by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
UN GATE / SDNY May 2 - The UN has been putting off a reckoning for 103 days, with nominations forwarded then retracted. On May 1, Mike Walz. Will this be it?
On May 2, Russ Vaught's letter to Senator Susan Collins provided "Peacekeeping Missions -1,614 The Budget does not provide funding for wasteful United Nations (UN) and other peacekeeping missions due to recent failures and high level of assessments. The United States has a history of paying for more than its fair share of international peacekeeping activities. Further, UN peacekeepers have been accused of narcotics trafficking across multiple continents, especially in the Central African Republic where peacekeepers smuggled gold, diamonds, and drugs. Assessed and Voluntary Contributions to International Organizations -1,716 The Budget pauses most assessed and all voluntary contributions to UN and other international organizations, including for the UN Regular Budget." Guterres has wasted money and bans the Press that asks.
For the UN's role in Hamas' October 7 attacks, non-US citizen plaintiffs and estates on June 24 filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, Pierre Krahenbuhl, Filippo Grandi, Leni Stenseth, Sandra Mitchel, Margot Ellis and Greta Gunnarsdottir.
Inner City Press, which daily cover the SDNY court in-person and the UN from outside the gate, banned from entry by SG Antonio Guterres, asked Guterres' spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming about the lawsuit, without any response per usual.
Nor have they responded to Inner City Press' June 19 application to enter the UN to ask these questions.
And now? Watch this site.
On February 18, the (new) SDNY wrote in, "The Government is currently reviewing the views." Letter on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud here
On April 17 DOJ wrote in asking for one more week to finalize. Inner City Press, still banned from the UN by Antonio Guterres, tweeted it.
On April 24 the Administration wrote in that it "has since reevaluated that position, and now concludes UNRWA is not immune from this litigation. Nor are the bulk of other defendants" - 10 page filing on DocumentCloud here.
The UNRWA case is ESTATE OF TAMAR KEDEM SIMAN TOV, BY HEIR-AT-LAW GAD KEDEM v. UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY (UNRWA) et al., 24-cv-04765 (Torres)
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
