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Resources updated between Monday, August 28, 2006 and Sunday, September 3, 2006

September 3, 2006

(AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
The UN's Kofi Annan shook hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on September 3, 2006, though Ahmadinejad has called for the annihilation of the Jewish state, said the Holocaust was a myth, refused to end his nuclear program contrary to international law, and supplied and directed 3,900 missiles onto the Israeli civilian population.

A picture is worth a thousand words: Kofi Annan -- the Philippe Pétain of our time Editor's Note

September 1, 2006

August 31, 2006

Excess Baggage Article

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

U.S.-Iran policy, spearheaded by Nicholas Burns and Secretary of State Rice, is a train to nowheresville, literally. That's what the world will look like (starting with the hole in the ground that was once Israel) when Iran has acquired nuclear weapons. Iran has no intention of stopping its nuclear weapons program voluntarily. Only a program of serious consequences, swiftly implemented, in response to its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction will prevent the catastrophe that looms before us.

We know that serious sanctions will not be forthcoming through the U.N. Security Council. China and Russia have made their views on the subject quite clear. But let's replay the words of Secretary Rice on May 10, 2006. Either Iran can accept a path to a civil nuclear program, she said, or "Iran can defy the international community and face isolation." And again on May 31, 2006: "It's a moment of truth for Iran." Tough talk - but the problem is that nobody takes American huffing and puffing seriously anymore.

Courtesy of the United States, Iranian proxy Hezbollah has just won a U.N. resolution permitting it to regroup and rearm to fight another day. Iran itself has been further emboldened by a resolution that does not even mention Iran, as if the war had nothing to do with it. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been anointed to administer "peace" between Israel and those who want to annihilate the Jewish state. But Annan thinks those who share that destructive goal - and hail from states having no diplomatic relations with Israel - would make good members of his international "peacekeeping" force. Annan himself is now headed to Iran to further cement U.N. ties with terrorists, after his discussions with Hezbollah ministers in Lebanon. One wonders if he is planning to take in "the Holocaust is a joke" cartoon exhibit now playing in Tehran.

The U.S. visa to former Iranian President Khatami - who wasn't exactly AWOL during the buildup of Iran's nuclear program - is not an isolated event. As the pattern of all talk and no action takes hold, this move too will undercut any demand to the international community for immediate, serious sanctions on Iran. If we aren't prepared to isolate Iran, why should anyone else?

This note originally appeared on National Review Online.

Anne Bayefsky

U.S.-Iran policy, spearheaded by Nicholas Burns and Secretary of State Rice, is a train to nowheresville, literally. That's what the world will look like (starting with the hole in the ground that was once Israel) when Iran has acquired nuclear weapons. Iran has no intention of stopping its nuclear weapons program voluntarily. Only a program of serious consequences, swiftly implemented, in response to its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction will prevent the catastrophe that looms before us.

We know that serious sanctions will not be forthcoming through the U.N. Security Council. China and Russia have made their views on the subject quite clear. But let's replay the words of Secretary Rice on May 10, 2006. Either Iran can accept a path to a civil nuclear program, she said, or "Iran can defy the international community and face isolation." And again on May 31, 2006: "It's a moment of truth for Iran." Tough talk - but the problem is that nobody takes American huffing and puffing seriously anymore.

US Refusal to Isolate Iran Editor's Note

The humiliation of Malika Soltayeva, a pregnant Chechen woman suspected of adultery, was ferocious and swift. Ms. Soltayeva, 23, had been away from home for a month and was reported missing by her family. When she returned, her husband accused her of infidelity and banished her from their apartment. The local authorities found her at her aunt's residence. They said they had a few questions.

Russia Human Rights Voice

Whither Annan? Article

August 29, 2006

UN used as platform to analogize Israelis to Nazis. The context? The drafting of a UN human rights convention. Here are Libya's words in support of the inclusion of "foreign occupation" - UN language for Israel as the enemy - in a convention on disabilities: "We supported the adoption of this paragraph...because...the Nazis-one of their goals was to eliminate people with disabilities. So we want to protect them, to make sure that this does not happen again."

EYEontheUN unofficial transcript of Meeting of Ad Hoc Committee on a Draft Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Development

August 28, 2006

In most countries, a blind social activist who taught himself law to fight for the rights of the disabled and other victims of abuse would be treated as a hero, and feted with all kinds of rewards. Especially if he courageously exposed forced abortions and sterilizations that even the government agrees are against the law. But, in China, Chen Guangcheng's reward for doing this is prison.

China Human Rights Voice