Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Coleman: Bolton 'Right Guy, Right Place, Right Time'
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton is "the right guy in the right place at the right time,” declared Sen. Norm Coleman.
Coleman (R-Minn.), the leader of the Senate’s investigation into the U.N.’s scandal-ridden oil-for-food program, rebutted critics who said Bolton was unsuitable for the job.
And other U.S. officials and some foreign policy experts say Bolton could help improve the U.N. as it faces the latest charges of corruption and mismanagement, according to USA Today.
A U.N. inquiry committee issued a report last week disclosing that Saddam Hussein received $1.7 billion in kickbacks from a $64 billion program intended to feed Iraq’s people, and $11 billion from oil sales outside U.N. controls.
"Instead of the bull in the china shop, Bolton’s more like the little boy who is audacious enough to say the U.N. has no clothes,” said Edward Luck, an expert on the U.N. at Columbia University.
President Bush named Bolton to the U.N. ambassador post on August 1 while Congress was in recess.
His spokesman Rick Grenell said that since coming to New York, Bolton has been working 12- and 14-hour days on his first important job: producing a document on U.N. reform.
The document is scheduled to be signed this week at a U.N. summit attended by more than 150 world leaders.
Bolton suggested that the 40-page draft of the document be replaced with a two-page statement, then proposed 750 changes to the document.
The top U.S. priority is the reform of U.N. management. But developing countries are more concerned with pledges on foreign aid and debt relief.
Bolton has tried to remove references to the goal of halving extreme world poverty by 2015, USA Today reports.
But he has agreed that the document can state that many countries want rich nations to devote 0.7 percent of their gross national product to foreign aid.
The U.S. currently gives about 0.16 percent – almost $19 billion last year.
Luck said U.N. officials and developing countries were trying to insert provisions into the document "through the back door,” but Bolton has fought such efforts tenaciously.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton is "the right guy in the right place at the right time,” declared Sen. Norm Coleman.
Coleman (R-Minn.), the leader of the Senate’s investigation into the U.N.’s scandal-ridden oil-for-food program, rebutted critics who said Bolton was unsuitable for the job.
And other U.S. officials and some foreign policy experts say Bolton could help improve the U.N. as it faces the latest charges of corruption and mismanagement, according to USA Today.
A U.N. inquiry committee issued a report last week disclosing that Saddam Hussein received $1.7 billion in kickbacks from a $64 billion program intended to feed Iraq’s people, and $11 billion from oil sales outside U.N. controls.
"Instead of the bull in the china shop, Bolton’s more like the little boy who is audacious enough to say the U.N. has no clothes,” said Edward Luck, an expert on the U.N. at Columbia University.
President Bush named Bolton to the U.N. ambassador post on August 1 while Congress was in recess.
His spokesman Rick Grenell said that since coming to New York, Bolton has been working 12- and 14-hour days on his first important job: producing a document on U.N. reform.
The document is scheduled to be signed this week at a U.N. summit attended by more than 150 world leaders.
Bolton suggested that the 40-page draft of the document be replaced with a two-page statement, then proposed 750 changes to the document.
The top U.S. priority is the reform of U.N. management. But developing countries are more concerned with pledges on foreign aid and debt relief.
Bolton has tried to remove references to the goal of halving extreme world poverty by 2015, USA Today reports.
But he has agreed that the document can state that many countries want rich nations to devote 0.7 percent of their gross national product to foreign aid.
The U.S. currently gives about 0.16 percent – almost $19 billion last year.
Luck said U.N. officials and developing countries were trying to insert provisions into the document "through the back door,” but Bolton has fought such efforts tenaciously.
