Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
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more cuts Latest News: 22 November 1996
US Says It Looks for SG Who Will Impose More Cuts; Turner Says He Thought of Buying US Arrears
In the public debate about the US veto of Secretary General Boutros Ghali, Clinton administration spokespeople have repeatedly stated that the United States is looking for a new SG that can more vigorously "streamline" the organization, downsize its staff, and close down agencies that are "duplicative." These statements seem be be setting the stage for the next phase of the selection process and clarifying the terms for US support for any nominee. This may have a deep and destructive impact on the organization after 1 January 1997.In a light moment in the ongoing crisis, US media magnate Ted Turner, founder of CNN cable network, gives a speech at UN headquarters in New York at a conference on the global impact of television. Having just made $2.7 billion in the sale of CNN to Time Warner corporation, he says he considered buying up the US debt to the UN and collecting it himself. This step would not be possible under existing rules, but a similar possibility was proposed several months earlier by Under Secretary Joseph Connor. Connor had considered selling the debt to large financial institutions, however. The concept that the debt could be bought by a single billionaire gives the whole issue a new dimension which is simultaneously sobering and comic.
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