No money for latest U.N. human rights flim-flam
Two weeks ago, the United States took an important stand against the United Nation’s record of feckless and contemptuous treatment of human rights issues – and its abject failure to take meaningful steps to take long-overdue corrective actions. The Bush Administration made such a statement when Ambassador John Bolton voted against the establishment of a new Human Rights Council (HRC) on the grounds that it offered only cosmetic fixes to the dysfunctional, ineffectual and risible Human Rights Commission it is intended to replace.
Unfortunately, to the outrage of supporters of this President and his commitment to principled foreign policies and genuine structural change at the UN, his State Department (in the person of Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns) promptly compromised this stance. The Administration is now in the ludicrous position of not only signaling an interest in being a member of this sham organization. Secretary Burns has actually declared that the U.S. will help underwrite its operations .
To his credit, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has announced his intention to support the President’s original position by making it clear that there is a real price to be paid by the United Nations for ignoring the United States ‘ concerns – and those of freedom – and human rights-loving people all over the world. In a forceful letter to the President released today, Senator Frist explained:
While I understand the urge to participate [in the Human Rights Council] as a means to seek further reform, I believe our hand is strengthened by sticking to our principles and speaking to human rights abuses from outside this body. The United States ‘ participation in this new, unreformed Council only undermines our own credibility and confers unwarranted legitimacy on this new body.
The letter goes on to elaborate on Sen. Frist’s vision for an "outside" body made up of "like-minded and responsible states truly concerned with human rights [that] would stand in stark contrast to another defunct U.N. bureaucracy comprised of some of the world’s worst actors." Such an alternative mirrors a proposal laid out in the recently-published book War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World, lead-authored by Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. It is an idea that would enjoy wide support among the American people and offer real hope to the world’s oppressed.
The Bottom Line
It is very much to be hoped that President Bush will overrule his wayward Under Secretary of State and inform the United Nations that the United States will not be enabling the new human rights fraud it hopes to perpetrate . Failing that, the Center for Security Policy urges Sen. Frist and his colleagues to take such a step by precluding the use of any American funds provided for the United Nations and its operations by or on behalf of the Human Rights Council.
Mr. Gaffney is the host of Secure Freedom Radio, a nationally-syndicated radio program heard weeknights throughout the country. He is an associate author of highly acclaimed Shariah: The Threat to America and the publisher of over a dozen other books and monographs from the Center for Security Policy Press.
In April 1987, Mr. Gaffney was nominated by President Reagan to become the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, the senior position in the Defense Department with responsibility for policies involving U.S.-USSR relations, nuclear forces, arms control, missile defense policy and U.S.-European defense ties. He acted in that capacity for seven months during which time, he was the Chairman of the prestigious High Level Group, NATO’s senior politico-military committee. He also represented the Secretary of Defense in key U.S.-Soviet negotiations and ministerial meetings.
From August 1983 until November 1987, Mr. Gaffney was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle.
From February 1981 to August 1983, Mr. Gaffney was a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by the late Senator John Tower (R-Texas). And, in the latter 1970’s, Mr. Gaffney served as an aide to the late Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-Washington) in the areas of defense and foreign policy.
Mr. Gaffney holds a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Gaffney’s leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations including: the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award (1987), the U.S. Business and Industry Council’s Defender of the National Interest Award (1994), the Navy League of the United States’ Alfred Thayer Mahan Literary Achievement Award (1999), and the Zionist Organization of America’s “Louis Brandeis Award” (2003), the Western Conservative Summit’s Stephen H. Long Award (2015), the Council for National Policy’s George Washington Military Leadership Award (2016) and the IMPACT Award from Ginni Thomas and United in Purpose (2017).
Mr. Gaffney was born in 1953 and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.
- The UN transforms itself into a world government - September 22, 2024
- Hezbollah is engaged in terrorism, not Israel - September 22, 2024
- Israel must seize the day - September 20, 2024