Exclusive: Amid ACLU Legal Action, UN Staff Were Blocked, UN Quiet, Guterres Email Here

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 – Many hours after the American Civil Liberties Union legal action and injunction, what explains the near-total silence from UN officials?  Some say a desire to avoid UN funding cuts; others more realistically see personal desire not to lose well-paid jobs. 

  But over the weekend, UN staff were banned from getting on planes to the UN. While the UN's holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric provided little information, and only when pressed, Inner City Press is exclusively publishing this, from Secretary General Antonio Gutteres to staff:

"Dear colleagues, I have been following closely the developments regarding the recent Executive Order on immigration which was issued by the US administration last Friday.

As you know, the order prohibits entry of nationals from certain countries to the United States.

I am writing to inform you that we have been in close touch with the United States Mission to the United Nations throughout the weekend, and have received reassurances that the order should not impact UN Staff and their families who are entering the United States using their G4 visas.

The US Mission has offered to assist if any issues are encountered by UN Staff and their families upon trying to travel to or enter the United States.

Staff should keep in mind that there are likely to be delays at airports across the globe over the coming days as US Customs and Border Protection implements its new procedures. Please do take this into account when making travel plans.

Best regards,

Secretary-General António Guterres"

  What about the staff blocked from planes?

But where is the UN communications guidance (or 2017 propaganda plan by Under Secretary General Cristina Gallach) in all this?

  Nowhere. Intentionally so. 

 The communications chief of the UN, already named by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services as having done no due diligence on Ng Lap Seng, the defendant in the first of two UN bribery cases, promulgated a self-serving rah-rah trying to promote herself, not the Organization. Her CYA made an A of the UN.

Long after the injunction, the UN response was three mid-level (ASG, Special Adviser and holdover spokesman) re-tweets, coy like the self-serving Gallach (UNless going Dutch).

   While in some place the UN is doing good work, the worst of the organization is exemplified in its Department of Public Information, particularly as regards planning to mislead the public in 2017 about such issues has peacekeepers' rapes and bringing deadly cholera to Haiti. 

See UN Plan, exclusively put online here.

   UN Peacekeeping needs radical reform, and UN DPI under Cristina Gallach needs to be disbanded. 

  Gallach produced a propaganda plan for 2017, which multiple outraged UN sources leaked to Inner City Press.  Gallach's "2017 Communications Guidance" has a paragraph on cholera in Haiti which does not mention that the UN brought the disease to the island. Page 9.

  While barely a million dollars, nearly all of it blood money from Ban Ki-moon's South Korea, has been raised, Gallach tells her propaganda troops to "promote the UN's efforts to combat the disease harnessing.. social media tools." 

  This is propaganda. 

 Likewise on sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, Gallach's rah-rah implies that the corner has been turned. Page 5. While the UN's billion dollar DR Congo mission is a mere footnote, the UN's failed envoy on Yemen is portrayed as successful on Page 6. The section on the Middle East , and pages 10 and 14-15, are designed to trigger budget cuts.

UN's "2017 Communications Guidance," Here, Is Propaganda Plan of Cristina Gallach, Who Should Be Fired by Matthew Russell Lee on Scribd

 It is Gallach who should be fired.

  As the UN remains unreformed after Ban Ki-moon's ten years ended with corruption, long asked about by the Press, exposed, budget cuts are coming.

 In Washington executive orders are being prepared to cut up to 40% of the US' contributions to the UN, and to fully cut funding to entities blamed for violation of human rights.

  Inner City Press has put that draft EO online here.

  One obvious question is whether the total denial of due process for whistleblowers - already part of US law - and investigative press which covers UN corruption constitutes such a violation.

  For example, the UN Department of Public Information under Cristina Gallach in early 2016 threw Inner City Press out of the UN, dumping its investigative files onto First Avenue, without a single hearing or opportunity to be heard, and no appeal since. 

All this for seeking to cover an event in the UN Press Briefing Room which was nowhere listed as closed, and leaving as soon as a single UN Security officer said the Spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, wanted Inner City Press out.

Gallach had a conflict of interest, having been asked by Inner City Press about her own links with Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng, facing trial (like Ban Ki-moon's nephew and brother) on bribery charges.

There are no rules, only the one-person fiat rule of an official dumped on Ban's UN by Spain, where she had previously managed, at most, seven people as spokesperson to Javier Solana. Nothing has been done; eleven months later Gallach still requires Inner City Press to have "minders" to cover the UN Security Council. 

  The cuts, and a new US Ambassador, are coming. Six days after a confirmation hearing in which she called for accountability at the UN, including for peacekeepers' abuses, Nikki Haley on January 24 was confirmed to replace Samantha Power as US Ambassador to the UN.

  This came after at least two business days of no photos replacing those of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the US Mission to the UN. 

  On January 24, Inner City Press asked former UN official, now Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom about Haley's call to defund countries whose peacekeepers abuse. Tweeted video here. There are reforms needed at the UN.

  Back on January 18 before Haley spoke as nominee for US Ambassador to the UN, Senator Bob Corker said he sometimes wondered if just-left Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had a pulse.

  In fact, Ban was quite active in helping his own relatives at the UN, promoting his son in law to the top UN job in Kenya, his brother mining in Myanmar with a "UN delegation," indicted nephew using Ban's name to sell real estate.

  When Haley began, she said the UN has a "checkered history." That's being diplomatic. Consider a head of Peacekeeping who has linked rapes to R&R, video here.

  Consider a head of the UN "Department of Public Information" who did no due diligence over indicted UN briber Ng Lap Seng - then evicted and still restricts the Press which asked here about it. Audit here, Para 37-40, 20b; NYT here.

   In response to questions, Haley praised the UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone, questioned the one in South Sudan and that country's government. She noted that countries make money off their peacekeepers. The case in point, we note, is Burundi, here.

In Brisbane G20 Conclusion, Obama Mostly Domestic, Opposes Meddling Only If for Separatists in Democracies

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 16 -- When the G20 summit ended and after Australia's Tony Abbott mouthed support for the fight against climate change, Obama took the stage in Brisbane.

  He was asked about Ukraine and said that it is impermissible to finance proxies to break up countries which have mechanisms for democratic elections. 

  It is a phrase that needs unpacking.

  Obama did not say countries should not interfere, militarily, in other countries. If a country is not a democracy, apparently, one can intervene, as long as it is not to stoke separatism. Are those the new rules?

 The US "train and equip mission" on Syria came to mind. Those are proxies, but are they allowed under Obama's new rules? On Syria Obama said that eventually there will have to be a political solution including Syria's neighbors like Turkey and Iran, and "Assad's patron," Russia.

  Abbott, like the UK's Cameron after him, spoke for his home audience. And to Obama, the pre-selected questions beginning with Reuters were about Keystone, health care, immigration and executive orders. It's a long way to fly for this.

In Brisbane for the G20, US President Barack Obama announced a $3 billion commitment to the Green climate fund, to applause at the University of Queenland. He did not mention Australia's anti-immigrant policies or Manus Island.

  Obama claimed that the US never puts its principles in the back seat, referring to China -- with no mention of Saudi Arabia or its neighbors Bahrain and Qatar. He praised Myanmar, saying he spoke there about how journalism can be responsible, without mentioned Aung Naing, killed in custody.

  Back in Beijing on November 10, US President Barack Obama is promoting the "Transpacific Partnership," which would among other things export pro-corporate (and pro-censorship) laws like the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 

  After telling the media to hurry up and get out of the room, "we have some work to do," a statement emerged on November 10, that 

"We, the Leaders of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam, welcome the significant progress in recent months, as reported to us by our Ministers, that sets the stage to bring these landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations to conclusion."

   But if the TPP is so good, why would an organization like the Electronic Frontier Foundation be sounding the alarm? And why and how can the UN be promoting and praising this TPP?

 The UN has a joint agency with the World Trade Organization, and on March 6, 2014, at the UN the director of the joint agency the International Trade Centre Arancha Gonzalez, formerly of the WTO, spoke at the UN and praised the pending Trans Pacific Partnership.

Inner City Press when able asked Gonzalez to explain working on the TPP as a UN project, given the range of groups opposed to the TPP, including for example the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Click here.

  As the Free UN Coalition for Access is pursuing, TPP would essentially globalize the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which can be used for censorship -- not only has used by Reuters UN bureau chief to ban from Google's Search an anti-Press complaint he filed with the UN, but more recently to take-down videos of protests.Click here.

  Gonzalez gave a lengthy answer, that trade deals are up to member state, but added that the ICT works so that rules are consistent and not fragmented.  To some this sounds like "race to the bottom."

  Since the press conference was billed as concerning the Commission on the Status of Women, Inner City Press asked Gonzalez which countries ban women from having bank accounts. Saudi Arabia came to mind, but Gonzalez cited Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. We hope to have more on this issue.

   Back on March 4 another UN agency UN HABITAT unveiled "The City We Need" booklet on Tuesday at the UN, in advance of an event at the nearby Ford Foundation. 

  Inner City Press, when able, asked about the corporate sponsors listed in the booklet, including GDF Suez (protested for example about a hydro-electric dam in Brazil), Siemens (Western Sahara) and Veolia, a French firm recently contracted on Syria chemical weapons which does business in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

After thanking the panel including HABITAT's Joan Clos on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked: how were these corporate sponsored vetted?

  The answer, from Nick Yu of the World Urban Campaign, was as is so often the case at the UN that the private sector is important, is a stakeholder. Yes, but what about these particular companies? What is the process? And what is their involvement, beyond paying to be listed in promotional materials?

A goal of the campaign seems to be to try to get a holistic "Cities" Sustainable Development Goal. Inner City Presshas reported on a similar move, involving Palau, to get an Oceans SDG. The list is growing.

A panelist who was also a New Yorker, Eugenie Birch, answered Inner City Press question about the last and the current New York City mayors. Bill de Blasio, Birch said, is a corrective on issues of affordable housing and free kindergarten (what about pre-K?). Michael Bloomberg, whose meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry has yet to be summarized by the UN as Inner City Press has requested, will be at the Ford Foundation. Watch this site.

   

On South Sudan, Does US President Obama's Executive Order's Threat of Sanctions Apply to Uganda?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- With the South Sudan talks stalled in Addis Ababa, US President Obama on April 3 issued an Executive Order threatening sanctions. The Executive Order has been put online here, by Inner City Press.

  Obama's Press Secretary Jay Carney said "both the Government of South Sudan and Riek Machar’s rebels must immediately engage in and follow through on the inclusive peace process led by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development."

   One issue has been that while Uganda intervened on the side of the government, it is also part of the ostensible mediator, IGAD. Obama's Executive Order refers to"international security presences" and "other peacekeeping operations" - does either term encompass the Uganda forces?

  Back on March 25, returning from South Sudan and Darfur John Ging, the Operations Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and his Emergencies colleague Yasmin Haque spoke movingly of the need to reduce the number of checkpoints on aid convoys in South Sudan.

Inner City Press asked Ging if this increased checking wasn't a result of what even the UN has said was a mistake, thetrucking rather than flying of weapons to the Ghanian peacekeepers in Bentiu.

  Ging acknowledged that this was the government's rationale for the checks but said, "We do not accept it."

  Time did not permit but there is an obvious follow up question: if the UN wants to put the arms-shipment scandal behind it, shouldn't it be more transparent? It has said its probe is finished, but no written report has been made public.

UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, speaking to the Security Council on March 19, chose instead to complain of a "vilification of the UN" including in "media articles."

  Inner City Press asked Ging and Haque if they had witnessed such vilification during their trip to South Sudan. No, Ging said, this was not directed at the UN's humanitarian side. So it's either limited to UN Peacekeeping of Ladsous and Hilde Johnson, or Ladsous has a lower threshold of getting angry at media coverage.

  At the third question, Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Ging for doing Q&A when he comes back from trips, and expressed hope that this becomes a trend or expectation. Ladsous refuses to answer Press questions, video here - but even Jeff Feltman, back today from Ukraine, is said not to plan any press availability. Why not?

  The first question was given to Pamela Falk of CBS as head of the old UN Correspondents Association, which rather than push for example for Ladsous to have to answer has in fact come to his defense, grilling Inner City Press about an article about Ladsous until Inner City Press quit UNCA (and co-founded FUNCA).

  Now, will Falk with this automatic first question get a story about South Sudan onto CBS? If not, and even leaving aside UNCA becoming the UN's Censorship Alliance, how is this automatic first question justified?

  Having been given the first question, she left the briefing room while others were still waiting to ask. There wa a scheduled stakeout by the UN's Lebanon envoy Plumbley, which Inner City Press and others interested had to miss. UNmiss.

  Inner City Press also asked Ging about Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile; he said the UN still has no access to opposition held areas. He cited Jebel Marra in Darfur. Ladsous, in Pakistan, was quoted that the UNAMID mission in Darfur will shrink.

  Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about it and was told that if Pakistan's number of troops goes does, something will be said. But that wasn't the question. And while Ladsous was reportedly seeking women police and peacekeepers in Pakistan, when a woman who served in UNAMID in Darfur was disciplined for it, UN Peacekeeping has no comment, and has it seemed done nothing. UNmiss.

  The briefing ended with Ms Haque saying that more important than "donor fatigue" is the fatigue of children without food in South Sudan. Now that, is true. Watch this site.