slate on buggimng the UN.
Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 11:43:24 AM 
at is striking in the Slate summary is the degree of creeping cynicism. The old value seemed to me pretty good.
A former British Cabinet minister alleged yesterday that her government bugged Kofi Annan's office at U.N. headquarters in the diplomatic wrangling leading up to the Iraq war, according to NYT and LAT fronters and stories the other papers run inside. But a separate piece in the WP explains that the charges aren't so shocking. "It used to be a shame; now it's a matter of status," the Spanish ambassador to the U.N. explained to the Post. "If your mission is not bugged, then you are really worth nothing." In fact, when the Russian ambassador, Sergey Lavrov, told the WP that Russia would never bug Annan, another Security Council ambassador scoffed. "On the record, if Lavrov says so, I have to believe Lavrov," the anonymous diplomat said. "Off the record: Is he joking?"
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