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With the United Nations assuming control over the international relief effort you know there will be the usual stories of ineptitude, ignorance and downright fraud perpetrated by agents of the U.N.

And they would be outrageous enough with the human toll that results from such behavior, especially on top of the already massive casualty figures from the tsunami.

But a chilling trend in U.N. "relief" efforts is not only to ignore the scandals and criminal activity by its agents, but even to devise ways to cover up the nasty side-effects of their criminal behavior.

According to Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, the United Nations Population Fund is requesting $28 million for "the reestablishment of basic reproductive health services."

This will be accomplished by distributing kits described in their manual as containing all the most important things required for "the initial acute phase of the emergency."

These items include condoms, oral and injectable contraceptives, abortifacient morning after pills, IUDs, manual vacuum aspirators, and portable abortion devices for use in refugee areas.

Now, I can see bringing in things to prevent the spread of disease, but when people are in danger of starving to death or dying from a lack of clean water, are the above items really necessary in the first stage of a relief effort?

Of course not. Unless...your "relief" agents have a history of sexually abusing the people they are allegedly helping.

For suffering populations the "blue helmet" symbol of the United Nations is fast becoming another sign of suffering.

Cause and effect?

But a chilling trend [is] to devise ways to cover up the nasty side-effects of their criminal behavior.

"...portable abortion devices for use in refugee areas..."

Are the above items really necessary?