Wednesday, January 26, 2005

UN Double-Speak

My head hurts when I read this UN confusion:

US military 'overenthusiastic' in helping Iraq vote: UN official
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The top UN elections official in Iraq (news - web sites) has described the US military in Iraq as "overenthusiastic" in trying to help with the war-torn country's upcoming vote and that UN officials have told US forces they need to keep their involvement to a minimum.

But a UN spokesman said UN electoral division chief Carina Perelli had mispoken and did not mean to criticize the US military.

"The US military has been I would say overenthusiastic in trying to help with this election and we've been basically saying that they should minimize their participation because this is an Iraqi process, this is not a UN process," Perelli said.

In a statement, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)'s spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said Perelli "mis-spoke today when she said the US military was 'over-enthusiastic in wanting to help' with the Iraqi elections."

More hilarious than clowns -- your tax dollars at work.