OxfordPress.com

WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday he would examine what he called "egregious scandals" at the United Nations as part of a six-month study Congress has ordered on U.N. effectiveness.

Gingrich, R-Ga., is partnering with former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, on the study, due to report its findings to Congress by June 6, just weeks before the U.N.'s 60th anniversary.

"We are not, in any sense, rendering personal judgment," Gingrich told reporters at a briefing Wednesday.

Instead, said Gingrich, he and Mitchell would ask, "What have we learned in 60 years of experience about how the international community organizes itself, and what is it in the U.S. interest to do?"

Last December, Congress directed the U.S. Institute of Peace, a quasi-governmental research outfit in Washington, to create a U.N. task force that would examine the organization's operations and propose changes where needed.

While several groups have produced U.N. reform recommendations over the years, this one is different, said Mitchell, as it has been charged with identifying action plans for review by the Congress, which controls U.S. funding for U.N. operations.

"The United States Congress is not just another group asking for a study," said Mitchell. "It has enormous power."

In some quarters of Congress, there has been growing criticism of the United Nations since the organization's split with the United States over the war in Iraq and in light of recent findings of mishandling of funds involved in the multi-billion-dollar oil-for-food program related to U.N. sanctions on Iraq.

Gingrich said he was particularly annoyed that Sudan - whose government has been complicit in the killing of more than 70,000 people in the region of Darfur - was named to the U.N. Human Rights Commission last year.

"I regard the Human Rights Commission as one of the more egregious scandals," to be considered by the U.N. task force, said Gingrich.

At base, said Mitchell, is the question of whether, and how well, the United Nations can be looked upon as a guarantor of global security in an age of global terror organizations and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Gingrich said often the group doesn't take action to prevent conflict because the organization's 190-odd member states can't agree on a common course.

"Don't blame the U.N. in instances where you have the great powers at loggerheads," said Gingrich. "This is a question of talking about the world as it really is, as opposed to theory."

Bob Deans' e-mail address is bdeans(at)coxnews.com