You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
International
Putin proposes creation of UN-led anti-terror system
2003-04-23
From Xinhuanet, Somewhat EFL
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday proposed the establishment of an international system to combat terrorism in which the United Nations should play the key role. In his message to an international conference of intelligence agents and law-enforcement leaders, Putin called upon the international community to "create an effective system of international security which would provide reliable protection from terrorism and extremism," and "the United Nations should play the key role in this system," Interfax reported.
Ummm... Is this the United Nations Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.)? I watched that show a time or two. It was pretty forgettable...
Putin noted that "it is extremely important" to ensure effective cooperation among law-enforcement agencies of different countries, "especially in information exchanges and efforts to undermine the financial base behind terrorism." A total of 60 delegations from 43 countries, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Group of Eight industrialized nations, NATO, the European Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, are attending the conference that opened in Moscow on Wednesday.
The problem with these multipolar things is that the ownership rests jointly with the member states, who look out for their own interests. I'd not be happy letting Syria maintain the database on Islamic Jihad, or Iran keep track of Hezbollah.
They are discussing ways of perfecting cooperation in curbing the funding of terrorism and improving information exchanges in line with UN Security Council Resolution No. 1373, passed in 2001. "Our planet is too small, while the level of scientific and technological achievements is so high that one or several states on their own cannot protect themselves from current threats, given terrorists' possible access to weapons of mass destruction," the message said. Moscow attaches "enormous importance to international efforts to create a global system for resisting terrorist threats."
Nice idea, in theory. But remember that the OIC can't even agree on a definition of terrorism, since they can't come up with something that excludes Paleostine, Kashmir, and Chechnya...
"We are convinced that the UN must play the key role in coordinating anti-terrorist operations," Putin was quoted as saying. The Russian president noted that "the UN can guarantee that the mechanisms of combating terrorism will not damage the interests of individual countries, or the rights and liberties of their citizens."
I read a Clancy book in which the plot was terribly similar 
 NO THANKYEW.
Posted by:Tadderly

#8  Well this is nice. Proposing yet another task for the UN to screw up.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2003-04-23 23:23:23  

#7  Aris: So would it be better to let the mad mullahs take over in Pakistan and start sharing their nuclear bombs with their cronies? Sometimes you have to choose between the lesser of two evils.

I always find it funny how so many Europeans accuse Americans of being so short-sighted and clueless for consorting with repressive regimes. Yet so many of the police states we've sponsored end up being prosperous democracies. Korea, Greece, Turkey, Chile, Panama, Taiwan. Sometimes it takes us forty years or so, but we usually get there. Do ya think that maybe we actually have a plan and institutions to effect that change? Institutions that have been around for the last 50 years or so? The sophisticated Euros are too blind to see. Yet every one of those institutions operates overtly.

I'm not accusing either the Euros or Russians of wanting a totalitarian police state. My analogy, if you remember, was Augustus Caesar and his rather mellow form of police state. You start with Augustus, you end up with Caligula with his informers, summary executions, and madness.

While I appreciate European efforts to bring peace and human rights through resolutions, what I remember is a picture of a Dutch soldier outside Srbrenica. He's crying. Do you know why? Because his commander just told the Serbs he would not interfere with them while they rounded up the Muslims in the town. Some things, Aris, you have to be ready to die for. I don't know if anyone in continental Europe is willing to die for anything anymore. They certainly weren't in Yugoslavia. So you all keep on passing resolutions. We'll keep liberating prisoners from the dungeons of the Mukhabarat with Yankee blood and treasure. In the end, we'll see who frees more. Good night.
Posted by: 11A5S   2003-04-23 22:58:09  

#6  EUnuchs, 11A5S?

Actually the EU just a couple days ago sponsored a resolution against human rights violations in Russia, that the US refused to co-sponsor. And given the support by the US of the "police states" in Pakistan and Uzbekistan just because the governments there are supposedly helping you fight terrorism, I don't think there's any sense to attack the *EU* of having such a terrible vision, and not attack the US of the same thing...
Posted by: Aris Katsaris   2003-04-23 19:50:29  

#5  While Putin's motives are very suspect, and the Russians are militarily incompetent, his analysis of the situation is correct. Two very unstable countries have nukes. You don't even have to steal a deadly virus anymore, you can just make it from reagents. Anyone (which in practice means everyone) who can make organophosphate fertilizers can make nerve gas. As 9/11 proved there are many parts of our existing infrastructure that can be used as weapons of mass destruction.

A simple solution to these threats exists: turn the planet into one big police state. My gut tells me that this is Putin's vision. I also suspect that it is a vision that a lot of EUnuchs share. The challenge is how to prevent WMD attacks in the future while holding onto our freedoms. When cities start being lost, the people are going to scream for Augustus Caesar. Augustus isn't such a bad deal. He lets the Senate debate, as long as it doesn't pass any real laws. Property rights are respected. Taxes are fair. The problem is that inevitably after Augustus comes Tiberias, then Caligula, etc., ad infinitum.

Putin is the only world leader who has so far painted an accurate picture of the threat (so familiar to readers here). His solution and the solution of his allies like Chirac and Joschka Fischer is ultimately statist and sterile. I have been very frustrated that no Western leader, aside from Berlusconi, has had the courage to state what Putin has. How do we mobilize the free world to fight when their leaders won't address the core issues and instead chose to dance around the unpleasant realities. The one criticism of the Left that rankles the most is the only one that is true. No one in the administration has succinctly identified the core mission of this war. Whether it be from fear of offending Muslim sensibilities or fear of frightening the American electorate, no one in the Bush administration simply stated that our goal is to eliminate failed states, societies and cultures so that they can no longer threaten civilization -- to end the zero-sum game that has been the central meme of so much of the world since the first "god-king" ascended the first throne so many millenia ago.
Posted by: 11A5S   2003-04-23 19:22:48  

#4  Holding my nose, I posit that this President Putin would like nothing better than to have a response team in position to occupy US strategic sites. We need an entirely new International body, where the price of membership includes metrics of valuation to include audits of home country local and national electoral results, human rights and minority rights guarantees, criminal back ground checks of all sitting diplomats, pledges of record to not suppress any religious minority or ethnic minority group residing as citizens of any member country.Open annual audits of all programs with the intent to discover waste fraud and abuse of power and fiduciary responsibility.
All members should have signed Pledges against electoral laws which discrimate against any citizen without regard to race, creed, sex or ethnic origin.

We need a New N, not the old N with expanded powers. The values of our constitution must never be subverted by politcal fiat such as this broadly defined platform despite its cover motive of anti terrorism.
Posted by: AnonymousLy yours   2003-04-23 17:49:36  

#3  The only thing that this looney idea will produce is a profit for Moscow hotels and caterers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-04-23 17:44:37  

#2  Had the Russians done the U.S. job in Iraq Baghdad would look like Grosny now. Nyet spassiba.
Posted by: True German Ally   2003-04-23 17:38:24  

#1  Gak! Given the ... inclinations... of the UN, the first (and only) effort of this organization would be to invade Israel, and turn it into yet another Islamicfascist dictatorship.
Posted by: snellenr   2003-04-23 17:21:12  

00:00