Top U.N. Official Attacks FOX News and Rush Limbaugh

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," June 7, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MALLOCH BROWN, KOFI ANNAN'S DEPUTY: Much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and FOX News. That is what I meant by stealth diplomacy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Those were the words of Kofi Annan's deputy Mark Malloch Brown, as he blasted radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and our very own FOX News Channel. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton has responded with outrage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Even worse was the condescending and patronizing tone about the American people that, fundamentally and very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, not the American government, by an international civil servant. It's just illegitimate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: But tonight, the Secretary General is standing by his man. So what prompted his attack on FOX and Rush?

Joining us now, our very own Eric Shawn. He's the author of the book — it's brand-new — "The U.N. Exposed: How the United Nations Sabotages America's Security and Fails the World."

I agree with the title, and I read the book. I agree with almost everything. I can't think of anything I disagree with in the book.

I think what Bolton here is saying is absolutely right, that it's the criticism of the American people. We are funding this organization, by and large. Why shouldn't the American people say, "enough is enough"?

ERIC SHAWN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Mr. Malloch Brown is wrong. That's the first point, not just about FOX News, because — and in the book, I wrote this book and I called it, Sean, "U.N. Exposed," to expose the mentality over there, to expose the attitude, the institutional arrogant narcissism, that, when things are wrong, they blame us.

We're not responsible for the corruption or for the indifference or for the fact that Russia and China can't get it together in the Security Council to stop Iran, list after list after list. And it's easy to point the finger at us.

Yes, we pay the most, 22 percent, almost $3 billion a year to the whole U.N. system. And when you read this speech — and I went through every part of it — he basically faults Washington and the Bush administration. This is not unique to Republicans.

HANNITY: And the American people.

SHAWN: It's also what happened during the Clinton administration, too.

HANNITY: All right. But we got U.N.oil-for-food. We've got their ineffectiveness, not only on Iran but Iraq. We have had a lot of institutional anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism there. Why shouldn't the American people say enough is enough?

SHAWN: Well, that's a good point. And that's one reason I wrote this book, but I look at the security in this book. I think in the humanitarian [realm] they do some good things. The Financial Times, though, studied the tsunami...

HANNITY: They do good things in Rwanda, in the Congo? Where around the globe have they been successful, Eric?

SHAWN: OK, they have been successful in delivering goods and humanitarian, UNICEF.

HANNITY: Occasionally. Occasionally...

SHAWN: Yes, I would say...

HANNITY: ... with a level of corruption and a level of exploitation and a level of waste and fraud and abuse?

SHAWN: I would say more than occasionally, but with a lot of problems with the contracts and a lot of questions over the spending at the United Nations.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Actually, they immunize kids. They fed 700,000 people in Sri Lanka. They can immunize kids for less than a $1 and feed a child for less than $1 a day. They negotiated 172 peaceful settlements. They have helped bring about ends to the Iran-Iraq war, the civil war in El Salvador, and I can go on and on.

SHAWN: That's a great list.

COLMES: There's more to it, but we only have a short segment.

SHAWN: That's a great list, but let me bring out, when I talk about the narcissism that came out of these comments today. They point fingers outwards; they don't point the fingers at themselves...

COLMES: So wait a minute. You leave out the part where Brown also said — and you read the entire speech; so did I — he said the U.N. is in desperate need of an overhaul, in terms of its budget, the Security Council, and in terms even of its headquarters [which] need to be refurbished.

SHAWN: That is absolutely true.

COLMES: So he did not have a hands-off attitude for self-criticism.

SHAWN: But in the speech he largely blamed us for those problems, and it's not our fault.

COLMES: But he did take shots at the U.N. I just said the things I mentioned.

SHAWN: The G-77, group of 132 nations voting against Kofi Annan's own reform, for example, the U.N. renovation, John Bolton didn't want to give them a blank check completely for that.

COLMES: Right.

SHAWN: I just interviewed the guy who's in charge of that program. He quit. You know why, Alan? He couldn't deal with the frustration of dealing with all these 191 nations.

COLMES: There are problems at the U.N.; there's no question about it. But I think what Brown was saying — I thought the point of his message was the U.N. hasn't done a good enough job selling itself to the American people, not that people in the Midwest are dumb or people don't get it, but that the U.N. itself bears some responsibility for not doing a very good job, in terms of its image, public relations, letting the American people know what it is they've accomplished.

SHAWN: Well, I think one thing that they've accomplished are other problems and that's one of the issues. You look at the results, the bottom line of the results, dealing with Iran that they haven't been able to deal with, dealing with Iraq, and you're talking about oil-for-food...

COLMES: Yes, we've done a great job dealing with Iraq, haven't we?

SHAWN: I'm just talking about before the war, all through the '90s, when President Clinton was in office. So my point is...

COLMES: We had muscular inspections that were actually working at the time we decided to invade.

SHAWN: Let the results of the United Nations speak for themselves. And that's what I'm asking Mr. Malloch Brown to do, and not just point fingers at the U.N. [sic].

He is a former Washington media political consultant. He ran for political office. You know, I think a lot of this is all spin. Why? He talks about peacekeeping in 18 missions. Well, what happened this afternoon? The U.N. admitted that the peacekeeping in Liberia, there were 16 confirmed reports...

COLMES: And he admitted they need to clean some stuff up, too.

SHAWN: I agree with that, but they have a long way to go.

HANNITY: All right, thanks, Eric. Great book. Thanks for being with us.

SHAWN: Thanks, Sean. Thank you, Alan.

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