万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-06-01&02, 联合国送给朝鲜的书

This is a Fox News alert: another scandal could be brewing¹ at the UN and if my next guest is right, this time America is not the only target, but also a helping² to foot the bill. United Nations is reportedly feeding anti-American propaganda to North Korean arms experts, and spending a lot of your tax money doing it. Claudia Rosett brought this story and she is here with us now. Claudia is with the Foundation for the Defense³ of Democracies. So Claudia, first tell us about the books that we are sending over. What's in these books is so bad?

Oh, these are books highly critical of, not only of the Bush administration, but in some cases simply, the United States. Ah, books that are part of our own internal domestic debate, but these are books that the UN is now sending over, has been sending over to North Korea's rogue⁴ regime, as part of a syllabus⁵ for doing basically arms negotiations⁶ with us.

Well, here's one of the title, here's one of the titles of one of the books. The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence⁷ Created a War Without End. Here's another one, Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S Primacy. We are looking at some of them. I mean, these books clearly are not just against the Bush administration, but against the United States in general, aren't they?

That's correct, and this is a project, it was one of the projects. It was just suspended recently under the, in the part of the "Cash for Kim" Scandal. But they have been shipping⁸ in...

Now hold on a second, what is the "Cash for Kim" Scandal? Reminds me of “Oil for Food.”

Good question. It is in fact much, in some ways, much like Oil for Food. This is where the UN development program got caught in North Korea, funneling⁹ probably millions in hard currency to the government of North Korea. And all these things have been spilling out. This comes from an invoice¹⁰ that was part of the development program the UN has been running in North Korea.

Now, in the case of Oil for Food, clearly the rationale was not merely anti-US. It was also that some UN officials were suspected of taking from the till of skimming off the top. Any sign of that here?

Ah, there's a very funny invoice that goes with this packing list and it is that they charged about a one hundred dollar, the UN paid about a hundred dollars per book, to get these...

A hundred dollar, how much do these books cost on Amazon? Ah, oh, a third that price. Basically, for a forty pound carton of books, America bashing books shipped to Kim Jong-il, the UN development program paid 2000 dollars in freight, you know, these are books that have got into the library of the government of North Korea. And David, this is just the tip of the iceberg¹¹. This project has been running for years. This is just one packing list.

So they are sending anti-American propaganda, they are using our money to do it, and they are skimming off the top, it sounds like a tri-effected. Claudia Rosett, you've done it again, thanks for keeping watching the UN. I appreciate...

1 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

5 syllabus   

n.教学大纲，课程大纲

参考例句：

• Have you got next year's syllabus?你拿到明年的教学大纲了吗？
• We must try to diversify the syllabus to attract more students.我们应该使教学大纲内容多样化，可以多吸引学生。

6 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

7 incompetence   

n.不胜任，不称职

参考例句：

• He was dismissed for incompetence. 他因不称职而被解雇。
• She felt she had been made a scapegoat for her boss's incompetence. 她觉得，本是老板无能，但她却成了替罪羊。

8 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

9 funneling   

[医]成漏斗形：描述膀胱底及膀胱尿道交接区

参考例句：

10 invoice   

vt.开发票；n.发票，装货清单

参考例句：

• The seller has to issue a tax invoice.销售者必须开具税务发票。
• We will then send you an invoice for the total course fees.然后我们会把全部课程费用的发票寄给你。

11 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。