Prodding the beast: UNODC and Congress

UN official discusses global organized crime with US congressional delegation

Yury Fedotov, the UNODC Executive Director, and the US delegation took note of the interconnections between the various forms of illicit crimes across the globe, with the US legislators showing particular interest in the linkages between transnational organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism, during the meeting at the UNODC headquarters in Vienna on Friday.

Yes, there are linkages between organized crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism. But understanding those links and how to deal with them requires an intelligence not likely found in that room.

You say the word “terrorism” to people in Congress, and there’s a chemical reaction akin to negative emotions in Dr. David Banner, and they suddenly want to transform into a hulking Department of Defense and just smash things.

So, naturally, Fedotov is going to say the words crime, terrorism, and drugs together as often as possible.

And it works.

Last year, the United States pledged $34.3 million to assist in implementing UNODC’s work across the globe, and Washington is a lead supporter of the Office’s programmes.

Interesting that I constantly hear about Congress’s antipathy towards the U.N. and threats to remove funding, and yet nobody, on either side of the aisle, seems to ever have anything bad to say about the UNODC. Perhaps it’s because that part of the U.N. doesn’t seem to be hung up on annoying concepts like peace or human rights, or getting in the way of their desire to smash things.

[Thanks, Tom]
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8 Responses to Prodding the beast: UNODC and Congress

  1. primus says:

    Their budget to ‘spread the word’ is just $35 million per year. To me it indicates a half-hearted attempt at best. Washington is the lead supporter, so they pay most of it. No matter who pays it, it is a pitifully small sum.

    • darkcycle says:

      35 mil here, a trillion there…pretty soon you’re talkin’ real money…

    • Pete says:

      It’s not so much the amount of money they have to spend that makes the UNODC dangerous — it’s the influence they have with governments in pushing the international drug war (which, in some cases, is providing official international cover for extremely oppressive policies).

  2. Steve says:

    > … the various forms of illicit crimes …

    I can’t help but wonder what sort of licit crimes required differentiation.

  3. rita says:

    The US State Department defines “terrorism” as “premeditated, politically-motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatants by subnational groups or clandestine agents.” Oddly enough, that’s also a fairly accurate description of America’s drug policy.

  4. warren says:

    can the bozos believe what they say. If the right thing is implemented [legalization,regulation] the circus shuts down. Massive clown unemployment. They could become weather forcasters.These morons will keep it up until every nickle is sucked out of us with foolish prohibition and prisons and then with a dumb look say “I thought”. Well… they can`t think.

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