By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 8 -- While
UN Security's
high officials
have yet to
provide any
update on the
14
kilos of
cocaine
transferred
from the UN
to the New
York Police
Department as
exposed by
Inner City
Press
earlier this
year, nor on
incidents
involving bomb
sniffing dogs
and
a hangman's
noose found in
the UN,
they are
prepared to
crackdown on
two UN
Security
officers found
in
flagrante
delicto in
the UN
Library,
multiple
sources tell
Inner City
Press.
Some
of these
sources urged
Inner City
Press to tread
cautiously
with this
story,
given the
propensity to
retaliate
among UN brass
under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon. But
others said a
factual
presentation
would
help the
officers in
question.
According
to these
sources, the
two UN
Security
officers were
stumbled upon
in the
women's
bathroom of
the UN's Dag
Hammarskjold
Library by a
person
going to use
the facilities
after a yoga
session. Other
Security was
called; the
incident is
now well known
within UN
Security, with
concern of
over-discipline.
Under
the UN-like
rubric of
"Make Love,
Not War,"
we'll note
that this
incident
created
substantially
less danger
than the
decision, when
a
UN bomb
sniffing dog
three times
barked when a
vehicle from
the
delivery
company aptly
known as TNT
arrive, to
send the
vehicle back
out into New
York City
traffic.
Similarly,
the
hangman's
noose that was
found was a
symbol of
hate, not
love. But
nothing seems
to have been
done about
that. After
Inner City
Press
asked and
wrote the
story, the UN
replied:
Subject:
Your
question at
the Noon
Briefing
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 4:51 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 4:51 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
On
your
question about
a noose: The
Safety and
Security
Service is
aware
of this
matter. An
investigation
was launched
immediately,
and that
investigation
is being
finalised. For
that reason we
cannot say
more
at this stage.
And
nothing has
been said
since. Watch
this site.
This
week Inner
City Press
received and
answered a
number of
questions
about UN
Security:
Reading
the
transcripts of
a couple press
conferences
back in
January, I saw
you asking
some tough
questions
about what
seemed like a
pattern of
events
involving
suspicious
packages
detected by
dogs. How
would you
put the drug
package
incident into
the context of
security
issues at
the UN?
The
combination
of the UN's
legal immunity
and its
leadership's
lack of
transparency
make it a soft
target, so to
speak, for
drug
trafficking
and other
malfeasance.
I
learned
of the 14
kilos of
cocaine only
through a
lower level UN
Security
source -- the
package had
been found (by
a fluke, it
seems
to me) and
quietly turned
over to NYPD.
Nothing would
ever have been
said about it.
After
I
wrote about it
and then
raised it in a
noon briefing,
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman's
office and
UN Security
decided to
come out with
a story,
that someone
14 kilos of
cocaine in the
UN, in a bag
(badly) marked
"UN" somehow
didn't have
anything to do
with the UN.
I
think this
remains a
dubious
theory.
Frankly, they
should have
waited
to see who
might come and
try to PICK UP
the cocaine.
My
research
led me to an earlier drug
case, of khat
in the UN
mailroom,
on which the
UN
stonewalled.
Then
UN
Security
source came
and told me of
the barking
of the bomb
sniffing dogs
-- and vehicle
sent right
back out into
New York City
-- and also of
a noose,
which UN
Security
belatedly said
it was
investigating,
with no update
yet.
As
I
understand it,
the
investigative
premise is
that some guy
in a drug
cartel started
putting
together a
fake
diplomatic
package, but
then
DHL picked up
the package
before it was
ready. What
are your
thoughts
on this
hypothesis?
What
it
seems to me is
that someone
knew that DHL
will deliver
any package
with a UN logo
on it to the
UN, and so
this was used
-- they should
have waited to
see who would
come and try
to pick up the
package.
What
can
we learn from
this incident
about the UN's
relationship
with its
host city and
country?
That
the
UN would, in
the second
bomb sniffing
dog, went a
vehicle which
a
dog had barked
at back out
into the city
shows some
contempt for
City
and its
residents.
Also not
letting an NYC
ambulance
easily in --
recently I
covered a
story where an
audio engineer
had a seizure
and
ambulance was
not
immediately
let into treat
him. Think
what this
means for
people inside
the UN on
tours -- and
even for
diplomats...