The News Review:

- The multibillion robbery that US calls reconstruction
- General News of Sunday, 27 June 2004
- Interview with Senator Wallop, Part One
- Exploding Liberal Myths 5: The Moral United Nations

The multibillion robbery that US calls reconstruction
Pakistan Dawn – Jun 27, 2004
And then there’s Aegis, the company being paid $293 million to save the PMO from embarrassment. It turns out that Aegis’s CEO, Tim Spicer, has a bit of an embarrassing past himself. In the 90s, he helped to put down rebels and stage a military coup in Papua New Guinea, as well as hatching a plan to break an arms embargo in Sierra Leone. If Iraq’s occupiers were capable of feeling shame, they might have responded by imposing tough new regulations. Instead, Senate Republicans have just defeated an attempt to bar private contractors from interrogating prisoners and also voted down a proposal to impose stiffer penalties on contractors who overcharge. Meanwhile, the White House is also trying to get immunity from prosecution for US contractors in Iraq and has requested the exemption from the new prime minister, Iyad Allawi. It seems likely that Allawi will agree, since he is, after all, a kind of US contractor himself.

General News of Sunday, 27 June 2004
ghanaweb.com – Jun 27, 2004
It said both Presidents expressed serious concern about the phenomena of mercenarism in Africa and global terrorism and emphasized the need for all African countries and the world to adhere to and enforce existing international treaties on the two issues. They reiterated their respect for the principles, objectives and lofty ideas of the United Nations (UN), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Commonwealth and the African Union, all of which constitute solid platforms for the consolidation of peace, solidarity and co-operation amongst nations and peoples in the world. They expressed the hope that the remaining tensions in other parts of the West African Sub-Region would soon be brought under control. During the visit, President Nujoma was honoured with the highest national award of the Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana. President Kufuor decorated President Nujoma, with the sash at a State banquet held in his honour, while Nana Akufo-Addo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, read the citation.

Interview with Senator Wallop, Part One
renewamerica.us – Jun 27, 2004
In recent decades we have spent so much time and money protecting the culture, from whence they emigrated, over the values of the America to which they came. However, there are some immigrants who are more dedicated to America than the Americans who were born here. Helen: For example, we attended a seminar here in DC where we counseled a group of people who had immigrated from Sierra Leone about the process of home buying. At first we were a bit reluctant because we weren’t sure if they knew basic stuff about contracts, etc. Yet, they amazed us by speaking about freedom, choice and the accumulation of wealth as knowledgeably as any college professor. We wish all the rest of Americans would think as much about their lives, and recognize that some things must be built and learned, rather than looking for an instant quick fix; usually, someone else doing the quick fix for them. Senator Wallop: Yes, many immigrants cherish the value of choice and opportunity and the value of education more than 7th or 8th generation Americans.

Exploding Liberal Myths 5: The Moral United Nations
Opinion Editorials – Jun 27, 2004
As far as morals are concerned, the UN certainly has no right to claim the high ground. Sexual predators thinly disguised as UNHCR aid workers took advantage of their positions of power in West African nations to demand sex from children as the price of aid for their families. The BBC reported in 2002 that workers in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea had been exploiting those people who came to them for help. Now the sexual abuse in return for protection and food has moved to the Congo, where the 4,000 UN peacekeepers stationed in Bunia have fathered an unknown number of illegitimate children on unmarried girls. The head of the UN in Bunia, Dominique McAdams, said that she “requested evidence and proof on this matter, but I have not received anything from anyone. When it was discovered and reported by American policewoman Kathryn Bolkovac, she was fired from DynCorp, the company the UN had worked through to hire her.