Three UN workers who collaborated on a whistleblowing book with the provocative title Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures have faced sanctions for their part in uncovering corruption within Turtle Bay, according to the London Telegraph:

One of its three authors, Andrew Thomson, a New Zealander who has been a doctor on UN missions for more than 10 years, will no longer work for the organisation because his contract has not been renewed.

Heidi Postlewait, a peacekeeping official, was officially reprimanded when the book was published in June because she did not ask for permission to write it.

She has since been told that she must "explain herself" for continuing to speak out against the UN. The third author, Kenneth Cain, has left the organisation.

Why has Dr. Thompson suddenly seen his contract waived by the UN? Possibly for having the temerity to testify in Washington to assist in the independent investigation of the Oil-For-Food fiasco. For this disloyalty, the UN has refused to re-employ the doctor. The UN, for its part, offers the explanation that whistleblower retaliation has nothing to do with Thompson's termination because the book contains "nothing new" -- an explanation both utterly true and completely meaningless. No one thinks that corruption at the UN as anything new, but the fact that Dr. Thompson offers testimony to its existence and its details is intolerable to the powers that be in the UN.

The fact that whistleblowers such as these three cannot be abided by UN executives gives a clear indication of the entrenched corruption within the organization.

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» "Emergency Sex?" from Cranial Cavity
The United Nations has threatened to fire two officials who wrote an expose of sleaze and corruption during its peacekeeping missions of the 1990s. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, is understood to have favoured an attempt to block publication ... [Read More]

Tracked on December 19, 2004 9:19 AM