Hussein's oil ruse? Those who colluded with Saddam siphoned $1.8 billion from the humanitarian aid program. 
If Tretyakov's allegations are true, it will be up to other governments to prosecute, a U.N. spokesman says. How reassuring. 
That the United Nations is a continuing liability to U.S. interests is clear. That the United States should leave the U.N. -- and the U.N. leave the U.S. -- should be crystal clear.