The U.N.: More Bad News

For the United Nations, already reeling from the growing oil-for-food scandal, we defer to the words of the late (and, yes, we realize fictitious) Fred G. Sanford: "You ugly (read: UGH-leh)."

The Washington Post was the first to report on a confidential U.N. memo indicating that many of its peacekeeping forces in the Congo have threatened and bribed in an effort to undermine a U.N. probe into widespread child sex-abuse allegations there.

According to the Post:

"The report documents 68 cases of alleged rape, prostitution and pedophilia by U.N. peacekeepers from Pakistan, Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Nepal. U.N. officials say they have uncovered more than 150 allegations of sexual misconduct throughout the country as part of a widening investigation into sexual abuse by U.N. personnel that has plagued the United Nations' largest peacekeeping mission, U.N. officials said.

"'Sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly prostitution of minors, is widespread and long-standing,' says a draft of the internal July report, which has not previously been made public. 'Moreover, all of the major contingents appear to be implicated.'"

The New York Times details allegations of soldiers using milk and cookies to lure 12- and 13-year-old girls into situations where they were then raped. The accounts from the victims are sobering.