Suppressive Person Defense League

It is through the works of Scientology and it is through the works of so many of the people who have brought their inspiration and drive from this movement that I have come to have an appreciation of the importance of the contributions that this movement, this religion, has made to a more peaceful world and a better opportunity for each individual to experience the best of this world.

If I've learned anything in all my years in the global arena, it is that world governments do not possess all the tools to bring resolution to the problems that beset human kind. Governments can guide, can incense, but most of the doing is left to people like us, organizations like yours.

We will be doing our part to give effect to Mr. Hubbard's call to help build a world without insanity, criminality and war, where honest people have rights and Man is free to rise to greater heights.

Church of Scientology of New York Inaugurates New Home Congressman Charles Rangel praised the Church for its effective drug abuse and literacy programs, while United Nations Under-Secretary General Maurice Strong validated the Church’s human rights public education campaign.

UN studying Maurice Strong's business ties
Updated Tue. Apr. 19 2005 11:34 PM ET
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS -- The UN is studying whether it was appropriate for its envoy for North Korea to maintain business ties with a South Korean businessman accused of wrongdoing in the oil-for-food scandal, officials said Tuesday.

Secretary General Kofi Annan said he had not known about the ties between Canadian businessman Maurice Strong and Tongsun Park, a native of North Korea and citizen of South Korea who was also accused in the 1970s of trying to buy influence in Congress.

Strong is the UN pointman on stalled talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs.

"The allegations have just come out, and he has no plans to go to the region tomorrow,'' Annan told reporters Tuesday. Annan noted that Strong was not a full-time staff member, but did not elaborate.

UN officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said senior UN staff have recommended that Strong be suspended.

Strong denies any involvement with the $64 billion US humanitarian program in Iraq and has pledged to co-operate with an oil-for-food investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. Volcker's committee is investigating whether Strong had any ties to the program.

But his admitted ties with Park are raising questions about a possible conflict of interest with his UN role. Strong acknowledged Monday that Park invested in an energy company he was associated with in 1997.

Stephane Dujarric, a UN spokesman, said the world body was studying whether it was appropriate for Strong to have ties with Park given that Strong, a well-known businessman with longtime association with the UN, was an envoy to the region.

"It's a decision by the UN administration to decide whether or not that is appropriate,'' Dujarric said.

Park was known to have been close to former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, according to UN staff.

"He was a friend -- I assume still is a friend -- of former Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali,'' said Joseph Verner Reed, an adviser to Annan and former special representative for public affairs.

Reed echoed comments by Gillian Sorensen, the former UN assistant secretary general for external relations, who told The Associated Press on Monday that she recalled at least two occasions when Park met Boutros-Ghali.

Park was thrust back into the spotlight Thursday, when the U.S. Attorney's Office accused him of accepting millions of dollars from the Iraqi government while he allegedly operated in the United States as an unregistered agent for Baghdad, lobbying for oil-for-food.

Committee spokesmen would not comment on whether they had already interviewed Strong in connection with oil-for-food, but in a statement said his "readiness to co-operate'' was welcomed.

The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to help Iraqis cope with UN sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It let the Iraqi government sell limited -- and eventually unlimited -- amounts of oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods.

But Saddam chose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods. In a bid to end the sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and UN officials vouchers for oil to be resold at a profit.

The criminal complaint could be damaging to the UN because it mentions that Park had met several times with two unidentified UN officials in apparent efforts to gain their support on oil-for-food.

According to a government witness, Park claimed that he had used a $5 million guarantee from the Iraqi government to fund business dealings with "UN Official 2,'' court papers said.

Park also allegedly told the government witness in 1997 or 1998 that he had invested about $1 million that he received from Iraq in a Canadian company established by the son of "UN Official 2,'' though the company failed and the money was lost.

The U.S. complaint calls for the arrest of Park, who was reported to be hiding in Tokyo and considering a U.S. plea bargain offer, according to South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo daily.

Maurice Strong steps down from UN post
Last Updated: Saturday, April 30, 2005 | 10:28 PM ET
CBC News

Maurice Strong, a long-time Canadian businessman and currently the top UN envoy for North Korea, will suspend his work for the United Nations while investigators look into his ties to a South Korean businessman accused in the UN oil-for-food scandal in Iraq.

Strong denies any involvement with the tainted program and has pledged to co-operate with investigators.

His ties to Tongsun Park are raising concerns about a possible conflict of interest in respect of his role as envoy to North Korea.

Park is accused of accepting millions from the Iraqi government while being suspected of operating as an unregistered agent for Baghdad, lobbying for oil-for-food contracts.