U.N. Seeks to Stop Sex Scandal Book
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Reprinted From NewsMax.com
April 19, 2004NewsMax's U.N. correspondent Stewart Stogel reveals that senior United Nations officials are trying to stop the release of a new "kiss and tell" book about the organization's field operations.
NewsMax was allowed a brief look at the controversial manuscript by U.N. sources, who requested confidentiality.
The book, an expose like none ever written about U.N. operations, is entitled "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story from Hell On Earth" (Hyperion Books, a division of Miramar-Disney).
The authors, three United Nations veterans -- Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson -- detail alleged corruption and incompetence in U.N. "relief" operations, from Cambodia and Somalia (1993) to the recent Kosovo mission.
The book also may rank as one of the most sensational exposes of U.N. business -- including numerous, and supposedly true, stories of wild sex and drug parties involving U.N. officials.
"They are very concerned about this book on the 38th floor," explained one U.N. veteran, referring to the suite of executive offices that house Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Under rules governing U.N. staff, the world body reserves the right to restrict or prohibit any publication of information pertaining to inside activities gleaned during employment.
Sources within the agency tell NewsMax that some U.N. officials have blatantly refused to give their permission to the authors to release the book.
The book has become the talk of the U.N. and provoked some fierce internal debate. Some United Nations officials believe that Annan's staff is making a serious mistake in attempting to stop the release and thereby drawing attention to it.
A State Department source tells NewsMax that Foggy Bottom is aware of the book and is unhappy about its publication. One U.N. source says State Department worries about the book are the key reason Annan is attempting to stop its publication.
Sources close to the publisher, Hyperion, say they are in discussions with the U.N. about the book's publication but have yet to receive clearance. The book was set to hit bookstores by June.
Sources tell Stogel the publisher may release the book without U.N. approval.
The timing of the expose could not come at a worse time for the U.N. The White House, under intense international pressure, is negotiating with U.N. officials to give them a greater role in governing Iraq when the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority is dissolved on July 1.
The new book casts doubt on whether the world body is competent to take on such a task.
Aside from the book, the U.N. has also come under fire for alleged massive embezzlements in the recently ended Iraq Oil-for-Food Program.
2. Whistle-blower: Annan Silencing Us Too
The authors of the new tell-all on U.N. field operations are not the only ones Kofi Annan is seeking to censor.
With the revelations about the United Nations' former Iraq Oil-for-Food program threatening to combust over allegations of multibillion-dollar embezzlements, Secretary-General Kofi Annan is attempting to silence any new whistle-blowers.
A confidential U.N. source tells NewsMax's U.N. correspondent, Stewart Stogel, that despite a pledge to "encourage" cooperation with a new investigative panel Annan formed last month, the U.N. chief is acting against an investigator from the organization's internal oversight department.
Recently, a member of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) who had been investigating possible fraud in the U.N.'s Iraq operations was indefinitely suspended.
U.N. officials suspected the investigator had been leaking information to the Paris daily Le Monde.
With an investigation of the U.N. action under way by the organization's staff union, NewsMax has decided not to reveal the employee's name.
"They have no proof, but acted on suspicion," claimed a union official who spoke on background.
While the union plans to challenge the U.N. action, it was explained that the former investigator has little recourse other than an internal appeal process.
"They are trying to intimidate everyone," claims another U.N. staffer, who has been forced into a long-term "sick leave."
Meanwhile, NewsMax has learned that Annan will not take action against the former director of the Iraq Oil-for-Food Program, Benon Sevan, regardless of what the new investigation may find.
"It is not going to happen, nothing will happen to Sevan," explained a senior U.N. staffer.
Sevan, who has been in Australia on "vacation" since mid-March, intends to retire at the end of April.
The Cypriot native, a U.N. veteran of more than 25 years, was the moving force behind much of the U.N.'s Iraq operations since the end of Operation Desert Storm in February 1991.
The decision not to act against Sevan echoes Annan's earlier decision to retain Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette, despite discoveries of serious shortcomings by two panels investigating the August 2003 bombing of the U.N.'s Baghdad headquarters. Leaving 22 dead and more than 150 wounded, the explosion was the worst attack on a U.N. operation in the organization's history.
Annan rejected Frechette's offer of her resignation. In January, more than six weeks before the investigation was completed, Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard leaked the decision to keep Frechette.
When asked how the U.N. could make such a decision six weeks before the investigation's findings were released, Eckhard had no comment.
"Everything's falling apart," groused another U.N. veteran. Another potential land mine for the U.N. secretary-general is a new book by three former U.N. officials detailing fraud in numerous aid operations. The book, to be published by Miramar for a late May 2004 release, is the target of several U.N. officials who are trying to kill -- or at least delay -- release of the manuscript.