Useless Neanderthals: UN Appoints Saudi Arabia To Lead Counter Terrorism Initiative

I should be shocked, but given the UN’s laughable and cockeyed track record, I’m not. Picking the nation primarily responsible for the world’s terrorism to lead an initiative against world terrorism is like picking Hitler to hide Jews from the Nazis. Let’s see how long it takes before they begin pointing the finger north towards Israel. Defunding this kooky organization is long overdue …

By Brooke Goldstein and Zack Kousnetz, American Thinker – “If the UN were to form an anti-terrorism group dedicated to attacking the menace on a global scale, who do you think would be asked to lead it? A nation with a proven track record of anti-terror initiatives? A nation that esteems human rights and freedoms above all else? Unfortunately, in the case of the UN Centre for Counter Terrorism (UNCCT), the answer is emphatically neither.

The UNCCT was formed in September 2010 with the purpose of executing the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, adopted by the General Assembly in 2006. In a move more befitting Alice in Wonderland than the United Nations, Saudi Arabia was named chair of the organization.

The Resolution that created the UNCCT highlighted four key ‘pillars’ in the fight against terrorism. The first of these pillars, ‘tackling the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism,’ was undermined almost immediately upon the organization’s establishment. Three months after the UNCCT’s formation, WikiLeaks exposed a trove of diplomatic cables in which Secretary of State Hilary Clinton wrote ‘Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups, including Hamas.’ Clinton’s US embassy cables also revealed Saudi resistance to prioritizing the issue in terms of its own domestic policy.

These revelations are perhaps not so surprising in light of the Saudi kingdom’s lukewarm response to terrorism funding and recruitment within its borders. Remember when, in the months following the 9/11 attacks, Saudi Arabia denied the fact that 15 out of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, before eventually confirming the undeniable truth in 2002? Even worse, this past February two former US senators involved in the 9/11 inquiries suggested in separate affidavits that the Saudi government may have played a direct role in the attacks themselves.

It’s an ironic twist that the UN appointed Saudi Arabia, a country historically labeled by groups like the CATO Institute as a state sponsor of terrorism, to chair the flagship effort to end such practices. The UN’s actions speak to a certain cluelessness it exhibits as a governing body: the organization bows to diplomatic and political courtesies while ignoring what’s happening on the ground.” Read more.

Flashback: Unfunctionally Nutty: Outrage as Syria Stays on UN Human Rights Body – “Campaigners have called a Unesco vote to keep Syria on the human rights committee a ‘lingering stain on the UN as a whole.’ The UN’s education, science and culture agency voted to keep Syria on its human rights committee, despite protests from the US and the UK. Syria will keep its seat on the Unesco board and human rights panel. The vote was 35 for, eight against, with 14 abstentions and one absent at the meeting in Paris today.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘An International Laughing Stock’: UN Appoints North Korea to Head Conference on Disarmament – “On Tuesday, the United Nations again made itself an international laughing stock – except perhaps to the American taxpayers who continue to foot 22 percent of the bill – by appointing North Korea chair of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament. That would be the same North Korea that, according to an article this week by Senator John Kerry, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has ‘twice tested nuclear weapons … is developing missiles to carry them … has built facilities capable of producing highly enriched uranium for more nuclear weapons’ and has defied a U.N. arms embargo by exporting weapons and sensitive technologies to rogue regimes…” Read more.

Flashback: Outrage: UN Rights Council Readies Resolution Praising Qaddafi Regime’s Human Rights Record – “Despite the council’s own inquiry this year finding evidence of war crimes by the Qaddafi regime, the UN Human Rights Council, according to the agenda of its current session, is planning to ‘consider and adopt the final outcome of the review of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,’ which lavishes praise on the disgraced regime. According to the council’s timetable, the lengthy report hailing Qaddafi’s human rights record will be presented on March 16, and then adopted by the council toward the end of the month.” Read more.