Kofi's 'Horrible Year'.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

U.N.: In modern jargon, an "intervention" usually takes place because an abuser has a problem with alcohol or drugs -- not, as in the U.N.'s case, with an out-of-control and unaccountable bureaucracy.

But that's just the term a handful of U.N. supporters might have used for the 3 1/2-hour talking-to they gave U.N. chief Kofi Annan recently over his leadership of the global agency.

The group met in former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke's Manhattan apartment, where they harangued Annan at length in order to "save Kofi and rescue the U.N.," one participant told The New York Times.

As if on cue, Annan on Monday unveiled a major bureaucratic reshuffling at the U.N. His long-time aide and chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, is out. (Riza, in case you don't remember, was faulted a decade ago for looking the other way while the Rwandan genocide took nearly a million lives.)

Two other top officials -- Undersecretary General for Management Catherine Bertini and U.N. Controller Jean-Pierre Halb-wachs -- were also shown the door.

The U.N.'s top spokesman called the departures "coincidental." Of course, he's right: Their departures coincide with one of the worst years in the U.N.'s history -- and that's saying a lot.

No question, Annan was accurate recently when he called 2004 an ...