By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC-Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag
UN GATE, June 20 – In the United Nations under Antonio Guterres, there is nothing but failure and excuses and fundraising on crises like Ukraine, Burma, Haiti and Cameroon.
There is impunity for sexual abuse by peacekeepers and UN staff like Juan Carlos Cunillera, just "along for the ride" during the UN sex-in-the-van exposed by Inner City Press.
But now as we looked at and asked about Guterres' omission of his links to UN briber CEFC China Energy, leading to him banning the Press (and Melissa Fleming continuing the ban, not even answering a law firm's pro bono letter), on April 17, 2022 we published on other officials - including long time UNOPS operative Vitaly Vanshelboim (whom Inner City Press covered in connection with UNOPS gag orders before being banned from UN by corrupt Guterres.)
We noted that Vanshelboim's skeeze in the S3i scam of UNOPS's Grete Faremo or whom Inner City Press repeated asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric in writing, with no answer, nor by Melissa Fleming.
Weeks later the NYT, silent on most of Guterres' and his cronies' corruption, came to the UNOPS story. Fine. And quick spin by Dujarric: "The Secretary-General has accepted the resignation of Grete Faremo, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Ms. Faremo’s resignation is effective Sunday, 8 May. The Secretary-General is grateful for Ms. Faremo’s commitment and dedicated service to the Organization. Mr. Jens Wandel of Denmark is being appointed as the Acting Executive Director, effective 9 May, while the Secretary-General launches a recruitment process, in consultation with the UNOPS Executive Board, to find a successor to Ms. Faremo."
[Inner City Press, prior to being thrown out by SG Antonio Guterres, Dujarric and Fleming exposed Wendel too, for example here.]
But while the NYT noted for example that a long time member of the UN Correspondents Association Gloria Starr Kins (Inner City Press previous tweet here) played a role in hooking up the fraud, they don't mention UNCA nor the NYT correspondents' membership in it and their role in banning the Press.
On June 7 there was an online panel discussion ostensibly about UN sex abuse (not covered) and UNOPS (covered up, mostly). Inner City Press, while covering an event about North Korea, put a question in the chat from which other, softball questions were taken by Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey (also member of like Starr Kins of UNCA):
"Given the level of corruption of the UN Secretariat, do the panelists think the Secretariat should be the one to, without any review, decide which media can enter and ask questions, and which can't? Also - the party at which this UNOPS deal came together was hosted by a UN Correspondent, wasn't it? What's been done? -Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press."
Correspondents become censors: the question wasn't asked, much less answered. It was bemoaned that corruption could lead to negative coverage of the UN, and money was sought both for the UN and the host of the panel. Then it was over - dying, like today's UN.
Watch this site - and Vanshelboim, here:
Two (2) residential properties, Ukraine
Two (2) residential properties, jointly owned, USA
Annuity, ING, USA
Investment fund, Citi Bank, USA
Investment fund, Danske Invest, jointly owned, Denmark
So while Citibank ("Citi Bank") still does business in Russia, what are the statuses of Vanshelboim's Ukraine properties? Either way, no friend of Press freedom.
We'll have more on this.
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