Written by: Beck

The New York Times' headline says it all: At Year-End News Conference, Annan is Hopeful. Well, that makes one of us. Annan made a late year bid for the understatement of the year award, but missed Time's deadline for "Best Of" considerations.

Secretary General Kofi Annan said today that allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food program had "cast a shadow" over the United Nations and made 2004 an especially troubled year for the international organization...

The Times does Annan a disservice with that relatively straightforward intro to the article. They make it up to Annan with paragraph two, which I quote in full. Really. Unedited. I swear.

"No doubt that this has been a particularly difficult year, and I am relieved that this annus horribilus is coming to an end," he said, using the Latin words for "horrible year" that were last memorably invoked by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992 to describe the year in which Windsor Castle was partially destroyed by fire, royal marriages were exposed as collapsing and the purpose of the British monarchy was called into question.

You cannot even begin to imagine the difficulty I have in avoiding any of the dozens of obvious puns which come to mind in response to the "annus horribilus." Kofi owes me one for this unrivaled show of restraint.

Annan again restated his intent to stay with the UN through the regularly schedule end to his Secretary Generalship in 2006. Which isn't especially notable. He went on to stress that both he and the United States recognize the importance of the US - UN relationship. Which isn't especially notable either--though I take issue with his suggestion that the UN is as important to the US as the US is to the UN. No, what I find interesting in this article is the following:

He did depart from his refusal to discuss details to comment on a charge from his son Kojo, 29, a former employee of a company that had oil-for-food contracts, that the accusations against him, his father and the United Nations amounted to a "witchhunt."

"I don't agree with that," he said, without elaboration.

You may have to reread that to see what's going on. Kofi is disagreeing with Kojo's "witchhunt" characterization of the Oil-for-Food investigations. Could this mean Kofi is prepared to sell out his son in order to keep his spot at the helm of the UN? Time will tell.

For more thoughts and analysis on Annan's year-end speech, see Captain's Quarters, which joins me in his criticism of the UN.