OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL
Website for U.S. mission to U.N. scrubbed
Historic position statements, flag vanish

Posted: September 02, 2009
10:55 pm Eastern
By Stewart Stogel
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

UNITED NATIONS – Historic position statements have been scrubbed and the U.S. flag image deleted from the website for the United States U.N. mission, as the organization unveiled its new and "improved" Internet presence.

The move already is stirring controversy in diplomatic hallways.

The launch of the new website coincides with the United States assuming the monthly presidency of the Security Council and President Barack Obama's first trip to the world organization later this month.

The most glaring change to the website has been to eliminate the image of Old Glory from its top position on its home page. Previously, the image of the U.S flag was displayed in a prominent position at the top of the page, paired with the State Department logo.


The old banner featuring the image of the U.S. flag, taken from a separate web location that had not yet been changed

That is no more.

The flag has now been replaced with the crest of the United Nations.


Old Glory replaced by the U.N. logo

Among more than a dozen U.S. embassy websites, from Moscow to Beijing to Mexico City, surveyed by WND, only the US/UN mission has eliminated the image of the Stars and Stripes.

More confusingly, the new U.S. mission site uses the same blue and white colors of the United Nations website together with a similar font that could confuse the U.S. government page with the site belonging to the United Nations.

"It has removed the traditional patriotic theme which we thought was important," says a former United States U.N. mission official who requested confidentiality.

The official added that the design of the new site could also confuse web-surfers who may think it is part of the U.N.'s Internet operations.

But more importantly has been the apparent removal of an important database.

Until the re-design, the statements and position papers of past United States U.N. ambassadors were kept online.

"We had them all. It went back to I can't remember when," confessed the former official.

Now, the entire database has disappeared.


Archived records of former Ambassador John Bolton, with a button to the left of the photograph that lists his position statements

Typical was the entry for former Ambassador John Bolton, who is listed, and has beside his picture a button to click to see his statements.

However, clicking on that produces a screen that says there are no items archived, and produces the option to return to Bolton's profile.


No records appear for Ambassador Bolton

U.S. statements as late as January 2009, when the Bush administration still was in office, are no longer accessible.

"All of the Bush administration U.N. statements are gone," lamented the official.

When asked if the State Department in Washington would have stored such records, the official confessed that he not only did not know, but added that he had no idea where to look.

The mission website clearly states it has posted "all statements" since January 2009.

But a check of the web page showed that is wrong.

The mission did not return phone calls asking for an explanation.

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