Skip to main content

Al Jazeera English - News - Ban Ki-Moon: Six Months On

Al Jazeera English - News - Ban Ki-Moon: Six Months On
Six months on from his inauguration as secretary-general of the United Nations, it is time however to ask whether all of those extra hours, those ever-burning lights on the 38th floor of UN headquarters on Manhattan's East River are achieving results.

Does this most travelled of all secretary-generals have a consistent agenda? Can he act independently of the world's only super-power, the United States, and his principal backer for the job?

To understand what makes Ban tick, it is important to observe him at close quarters as I have done over the past six months. And the best way to watch him in action is to travel with him and his entourage.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Evidence of torture used in Iraq | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Evidence of torture used in Iraq | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics : "The Foreign Office says the 'government, including its intelligence and security agencies, never use torture for any purpose' ( MI5 and MI6 to be sued for first time over torture, September 12). The evidence in the public domain from the court martial into the death of Baha Mousa and the serious abuse of 10 other Iraqi civilians is clear in establishing this is not true. UK armed forces went into Iraq with a written policy that allowed hooding, and with a policy of training interrogators to use hooding, stressing and sleep deprivation to gain intelligence. Iraqi civilians were routinely hooded in up to three sandbags - and even old plastic cement bags. When Baha Mousa died in September 2003, partly as a result of abuse while hooded, common sense dictates that at least at that point those in positions of responsibility within the civil service and military would have acted to change the poli...

Today's Article: # 564

Today's Article: # 564 : "My last column highlighted the false accusations made by Nayirah, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, against the Iraqi army in October 1990. Her lies led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Almost 13 years later, a member of the British Parliament lied to the world about Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Her message was different from that of Nayirah, but the results were identical: death and destruction."