By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, January 10 -- UN Department of Political Affairs chief Lynn Pascoe was identified as a lame duck by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar on December 1, listed as leaving in the first half of 2012.
Inner City Press has so far reported one of the American names put forward to replace Pascoe: Alejandro Wolff. It was said at the time that another name is in the mix. And now Inner City Press reports it: Jane Holl Lute.
She served in UN peacekeeping,including pushing a no bid contract in Darfur for a subsidiary American military contractor Lockheed Martin.
She became number two in the Obama administration's "Department of Homeland Security" bureaucracy; she's now named along with Wolff and perhaps one other as the US short list to replace Pascoe.
Her husband Doug Lute has served as the Obama administration's "czar" on Afghanistan and Iraq, it might be noted.
The UN's continued inability to assure that peacekeepers, even though caught on video as in Haiti abusing those they are sent to protect, can be effectively prosecuted may reflect badly on Jane Holl Lute's many claims to have solvied this issue.
While Nambiar declined to answer Inner City Press as to whether Ban's five years and you're out rule applies to him, knowledgeable sources say that Nambiar has fought to stay on as an Under Secretary General for twelve more months.
Several Security Council members, including then member Mexico and permanent member the United Kingdom told Inner City Press they'd like to see a full time envoy to Myanmar, which was read as "someone other than Nambiar." Now it's slated to become Nambiar's job on a full time basis, for a year.
That would mean Nambiar would not stay on as chief of staff. For that, there is another name -- watch this site.