Team Uzunov

THE GOVERNATOR RICHARD BUTLER SNUBS TASMANIA

by Sasha Uzunov

Outspoken former United Nations action man in Iraq and ex-Tasmanian state Governor Richard Butler is in the news again and not for what he said but for what he did not say!

The Aussie Governator who once tangled with Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein over weapons inspections has been appointed an academic with New York University in the United States.

Acting on a tip off, TEAM UZUNOV looked up Governator Butler's profile on the University website.

www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/2232

It reads as follows:

“Center for Global Affairs at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS).

"Butler has been appointed as NYU's first“Global Diplomat in Residence.” An expert in nuclear arms control, disarmament, international security, and the United Nations.”

But no where is there is any mention of his ill fated mission as Governor of Australia's Deep South state of Tasmania, also known as the Apple isle.

"From 1997-1999, he was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Security Council to serve as executive chairman of the United Nations Special Commission to Disarm Iraq (UNSCOM). In the wake of the first Gulf War, Butler was responsible for direct negotiations with Saddam Hussein’s government to "destroy, remove, or render harmless" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction..."

"Other appointments held by Butler were as Australian Ambassador for Disarmament (Geneva), to Thailand, and to Cambodia. As well, he served as president of the UN Economic and Social Council, chair of the UN's working group to create UNAIDS (a global program on HIV/AIDS), and chair of the Preparatory Committee for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations, among many other positions.

"Additionally, Butler is well known for his policy statements and papers and is the author of these books: The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Crisis of Global Security (Public Affairs 2000); Saddam Defiant: The Threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Crisis of Global Security (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2000); and Fatal Choice: Nuclear Weapons, Survival or Sentence (Basic Books 2001).

"He holds a B.Ec. from the University of Sydney, an M.Ec. (international relations) from the Australian National University, and has been awarded multiple honorary doctorates. In 1988, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for service to international peace and disarmament. And, in 2003, Butler was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), that nation's highest civilian honor."

Butler, born in 1942, was made a UN weapons inspector with a big fat salary but had never fired a weapon in anger nor had volunteered for military service during the Vietnam War (1962-72).

He locked horns with Saddam over hidden weapons in Iraq and with one of his own inspectors on the ground, Scott Ritter, a former Major with the US Marine Corps and intelligence officer for US General Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, the Commander of the first Gulf War in Iraq 1991.

Butler later turned on the United States as well.

In 2003, the then Premier of Tasmania, Jim Bacon, a Maoist trade union official in the 1960s and an anti-Vietnam war activist, made the controversial decision to appoint Butler as the state's governor despite being a staunch republican. But that didn't deter Butler from being The Queen's Man.

Less than a year later, Butler under controversial circumstances was forced to resign by new Premier Paul Lennon.