Anti-U.N. campaign picks up steam

The non-profit group, Move America Forward has collected over 50,000 signatures on petitions calling for the "U.N. to Get Out of the U.S."

The 50,000 signatures have been collected in just two weeks time and the rate of new signatures is growing exponentially.

"This explosive response is even better than we saw for the Recall Gray Davis effort," said Howard Kaloogian, one of the activists behind both campaigns. "The Oil-for-Arms money-laundering scandal has made the United Nations program the largest source financing terror in the world. Americans overwhelmingly agree, the U.S. must not knowingly harbor a terrorist-financing organization, neither should we contribute financially."

Move America Forward is about to launch a national television ad campaign to bolster its effort, in addition to television and radio advertising in the New York metropolitan area. The ad campaign will coincide with the resumption of congressional hearings into the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.

"It was bad enough to see the U.N. deteriorate into a body that embraced an anti-American agenda," said Kaloogian. "To add financial injury to insult, now the U.N. wants us to give it an interest-free loan of $1.3 billion, or support U.N. bonds, to construct a new palace. And even then the U.S. has to pay back 22 percent of that loan in the form of our annual financial contribution to the U.N. Let them build their new facility in a country that wants their presence, like France or Kosovo."

The first 60-second television ad can be seen online at the group's website. Additional television and radio ads are in the process of production.

Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse reports the United Nations staff union is calling into doubt the much heralded e-mail petition that was started by Kofi Annan in response to mounting criticism of the U.N.'s leadership.

Annan supporters had e-mailed out a petition to U.N. employees, urging them to show support for Annan's corrupt leadership.

The United Nations staff union has called for a full accounting of who was behind the pro-Annan petition. Union officials believe the wording of the petition was designed to intimidate U.N. employees to back Annan or face serious retribution.

Move America Forward's co-founder, San Francisco's KSFO 560 AM talk-show host Melanie Morgan, said board members were hoping Annan would stay in power long enough to face the full brunt of revelations related to the oil-for-food scandal.

"It's clear that Kofi Annan is going to try to sweep all of the corruption and scandal at the U.N. under the rug," said Morgan. "But the central problem isn't Kofi Annan. You could remove Annan altogether and it wouldn't change the fact that there is an entire culture of corruption throughout the administration of the U.N."

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