After UN's Herve Ladsous Spoonfeeds Half Answers of ICP's Questions to Another & DPI Stonewalls, UNCA Trolls in Defense - Anonymously

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 10 -- The degree of collusion, if not to say outright corruption, between UN officials and the Correspondents Association which ostensibly cover them was shown again today.

  After a week in which June 24 questions by Inner City Press for UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous about theUN Mine Action Service's Somalia boss David Bax sharing genetic information from bombings with US authorities werespoon-fed to another media, on Saturday Inner City Press published the first in a series on Ladsous' tenure at the UN, here.

  Inner City Press also on Saturday published an initial curtain-raiser for the UN's so-called "Stress Test" of its problem-plagued UN TV and MAMS audio - visual system,embedding complaints that have been raised, here.

  Hours later, a social media account associated with UNCA came to the defense of Ladsous and his lapdog -- anonymously, of course. Since Inner City Press quit UNCA, which through first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters demonstrably spied for the UN, handing internal anti-Press UNCA documents to the UN's Stephane Dujarric, here, and co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access in December 2012, this has been going on.

  UNCA "leaders'" anonymous social media trolling began in January 2013. Dujarric and above him within the UN Department of Public Information are aware of it; it was raised at a February 2013 meeting after which Dujarric issued a threat-letter to Inner City Press in defense of his source, Charbonneau, and UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS News. (That was a conflict of interest.)

  The anonymous trolling was raised to Reuters big wigs including Stephen J. Adler, and Reuters' former social media editor Anthony De Rosa, now with Circa.

  Inner City Press and FUNCA have no problems responding to critical questions online -- Inner City Press did so, regarding the Democratic Republic of the Congo, earlier on Saturday afternoon.

  But for big media from Reuters and CBS News for to be associated with ANONYMOUS trolling, is too much. UNCA, in this the UN Cowardice Association, already got DPI through Dujarric to try to threaten Inner City Press'accreditation with suspension or withdrawal for hanging a sign of the Free UN Coalition for Access on the door of its shared office, while UNCA now has five signs.

  UNCA is given a big room in the UN, S-310, which it locks and uses for faux UN briefings, with the "Chefs to the Chefs" and the (Saudi-supported) Syrian opposition, promoted only to those which pay it money. Inner City Press' question about that at the UN's noon briefing have still not been answered. This too, now, is a conflict of interest.

  For months, Inner City Press and FUNCA have made all of these critiques on the record, in their names. The UN Cowardice Association, Ban Ki-moon's exclusive media partner, continues to take another, lower road. We'll have more on and about this. Watch this site.

   

On Syria in General Assembly, Talk of Chemical Weapons Witnesses Killed While UN Plays Hide the Ball

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- When the Syria Commission of Inquiry's chairperson Paulo Sergio Pinheiro briefed the UN General Assembly on Monday morning, it had the feeling of a ritual, one that the UN made it difficult to cover.

  It was supposed to be in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at 10 am. Inner City Press arrived there at the same time as UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant -- but the room was shut. Even he had not been told of the move.

  Running to the North Lawn building, where the new General Assembly hall has banned the press from the floor up to a Media Booth with no table and no interpretation, Pinheiro had already begun. His fellow Commissioner Carla Del Ponte, who previously spoke of strong suspicions the rebels used chemical weapons, was again not with him.

  But Pinheiro did cite the recent execution of soldiers in Khan al Asal, and named the opposition armed group responsible.

  Syrian Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari when he spoke said these executions were to eliminate witnesses to the rebels' use of chemical weapons there, just as the UN's Angela Kane and Ake Sellstrom reached a still undisclosed agreement about probing such use.

  Ja'afari derided petrodollar policies and sexual jihad; he chided Pinheiro for not describing the Al Nusra Front as a terrorist group. As Inner City Press has reported, Al Nusra is not on the UN's list of child soldier recruiters, either.

  While Ja'afari spoke, the UK's Lyall Grant took notes and tweeted (including a responsive tweet to Inner City Pressabout Somalia, here) then got up to speak. He cited sexual violence; he echoed the EU's Thomas Mayr-Harting that the rebels' abuses do not match in scale or intensity those of the government.

  France was not represented by Gerard Araud, who on July 26 claimed the immense majority of GA member states recognized the Al Jarba groups as the only legitimate representative of the Syria people but did not cite chemical weapons.

   Instead Araud's stand-in for France cited the ICC, whileHerve Ladsous the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping met this month with ICC indictee Omar al Bashir.

Turkey spoke of keeping its borders open (Ja'afari said they let terrorists flow into Syria). Qatar's speech was translated, on the webcast heard in the hallway, as citing "crimes wars" -- while the rebels it funds commit them. 

  Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative said they embrace in full the Pinheiro report -- perhaps because it does not cover which countries are funding the armed extremist rebels.

  Ban Ki-moon met Monday morning with Angela Kane, but by the time of the noon briefing there was no read-out. Some wondered why.

  Inner City Press ran from the North Lawn to the briefing to ask why the UN Media Alert did not even list the meeting, no Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit staff were there, and there was no interpretation in the Media Booth, which theFree UN Coalition for Access raised to the Department of Public Information back on June 10, still without any action.

  During this Syria meeting, the UN Correspondents Association used the room the UN gives them, S-310, to host the Club des Chefs des Chefs -- those who cook for heads of state. 

  UNCA 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS was with the chefs -- she had already fronted for Saudi-based Syria oppositionist al Jarba on Friday, it was time for other spoon feeding.

  The one UNCA Executive Committee member at the noon briefing did not raise the lack of access, or answer why an UNCA intern has a press pass while actual journalists are being threatened. and in another case were banned from using a "focus booth" then taken by the intern of the UN Censorship (and Spying) Alliance. So it goes at this UN.

   

In UN, Gushing About Monarchs' Chefs Poisoned by Murky Finances, UNCA Spies, Bokassa Echo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- Three days ago, inquiring into financial practices and favoritism in the UN, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey about Room S-310 being locked up by the UN Correspondents Association, used for "briefings" only publicized to those who pay it money -- on that day, about Syria.

  Del Buey replied, "we’ll check on that and get back to you." But three days later, still with no answer to that simple financial question, word leaks or oozes that UNCA is at it again, this time even lower down the food chain.

  The "Club des Chefs des Chefs" -- literally, 25 of those who cook for heads of state -- will set up shop in the room the UN gives UNCA, along with an also locked-up pantry, a separate office and even a focus booth used by a non-journalist UNCA intern to whom at the request of UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS the UN gave a "P" Press pass. 

  Falk then made the introduction to Ban's deputy Jan Eliasson as "one of our interns."

  This breaking news, or breaking eggs, event was of course not announced even to all UN accredited resident correspondents. It was "leaked" to the Free UN Coalition for Access by one of UNCA's disgruntled members.

  Then it was confirmed on the Twitter feed of a long time UNCA officer followed by a mere dozen UN correspondents, but at least two anonymous accounts set up by UNCA Executive Committee members to troll Inner City Press. (UNCA's anonymous social media campaign picked up on Saturday July 27).

  The UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit also followed. Its boss also in charge of UNTV -- which they screen the chefs, as UNCA asked them to do for Syria oppositionists? -- told FUNCA that Room S-310 would be left unlocked and the "UNCA Pantry" was just a notation on a blue print. Right.

  Worse, UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters truly leaked an internal anti-Press document to this UN Accreditation official, three minutes after promising not to do it. Audio here, story here; document headed "you didn't get this from me" here. This has still not be acted on.

   This is called spying for the UN. There is something rotten cooking in this kitchen, alongside the gushed-out presence of "White House top chef Chisteta Comerford and, yes, "Her Majesty the Queen's chef Mark Flanagan." The murky finances and spying poison the atmosphere. Watch this site.

Footnote: the talk of chefs for heads of state bring to mind the Europeans who sauced up human flesh for France's Central African Republic strongman Bokassa - more on this in connection with the Mads Brugger film "The Ambassador," which UN staff say includes, yes, Inner City Press, which reports on CAR and the ongoing CAR Alarm...

   

For-Pay Syria Session Called "UN Briefing," UNCA Breaks Rules, Anonymous Trolls

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- The Alliance between this UN and the United Nations Correspondents Association is not only one of censorship but also now of fraud.

  On July 26 at noon Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey a simple question: was the upcoming presentation by Syrian opposition figures in UN Room S-310, given by the UN to UNCA, a "UN Briefing" or not?

  UNCA only e-mailed its notice to those who pay it money;throughout July 26 not only UN accredited correspondents who choose not to join the discredited UNCA but also some member states criticized the Syria opposition session.

  Del Buey said he would answer this simple question, but more than a day later: no answer. Instead, after Inner City Press in its name and that of the new Free UN Coalition for Access asked the question, the UNCA Executive Committee related trolls re-started their anonymous social media campaign: UN Cowardice Association.

  Meanwhile, after UNCA inappropriately asked the UN to stream its private for-pay briefing over UNTV, it put it online in piece, labeling it "Special UN Briefing."

  At the beginning, UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk claimed this was a briefing for the "UN press corps" -- but it was not, it was only publicized to those who pay money to UNCA. This is fraud.

  The UN's Department of Public Information participates in this fraud. DPI insists that only journalists can go into the UN press briefing room, and that only journalists with eight clips can get a "P" Press pass to the UN.

  But as Inner City Press has reported, shown on film and now had informally re-confirmed, DPI has given at least one non-journalist UNCA intern a Press pass, and entry into the briefing room and stakeout area. 

  The non-journalist intern set up shop in the locked "UNCA" Room 310, and in a so-called focus booth that was supposed to have UN phone service to the Peacekeeping missions.

Actual journalists have been told to leave these focus booths, and even had their UN entry pass de-activated after being found working there. But the UNCA intern is there.

  UNCA has an employee, also given a "P" Press pass, of whom it is not clear there are eight clips. This is the organization which tries to get thrown out of the UN journalist who actually ask questions and publish articles. 

  The mockery of DPI's purported rules occurs as DPI cites a rule it passed with UNCA, Banning signs, to threaten Inner City Press with suspension or withdrawal of accreditation for hanging a FUNCA sign on the door of its shared office. (This door was blocked on Friday by the backwash of UNCA's dubious "Special UN Briefing.") UN Censorship Alliance.

  It is that the Executive Committee of UNCA has show disdain for freedom of the press, asking in 2012 that articles and photographs about Sri Lanka and French officials be taken off the Internet then seeking ouster from the UN for resistance to censorship.

  UNCA First Vice President Louis Charbonneau of Reuters has been shown to have given an internal anti-Press UNCA document to UN accreditation official Stephane Dujarric three minutes after stating this would not be done. (Audio here.) 

  This is called spying for the UN: this UNCA is a fraud, particularly when it comes to any claim of supporting freedom of the press or defending the rights including due process rights of journalists.

  The UN's room S-310, it was said before the move-back, would be open to all UN accredited correspondents, not locked, or key with the UN Spokesperson's Office. But UNCA keeps it locked, or its "Press" Passed intern inside, when not in the "focus booth" taken from other journalists.

  The UN has been formally asked to explain the July 26 briefing and claims made since; it has yet to respond on that or on how it violated its own stated rules about who gets a "Press" pass and entry into briefings. This is the UN Censorship Alliance. Watch this site.

Footnote: now comes word, not from any e-mail from UNCA, that while the UN Spokesperson's Office still can't or hasn't explained the status of these sessions publicized only to those who pay money, the next "newsmakers" on tap at the UNCA private club are the "Club des Chefs des Chefs" -- those who cook for heads of state. UN Culinary (or Corruption?) Alliance.