Stewart Stogel, Who Asked UN UNcomfortable Questions, Dead at 60, Questions Continue

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 24 -- In the small world of journalists covering the UN from within, Stewart Stogel stood out as combative, dogged, critical, unique. He staked out Kofi Annan outside his UN-provided Sutton Place townhouse; he shouted questions at diplomats entering the Security Council while others mouthed, “Hello, Ambassador.”

On November 24 the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit announced:

“It is with great sadness that my office just learned that U.N. correspondent Stewart Stogel passed away from complications of diabetes. Stew was a veteran journalist who had been covering the United Nations, its Secretaries-General and the activities of the Member States for many years. He worked for several media outfits and his stories appeared on ABC News, Press TV and NBC News but also in Newsweek, The Miami Herald, The Washington Times and World Net Daily. He was 60 years old.”

  Often, those Stogel was covering including in Mount Vernon where he lived, would try to undermine his connections to the above-listed publications. The UN itself made Stogel re-apply for credentials and, according to him, did not make his work easier. Inner City Press and the new Free UN Coalition for Access offers a few anecdotes, links and Rest in Peace wishes.

  In 2008 UNICEF's Ann Veneman agreed to essentially rent out the UN's North Lawn to an event by Madonna, or really, Gucci. Stogel registered to cover it; Inner City Press investigated it from outside. Ultimately many in the UN stepped away from the flawed event. But Stogel kept digging, even as a public relations firm tried to complain against him. His story is here.  Stew Stogel was a working journalist. He will be missed.

  Stogel in his reporting on the UN had a love - hate relationship with some in UN Security: some were sources, others went after him. 

  He reported critically on UN Security official Bruno Henn - who, Inner City Press today reports in Stogel's spirit, has been acted in the most recent Department of Safety and Security promotion / demotion exercise - and was known for his reporting on a so-called “riot” last time the UN changed catering contractors, as it is slated to do again on December 31, click here for that. Stogel likewise had a love - hate relations with the Accreditation unit: he liked and was liked by some.

  Another Stogel story, in 2010, involved the reduction in journalists' access at the UN Security Council, citing then “French ambassador Gerard Araud, who had been growing increasingly frustrated with unwelcomed ambush interviews.” 

  Precisely the kind of blacklisting which BuzzFeed faced this year from the UN World Health Organization, and which when the Free UN Coalition for Access asked UN spokesman Dujarric about, Dujarric said the UN doesn't do, Stogel faced from Dujarric's predecessor.

Also in 2010, even while accredited through other media, Stogel joined the campaign for bloggers' rights at the UN, writing to the same UN office which eulogized him that

“ICP is reporting that the media/accreditation status of bloggers is still being debated within DPI. Why? Ban Ki-moon is now in office more than three years and this question still remains? The White House addressed the issue of bloggers more than 6 years ago, yet at the UN it is still debated? Why?

“It becomes an important issue because of the repeated confrontational positions DPI has taken with press especially since Ban Ki-moon arrived. DPI has taken the outrageous position of contacting various news organizations and occasionally 'advising' them on who to assign to cover the United Nations. It is tradition going back more than 50 years of accrediting news organizations, not individuals. The Organization has often used credential accreditation as a "political" pressure tactic to retaliate for news coverage it took exception to. This is a department that is quite literally spinning out of control. How long will this continue?”

  In the spirit of Stew Stogel, these questions will continue to be asked. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Labor Lows from UNODC to Elevator Stand-In, No Room for Union

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unban1labor041310.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 13 -- While the UN's Ban Ki-moon traveled to Central Asia, Austria and now DC, there are troubles on the home front. The UN's own Dispute Tribunal has issued a series of orders calling for disclosure of reports to whistleblower, and for senior officials like Shaaban Shaaban to be held accountable for mismanagement. Mr. Ban's response has been to appeal, appeal, appeal.

The UN Staff Union, which the Ban administration had tried to divide and conquer, was recently denied in its request for space to hold a meeting. First they were told that space was available, then from higher up via one Tony Di Lanzo that it was not: "I am sorry to inform you that your meeting has been moved... a large number of requests have been received for large room [sic] on this day." But a check of the UN's e-Meets site showed that the space was empty. We will have more on this.

While he was in Austria, Ban held a town hall meeting. He was told by Preeta Bannerjee, who took the for-now defunct G-to-P test in 1994, of low staff morale in UNODC. But what did he do?

Meanwhile, the UN's investigation into pre-predicted promotions in the Department of Safety and Security, exposed by Inner City Press, has resulted sources say in a whitewash.

While some say this was out of empathy for Headquarters security chief Bruno Henn, others say Henn -- who already tried unsuccessfully to move laterally to the Capital Master Plan -- is set to transfer to Nairobi, into a post opened by another scandal.

The discontent sinks all the way down to those who cannot sit. The elevator operators left in the UN building, who used to sit when there were no customers, have now been ordered to stand. They complain of discrimination against Latinos. And if it was, what would happen?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unban1labor041310.html

In UN Security, Henn Won't Talk to Panel, DM on KFC, Gun Removed?

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/undss1hennkfcgun111209.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 12, updated -- With two UN Security officers still on suspension for KFC's Colonel Sanders' impersonator having a photo op with the President of the General Assembly Ali Treki, it has emerged that the Chief of Headquarters security, Bruno Henn, has refused to appear before the panel investigating the promotions scandal exposed by Inner City Press. Story here, leaked memo here.

Henn has said he will only answer questions in writing, according to multiple sources, none of them on the panel. This is similar to a police officer refusing to take a Breath-a-lyzer test. But within the UN Department of Safety and Security, some avail themselves of due process, while others cannot.

Sometimes the pressure comes from outside of DSS. It has emerged that it was not the DSS which initiated the two KFC suspensions, but the Department of Management. The disciplinary action was taken quickly, before review, so that the UN could say that something was done, staff union sources tell Inner City Press. The UN Spokesperson has said to not ask anymore questions about KFC, ostensibly to not give publicity, but most people say, from shame. There has still been no press conference by DSS chief Gregory Starr.

Meanwhile, UN Security sources have been abuzz for day saying that Captain Mark Hoffman has had his pistol revoked or placed on restriction. The UN Spokesperson's office was asked, in writing, if as some in Security are saying it involved a law enforcement incident -- reminiscent of Winona Ryder -- in Florida. This was denied, and Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq added that Hoffman was in Florida looking at colleges. Thou dost protest too much?

At Wednesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe on the record the more limited question of if Mark Hoffman's gun has been suspended. We looked into that, and no, she said. The UN transcript claimed that Hoffman's name was inaudible:

Inner City Press: Security sources here say that Captain [inaudible], who has had his gun removed. I’d like to know if that’s true and if so why.

Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe: I have not heard anything of that sort.

Inner City Press: Can you check?

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: We did. Okay. Thank you very much.

Compare to video, here, at Minute 14:50. And multiple sources, including within DSS, say Hoffman's gun is on suspension, contrary to what Ms. Okabe said at the November 11 noon briefing. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undss1hennkfcgun111209.html

On UN Security Risk Assessments, Briefing Differs from Letter, the Wrath of Kane

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/cmp2risk050709.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- With the controversies about safety, asbestos, and transparency swirling around the UN's billion dollar Capital Master Plan, the chief of UN Security in New York Bruno Henn was asked if Security Risk Assessments had been prepared. "No comment," Mr. Henn said.

The town hall meeting on the CMP and security had abruptly been closed to the Press, even though the sign outside Conference Room 3 didn't say the meeting was closed. CMP chief Michael Adlerstein's spokesman Werner Schmidt asked two of Bruno Henn's officers to remove this report from the room.

Afterwards, while Schmidt defended the ejection, Mr. Adlerstein said he hadn't been aware of it, and invited the reporter to the next town hall meeting. In the interim, he tried to explain the seemingly back-dated letter in which he acknowledged that the Security Risk Assessments won't in fact be finished until the end of June.

Adlerstein said the letter was a draft on which he was working with the Department of Safety and Security, he decided he had the wrong information and should have torn it up. But DSS' Mohammad Bani-Faris issued a nearly identical letter five days later, saying that the SRAs would finally be done by the end of June.

Adlerstein's spokesman Werner Schmidt then interjected, that because this reporter "didn’t unfortunately attend this meeting, So he didn’t hear that Bruno Henn say that security risk assessments have been done already."

If Bruno Henn said that, it is contradicted by Bani-Faris' letter. Mr. Henn, as noted, issued only a "no comment" when asked about it on his way out. There is a need, at a minimum, for a press conference.


Instead, there is a notice for another town hall meeting, by the Office of Human Resources Management, which some staffers are surprised to see requires one to in advance confirm or reject attendance. Adlerstein now says his future town hall meeting(s) are wide open. He also said, according to attendees, that "stuff happens." They say he has a new nickname: Michael "Stuff Happens" Adlerstein. Watch this space.

Footnotes: Inner City Press is informed by multiple sources that Department of Management chief Angela Kane, who previously in response to simple questions responded in writing that she has no time to answer queries from the Press, just ask them at the noon briefing, is now "vivid" at reporting on complaints about her unit's actions on relocation under the Capital Master Plan, suspension of the National Competitive Exam and mis-management of the UN Medical Service. A representative of Ms. Kane's office made loud inquiries into the UN's media accreditation process, what are the criteria for being accredited as a reporter.

Counter-question is what are the criteria for being accredited as an Under Secretary General, if when surrounded by controversy one refuses to answer press questions, hasn't held a press conference in months, and tries to retaliate against what little press coverage is given to the Department of Management. Ban Ki-moon today praised the press for holding accountable those who exercise power. Apparently, as with the USGs who refuse to make even basic public financial disclosure, Ban's message has not been received.

Perhaps, just as Mr. Adlerstein on Thursday said he didn't know that his spokesman Werner Schmidt directed UN Security to remove the Press from the CMP town hall meeting, Ms. Kane will say she didn't know that her staff were implicitly threatening the Press that reports on the Department of Management. Then again, Ms. Kane is the one who proposed driving up costs for the press at the UN to make reporting on the organization more difficult. Management, indeed...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/cmp2risk050709.html

At UN, Meeting on Billion-Dollar Rehab Plan Closed to the Press, Safety Questions

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/cmp1uncovered050709.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- As the UN spends billions of dollars on renovations with a general contractor Skanska embroiled in litigation about mishandling asbestos, its Capital Master Plan director Michael Adlerstein through his spokesman on Monday ordered security officers to eject a reporter from a “Town Hall Meeting” about the CMP. Adlerstein is under fire for having claimed that the litigation against Skanska doesn't exist, and for the claim that required Security Risk Assessments were either not required or were already done. In a letter delivered May 5, but dated April 23, Adlerstein acknowledged that the Security Risk Assessment are belatedly being done, to be finished, he wrote, by the end of June.

At Thursday meeting, senior UN Security officials arrived late at 1:45 pm. They are waiting for you, another officer told them. It is said that Adlerstein is trying to explain his own mis-statement by laying the entire blame on the UN Safety and Security Service, specifically on Bruno Henn.

In the brief portion of the meeting observed by this reporter prior to the ejection directed by Adlerstein's spokesman Werner Schmidt, Adlerstein narrated a slide about the reduction in service in the UN cafeteria. Monday, workers in the cafeteria complained to Inner City Press that they that day received notice of layoffs starting on August 2, with no relocation or retraining. They contrasts this treatment at the UN to what governments around the world are going during the financial crisis.

These issues, and the CMP, are overseen by the UN Department of Management, headed by Angela Kane, who is being questioned by staff and even member states these days on issues ranging from irregularities in the UN Medical Service she oversees through now triple confirmed attempts to keep her unit inside the UN compound during the CMP and force other units to move twice, to the suspension of the National Competitive Exam, one of the few merit-based ways that applicants from under-represented countries can work for the UN.

A well-placed UN staff member on Thursday told Inner City Press that since Germany is over-represented, it and Angela Kane, who he called a German national, favor the suspension of the NCE. Another said that when Germans took the test, their over-representation led to throwing out of some results. Another has chimed in noting that there are over 400 people "on the roster." But the reality is, hirings and "regularization" are being done for those hired outside the NCE, from the field.

Ms. Kane has said she has no time to answer questions, that all these should be asked at the UN's noon briefing. There, however, a limitation on the number of questions that can be asked appears to be in place.

Even so, at the noon briefing of May 6, Inner City Press asked

Inner City Press: a letter has emerged from Mr. Adlerstein of the Capital Master Plan confirming something that had been earlier, I think, denied by the Secretariat that these security risk assessments that were supposed to be produced for the swing spaces and for this building, in fact have not been produced. But now they claim they will be done by the end of June. What’s the explanation of the earlier statement that these were either done or were not necessary? And there is a reference to the CEB meeting of 4 April in one of the letters. Can you confirm that this issue came up and how does this impact...[interrupted]?

Spokesperson: I cannot confirm it at this point. I can ask, of course, Mr. Adlerstein to answer your question.

More than 24 hours later, no answer had been provided. And then Adlerstein through his spokesman had UN Security eject the Press from covering his "Town Hall" meeting.

News analysis: While Adlerstein, Kane and the UN's Ban Ki-moon administration have claimed to be transparent, the ejection of Press trying to cover essentially public comments about the billions of dollars the UN is proposing to spend is a new low. Watch this site.

Update of 1:58 p.m. -- as another UN correspondent has said, since the Capital Master Plan impacts everyone who works here, including the press, it is particularly inappropriate to close the CMP "town hall" meeting to the press who work here....

Update of 2:16 p.m., still outside the meeting room -- given his CMP chief's exclusion of the Press from a meeting the sign for which didn't even say "Closed," it seems more than a little ironic that earlier on May 7 -- and May 6 on Park Avenue -- Ban Ki-moon praised the press, and even "bloggers," for "holding authorities to account."

Update of 2:29 p.m. -- it emerges that even though the UN has not done the Security Risk Assessments, it has already moved staff to 380 Madison Avenue, starting on April 27...

Update of 2:59 p.m. -- While SSS's Bruno Henn, leaving the meeting, said "no comment" to Inner City Press, after another wait Inner City Press spoke with both Werner Schmidt and Michael Adlerstein. The former maintained that the press had to be excluded, saying "you wouldn't want staff in the press briefing room, would you?" Inner City Press said it had no problem with that, and asked when Adlerstein would hold a press conference. While that wasn't answered, Adlerstein said, "you are invited to the next town hall meeting." We will continue to follow this story, short- and long-term.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/cmp1uncovered050709.html

UN's Lack of Risk Assessment May Delay Capital Master Plan, Force Exit of Officials

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/uncmp1riskdss041509.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 15, updated -- The UN's multi-billion dollar relocation and rehabilitation Capital Master Plan may be delayed by the failure of the UN's Department of Safety and Security (DSS) to conduct risk analysis of the relocation spaces.

In the third of a series of resolutions complaining about DSS, the Staff Council has unanimously "not[ed] the multiple failures of the Chief of the Security and Safety Services at Headquarters to follow mandated procedures" and has now "request[ed] the Secretary General to suspend all scheduled staff transfers to the new office spaces until such time as the mandated Security Risk Analyses have been properly executed." [Since on-camera UN Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq said this Resolution 43/5 is not known, Inner City Press puts it online here.]

In recent months, DSS has increasingly been surrounded by scandals, from promotion and placement irregularities exposed in memo leaked to Inner City Press to the death of staff member Jesmel Navoa due to DSS failure or delay in calling New York City's 911 emergency services providers, and to allow them access to UN Headquarters, click here for that story.

The chief of DSS, David Veness, ostensibly resigned in the wake of the deadly December 2007 bombing of the UN in Algeria. He is still however in his office on 45th Street across First Avenue from UN Headquarters -- the only UN building in New York for which a Security Risk Analysis had been conducted. Inner City Press is told by sources that Veness will finally be leaving at the end of April, and that the internal short list process has focused on an American from the U.S. State Department's diplomatic security service.

The man responsible for security of the UN in New York is Bruno Henn. Many DSS officers say Henn is rarely present, and for some time used his official car to drive back and forth to him home in the suburbs. Questions about his educational background and previous employment have gone unanswered by the UN. Now he is being targeted by name by the Staff Union, and blamed for the potentially expensive delay in implementing the Capital Master Plan.

The argument is that a Security Risk Management System complete with SRAs was mandated by the UN Chief Executives Board in October 2004, then by the General Assembly in January 2005. It was implemented at other UN headquarters, in Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi and regional hubs in Thailand, Lebanon, Ethiopia and elsewhere. Only in New York was it not carried out -- and Bruno Henn is blamed.

The counter-argument, as best as Inner City Press can make it out, is that the UN in New York relies on the City's government and its Police Department. But Article 100 of the UN Charter states that "In the performance of their duties the Secretary-General and the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or from any other authority external to the Organization." [Click here for the Charter sections 99 and 100; the former Inner City Press has been citing of late in light of Ban Ki-moon's failure to raise the "bloodbath" in Sri Lanka formally to the Security Council.] More practically, NYC officials have been less than enthusiastic about the UN's security and construction plans.

It is anticipated that the Staff Union, pursuant to its recent resolution, will further brief the Press on April 16. Even before that, Inner City Press will be seek responses from the UN Secretariat, including on specific risks in the current and prospective UN buildings. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncmp1riskdss041509.html