Kofi Klatch

What’s interesting about the “secret” meeting between Kofi Annan and “veteran [American] foreign policy experts” is how short a time it remained secret–hardly more than a week by my reckoning. The event was held at Richard Holbrooke’s place and seems to have been a form of attempted damage control for a mighty wounded United Nations, perhaps before the appearance of the preliminary Volcker Report on the Oil-for-Food Scandal late this month. It’s easy to wonder if the publication of this report, like CBS’s investigation into the Rather debacle, will be delayed. But whatever the case, the UN scandal will and should be scrutinized even more heavily than Rathergate Analysis, although the latter will not get off lightly, I would imagine. Both institutions, the UN and CBS, have a lot to lose and a lot to think about.