By the way, whatever happened to Grant Kippen and the Afghanistan Electoral Complaints Commission? It sounds like a band.You know, it's a funny thing about the "UN-backed" ECC. It didn't exist in the first draft of the Afghan Constitution. and, interestingly enough, it doesn't exist in the Afghan Constitution as of March 2009. It was not in the Electoral Law of 2004, but was in the Electoral Law of 2005, by which time three members were also to be appointed by the Secretary General. And who advises him, one wonders?
The ECC is usually referred to as the "UN-backed" commission. I'm not sure what "UN-backed" really means. Which part of the UN? The General Assembly? The so-called Security Council, which rules by Chapter VII and Divine Right? The psychotic United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, an agency by gangsters, for gangsters, and of the gangsters?
So, exactly where did the Electoral Law of 2005 actually come from? Why does Grant Kippen, a Canadian white guy, actually have a job? Who pays him? And why is he suddenly irrelevant in the soap opera of the United Nations in Afghanistan, with JK Galbraith's son having a hissy fit, and Kai Eide reportedly firing him all over corruption in the Afghan federal election, which the "UN-backed" Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC)is investigating.
It's a funny thing about Galbraith. The UN was pressured by the US into taking him on, essentially over Eide's dead body, so that the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, modest though it is, had an American usurper as its deputy, which to any naive observer would make the UN mission seem just as corrupt as NATO and ISAF, and of course the Security Council, which rubber stamps continuing extensions of the ISAF presence in Afghanistan, which doesn't include Bagram or Operation Enduring Freedom, both of which seem well outside International Humanitarian Law, which the US treats as if it were UNESCO, a worthy enterprise but largely decoration.
I recall that some people were hung at Nuremberg for violations of International Humanitarian Law as it existed in 1939, never mind the Geneva Conventions.
Where was I? Oh, yes, Galbraith. As he said in his Washington Post "op-ed":
"President Obama needs a legitimate Afghan partner to make any new strategy for the country work. However, the extensive fraud that took place on Aug. 20 virtually guarantees that a government emerging from the tainted vote will not be credible with many Afghans."
Where did Obama come from? Who was Galbraith working for, the UN or the US? If he was having so much trouble, why didn't he take it up with the Secretary-General, rather than the press? If the election was a predictable train wreck, the train at least ran on time, and it makes one wonder why Galbraith and the US were so keen his having the job in the first place, unless they really bought into the fantasy that there was a real government in Kabul.
Meanwhile, back at the Electoral Complaints Commission, which may or may not be part of the United Nations, Mr. Kippen stated:
“I look at this as a huge opportunity both professionally and personally. It’s a huge opportunity to come in and help build institutions and processes,” said Kippen who reflects on the excitement of Afghans involved in the political process.
“We are in a country where there’s a lot of challenges on many different perspectives. I take a lot of strength from our Afghan colleagues and their determination for it to turn out well. This is really historic stuff.”
"It will be fair," Grant Kippen, the head of the ECC, said.
"We've got these international experts who have been doing this and who have advised that this is a good approach."
Either Mr. Kippen or Mr. Galbraith is living in Fantasyland. Or both.
On the other hand we have some American sanity, based on history, by Mr. W. Polk, who has written an open letter to Obama in The Nation. I recommend it to Mr. Galbraith, Mr. Kippen, Mr. Moon, and in fact, everybody with half a brain, which leaves out the military/industrial wing of the Conservative Party of Canada.
