(8) Some of these [United Nations Human Rights Council] special rapporteurs and members of the Advisory Committee have displayed consistent bias against the United States, Israel, and the Jewish people, while providing support to human rights abusers.

(9) Richard Falk, the United Nations ‘Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967’, has compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Holocaust, questioned the veracity of the events of September 11, 2001, and posted a cartoon on his blog depicting Americans and Jews as bloodthirsty dogs.

(10) Jean Ziegler, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee and former United Nations ‘Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food’, has accused former President George W. Bush and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of committing ‘state terrorism’, has called for an investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court for ‘war crimes’ following Israel’s war against Hezbollah in 2006, has visited Cuba and praised the Cuban regime’s provision of food to the Cuban people, and has stated that Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe ‘has history and morality with him’. Ziegler was also involved in the establishment of the ‘Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights’, a prize established by, funded by, and named after Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi, and awarded in the past to Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Louis Farrakhan, and Roger Garaudy, who has denied the Holocaust, questioned the veracity of the events of September 11, 2001, and supported Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel to be ‘wiped off the map’.

(11) Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee who has previously served as President of the United Nations General Assembly and as foreign minister for the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, has implicitly accused the United States of ‘terrorism’, has called former President Ronald Reagan a ‘butcher’, has called for a international boycott of Israel, has stated that the Palestinians were being ‘crucified’ by Israel, has called Israel’s defensive Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip a ‘monstrosity’ and ‘genocide’, has urged the United Nations to use the term ‘apartheid’ in discussing Israeli treatment of Palestinians, has embraced Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after Ahmadinejad delivered an anti-American, anti-Israel address to the United Nations General Assembly, has stated that charges of genocide against Sudanese dictator Omar Hassan al Bashir are ‘racist’, and has declared Fidel Castro ‘World Hero of Solidarity’, stating that Castro ‘embod[ied] virtues and values worth emulation by all of us’.

(12) Halima Warzazi, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, has compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and used her previous membership in a United Nations apparatus to shield Saddam Hussein from censure for gassing Iraqi Kurds in Halabja.

The post UN officials on pending Congressional watchlist appeared first on UN Watch.

Geneva, June 23 –  As the Geneva-based non-governmental organization UN Watch warned last week, controversial ex-Sandinista Miguel d’Escoto is already abusing his new mandate as advisor to the UN Human Rights Council to promote divisive politics, pledging today on Colombian TV to use his UN podium specifically to target the U.S., which he compared to a “monster,”  and Israel.

“A man who has eagerly sided with international criminals such as Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Sudan’s Al-Bashir has no credibility on human rights, and embodies precisely the inverted morality and debased political culture that currently reigns at the UN Human Rights Council, which just this week added Col. Qaddafi’s Libya as a member,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

“We continue to urge the U.S. government to make clear its objection to d’Escoto’s appointment, especially after today’s outburst, in which he openly confirmed his intention to breach UN principles of objectivity and non-selectivity,” said Neuer.  The US government failed to object to d’Escoto’s appointment on Friday, thereby adding legitimacy to his unanimous appointment.

According to Spanish news agency EFE, d’Escoto told Colombian’s Channel 12 TV that he will prioritize denouncing the U.S. – Colombian military base agreement before the council. Click here for English summary and here for Spanish original.

According to D’Escoto, America’s “foreign bases” in Colombia “constitute a violation of the human rights” of Colombians and neighboring countries.

According to D’Escoto, Nicarauga “already knows the monster from within,” referring to the U.S. use of a Honduran base in its fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

D’Escoto also pledged as another priority to attack Israel over the May 31 flotilla incident, when violent Jihadists seeking martyrdom, organized by the radical Turkish group IHH, deliberately provoked a confrontation with the Israeli navy.

D’Escoto was suspended by the Vatican in the 1980s together with two other priests involved in the Sandinista revolution, Ernesto and Fernando Cardenal. During a visit to Central America, Pope John Paul II publicly reprimanded him for his political activities.

In 1999, then Archbishop of Managua, Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo, criticized those priests who became involved with the Sandinistas and abandoned their priestly ministry for politics. He said the priests never denounced the injustices that took place at that time.

UN Watch exective director Hillel Neuer said the US should repeat what Alejandro Wolff, Deputy Ambassador to Susan Rice, U.S. representative at the UN, declared on September 13, 2009: that Mr. d’Escoto “has repeatedly abused his position to pursue his personal agenda, and in doing so he diminishes the office and harms the General Assembly. He is doing the United Nations a disservice by dividing the membership at a time when he should be a unifying force” (Source: Click here for Washington Times article, September 13, 2009.)

When D’Escoto served recently as President of the General Assembly, his appointees as senior advisers included anti-American guru Noam Chomsky, Qaddafi ally Ramsey Clark, and Hamas sympathizer Richard Falk.

In September 2009, Brockmann designated Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a “World Hero of Solidarity.”

Mr. d’Escoto has singled out the United States for criticizing Iran’s nuclear agenda, and also for allegedly triggering the global credit crisis with its “moral and ethical failure.”

He says Washington uses its influence to unfairly dictate U.N. priorities, and accused the United States and other industrialized nations of starving the world with their hunger for natural resources such as oil.

According to a Washington Times report, many diplomats say Mr. d’Escoto ran the 192-member world body based on his own passions, convening meetings to denounce Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip and last summer’s coup in Honduras. 

As The New Republic reported, d’Escoto sided with Sudan’s president Bashir after he was indicted for genocide:

Take a March showing the Nicaraguan priest and onetime Sandinista put on after returning from a tour through Asia and Europe, during which he had cozied up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defended Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir against Darfur-related war crimes charges. Back in New York and pressed by reporters about such controversial stands, he scoffed at Washington’s demonization of Ahmadinejad, given its “canonization of the worst of dictators,” like Marcos and Pinochet. He blamed the United States for undermining the United Nations in the run-up to the Iraq war. He suggested that the Bashir indictment was racist and tied it (and, if his furrowed brow and hand-waving were any indication, the Darfur carnage itself) to the White House. “Who first raised the issue of genocide?” he said. “Bush. George W. Bush. That should tell you quite a bit already.”

On September 17, 2008, D’Escoto embraced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the Iranian leader delivered a strongly anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech to the UN General Assembly. In response, Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, called D’Escoto an “Israel hater.”

Two month later, the Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized D’Escoto after he said that Israel is “crucifying” Palestinians, which the Center said was an anti-Semitic analogy to the crucifixion of Jesus.

The UNHRC Advisory Committee that d’Escoto joins is currently headed by former Moroccan diplomat Halima Warzazi. On September 1, 1988, she personally blocked a UN motion that would have censured Saddam Hussein for gassing the Kurds of Halabja. (See 1988 “No action” motion.)  The vice-chair is Jean Ziegler, a former Swiss socialist politician who in 1989, as reported in Time magazine, helped create the “Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.”

The post New UN Rights Appointee Pledges to Attack U.S. “Monster” and Israel appeared first on UN Watch.

Geneva, June 23 –  As the Geneva-based non-governmental organization UN Watch warned last week, controversial ex-Sandinista Miguel d’Escoto is already abusing his new mandate as advisor to the UN Human Rights Council to promote divisive politics, pledging today on Colombian TV to use his UN podium specifically to target the U.S., which he compared to a “monster,”  and Israel.

“A man who has eagerly sided with international criminals such as Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Sudan’s Al-Bashir has no credibility on human rights, and embodies precisely the inverted morality and debased political culture that currently reigns at the UN Human Rights Council, which just this week added Col. Qaddafi’s Libya as a member,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

“We continue to urge the U.S. government to make clear its objection to d’Escoto’s appointment, especially after today’s outburst, in which he openly confirmed his intention to breach UN principles of objectivity and non-selectivity,” said Neuer.  The US government failed to object to d’Escoto’s appointment on Friday, thereby adding legitimacy to his unanimous appointment.

According to Spanish news agency EFE, d’Escoto told Colombian’s Channel 12 TV that he will prioritize denouncing the U.S. – Colombian military base agreement before the council. Click here for English summary and here for Spanish original.

According to D’Escoto, America’s “foreign bases” in Colombia “constitute a violation of the human rights” of Colombians and neighboring countries.

According to D’Escoto, Nicarauga “already knows the monster from within,” referring to the U.S. use of a Honduran base in its fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

D’Escoto also pledged as another priority to attack Israel over the May 31 flotilla incident, when violent Jihadists seeking martyrdom, organized by the radical Turkish group IHH, deliberately provoked a confrontation with the Israeli navy.

D’Escoto was suspended by the Vatican in the 1980s together with two other priests involved in the Sandinista revolution, Ernesto and Fernando Cardenal. During a visit to Central America, Pope John Paul II publicly reprimanded him for his political activities.

In 1999, then Archbishop of Managua, Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo, criticized those priests who became involved with the Sandinistas and abandoned their priestly ministry for politics. He said the priests never denounced the injustices that took place at that time.

UN Watch exective director Hillel Neuer said the US should repeat what Alejandro Wolff, Deputy Ambassador to Susan Rice, U.S. representative at the UN, declared on September 13, 2009: that Mr. d’Escoto “has repeatedly abused his position to pursue his personal agenda, and in doing so he diminishes the office and harms the General Assembly. He is doing the United Nations a disservice by dividing the membership at a time when he should be a unifying force” (Source: Click here for Washington Times article, September 13, 2009.)

When D’Escoto served recently as President of the General Assembly, his appointees as senior advisers included anti-American guru Noam Chomsky, Qaddafi ally Ramsey Clark, and Hamas sympathizer Richard Falk.

In September 2009, Brockmann designated Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a “World Hero of Solidarity.”

Mr. d’Escoto has singled out the United States for criticizing Iran’s nuclear agenda, and also for allegedly triggering the global credit crisis with its “moral and ethical failure.”

He says Washington uses its influence to unfairly dictate U.N. priorities, and accused the United States and other industrialized nations of starving the world with their hunger for natural resources such as oil.

According to a Washington Times report, many diplomats say Mr. d’Escoto ran the 192-member world body based on his own passions, convening meetings to denounce Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip and last summer’s coup in Honduras. 

As The New Republic reported, d’Escoto sided with Sudan’s president Bashir after he was indicted for genocide:

Take a March showing the Nicaraguan priest and onetime Sandinista put on after returning from a tour through Asia and Europe, during which he had cozied up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defended Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir against Darfur-related war crimes charges. Back in New York and pressed by reporters about such controversial stands, he scoffed at Washington’s demonization of Ahmadinejad, given its “canonization of the worst of dictators,” like Marcos and Pinochet. He blamed the United States for undermining the United Nations in the run-up to the Iraq war. He suggested that the Bashir indictment was racist and tied it (and, if his furrowed brow and hand-waving were any indication, the Darfur carnage itself) to the White House. “Who first raised the issue of genocide?” he said. “Bush. George W. Bush. That should tell you quite a bit already.”

On September 17, 2008, D’Escoto embraced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the Iranian leader delivered a strongly anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech to the UN General Assembly. In response, Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, called D’Escoto an “Israel hater.”

Two month later, the Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized D’Escoto after he said that Israel is “crucifying” Palestinians, which the Center said was an anti-Semitic analogy to the crucifixion of Jesus.

The UNHRC Advisory Committee that d’Escoto joins is currently headed by former Moroccan diplomat Halima Warzazi. On September 1, 1988, she personally blocked a UN motion that would have censured Saddam Hussein for gassing the Kurds of Halabja. (See 1988 “No action” motion.)  The vice-chair is Jean Ziegler, a former Swiss socialist politician who in 1989, as reported in Time magazine, helped create the “Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.”

The post New UN Rights Appointee Pledges to Attack U.S. “Monster” and Israel appeared first on UN Watch.

Colombian news is now reporting that barely days after his appointment, d’Escoto is already attacking the US — on matters having no bearing whatsoever to the individual rights he is pledged to protect:

Former Nicaraguan foreign minister and newly appointed member of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Miguel D’Escoto, says that he will prioritize denouncing the U.S. – Colombian military base agreement before the committee, reports La FM on Wednesday.

According to D’Escoto, the “foreign bases” in Colombia “constitute a violation of the human rights” of Colombians and neighboring countries.

“The right to live in peace and tranquility is a human right, [and] the presence of American military bases next to our countries is a constant and perennial threat, especially for countries like Nicaragua who already know what these bases are used for,” the former foreign policy chief under leftist-Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega said.

According to D’Escoto, Nicarauga “already knows the monster from within,” referring to the the U.S. use of a Honduran base in its fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has been one of the many Latin American leaders highly critical of the U.S. – Colombian base deal. According to the deal, struck in 2009, the United States will have access to seven Colombian military bases in order to work with the Colombian armed forces in its fight against narco-trafficking and terrorism.

D’Escoto has also pledged as another priority to attack Israel over the May 31 flotilla incident, when violent Jihadists seeking martyrdom, organized by the radical Turkish IHH group, deliberately provoked a confrontation with the Israeli navy.

The post U.N.’s Freshly Appointed Sandinista Already Attacking U.S., for Base Agreement in Colombia appeared first on UN Watch.

Colombian news is now reporting that barely days after his appointment, d’Escoto is already attacking the US — on matters having no bearing whatsoever to the individual rights he is pledged to protect:

Former Nicaraguan foreign minister and newly appointed member of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Miguel D’Escoto, says that he will prioritize denouncing the U.S. – Colombian military base agreement before the committee, reports La FM on Wednesday.

According to D’Escoto, the “foreign bases” in Colombia “constitute a violation of the human rights” of Colombians and neighboring countries.

“The right to live in peace and tranquility is a human right, [and] the presence of American military bases next to our countries is a constant and perennial threat, especially for countries like Nicaragua who already know what these bases are used for,” the former foreign policy chief under leftist-Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega said.

According to D’Escoto, Nicarauga “already knows the monster from within,” referring to the the U.S. use of a Honduran base in its fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has been one of the many Latin American leaders highly critical of the U.S. – Colombian base deal. According to the deal, struck in 2009, the United States will have access to seven Colombian military bases in order to work with the Colombian armed forces in its fight against narco-trafficking and terrorism.

D’Escoto has also pledged as another priority to attack Israel over the May 31 flotilla incident, when violent Jihadists seeking martyrdom, organized by the radical Turkish IHH group, deliberately provoked a confrontation with the Israeli navy.

The post U.N.’s Freshly Appointed Sandinista Already Attacking U.S., for Base Agreement in Colombia appeared first on UN Watch.

NGO urges U.S. to condemn d’Escoto’s “divisive and politicized abuse of mandate”

Geneva, June 23 —  As the Geneva-based non-governmental organization UN Watch warned last week, controversial ex-Sandinista Miguel d’Escoto is already abusing his new mandate as adviser to the UN Human Rights Council to promote divisive politics, pledging today on Colombian TV to use his UN podium specifically to target the U.S., which he called a “monster,”  and Israel.

“A man who has eagerly sided with international criminals such as Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Sudan’s Al-Bashir has no credibility on human rights, and embodies precisely the inverted morality and debased political culture that currently reigns at the UN Human Rights Council, which just this week added Col. Qaddafi’s Libya as a member,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

“We continue to urge the U.S. government to make clear its objection to d’Escoto’s appointment, especially after today’s outburst, in which he openly confired his intention to breach UN principles of objectivity and non-selectivity,” said Neuer.

Spanish news agency EFE reported today that d’Escoto told Colombian’s Channel 12 TV that he will prioritize denouncing the U.S. – Colombian military base agreement before the council. Click here for English summary and here for Spanish original.

According to D’Escoto, America’s “foreign bases” in Colombia “constitute a violation of the human rights” of Colombians and neighboring countries.

According to D’Escoto, Nicarauga “already knows the monster from within,” referring to the U.S. use of a Honduran base in its fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

D’Escoto also pledged as another priority to attack Israel over the May 31 flotilla incident, when violent Jihadists seeking martyrdom, members of the radical Turkish IHH group, deliberately provoked a confrontation with the Israeli navy.

D’Escoto was suspended by the Vatican in the 1980s together with two other priests involved in the Sandinista revolution, Ernesto and Fernando Cardenal. During a visit to Central America, Pope John Paul II publicly reprimanded him for his political activities.
In 1999, then Archbishop of Managua, Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo, criticized those priests who became involved with the Sandinistas and abandoned their priestly ministry for politics. He said the priests never denounced the injustices that took place at that time

UN Watch exective director Hillel Neuer said the US should repeat what Alejandro Wolff, Deputy Ambassador to Susan Rice, U.S. representative at the UN, declared on September 13, 2009: that Mr. d’Escoto “has repeatedly abused his position to pursue his personal agenda, and in doing so he diminishes the office and harms the General Assembly. He is doing the United Nations a disservice by dividing the membership at a time when he should be a unifying force” (Source: Click here for Washington Times article, September 13, 2009.)

When D’Escoto served recently as President of the General Assembly, his appointees as senior advisers included anti-American guru Noam Chomsky, Qaddafi ally Ramsey Clark, and Hamas sympathizer Richard Falk.

In September 2009, Brockmann designated Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a “World Hero of Solidarity.”

Mr. d’Escoto has singled out the United States for criticizing Iran’s nuclear agenda, and also for allegedly triggering the global credit crisis with its “moral and ethical failure.”

He says Washington uses its influence to unfairly dictate U.N. priorities, and accused the United States and other industrialized nations of starving the world with their hunger for natural resources such as oil.

According to a Washington Times report, many diplomats say Mr. d’Escoto ran the 192-member world body based on his own passions, convening meetings to denounce Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip and last summer’s coup in Honduras.

As The New Republic reported, d’Escoto sided with Sudan’s president Bashir after he was indicted for genocide:

Take a March showing the Nicaraguan priest and onetime Sandinista put on after returning from a tour through Asia and Europe, during which he had cozied up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defended Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir against Darfur-related war crimes charges. Back in New York and pressed by reporters about such controversial stands, he scoffed at Washington’s demonization of Ahmadinejad, given its “canonization of the worst of dictators,” like Marcos and Pinochet. He blamed the United States for undermining the United Nations in the run-up to the Iraq war. He suggested that the Bashir indictment was racist and tied it (and, if his furrowed brow and hand-waving were any indication, the Darfur carnage itself) to the White House. “Who first raised the issue of genocide?” he said. “Bush. George W. Bush. That should tell you quite a bit already.”

On September 17, 2008, D’Escoto embraced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the Iranian leader delivered a strongly anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech to the UN General Assembly. In response, Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, called D’Escoto an “Israel hater.”

Two month later, the Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized D’Escoto after he said that Israel is “crucifying” Palestinians, which the Center said was an anti-Semitic analogy to the crucifixion of Jesus.

The UNHRC Advisory Committee that d’Escoto joins is currently headed by former Moroccan diplomat Halima Warzazi. On September 1, 1988, she personally blocked a UN motion that would have censured Saddam Hussein for gassing the Kurds of Halabja. (See 1988 “No action” motion.)  The vice-chair is Jean Ziegler, a former Swiss socialist politician who in 1989, as reported in Time magazine, helped create the “Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.”

The post New UN Rights Appointee Pledges to Attack U.S. “Monster” and Israel appeared first on UN Watch.

“His record of virulent anti-American and anti-Western politics, and repeated endorsement of dangerous leaders like Mahmoud Ahmadinjead, makes him a divisive figure who falls afoul of the official criteria of independence and impartiality,” said Hillel Neuer of UN Watch.

When D’Escoto served recently as President of the General Assembly, he designated such senior advisers as anti-American guru Noam Chomsky, Qaddafi ally Ramsey Clark, and Hamas sympathizer Richard Falk (whom the PA asked to quit for being a “partisan of Hamas”).  In September 2009, Brockmann designated Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a “World Hero of Solidarity.”

On September 17, 2008, D’Escoto embraced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the Iranian leader delivered a strongly anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech to the UN General Assembly. In response, Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, called D’Escoto an “Israel hater.”  Two month later, the Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized D’Escoto after he said that Israel is “crucifying” Palestinians, which the Center said was an anti-Semitic analogy to the crucifixion of Jesus.

According to Alejandro Wolff, the deputy ambassador to Susan Rice, the U.S. representative at the United Nations, Mr. d’Escoto “has repeatedly abused his position to pursue his personal agenda, and in doing so he diminishes the office and harms the General Assembly. He is doing the United Nations a disservice by dividing the membership at a time when he should be a unifying force,” the statement said.

Mr. d’Escoto has singled out the United States for criticizing Iran’s nuclear agenda and for allegedly triggering the global credit crisis with its “moral and ethical failure.”

He says Washington uses its influence to unfairly dictate U.N. priorities, and accused the United States and other industrialized nations of starving the world with their hunger for natural resources such as oil.

According to a Washington Times report, many diplomats say Mr. d’Escoto ran the 192-member world body based on his own passions, convening meetings to denounce Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip and last summer’s coup in Honduras. 

As The New Republic reported, d’Escoto sided with Sudan’s president Bashir after he was indicted for genocide:

Take a March showing the Nicaraguan priest and onetime Sandinista put on after returning from a tour through Asia and Europe, during which he had cozied up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defended Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir against Darfur-related war crimes charges. Back in New York and pressed by reporters about such controversial stands, he scoffed at Washington’s demonization of Ahmadinejad, given its “canonization of the worst of dictators,” like Marcos and Pinochet. He blamed the United States for undermining the United Nations in the run-up to the Iraq war. He suggested that the Bashir indictment was racist and tied it (and, if his furrowed brow and hand-waving were any indication, the Darfur carnage itself) to the White House. “Who first raised the issue of genocide?” he said. “Bush. George W. Bush. That should tell you quite a bit already.”

The UNHRC’s Advisory Committee is currently headed by former Moroccan diplomat Halima Warzazi, who on September 1, 1988, personally blocked a UN motion to censure Saddam Hussein for gassing the Kurds of Halabja. (See 1988 “No action” motion.)  The vice-chair is Jean Ziegler, a former Swiss socialist politician who in 1989 helped create the Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.

The post UN Watch calls for U.S. to oppose UNHRC appointment of anti-American Miguel d’Escoto appeared first on UN Watch.

“His record of virulent anti-American and anti-Western politics, and repeated endorsement of dangerous leaders like Mahmoud Ahmadinjead, makes him a divisive figure who falls afoul of the official criteria of independence and impartiality,” said Hillel Neuer of UN Watch.

When D’Escoto served recently as President of the General Assembly, he designated such senior advisers as anti-American guru Noam Chomsky, Qaddafi ally Ramsey Clark, and Hamas sympathizer Richard Falk (whom the PA asked to quit for being a “partisan of Hamas”).  In September 2009, Brockmann designated Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a “World Hero of Solidarity.”

On September 17, 2008, D’Escoto embraced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the Iranian leader delivered a strongly anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech to the UN General Assembly. In response, Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, called D’Escoto an “Israel hater.”  Two month later, the Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized D’Escoto after he said that Israel is “crucifying” Palestinians, which the Center said was an anti-Semitic analogy to the crucifixion of Jesus.

According to Alejandro Wolff, the deputy ambassador to Susan Rice, the U.S. representative at the United Nations, Mr. d’Escoto “has repeatedly abused his position to pursue his personal agenda, and in doing so he diminishes the office and harms the General Assembly. He is doing the United Nations a disservice by dividing the membership at a time when he should be a unifying force,” the statement said.

Mr. d’Escoto has singled out the United States for criticizing Iran’s nuclear agenda and for allegedly triggering the global credit crisis with its “moral and ethical failure.”

He says Washington uses its influence to unfairly dictate U.N. priorities, and accused the United States and other industrialized nations of starving the world with their hunger for natural resources such as oil.

According to a Washington Times report, many diplomats say Mr. d’Escoto ran the 192-member world body based on his own passions, convening meetings to denounce Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip and last summer’s coup in Honduras. 

As The New Republic reported, d’Escoto sided with Sudan’s president Bashir after he was indicted for genocide:

Take a March showing the Nicaraguan priest and onetime Sandinista put on after returning from a tour through Asia and Europe, during which he had cozied up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defended Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir against Darfur-related war crimes charges. Back in New York and pressed by reporters about such controversial stands, he scoffed at Washington’s demonization of Ahmadinejad, given its “canonization of the worst of dictators,” like Marcos and Pinochet. He blamed the United States for undermining the United Nations in the run-up to the Iraq war. He suggested that the Bashir indictment was racist and tied it (and, if his furrowed brow and hand-waving were any indication, the Darfur carnage itself) to the White House. “Who first raised the issue of genocide?” he said. “Bush. George W. Bush. That should tell you quite a bit already.”

The UNHRC’s Advisory Committee is currently headed by former Moroccan diplomat Halima Warzazi, who on September 1, 1988, personally blocked a UN motion to censure Saddam Hussein for gassing the Kurds of Halabja. (See 1988 “No action” motion.)  The vice-chair is Jean Ziegler, a former Swiss socialist politician who in 1989 helped create the Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.

The post UN Watch calls for U.S. to oppose UNHRC appointment of anti-American Miguel d’Escoto appeared first on UN Watch.

Now advising the head of the UN’s parliament are Professor Richard Falk, cheerleader for the theory that 9/11 was an inside job; Ramsey Clark, tool of left-wing cultists who defend Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Rwandan torturers as anti-imperialist heroes, and Noam Chomsky, the anti-American guru who lends his name to Holocaust deniers. See full list below.

SPECIAL SENIOR ADVISORS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE 63RD SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1. Brother David Andrews CSC (USA).

2. Ms. Maude Barlow (Canada).

3. Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui (Algeria).

4. Mr. Leonardo Boff (Brazil).

5. Mr. Kevin Cahill (USA).

6. Mr. François Houtart (Belgium).

7. Mr. Noam Chomsky (USA).

8. Mr. Ramsey Clark (USA).

9. Mr. Richard Falk (USA).

10. Mr. Michael Kennedy (USA).

11. Ms. Eleonora Kennedy (USA).

12. Mr. Olivier De Schutter (Belgium).

13. Mr. Joseph Stiglitz (USA).

14. Sir John E. Sulston (UK).

15. Mr. Howard Zinn (USA).

The post UN General Assembly Chief Appoints Rogues’ Gallery of “Special Senior Advisors” appeared first on UN Watch.

Now advising the head of the UN’s parliament are Professor Richard Falk, cheerleader for the theory that 9/11 was an inside job; Ramsey Clark, tool of left-wing cultists who defend Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Rwandan torturers as anti-imperialist heroes, and Noam Chomsky, the anti-American guru who lends his name to Holocaust deniers. See full list below.

SPECIAL SENIOR ADVISORS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE 63RD SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1. Brother David Andrews CSC (USA).

2. Ms. Maude Barlow (Canada).

3. Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui (Algeria).

4. Mr. Leonardo Boff (Brazil).

5. Mr. Kevin Cahill (USA).

6. Mr. François Houtart (Belgium).

7. Mr. Noam Chomsky (USA).

8. Mr. Ramsey Clark (USA).

9. Mr. Richard Falk (USA).

10. Mr. Michael Kennedy (USA).

11. Ms. Eleonora Kennedy (USA).

12. Mr. Olivier De Schutter (Belgium).

13. Mr. Joseph Stiglitz (USA).

14. Sir John E. Sulston (UK).

15. Mr. Howard Zinn (USA).

The post UN General Assembly Chief Appoints Rogues’ Gallery of “Special Senior Advisors” appeared first on UN Watch.