In DC, Power Is Confirmed Without Apology, Goldman Sachers to Geneva, Morocco Bundled (Georgia Out, Lithuania In)

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- The day after the US Presidency of the UN Security Council ended, the US Senate confirmed Samantha Power to replace Susan Rice as Permanent Representative to the UN.

  After breathless narratives of widespread opposition to Power, after her confirmation hearing performance at the committee level, she sailed through 87-10.

  In a memorable moment at her hearing, she said not only that America is the greatest country on earth but that it never has anything to apologize for.

  At the UN covering the Security Council, Inner City Press was watching the hearing on C-SPAN, and something sounded wrong. Didn't Bill Clinton apologize, for example, for the US' votes at the UN to shrink the UN Peacekeeping force during the genocide in Rwanda?

  Wasn't that what Samantha Power's book "A Problem from Hell" was all about? There was grumbling from within the delegation of Rwanda, members of the Security Council for the next year and a half.

  It will certainly liven things up. Some predict that Susan Rice's commitment on issues relating to Sudan and South Sudan will wane -- that may be an over-personalization of the US Mission's work -- and others predict that the whole Problem from Hell approach will focus only on Syria.

  But probably one should judge or predict a person on a body of work rather than this hearing performance, or what Sri Lankan Tamil activists saw as Power's strange silence during what they call their genocide, in May 2009. This finger-pointing at silence extended to Obama himself.

  And Obama the same day nominated as a US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva a former classmate who worked at Goldman Sachs, Pamela K. Hamamoto. 

  Another campaign bundler, Dwight L. Bush, Sr., was nominated as ambassador to Morocco. (While this Bush is not one of those Bushes, the pervasiveness of this process is why some call this a one party system.)

  Coming so quickly after Susan Rice's gambit to include a human rights monitoring component in Herve Ladsous' mission in Western Sahara -- such a component exists at his mission in the Congo but is mostly used on an ideological basis -- the financialization of the Morocco post seems telling. On the Security Council, Rwanda has a year and a half, while Morocco has only half a year left.

  And while we'd previously reported Georgia -- not Georgia on my mind, but Tblisi -- as a candidate for the Eastern European seat on the Council, Inner City Press spend part of an American night on July 29 hearing how ECOSOC would be enough for now for the Georgians, and Lithuania edged out by Vuk Jeremic for President for the General Assembly would now get the Council seat. Watch this site.

Footnote: rather than look to the past, even the recent past of Power's confirmation hearing, why not look forward, and not only at the "big picture" items on the Security Council's agenda? As Inner City Press exclusively reported yesterday, the US had thought France would draft a resolution on Central African Republic in August. Due to vacations, they plan not to. Might that change? Shouldn't it?

   

No CAR Alarm: French Mission to the UN Vacations Victimize Central African Republic at UN - Again

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- While some in the UN system wring their hands about the urgent situation in the Central African Republic, in the UN Security Council the country is a victim of the well known French penchant for August-long vacations.

  France has claimed for itself "the pen" on CAR, Council-speak for drafting statements and resolutions. Several Security Council members told Inner City Press on August 1 that while last month's Council president, the United States, had expected France to finally draft a resolution on CAR during August, that will not happen.

  Members were surprised when France, with Permanent Representative Gerard Araud having missed the most recent General Assembly session on Syria and his Deputy Martin Briens long not seen, indicated it could not or would not produce any draft resolution on their suffering former colony at least until September.

 (Inner City Press last week asked the French Mission by e-mail if France thought the Geneva Conventions apply to the UN Intervention Brigade in Eastern Congo; no answer. Today, the Free UN Coalition for Access asked France by another medium shouldn't its Ladsous disclose which Congolese Army units he support. No answer.)

  In the past, another Permanent member chided France when during an August heat wave, doctors refused to return from vacation to treat the thousands of elderly suffering and dying. Here, if diplomats can be considered doctors, Central African Republic is a victim of vacation. Again.

  Back on March 13, with the Seleka rebels on the offensive, taking at least two towns near CAR's Congolese border, Inner City Press asked the UN's envoy to CAR Margaret Vogt if she wants renewed Security Council action, if she was in New York for that. No, Vogt answered, she was in New York on vacation. Click here for more from that time.Watch this site.

   

In Drone Wars, Reuters Spies for UN, Ladsous Withholds For a Day Name Inner City Press Asked For, Typing Up Selex ES Falco for Target Acquisition

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- With the UN allowing its Herve Ladsous to conceal which units of the Congolese Army he is aiding, on July 31 Inner City Press asked the UN who won its contract for drones:

Inner City Press: Ladsous announced during the Bastille Day in France that the drone contract had been signed. I’ve checked various databases that are publicly available. What’s the company that won? And if it’s not yet public, how could the UN be signing a contract declaring a winner and not have it be public? Is it public and what is the name of the company?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: I will check. I don’t believe it is public...Yes, Evelyn?

Question: Just to be certain the drones that are being used are for observation

  This last, by a retired Reuters reporter, is a point Ladsous drone-like makes: he, his mission and the drones are not offensive. To not parrot that, according to Ladsous, is "innuendo," a basis to explicitly refuse to answer Inner City Press' questions. Video compilation here.

  The Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, run by former Reuters reporter Martin Nesirky, provides answers between noon briefing to some media, notably Reuters as well as Ladsous' favorite, Agence France Presse (Ladsous served on one of AFP's management boards.)

But on this who won the drone contract question, neither Nesirky nor his office got back to Inner City Press. Twenty four hours later at the August 1 noon briefing, Nesirky read out this answer:

I was asked [and] the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations can confirm that it has reached the final stage of the procurement process in relation to the trial use of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, by its Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). The selected vendor is the Italian company SELEX ES. The UAV is known as the “FALCO” and is designed to be a medium-altitude, medium-endurance surveillance platform capable of carrying a range of payloads, including several types of high-resolution sensors. Of course, its payload does not include weapons.

  When Nesirky was further spinning that final point of Ladsous', and Inner City Press asked to follow up, Nesirky refused. He had given others two rounds of questions, but refused to Inner City Press.

  Upstairs at Reuters, Michelle Nichols typed up Nesirky's answer to Inner City Press' question the day before and put it out, noting that Ladsous "did not initially name the company." Right. (She has done this before, and filed a specious complaint when this was complained about.)

   In Africa, Reuters re-tweeted it: another credit to The Baron. (Much of Reuters' tweeting is simply the robotic repetition of the corporation's products.) Others sua spontenoticed, it was noted that Nesirky used to work at Reuters.

Worse, Reuters UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau has been shown to have leaked to the UN's top accreditation official an internal anti-Press document of the UN Correspondents Association, three minutes after promising he would not. This is, in essence, spying for the UN. Or would that be innuendo?

 Story here, Charbonneau audio here, document here. None of this has been explained or acted on, by UNCA or the UN -- or Reuters.

Ladsous made it clear, only if Press coverage of him was positive would he answer questions. Now in what we call the Ladsousification of the UN, this has spread to Ban's communications. The conflicts of interest are rife. It's on video -- but the UN can cut the sound on questions, can edit out video it doesn't like. 

  As we've coined, the First Amendment stops at First Avenue. Maybe that can be stolen too. But there will be more questions. Watch this site.

Footnote: We also note, actually looking into rather than just typing up what Nesirky withholds and then spoon-feeds, that Ladsous' Selex ES Falco is about "target acquisition," video here. More on this to come.

   

Of Mercenaries in Eastern Congo & Bahrain, If Not Denel, Who Are the UN's, Kay's and Bax' Guards in Somalia?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- In Somalia, which private armed guards were running around Mogadishu with UN Mine Action Service chief David Bax, as acknowledged but not named by UN envoy Nicholas Kay? Were they with South Africa-based Denel?

  In Eastern Congo, would Ukrainian pilots in helicopter gunships be considered mercenaries, while recently naturalized Bahrain "security" force members are not? 

  These were the questions Inner City Press put to three members of the Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries on Thursday, and unlike at the UN's own briefing in this room, each question got an answer. Video here, from Minute 40:24.

  On Somalia, Working Group rapporteur Anton Katz of South Africa said he and fellow member Faiza Patel of Pakistan had been there in December and would be reporting soon. He said Denel may be working for some other entity -- UNMAS? - but that the UN system does not employ Denel. Video here, from Minute 18:32.

This seemed strange, since three Denel employees were killed in the most recent attack on UN Compound on Mogadishu.An arms expert tweeted to Inner City Press that Denel mostly doesn't do armed guards. Then who were they? We'll await Kay's or less likely Bax's answer.

  On behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press suggested to the Working Group members that they encourage UN agencies to publicly disclose which security companies they use, and for what.

On Ukrainian pilots in the Congo, Gabor Rona replied that if they were members of Ukraine's army, they could not be mercenaries, only parties to a conflict. On Bahrain, he said that naturalization is enough, legally, to come out from the definition of mercenary.

Can one be naturalized retroactively, Inner City Press asked, laundered so to speak? Video here from Minute 42:38.

Anton Katz asked, to some laugher, Are you thinking of becoming one?

* * *

  Speaking of mercenaries, once again the UN Correspondents' Association asserted its "right" to have the first question, a right that 2013 president Pamela Falk has said can be delegated to any dues paying UNCA member, even one who ran for the Executive Committee and lost. 

 This means that in exchange for money, someone is given a question at the UN. 

   Particularly now with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky outright refusing to take some Press questions, this pay to play is unsavory, and the outstanding favoritism and rule of law questions must be answered. Watch this site.

   

As Ban Ki-moon Has Not Released Sri Lanka Report, His UN Spokesperson Bans Questions, Attempts to Erase FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- Amid death threats to journalists seeking to go to Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting there, and just after Action Contre La Faim slammed the Rajapaksa government for impunity in the murder of aid workers in Muttur, Inner City Press went to the August 1 UN noon briefing to ask about Sri Lanka.

It was high time. Back on July 5 Inner City Press asked Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson about the report he was to hand to S-G Ban Ki-moon, lessons learned from the UN's inaction and worse as 40,000 civilians were killed in Sri Lanka in May 2009. Would the report be made public?

  Eliasson said it would be up to Ban Ki-moon. So Inner City Press went on August 1 to ask Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about the CHOGM death threats, about impunity and the report.

  But Nesirky wouldn't take the question. While giving others two rounds of questions, including Pamela Falk the 2013 president of the UN Correspondents Association (history here), Nesirky cut Inner City Press off when it said, quite audibly, where is the Sri Lanka report?

  Nesirky refused to take the question; the UN Television webcast does not even have the question, as Inner City Press' microphone got turned off. This is the UN's new system. Video here at Minute 14:34 and 20:46.

Many have said that inaction and worse on Sri Lanka is the lowest point of Ban Ki-moon's tenure so far as UN Secretary General. The question should be taken, it should be answered.

  Previously, after UNCA's Executive Committee sought the removal from the Internet of Inner City Press' reporting about their screening in the UN, in a room given by the UN to UNCA, of a Sri Lanka government film denying war crimes, UNCA's first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters immediately gave to the UN's top accreditation official an internal anti-Press document he promised, three minutes prior, not to give. 

  Story here, audio here, document here. Neither UNCA nor the UN have explained or taken action on this.

  Inner City Press quit UNCA, to the Executive Committee of which it had been repeatedly elected, and co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access. The UN's Department of Public Information has threatened to suspend or withdrawInner City Press' accreditation for merely hanging a sign of the Free UN Coalition for Access on the door of its shared office.

  Meanwhile the UN has given UNCA Room S-310 to hold more "UN briefings" which it publicizes only to those who pay it money; Nesirky's office has refused to answer the simple financial question Inner City Press asked about this on July 26.

  When Eliasson gave his briefing on July 5, after UNCA was given the first question (which it reserves only, again, to those which pay it money), Inner City Press perfectly audibly when called on thanked Eliasson for the briefing, and asked for more, "on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access."

  In a form of censorship which has been raised to the penultimate level of the UN without any explanation, this "on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access" was cut out from the transcript of the briefing. The US Mission to the UN, as simply one example, leaves it in. What is wrong with Ban's UN? The Sri Lanka experience was and remains telling. Watch this site.

   

In UN Drones Wars, After ICP Asks, Ban Ki-moon Spox Nesirky Tells All Ladsous Selex UAV, Gaddafi Wanted One

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- The UN's Herve Ladsous, who has refused to answer Press questions for months, bragged at Bastille Day he had signed a UN contract for drones.

Inner City Press asked at the UN's July 31 noon briefing: who won? Who is getting paid?

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky said that is not public. Video here.

Later on July 31, Inner City Press asked Ladsous himself - he looked but did not answer. Video here.

  Then at the August 1 noon briefing, without having e-mailed an answer to Inner City Press as the media which asked the question (as Nesirky office does with at least some other media), Nesirky came and announced the winner: the Selex ES Falco, described as the "the only tactical UAS entirely developed in Europe to have been exported and used in operations. Elbit of Israel has also ordered the Selex."

  Interestingly, Qaddafi's Libya was also applying to buy a Selex, but was being reviewed by the Italian government. Now it's said Ladsous' drones could be flying over the Democratic Republic of the Congo (and its border with Rwanda) as early as September.

  Ladsous was France's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide, arguing in open and even more in closed door Security Council meetings for the genocidaires to escape into Eastern Congo.

When this was raised, Ladsous started to refuse to answer Press questions. See video compilation here.

(On August 1, Nesirky refused Inner City Press any follow up questions on the claims he had just made about Ladsous' drones, while allowing others including Pamela Falk, UNCA's 2013 President, two rounds of questions.)

  Nesirky's office, rather than solving this, has exacerbated it. At least one former UN spokesperson has indicated this is an abdication of the UN spokesperson's role. But that determination would be up to Ban Ki-moon. Even member states who have been speaking against this (non) communications approach don't have any say. Watch this site.

   

UN Spokesperson Nesirky Bans Questions on Herve Ladsous Support to Rapist DRC Army 41st and 391st Battalions, Others

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- The UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, his head of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous and his spokesperson Martin Nesirky hit a new low on August 1.

  After refusing without explanation to disclose which units of the Congolese Army the UN is supporting, the only way to assess Ban's claimed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, Nesirky refused to allow Inner City Press to ask any more questions. Video here.

  Nesirky allowed two rounds of questions to numerous others, including for example Pamela Falk the 2013 president of the UN Correspondents Association. But even after providing UN spin about Ladsous' controversial contract for drones or UAVs, Nesirky refused Inner City Press any second round of questions.

  On drones, Inner City Press has covered member states' concerns about Ladsous' proposal; several UN officials have asked Inner City Press to stop linking Ladsous to drones. On July 31 at the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked with whom Ladsous signed the drone contract. Nesirky said that was not public.

  Twenty four hours later, rather than e-mailing the answer to Inner City Press as his Office does with others, Nesirky waited until the noon briefing to read out the name of the winner (Selex ES of Italy with its Falco drone) -- and then cut off Inner City Press' follow up questions.

  On July 31, Inner City Press said it had a question about Mali, which Nesirky didn't allow. On August 1 he belatedly disclosed what Inner City Press has repeatedly asked: that Nigeria is pulling troops out of Ladsous' MINUSMA mission there.

  Nesirky has still not provided simple answers to whether Ban's Cyprus envoy Alexander Downer has a conflict, running to head the South Australian Liberal Party. Inner City Press asked Nesirky's outgoing deputy Eduardo Del Buey about the UN giving a big room, S-310, to UNCA for briefing publicized only to those which pay it money, and why the Department of Public Information gave "P" Press pesses to UNCA interns, while threatening the accreditation of other journalists. Neither question has been answered. Watch this site.

   

UN in August: Cuban Ship Inspection Pushed Back from 5th to 12th, Argentina & Malvinas in UNSC on August 6 - & CELAC?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- For the UN inspection in Panama of the ship bound from Cuba to North Korea, August 5 was supposed to be the date. 

 But it has taken longer than expected to unload all of the sugar. And Panama's president has made it a point to pose for photos with every old MiG engine taken out. So now it's August 12.

  Outside the UN Security Council Thursday morning, Inner City Press asked South Korea's Permanent Representative Kim Sook about the delay, and about the head of the UN team, Martin Udin.

  He replied that Udin was the UK Ambassador to Korea, and therefore knows what North Korea is like. He noted that Cuba has pledged to cooperate with the Security Council and added, let's see.

  Also in front of the Security Council Thursday morning, Inner City Press learned more about incoming Council president Argentina's August 6 high level session on "cooperation with regional organizations."

  President Cristina Kirchner will attended - and Malvinas (or Falkland) Islands will be on the agenda. Foreign minsters including of Venezuela and Ecuador are slated to attend. Cuba has been mentioned, then mentioned as not yet confirmed.

  One might link these two stories, the Cuban ship in Panama and the Security Council on August 6. But sources tell Inner City Press a question has arising about the CELAC grouping being among the "regional organizations" on August 6. Watch this site.

Footnote: Into the bilateral meetings with new UNSC President Argentina, after Togo, France ran in. A question is pending, from the Free UN Coalition for Access since it is a transparency policy question, whether France thinks UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous should disclose which Congolese Army units they support, and who won Ladsous' drone contract. The question pends elsewhere, too. Watch this site.

   

As Circa Misplaces ICC-Indictee Bashir of Sudan, Echo of Non-Action on Reuters Spying for UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- Circa, based in San Francisco, calls itself "news, re-imagined." In late May with some fanfare it hired Reuters then social media editor Anthony De Rosa as its editor in chief.

  At Inner City Press we are rooting for new media, new approaches. So when Circa reported today on George Clooney spying on Sudan and its International Criminal Court indicted president Omar al Bashir, we chimed in with the fact that Bashir met with the head of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, only this month.

  Inner City Press previously questioned why Human Rights watch ignored this UN entanglement to only focus on Bashir's trip to an HIV / AIDS conference in Nigeria. HRW's Ken Roth called Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan a "coward" for not arresting Bashir, but said nothing of the UN's Ladsous meeting with him.

  Soon we learned that Circa has reported that Bashir had fled TO Nigeria, rather than the other way around. And Circa reached out to ask where Bashir was now. Well, back in Sudan (though he's headed to Iran on August 4 for Rouhani's inauguration.)

  The mistake would seem to indicate a dearth of foreign policy chops at Circa; fine. And they replied that they've now updated their story, wherever it is. But we can't help remembering: when De Rosa was at Reuters, ostensibly its bridge to the world of social media, he was told of problems.

  He was shown that Reuters UN bureau chief tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. He was shown the connection between Reuters and anonymous social media trolling of Inner City Press. 

  The Reuters UN bureau chief, Lou Charbonneau, has beenshown to have essentially spied for the UN. Charbonneau gave the UN's top Media Accreditation official an internal anti-Press document of the UN Correspondents Association, three minutes after he promised that it would stay within UNCA.

  Story here, audio here, document here, saying "you didn't get this from me."

  Old media Reuters big wigs Stephen J. Adler, Greg McCune, Paul Ingrassia and Walden Siew were all contacted but did nothing.

   But DeRosa never did anything about this either, despite the "social media" in his title. Then one thought that when he left the hegemon, and went hipster at Circa, he might do something. But no, nothing, at least not so far. Some things, however, require action.

  It's fine for a start up social news company to not know, really, who the president of Sudan is, or where and when he traveled, or why. But where is this all going? How can double standards like on Ladsous be reported, given this? Watch this site.