Five things most Americans probably don't know about the UN – but should.

Tragically, most Americans pay little attention to the UN and the business that it does. The mainstream media shares fault for this because they conceal the huge financial cost that is passed on to American families because of US membership in the UN. The strategic cost to the US of having the UN on our soil is never reported. The price of providing a world forum for the enemies of the U.S. to criticize America are beyond calculation and is ignored by the media as well.

Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi's September 2009 visit to the UN should have focused some much needed attention on the problems at the UN, but it did not. The mainstream media instead focused on Qaddafi himself, and where he was going to sleep during his visit. Most Americans have no idea that Libya and Vietnam were both recently elected members of the UN Security Council. Through a convoluted process elected members serve terms on the Security Council beside permanent members. Anti-American nations strategically join together and elect opponents of US policies to the Security Council. Many American allies, such as Israel, have never been elected to the Security Council.

Below is a list of five other things most Americans probably don't know about the UN – but should.

1) The US is responsible for paying for 22% of the UN's budget.

No other one nation is responsible for so much UN funding. Japan has the next largest share of the budget at 16.6%. The operating budget is over $4 billion. In addition the US makes other contributions to many other UN funds and missions and to peacekeeping. Also, because the UN headquarters is in New York, US taxpayers incur other expenses due to having the UN here such as police and other costly security activity for the areas surrounding the UN complex. Despite the idea of one nation one vote in the General Assembly, wealthier nations are forced to pay for UN initiatives that are at odds with their own best interests.

2) The UN has been providing terrorists with platforms for decades.

PLO chief Yasser Arafat was invited to address the UN in 1974. Arafat was allowed to carry a holstered firearm when he spoke from the podium. This was in the aftermath of the assassination of U.S. Ambassador Sudan Cleo Noel, Jr. and U.S. career diplomat George Curtis Moore in 1973 by the PLO-controlled Black September terrorist organization. Additionally, the US has no control over the personnel that foreign nations use to staff their UN facilities in New York. Over the years US security experts have repeatedly raised concerns about intelligence and terrorist operatives using their UN employment as cover.

3) A defender of Iran's nuclear program was in charge of the UN-controlled International Atomic Energy Agency for the last twelve years.

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian Muslim, was Director General of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) from December 1, 1997 to November 30, 2009. At a June 2009 Board of Governors meeting of the IAEA, ElBaradei stated that he liked "the new initiative of the United States to engage the Islamic Republic of Iran in direct dialogue, without preconditions and on the basis of mutual respect." ElBaradei implicitly positioned the terrorist-supporting Iranian regime in the same category as the U.S. The IAEA was accused of refraining from publicly releasing data obtained in 2009 that Israeli sources claimed indicated Iran was pursuing information that would assist with the weaponization of nuclear materials and the development of a nuclear military program. See the Israeli newspaper Haaretz August 19, 2009 for the full story. As far back as May 2007, when he was interviewed by BBC, ElBaradei opposed using military force to halt the Iranian nuclear weapons program stating: "you do not want to give additional argument to some of the 'new crazies' who want to say let us go and bomb Iran."

4) A veteran Communist revolutionary is the immediate past President of the UN General Assembly.

Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann was the President of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly from September 2008 to September 2009. D'Escoto, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, was a leader of the Sandinistas' Communist revolution in Nicaragua and served as the Sandinistas' foreign minister. He labeled President Ronald Reagan "the butcher of my people" in 2004. He was an originator of so-called liberation theology and was criticized by Pope John Paul II for his radical politics.

5) China's record of human rights abuses was rewarded at the UN.

In October 1971 the UN General Assembly voted to give the Chinese seat to the People's Republic of (Communist) China. The Chinese permanent seat (one of just five permanent members) on the UN Security Council went to Communist China as well. Taiwan lost membership in all UN organizations as a result. Taiwan's population of over 23 million has no representation at the UN. Due to Communist China's powerful position in the Security Council Beijing often receives a free pass at the UN. Beijing's bloody response to the Tiananmen Square freedom protests in 1989 went largely unaddressed by the UN. Her current mistreatment of the Fulan Gong and Tibetans are never properly addressed.

What can be done to reform the UN's institutionalized anti-American biases?

Due to the U.S.'s position as the UN's largest funder and host country, U.S. voters stand in a unique position. American voters must ask our elected representatives in Washington to demand the UN reform or face a major change in US policy and financing.