Kissinger at the UN: Story of a Photo Not Taken, Wheelchair Sans Mr. K

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- It was inside the UN, but there was no sign on the door. In Conference Room E of the Temporary North Lawn Building, Inner City Press was told, Henry Kissinger was speaking.

  Having covered, in the time of Occupy Wall Street, a mock award ceremony for Henry Kissinger held in front of a midtown Manhattan hotel (video here), Inner City Press had a sense there could be news: Kissinger in the UN! Again!

And so Inner City Press set up shop at a Cafe Austria table in front of Conference Room E. The electronic blue sign which usually announced what's taking place in a UN meeting room -- the Law of the Sea, even sometimes, "Questions about Information" -- was blank.

There was a paper sign on the door itself, DPI-NGO, but that event (which Inner City Press also covered, in the context of an internship with an NGO inside the UN being auctioned off for $26,000) was over.

A UN Security medical officer arrived, to unfold and man a wheelchair, along with two bodyguards. Two of the three looked skeptically at Inner City Press. But it is an open area.

After several false alarms, the moment came. Henry Kissinger came out of Conference Room E. But he said, even before he was out, "no pictures of me in a wheelchair."

Well.

  There have been other sightings by Inner City Press in the UN this year: Judith Miller of Iraq and New York Times fame, here in the time of Syria and chemical weapons, on April Fool's Day no less. 

  Beyonce, for whom photographers were ordered to turn over their memory cards and have them erased. (Meanwhile, the UN took photos while raiding Inner City Press' office on March 18, then shared them and had them leaked on March 21 once the UN was asked about the raid.)

There are many orders in the UN, usually by the UN or its allies, on what to publish. This one, we will respect. What remains is a picture of the wheelchair sans Kissinger, here. Watch this site.

North Korean Conference Shrouded in Mystery, UN's Non-Role, Ban Visit

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 9 -- For three days since a North Korean delegation including nuclear envoy Ri Yong-ho arrived in New York, media have thronged outside the Millennium Hotel on 44th Street across from the UN, filming anyone who went in or out.

On March 7 there was Secretary General Ban Ki-moon; on March 8, Henry Kissinger, this time without attendant protesters chanting "war criminal."

Finally on March 9 the Press was invited in, to a 3:30 pm briefing on the hotel's second floor.

The problem, however, is that at the very beginning of the press conference moderator Christoph Pohlmann of the Friedrich Ebert Stifgung Foundation announced "we are not giving you any specific details of either the contents or the participants of the conference, in order not to endanger the process of trust-building." One wag muttered, why are we here then?

Of the four other panelists one, Haeng Woo Lee of the National Association of Korean Americans, never spoke.

Inner City Press asked the panelists about a statement in the press release by Syracuse University's Maxwell School, that "the United Nations participated," and specifically asked if having former South Korean foreign minister Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General helped or didn't help the process, or had no impact at all, as on so many other issues.

Moderator Christoph Pohlmann handled the question himself:

"That's an easy question, because we can't answer it. I can;t comment on who represented the UN at the meeting, but I think everyone is aware of the role or the non-role the UN has in the Korea issue, and I think we don’t need to elaborate on that. But just to make it clear, a few days ago there was some speculation that Ban Ki moon had attended our meeting because he entered the hotel. It’s not true. Just to make that clear. He had another meeting in that hotel. He enters the building probably on a daily basis because it's part of the UN compound."

While DC-1 and DC-2 are part of the UN, the Millenniun Hotel is different. What WAS Ban Ki-moon doing there? Pohlmann wouldn't even confirm the participation of Ri Yong-ho. So who were those masked men?

With all the journalistic firepower directed at this non-event, there are sure to be some detailed analyses forthcoming, particularly after a March 10 press conference that couldn't help but be more informative. Watch this site.

As Kissinger Protested, AIG's Greenberg Feted at CFR: Some Crimes Forgotten

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 7, updated with video -- Some crimes can never be forgotten, while others escape even articulation. Monday in Manhattan an old man chanted "Kissinger, mass murderer" in front of the Waldorf Astoria.

To the side of the entrance another protester with Occupy Wall Street on his jacket called "shame" to men in tuxedos, "love your botox" to companions on their arms.

Inside the New York Historical Society was giving an award to Henry Kissinger. Outside protesters held signs ranging from Vietnam to Cyprus and Angola, Cambodia to Bangladesh. "There's blood on your bow tie," an older women shouted. Soon the police would come. Inner City Press was told to move, but didn't.

While the protest was announced at a General Assembly at Zuccotti Park / Liberty Square, it was small by Occupy Wall Street standards. Many of the protesters had been on this beat for some time, with weathered signs about East Timor and apartheid, also Salvador Allende.

(c) MRLee
At Waldorf, Devil's sign says "We are waiting for you, Kissinger"

It was a street meeting, in a sense, of the new and old worlds of protest. When the police tried to move an ornery older man off "their" sidewalk, call went up for cameras. The man was scarcely moved. Inner City Press filmed it - video here and below.

A mere twenty blocks north on Park Avenue, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg of AIG infamy was similarly honored at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he introduced and questioned the chief executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang.

(c) MRLee
Hank Greenberg of C.V. Starr & Donald Tsang, no protesters

An oil painting of Greenberg hung on CFR's wood paneled walls: he is honorary vice chairman of the organization. He let his politics hang out, asking David Tsang how fast construction can be done in Hong Kong, without all the local protests.

But how has Greenberg escaped Occupy Wall Street's protests? On a recent traipse through midtown, the names of Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America were chanted.

Even Citigroup's founder and former CEO Sandy Weill appeared on a sign, albeit with a pig nose. But nary a mention of Greenberg or of AIG.

When the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision Friday announced its list of 29 global systemically important institutions -- read, Too Big To Fail -- eight were based in the US, but AIG was not among them.

There were the Big Four -- Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo -- and Goldman Sach, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon and even Boston-based State Street.

But AIG, so central in the crisis and such on a conduit for the bailouts, was not on the list. And while Occupy Wall Street marchs have targets Goldman and Chase, and the Bank of America across Broadway on Liberty, AIG on Pine Street has escaped.

So Greenberg smirks in CRF's paneled walls -- Inner City Press was not allowed a question -- and may have been present, at least in spirit, at the ceremony for Henry Kissinger downtown. And so it goes in New York, even amid Occupy Wall Street.