By Matthew Russell Lee, News Muse
UNITED NATIONS, December 1 -- While Wikileaks was not discussed in the UN Security Council on the last day of the UK presidency, the leaks were a major topic elsewhere in the UN during the day, and at the UK's End of Presidency reception on November 30.
During the day, Inner City Press asked the Gaza chief of the UNRWA mission John Ging what he thought of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's directive to US diplomats to determine if UNRWA is connected to Hamas or Hezbollah.
Ging immediately replied that UNRWA welcomes scrutiny, that such connections to do not exist. Inner City Press clarified that it was seeking Ging's view of U.S. intelligence gathering, given his critique of disclosures that his staff has been allowed four sub-machine guns for his personal protection.
If nothing else a loyal UN system staffer, Ging said that the (deputy) Spokesman had commented on Wikileaks the day before, and that he would not add to it.
Likewise, when Inner City Press asked UN Cyprus envoy Alexander Downer to comment not only on the leaks from his own (“good”) office but on the Wikileaks released cable saying that he is “frustrated” by the stalling of Cyprus negotiations, Downer portrayed the cables as second hand.
It brought to mind South Korea diplomat's spin to the US that China is ok with a united Korean peninsula under Seoul's leadership. Dream on.
Things got more honest over drinks at the UK's end of presidency reception over Park Avenue Tuesday night. A diplomat from a non Permanent Security Council member told Inner City Press that that US Mission personnel had "definitely" spied on this country's political coordinator.
The outing of Yemen's president came up, in the context of Yemen having refused to have the meeting of the Group of Friends on Yemen inside the UN in September.
Reference was made to Iran's piecing together and publication of memos in the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and to memoirs by former UK ambassadors in Washington and Uzbekistan. We still need to write, we can't stop, a European diplomat said.
Most intriguingly, Inner City Press was told by an informed source that former President of the General Assembly Srgjan Kerim now schemes to replace Asha Rose Migro as UN Deputy Secretary General, claiming that Ban Ki-moon has promised him the job. Watch this site.
