Imagine my surprise:

THE United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday.

The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.

The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.

The mistaken release of the unedited report added further support to the published conclusion that Syria was behind Mr Hariri’s assassination in a bomb blast on Valentine’s Day in Beirut. The murder of Mr Hariri touched off an international outcry and hastened Syria’s departure from Lebanon in April after a 29-year pervasive military presence.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, described the report’s findings as “deeply troubling”. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said: “It is an unpleasant story which the international community will take very seriously indeed.”

And, in the end, will do nothing about. And will scream to the high heavens if Dubya should rediscover his spine and have the US do something about it in defiance of the whining tranzi cowards both here and in Europe. But I don’t hold out much hope for that; after all, we’re already at war with Syria anyway, but nobody in or out of government seems much interested in admitting so. Or, y’know, fighting back.

Hey, now that I think of it that way, how exactly did we end up with Clinton Redux running the country, anyway?

But the furore over the doctoring of the report threatened to overshadow its damaging findings. It raised questions about political interference by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary- General, who had promised not to make any changes in the report.

It doesn’t raise any questions at all; it confirms what those of us not married to some Star Trek fantasy of a New World Order under the Holy UN already knew: that the UN is a contemptible, execrable nest of vipers that ought to be run out of NYC toot sweet, and Kick-Me Kofi is the current Viper-In Chief.

Mr Annan had pledged repeatedly through his chief spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, that he would not change a word of the report by Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor. But computer tracking showed that the final edit began at about 11.38am on Thursday — a minute after Herr Mehlis began a meeting with Mr Annan to present his report. The names of Maher al-Assad, General Shawkat and the others were apparently removed at 11.55am, after the meeting ended.

God, the size of the balls on these UN shitheels. The silver lining here, if there is one, is that these corrupt fools are so goddamned completely, jaw-droppingly incompetent. I’ve used the phrase “Kofi’s Keystone Kops” here several times over the years, but with the unearthing of this tale of sordid buffoonery, it seems more apt than ever.

At a press conference yesterday Herr Mehlis insisted that Mr Annan had not pressurised him into making changes. “No one outside of the report team influenced these changes and no changes whatsoever were suggested by the Secretary-General,” he said.

Yeah. If a UN official told me it was sunny out, I’d look out the window before I put down my umbrella. But by all means, let’s yield every time to the UN’s greater moral authority and sounder judgment when it comes to defending our country — like Today’s Democrat would have us do.

(Via LGF)