Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1lockheedclooney013108.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 31 -- "I'm not a fan of no-bid contracts, myself," actor and UN Messenger of Peace George Clooney said Thursday, when asked about the UN's $250 million sole source deal with Lockheed Martin for its Darfur peacekeeping mission. Next to Clooney sat UN official Jane Holl Lute, who as early of April 2007 advocated for steering the business to Lockheed, three months before the Security Council authorized the "UNAMID" peacekeeping mission, and five months before Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon unilaterally waived all contracting rules for UNAMID. "There've been some mistakes made in that period of time," Clooney said, adding that "the UN has learned lessons." Video here, from Minute 18:54.
But what lessons? Clooney turned to Jane Holl Lute to answer the question, and she argued that the lack of competition was authorized, if only after-the-fact, by the Secretary-General's October 2007 ruling, and she disputed that the General Assembly has called for an investigation of the Lockheed contract. Unclear what lessons except denial had taken hold, Inner City Press asked a follow-up question about the timeline of the decision to give the deal to Lockheed, and the after-arising Security Council vote and Ban Ki-moon ruling. "I'm willing to sit down and go over the timeline," Ms. Lute said, after having refused or ignored request since October to answer questions about her role in the deal, including any safeguards concerning the possible conflicts of interest raised by her husband's service as U.S. President Bush's war czar for Iraq and Afghanistan. "We learned a lot, as George mentioned," she said.
It is striking that while the UN Secretariat has been dismissive of the concerns raised about the contract by the member states in the General Assembly, it takes the gentle chiding of an actor and new Messenger of Peace to eke out at least an admission that lessons have been learned. Such is the power of celebrity, or the lack of democracy within the UN system. The Secretariat in theory works for all of the members states in the General Assembly. But several Ambassadors complained that Ms. Lute's peacekeeping support office did not answer all their questions about the contract, but that they had no choice but to approve UNAMID's budget as submitted in December, lest they be accused of abetting genocide in Darfur.
To his credit, while Clooney could have responded either that he did not know about the contract, or have reflexively defended all UN decisions, he instead nodded with recognition when Inner City Press asked the question, and then acknowledged that mistakes had been made. Video here, from Minute 18:54. We will report on this topic again once Ms. Lute, as promised, makes herself available to answer questions about the timeline of her advocating for Lockheed Martin to get the no-bid contract and related matters.And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1lockheedclooney013108.html
