Rosett on Kofi’s Tantrum
For more on Kofi’s little fit over that Mercedes, I direct you to the great Claudia Rosett:
Kofi Annan departed his year-end press conference telling reporters: “You have the right to ask all questions you want to ask. I reserve the right to refuse to answer questions I don’t want to answer.”
Clearly. But the questions keep growing.
Indeed they do…
As they say: you know you are over the target when you get this much flak. So where’s the car, Kofi?
[...] You may recall James Bone, or you may not; he is the journalist who got such a rise out of Kofi Annan recently with his questions about a certain Mercedes. He’s got a real point: The Mercedes was purchased by Kojo Annan in his father’s name four days before the Hotel de Crillon meeting–and about two weeks before Cotecna won the U.N. contract. The use of the U.N. chief’s diplomatic status qualified the car for a $6,541 discount on the purchase price and a $14,103 tax exemption when it was imported to his native Ghana. Mr. Volcker’s investigators found a memo on the computer of Mr. Annan’s personal assistant asking him to authorize a letter to Mercedes. “Sir, Kojo asked me to send the attached letter re: the car he is trying to purchase under your name. The company is requesting a letter be sent from the U.N. Kojo said it could be signed by anyone from your office. May I ask Lamin to sign it?” the assistant wrote. [...]