Source: U.N. Pullout From Baghdad a PR Stunt

A senior U.N. Security Council diplomat has told NewsMax that, in effect, Kofi Annan’s decision to evacuate the U.N. center in Baghdad was no more than a political stunt.

The pullout by the U.N. only involves 16 people in Baghdad, who will leave for six weeks and go to Cyprus. Forty-five others in the northern city of Erbil will remain, so we asked, "With only 16 people left out of almost 300 before the attack in August, why the move to evacuate?”

We were told that this is no more than "political window dressing"; it is more PR than anything else. The Red Cross decision to evacuate its Baghdad center also could not be ignored by Annan.

Annan’s decision came after he held a meeting of his senior staff this week to discuss the U.N. special panel's findings on the Baghdad attack, released last week.

No word from the U.N. as to what happened at this meeting, which was labeled as "unofficial." But NewsMax was told that Annan is under "intense pressure" to move on last week’s report, which labeled the U.N.'s entire security structure as "dysfunctional."

Many rank-and-filers at U.N. headquarters reacted, saying, "we told you so." To many at the U.N. the report finally brought into the open a serious problem inside the U.N. bureaucracy which has been around for decades but such a political hot potato that nobody wanted to touch it – namely, that security at the U.N. is not so secure.

The major criticism is that the U.N.'s security system is loaded with incompetent political appointees who have little credible security or law enforcement experience.

The U.N. staff have openly spoken of Annan trying to "ignore" the report and avoid any substantive firings of security staff.

The U.S. official tells NewsMax that the U.N. evacuation of Baghdad is, in essence, Annan throwing a bone to the U.N. staff dogs.

The U.S,. NewsMax was told, will increase its security presence at the U.N. compound, which will be repaired while the U.N. takes its hiatus.

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