How US taxpayer dollars line the pockets of Syrian despot Bashar...

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : There was much hand-wringing at UN headquarters, followed by lengthy deliberations that generated a new set of principles for ensuring the independence and impartiality of UN operations in Syria.
58% : Each July, the UN quietly releases new data on its spending habits.
55% : What you'll find are receipts showing UN agencies have spent $95.5 million over the past eight years to house their staff at the Four Seasons Damascus, including $14.2 million last year.
53% : Since the regime has a vise grip on the money-changing business, it determines how many Syrian lira the UN gets for each dollar or euro.
51% : To run massive aid programs in Syria, the UN needs to convert dollars or euros into local currency.
49% : A former UN diplomat with experience in the Syrian capital told me the regime tells UN agencies it can only guarantee the safety of their staff if they stay at the Four Seasons.
48% : "Speaking from the podium at Turtle Bay, the secretary-general declared that "the global humanitarian system is on the verge of collapse," so member states need to step up and donate more to his organization -- an apt reminder the UN isn't wasting its own money at the Four Seasons Damascus.
46% : What makes the Four Seasons debacle especially galling is it's been public knowledge for seven years, and the UN has done nothing about it -- or the many other ways the regime siphons off aid for its own benefit.
44% : The hotel would likely go under if not for UN business; Damascus is not a tourist destination these days.
43% : What the United States and its allies should do is make clear to the UN they will turn off the spigot if the body doesn't get its act together.
41% : There is no better case in point than the constant flow of UN dollars to Syrian butcher Bashar al-Assad's regime.
34% : One of Washington's top experts on humanitarian aid crunched the numbers and concluded the UN lost $100 million over 18 months to this kind of rate-fixing.
33% : Yet while asking world leaders to give more money to the United Nations, he remained silent about the waste, fraud and abuse that plague so many of the organization's endeavors.
23% : But the UN remains a sacred cow, so the Biden administration and other Western governments are loath to speak openly about its habitual submission to Assad's manipulation.

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