The New York Times loves that power

A revealing examination of the New York Times and the UN Oil-for-Food scandal:

New York Times Editorial, September 8, 2005: “The Volcker panel has performed a valuable service – and underlined the need for bold reforms – by documenting how these conflicting forces let Saddam Hussein game the system.” (1)

New York Times Editorial, October 14, 2004: “Everyone needs to remember that on the most critical count, sanctions worked.” (2)

Let’s see what the “system” was and what “everyone needs to remember”:

Former UN official Denis Halliday: “The very provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration of Human Rights are being set aside. We are waging a war, through the United Nations, on the children and people of Iraq, and with incredible results: results that you do not expect to see in a war under the Geneva Conventions. We’re targeting civilians…I had been instructed to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of genocide” (3)

(1) “The Oil-for-Food Failures”, The New York Times Editorial, September 8, 2005

(2) The New York Times Editorial, October 14, 2004

(3) Denis Halliday resigned in 1998 after thirty-four years with the United Nations in protest against the effects of the embargo on the Iraqi civilian population. He was then Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and UN’s Co-ordinator of Humanitarian Relief to Iraq. “The New Rulers of the World” by John Pilger (Verso)

(Thanks to the Cat’s Dream.)

Wikipedia cuts to the chase:

“On May 10, 1996, appearing on 60 Minutes, Madeleine Albright (then Clinton’s Ambassador to the United Nations) was presented with a figure of half a million children under five having died from the sanctions: Albright, not challenging this figure, infamously replied: “We think the price is worth it.””

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