By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 29 -- In Wikileaks' release of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's directive to collect computer passwords, credit card account numbers and “biometric data,” she included a request for “frequent flyer account numbers.”
Inner City Press asked UN acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq on Monday about Secretary Clinton's memo, and about UN officials' frequent flyer miles: are they returned to the UN, which paid for the underlying flights, or are they kept by some UN officials? Video here, from Minute 8:04.
Haq said he could or would not vouch for the authenticity of Secretary Clinton's memo. On frequent flyer miles, he said these are “essentially the property of the UN.”
Inner City Press asked, can you confirm that all Special Representatives of the Secretary General give the frequent flyer miles to the UN? Haq spoke in reply of the “work you do for the Organization” being “part and parcel of the Organization... held by the Organization.”
The reason Inner City Press asked was that sources for example in Liberia tell it different. Specifically, sources describe the Special Rapporteur of the Secretary General at the UN Mission in Liberia Ellen Loj screaming at UNMIL's Travel Unit for mishandling “her” frequent flyer miles.
This report came to Inner City Press in connection with its confirmed reporting on the conditions for peacekeepers in Liberia and SRSG Loj's UN-managed living quarters on the UNMIL base.
Since then, the US has become even less responsive, refusing for example to confirm public reports that the US is providing at least back up security to the UN's SRSG in Iraq, Ad Melkert.
US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, who Haq said spoke to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon just before Wikileaks put online the US memo asking that Ban's passwords and frequent flyer miles accounts be collected, was asked
Q: it’s alleged through the WikiLeaks documents that your diplomats would ask to take personal information in some cases, like frequent flyer miles, credit cards, and -- were they asked to do so, and had they used diplomatic resources at the time to do so?
Ambassador Rice: Our diplomats are doing what diplomats do around the world every day, which is build relationships, negotiate, advance our interests, and work to find common solutions to complex problems. That’s what they do. And they do it extremely well, with great integrity, with hard work. And I want to just underscore that in the complex world in which we live, the work that U.S. diplomats do here in the United Nations and around the world is indispensible to our national security and substantially advances our shared interests in international peace and security.
But how does gathering UN officials' frequent flyer miles account numbers “substantially advance [anyone's] shared interests in international peace and security”?
From the UN's November 29 noon briefing transcript:
Inner City Press: The document says US diplomats should seek to get the computer passwords, frequent flyer miles, credit card numbers, etcetera, not only of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, but SRSGs [Special Representatives] and Force Commanders. Would each of those things, according to you, violate the agreement with the host country?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Well, on that, again, bearing in mind that we don’t have any judgement at this stage on the authenticity of the document, bearing in mind that, I do want to read to you a little passage from the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, and this is a direct quote: “The premises of the United Nations shall be inviolable. The property and assets of the United Nations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference, whether by executive, administrative, judicial, or legislative action.”
Inner City Press I had some other ones on Sudan, but one thing that the memo made me wonder is there is this reference to frequent flyer miles that seemed strange. What does happen with the frequent flyer miles of Ban Ki-moon or other SRSGs when they fly around? Are they donated to the UN, do they keep them personally, what happens?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson: The frequent flyer miles of UN officials are essentially possessions of the United Nations. I don’t have anything, I don’t have any details about what we do with them, but this is all part of the Organization…
Inner City Press: But can you state, for example, for SRSGs that travel, it goes to the UN or do they keep it personally?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson: No, I believe on work that you do for the Organization, this is part and parcel of the Organization. I need to get further detail about what happens to them, but this is held by the Organization.
