US calls for sacking UN human rights expert

United Nations, Jan 26 (PTI) The United States has demanded that UN expert on human rights Richard Falk be sacked for "endorsing the slurs of conspiracy theorists", that 9/11 terrorist attacks were carried out and covered up by the US government and media.

"In my view, Mr Falk''s latest commentary is so noxious that it should finally be plain to all that he should no longer continue in his position on behalf of the UN," said Susan Rice, US envoy to the UN.

"The United States is deeply committed to the cause of human rights and believes that cause will be better advanced without Mr Falk and the distasteful sideshow he has chosen to create," she added.

Falk wrote in his blog, "what fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations" and continues on to say "what may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events".

"Is this silence a manifestation of fear or cooption, or part of an equally disturbing filter of self-censorship?" he said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon also slammed Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories for his remarks.

"I want to tell you clearly and directly. I condemn this sort of inflammatory rhetoric. It is preposterous -- an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in that tragic attack," Ban said, in a speech he made in Geneva to the Human Rights Council.

In a strongly worded statement Rice described the blog post, dated January 11, 2011 as "despicable and deeply offensive".

"The United States has in the past been critical of Mr Falk''s one-sided and politicized approach to his work for the UN, including his failure to condemn deliberate human rights abuses by Hamas, but these blog comments are in another category altogether," she said. Rice pointed out that many diplomats walked out when Iranian President Ahmadinejad made similarly slanderous remarks before the UN General Assembly.


(2010-1-26/msn news)