By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unv2death111709.html
UNITED NATIONS, November 17, [updated with post-question Nesirky confirmation, below] While the UK press reports an MI6 investigation into the death at the UN in Vienna of Timothy Hampton, a British expert at the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, in New York UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq on November 16 told Inner City Press Hampton's job was "data input."
But Hampton earlier this year co-authored an article that the "nuclear explosion" in North Korea on 25 May 2009 either had managed to contain its radioactive Xenon-133 signature "well above 99.9%"or, more likely, it wasn't a nuclear explosion at all. The article also shows in the article that the worldwide network of sensors on which Hampton worked gets data from Iran.
From the November 16 transcript:
Associate Spokesperson Haq: I’m told that his functions basically involved data input for the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organization. It was not related to Iran.
Inner City Press: I just wanted to follow up on that. I have something else, but this Mr. Hampton was co-author of articles about North Korea nuclear… I’m just wondering, when you say that he was a data-entry specialist, where did you get that from? Would that be consistent with writing…?
Associate Spokesperson: I got that information from our colleagues in the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organization.
Inner City Press: And would that be inconsistent with him being a co-author of a scientific article about the North Korean nuclear programs?
Associate Spokesperson: That’s not necessarily inconsistent. But, in any case, the point is the work that he was doing for the CTBT Organization did not involved Iran's nuclear program.
Hampton's author's CV states, "Tim Hampton joined the CTBTO in 1998 and is part of the team maintaining and operating the IDC application software to generate and distribute products and services. Prior to that, he worked in the UK for 10 years on test-ban monitoring issues."
Since article also shows in the article that the worldwide network of sensors on which Hampton worked gets data from Iran, if anyone wanted to know all about how well any nuclear explosion in Iran could be detected, he would be a person to ask, especially if you were in Vienna at the time.
Footnote: speaking of Vienna and Korea, multiple sources tell Inner City Press that the search for the next spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon is zeroing in on Martin Nesirky, a former Reuters reporter more recently spokesman for the OSCE in Vienna. His comparative advantage? He speaks Korean.
Last week, Inner City Press reported on buzz in the top floors of the UN about some untransparent candidacies for UN Spokesperson and chief of Strategic Communications a/k/a campaign for Ban Ki-moon to get a second term: Kevin Kennedy and the Independent's U.S. editor, respectively.
The next day a senior UN communications officials confronted Inner City Press in the cafeteria and said none of it is true. Now a week later we're reporting not one but two other names, as the process nears its end game.
For spokesman, multiple sources now name Martin Nesirky -- in part because he speaks Korean, beating out not only Kennedy but another "crusty" Reuters hand. And for Strategic Communications, depending on the buy-out, Roger Cohen of the New York Times. He turned down the dual job held by Michael Myer in the past, but now with the Times laying off people right and left, the time may be right to take the buy out and move to the 38th floor then the North Lawn. Watch this site.
Updated 1 pm: This article was written, as published above, on the morning of November 17. Then pre-publication confirmation was sought from Mr. Nesirky at 11 a.m., in this email to the OSCE:
Mr. Nesirky --
I am a reporter at the UN in New York. This is a request on deadline that you confirm or deny, and comment, on reports linking you with the soon to be vacant position of Spokesperson for the Secretary General. I am very much on deadline and so will appreciate your response, no matter how cursory. Thank you in advance.
At the noon briefing, his appointment was announced:
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appointed Martin Nesirky of the United Kingdom as the new Spokesperson for the Secretary-General. Mr. Nesirky succeeds Michele Montas of Haiti who is retiring from the Organization on 30 November 2009. The Secretary-General is grateful to Ms. Montas for her dedication and service as his Spokesperson since the beginning of his term on 1 January 2007.
Mr. Nesirky brings to this position more than 20 years of experience in journalism, media relations and international affairs. He comes to the United Nations from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, where he has served for more than three years as Spokesperson and Head of Press and Public Information. The 56-country OSCE spans the region from Vancouver to Vladivostok and co-operates with international organizations and Mediterranean and Asian partner countries, including Afghanistan. Mr. Nesirky has also served for more than two decades as an international correspondent and editor for Reuters covering salient issues affecting international peace and security, both regional and functional, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, events in the Balkans and nuclear nonproliferation issues. He was Reuters Bureau Chief in Moscow, with responsibility for coverage of the Commonwealth of Independent States. He was also posted in Berlin, The Hague, and Seoul
Inner City Press asked Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq a series of questions -- how many were interviewed, was speaking Korean a factor, when will the new head of Strategic Communications be named -- none of which were answered. Watch this site.
