Kofi Anan speaking at Truman Library
 

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U.N. Secretary-General gives farewell address at Truman Library

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – Accountability and the responsibility of governments to those they govern will be the focus of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's last major speech before he leaves office.

Annan, who leaves the United Nations on Dec. 31 after 10 years, will discuss principles of global governance – particularly as they relate to the U.S. – during a speech Monday at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library.

The secretary general, who has become an increasingly vocal critic of the war in Iraq, was expected to emphasize the need for government accountability, not only at national but global levels. He believes the U.S. has a special responsibility to the world because it continues to have extraordinary power, according to a news release from the library.

Annan chose the library for his final speech in part because it is dedicated to Truman, the 33rd U.S. president who was instrumental in the founding of the United Nations.

Annan has a had a strained relationship with the Bush administration and with outgoing U.S. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.

He was criticized by some in the administration and in Iraq after saying earlier this month that the level of violence in Iraq is much worse than that of Lebanon's civil war and that some Iraqis believe their lives were better under Saddam Hussein's regime.

He also has urged the international community to help rebuild Iraq, saying he was not sure Iraq could accomplish it alone.

Annan is leaving in the same month as Bolton, who resigned because his appointment by Bush was unlikely to be confirmed. The relationship between the two continues to be strained, however.

Bolton joked after a private dinner Tuesday night at the White House, which Bush hosted for Annan, that "nobody sang 'Kumbaya."'

Told of Bolton's comment, Annan laughed and asked: "But does he know how to sing it?"

Did he give any advice on how to get your son a cushy pretend job for big pay by bending a few rules? How about a little insight on how to translate "food for oil" into "staggering amounts of bribe money in exchange for looking the other way Mr. Hussein, Russia, and France?"

so why is he allowed in our country again?

Q&A up now.

Go and heckle him.

Ask him what he did with all that iiegal oil money he got from Iraq.

The Irrelevant representing the useless.

All bow to the UN, Annan and the 'International Community'