Inner City Press Asks UN's Juan Mendez of US Torture Report, Guantanamo, Obama's Prison Trip

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 20 --  When the UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez held a press conference on October 20, Inner City Press asked him for his view of the only partial release of the US Senate's report on CIA torture, about Guantanamo Bay and whether he thought President Barack Obama's visit to a prison might make his long-pending request to visit US prisons move faster. Video here.

   Mendez said there should be more release(s), and accountability. He said he had had to request the US' conditional offers to visit Guantanamo Bay and US prisons, as he would not be allowed to speak with all prisoners. He praise Obama's visit, but still - Mendez can't get in.

On October 16 when the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Benyam Dawit Mezmur held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about US President Barack Obama's decision to continue to provide military aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan, despite all four being on the UN's (and US') lists on children and armed conflict. Video here.  

    Benyam Dawit Mezmur said that while the US is the lone holdout on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the issue can still be gotten-at under the Optional Protocol. Inner City Press asked about the sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic by French and UN peacekeepers.

   Benyam Dawit Mezmur replied that the Committee is asking France about the alleged sexual abuse of children, and will conduct a review in January. We aim to have more on this.

  At the press conference, there were only two correspondents, as there was an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Palestine at the same time. Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Benyam Dawit Mezmur for the briefing but suggested that in the future postponement of briefings, so that more journalists could attend, be considered. UNCA wasn't present at all; nor has it disclosed the extend of funding and connection by indicted David Ng and Frank Lorenzo and their affiliates.

 Also on the UN, when the UN find a staff member using the UN's email system to trafficking in sexual images of minors, a crime, what does it do? On October 16, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about this paragraph from a UN report it had dug up:

“49. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material, including pornographic material involving a minor, and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material though the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.”

  Inner City Press asked, was that all that happened, dismissal? Such that the person could, for example, work in a day care center? Haq said in instances the UN waives immunity.

  Inner City Press asked, how would law enforcement know that the person had used the UN's email system for child porn? Haq said there have been cases in which the UN told local authorities. Inner City Press asked, did it do so in this case? Apparently, the UN will not answer this. For now. Here are other paragraphs:

46. A staff member stored pornographic material, including pornography involving a minor, on the staff member’s United Nations computer, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material through the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.

47. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, and stored on the staff member’s United Nations computer, pornographic material involving a minor and, on other occasions, distributed, through the Organization’s e -mail system, other pornographic material. Disposition: dismissal.

 48. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material involving a minor and, on three other occasions, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and stored pornographic material on the staff member’s United Nations computer. Disposition: dismissal.

 The report is entitled "Practice of the Secretary-General in disciplinary matters and cases of criminal behaviour, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015."

We'll have more on this. Watch this site.
   

At UN, Inner City Press Asks Expert Juan Mendez of US Prisons, Bahrain Banning, Chelsea Manning

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 -- When the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez came to the UN on Tuesday, Inner City Press asked him about delays on his request to visit prisons in the United States, and how these compared to the banning of his visit by Bahrain, a US ally.

  Mendez said to visit prison, or Guantanamo Bay, he needs to be able to visit all parts and speak with inmates, but that the US refuses. 

  In fact, he said, his request on prisons -- the Federal ADX in Colorado and state prisons in California, New York and Pennsylvania -- has been pending at the US State Department since May 18, 2013, with no response.

  He said there is pervasive use of solitary confinement, characterized as "prison management" rather than discipline. This way, he said, the US courts don't require due process.

  There are some who think that the US Federal court system is enough of a protector of rights, or in any event, more protective than, say, the UN. 

  But in this case, Mendez is pointing at a loophole allowed the US courts, as long as the authorities use the magic words, "Prison management." (A review of FISA courts would likewise be useful -- we ask about that soon.)

On Bahrain, Mendez said the situation is not static, and not necessarily getting better - call that diplomacy.

  There were questions that were not able to be asked, for example about flogging and amputations in Saudi Arabia. But time did not permit. This is another reason that the UN automatically giving the first question to the UN Correspondents Association's Executive Committee is a bad idea: the questions are predictable and skew and politicize the press conferences.

As so often happens, particularly in 2012 and now in 2013 under Pamela Falk of CBS, UNCA used the first question to ask about Syria. (They hosted Saudi sponsored Syria rebel Ahmad al Jarba for a faux UN briefing in July.) The second question was on Cuba and Iran. 

  Only after was Inner City Press, after counter-thanking for the new Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info, able to ask about the United States, the elephant in the room. (Upstairs, the UN has threatened to suspend or withdrawInner City Press' accreditation for merely hanging a FUNCA sign on the door to its shared office, when UNCA has five signs.)

   Even during this follow-up on US jails, a long-time UNCA-ite tried to cut off Inner City Press' question, then insisted on referring to Bradley rather than Chelsea Manning.

  Mendez to his credit said, "now Chelsea Manning," and referred to solitary confinement conditions. His fellow panelist Claudio Grossman spoke of the need for norms, for statistics, for the right to appeal. Malcolm Evans of the SPT said his sub-committee's work is confidential; that cut off most questions.

  It was noteworthy that the UN's chosen press corps representative was more one-sided and politicized than the UN officials or expert themselves, particularly Mendez. We will continue to follow and report on this work, particularly but not only on US prisons and Bahrain. Watch this site.

  

Syria Says UN's Ban Got Pressured April 4-5, Calls GA Draft War Declaration

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 30 -- When Syria Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari held a press conference Tuesday morning, it went over an hour. 

  He took questions, unlike Ban Ki-moon the day before, including from stations like Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, and Voice of America which is run by the US State Department.

  After those, Inner City Press asked Ja'afari what he thought Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did between April 4, when Ja'afari said he had a deal with the UN's Angela Kane to inspect in Khan al Asal near Aleppo, and April 5 when Ban "went back on the deal."

  Ja'afari mused that either Ban got calls or MADE calls, and then went back on the deal. He called on the UN Secretariat to not be "part of this campaign against Syria."

  While Ban didn't take any question on April 29 -- and when the Free UN Coalition for Access complained, the UN's Stephane Dujarric said press "presence is not mandatory" -- one still wants to know what Ban did between April 4 and April 5. 

  Isn't that the purpose of a "public schedule" of the type Ban puts, or purports to put, online? (He did not list his April 26 "private" meeting with Sarkozy.)

First clue: as Inner City Press asked Ja'afari who'd said Ban was in The Hague, Ban was in fact in Madrid for this "Chief Executives Board" meeting.

  Inner City Press also asked Ja'afari about the pending UN General Assembly draft resolution, the fouth revision of which Inner City Press obtained and exclusively published earlier on Tuesday.

You are right there is a Rev 4, Ja'afari said, adding his prediction that they will have to go to a "Rev 10," because it is a declaration of war. He called Qatar, the first sponsor or drafter, a puppet, and said the goal is a follow up resolution to take Syria's UN seat and give it to the external, extremist opposition.

After more than an hour, Ja'afari stopped. Some said he'd started stronger or more logically than he finished with quotes from Winston Churchill about using chemical weapons on "uncivilized tribes" in Iraq, French nuclear tests in Algeria, Italian chemical weapons use in Libya. What about Guantanamo? Watch this site.