THOMAS KILGANNON AND OLIVER NORTH ANALIZE THE UNITED NATIONS

You may have read or heard about UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's commencement address that he delivered to the graduating class of Notre Dame University in late May.

In this disgraceful speech, Kofi Annan of Ghana accused the United States of being "one of the least generous" nations to the poor countries of the world.

This uncalled for and unprovoked attack on the generosity of the American public brought a spirited response from Tom Kilgannon, the Executive Director of Freedom Alliance.

I have taken the liberty of attaching a copy of Tom's letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. I hope you find it as interesting and thought provoking as I do.

Semper Fidelis,

Oliver L. North

Attached Letter

June 19, 2000 Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Office of the Secretary-General
The United Nations
Room 3800
New York, New York 10017

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

On May 21, 2000, in your commencement address at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana you said:

"It is particularly shameful that the United States, the most prosperous and successful country in the history of the world, should be one of the least generous in terms of the share of its gross national product it devotes to helping the world's poor. I am sure many of you share my feeling that this is unworthy of the traditions of this great country."

I, and the 100,000 American citizens represented by Freedom Alliance, do not share your misguided feeling and we take great offense to your insulting and degrading remarks about the generosity of the people of our great nation. The citizens of the United States of America are the most generous people on earth. In fact, according to the recently released report by the AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, charitable giving by U.S. citizens increased by $16 billion to a total of $190 billion last year. Also, whenever there is a natural disaster anywhere in the world, American charities, American citizens and American government agencies are the first on the scene providing food, shelter, clothing, medicine, manpower, and most important, care and compassion. Furthermore, American taxpayers pay $1.5 billion each year to the UN for dues, contributions and peacekeeping costs of other nations, plus $8.8 billion out of our military budget to support UN Security Council resolutions, for Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq, among others.

Your comments at Notre Dame are an ungrateful slap in the face to the citizens of this sovereign nation who contribute more to the United Nations than 96 percent of all other UN member nations combined.

Upon hearing of your comments at Notre Dame University, and reading the entirety of your address, I immediately directed my staff to work with your staff to acquire the following information:

1) A copy of your financial disclosure statement on file with the United Nations as required by regulation 1.2(n).

I do realize that the United Nations classifies such financial disclosure statements as "confidential," but as you well know, it is left to the discretion of the Secretary-General to make such documents public.

2) A 5-year written history of your personal contributions to charity whether they be in your home country of Ghana or to international institutions.

To date, your staff has either been unable or unwilling to answer our request. On May 24th, Spokesman Farhan Haq spoke with our Mr. Thomas Jacobson when Mr. Jacobson requested this information. On May 25th, Lydia Ramos, of the UN Public Information Service, also spoke with Mr. Jacobson. In both cases, they were unwilling to make this documentation available.

I know you will agree with me that it is important to assure the American public that you are not simply using the power of the international microphone afforded to you in your position as UN Secretary-General to coerce individuals and governments to do that which you, on a personal level, are not willing to do yourself. That is why we have made this simple request.

You see, in America, we have a long history of openness and honesty in our political and government systems.

This leads those being governed to be more trusting of those who are in positions of authority. Our elected officials at both the state and federal level are required to file financial disclosure forms which are open to public scrutiny. Furthermore, our candidates for public office routinely make their tax returns available to the public. In a nationally televised Republican presidential primary debate held on January 7th of this year in South Carolina, each of the six candidates was asked about his personal history of charitable giving and each provided a detailed answer to the question.

Mr. Secretary-General, your remarks at Notre Dame have caused a great deal of controversy in the United States which can be alleviated with the release of these documents. I look forward to working with you on this issue. You may forward the information to me at:

Freedom Alliance
22570 Markey Court
Dulles, Virginia 20166

or you may fax it to me at 703-444-9893. Should you or any member of your staff have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 703-444-7940. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Thomas P. Kilgannon
Executive Director

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