AFGHAN REFUGEES DEFRAUDING THE U.N. — by taking “repatriation money” and then, sensibly, not going back. James Morrow reports on his reaction.

I think that it’s actually a bad thing that these people aren’t going back. Afghanistan needs its expats. But I’m not surprised that the U.N. has blown it. Unfortunately, the division of labor in which the United States handles military stuff, while the U.N. and Europe handle the humanitarian and rebuilding work afterwards, doesn’t seem to work. Those guys can’t handle that job either.

In fact, Chris Patten is blocking an investigation of how Arafat has diverted “humanitarian aid” to support terrrorism. I suspect that such an investigation would show that the diversion happened with the knowledge, and tacit approval, of the EU leadership. And it sounds as if Patten has more than a mere suspicion of that himself.

(Patten story via William Sjostrom, who has a lot of good stuff today).