By Matthew Russell Lee, 3d Follow Up on Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, June 26 -- In Somalia, UN Mine Action Service chief David Bax passes information to US intelligence: a whistleblower in Mogadishu has alleged this and Inner City Press exclusively reported it on June 22, four days ago.
But despite multiple requests to different parts of the UN for a confirmation or denial, the UN has remained silent. Until now.
On June 26, after the Free UN Coalition for Access re-directed the question from UNMAS about its chief Agnes Marcaillou to the Somalia Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN envoy Nicholas Kay did not answer Inner City Press on this), the following arrived:
Subject: Your questions on Somalia.
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 9:43 AM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 9:43 AM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com
The Department of Peacekeeping Operations does not discuss internal communications or emails received with media correspondents. UNMAS personnel are not authorised to carry guns and do not do so.
This is an evasive answer. The request was and is not only to confirm receipt by DPKO chief Herve Ladsous of the whistleblower's complaint but for a substantive confirmation or denial of whether UNMAS' David Bax provides evidence, including genetic information and parts of bombs, to US intelligence, including through the intermediary Bancroft Global Development.
But the UN will not answer -- yet. Instead, they have opened a witch hunt to try to find the whistleblower(s).
On the second part of the response, Inner City Press had asked about the UN's South African state owned military contractor Denel, paid by the UN in Somalia. (Inner City Press first wrote about this on June 19, here.)
Beyond other photographs reviewed by Inner City Press, several are in the public domain, listing “unidentified foreigners” as part of the group going into the bombed compound. See here, here and here. The UN must explain this.
There are also complaints from a wider range of UN staff in Mogadishu, not only of favoritism by Bax but quid pro quo in hiring and accommodation, even... attempts at hypnotism. We'll have more on this -- because the UN must answer these questions. Watch this site.
