At UN, Cuba Cites Malvinas, Hugo and Hiroshima Before Samantha Power, AU and Press Access Limited

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 6 -- The first speaker in the UN Security Council on Tuesday was Cuba's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, who eulogized Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, cited Argentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas Island, and mentioned Hiroshima.

  Argentine President Cristina Kirchner thanked US Deputy Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo for chairing the Council in July, and welcomed as new US Permanent Representative Samantha Power.

  Given what Power said during her Senate confirmation, including citing the Venezuela of Chavez and now Maduro as a regime, one wondered how she would respond in this, her first Security Council meeting.

  Ethiopia's Permanent Representative Tekeda Alemu, speaking for the African Union, said that the support package and compensation for the AU's AMISOM mission in Somalia should be the same as for UN Peacekeeping missions. 

  For MONUSCO in Eastern Congo, UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous (replaced at Tuesday's session by Edmond Mulet)  is spending 10 million Euros a year on a drone, Selex ES Falco, which previously crashed in Pakistan and Wales. Some note Ladsous' drone could view and film up to 10 kilometers into Uganda and Rwanda.

  Before the meeting, Rwanda's Permanent Representative Gasana chatted with Samantha Power, who devoted much of her book "A Problem from Hell" to the UN's, US' and France's inaction during the Rwanda genocide.

  One wondered if US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki's July 23 statement on external support to M23, seemingly scripted by Human Rights Watch and sussed out by a planted questions from Voice of America, which is run by the US State Department with John Kerry on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, would come up, or the Congolese foreign minister's July 24 statement that all rebellions in the Great Lakes bear the same "genetic signature," on which the US Mission to the UN never commented.

  It's been asked: did the minister mean that former rebel Joseph Kabila bears the same genetic signature?

  The UN, when also asked by Inner City Press, said it had no comment on the "genetic signature" citation in the Council.

For Tuesday's Security Council meeting, for the first time the Press was banned from using the southern entrance and exit of the Council stakeout (still without a media work table), a limitation nowhere to be found in the so-called Media Access Guidelines the UN Department of Public Information agreed to with its UNCA. 

  The limitation of access has been raised by the new Free UN Coalition for Access, both to UN Media Access and Liaison Unit and its supervisor, so far without response.Libertad de prensa! Watch this site.

   

UN Tells US Spy Story Differently in English & Spanish, Ban in Translation

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 5 -- This UN now tells different stories about the same event to its English and Spanish-speaking audiences. Some call it dishonest.

After Latin American foreign ministers from MERCOSUR raised US spying to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the UN News Center's Spanish version published an article that Bolivia's Ambassador Sacha Llorenti tweeted, and the Argentina Mission to the UN re-tweeted, here. The article emphasized what the ministers said, at a stakeout after meeting Ban.

But the UN's English language UN News Center's report focused on Ban, making him look committed although on the topic of US spying he was quoted in a meeting in Iceland as saying that Edward Snowden "misused" his position and information. The UN insisted it was a private meeting -- another form of saying different things to different audiences.

  So did Ban Ki-moon raise in the afternoon to new US Ambassador Samantha Power the spying issue, that he heard about in the morning from foreign ministers Elías Jaua Milano of Venezuela, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota of Brazil, Héctor Marcos Timerman of Argentina, and Luis Almagro, Minister of Uruguay?  (The UN's Media Alert did not mention Bolivia)

 They spoke also about Argentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, the blockade of Cuba and, at Ban's request, Haiti.

  One still wants to know if the Haiti discussion addressed cholera, which the UN brought to the island and then denied all claims about. This Inner City Press will be pursuing.

Footnote: At the stakeout, as another media began with a question, Pamela Falk of CBS shouted louder invoking the name of the UN Correspondents Association -- ironic, sinceit or at least its first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters has been demonstrably shown to spy for the UN. Story here, Charbonneau & UNCA audio here, document here.

  UNCA should not get the first question in a sit-down press conference, including because it gives it only to those who pay in money. But at a stakeout like Monday's it's even worse: a question was inappropriately grabbed for UNCA, and wasted on a softball.

 Meanwhile the Department of Public Information, which gives UNCA this special status and attacks others for it, didn't have the video archive of the MERCOSUR stakeout online even as of 1:33 pm, then provided bad quality audio and did not respond to questions why from the new Free UN Coalition for Access. And so it goes at this UN.

As UNDP Justifies $5 Charge to Kids to Hear Clark, Re-Directs to Airline Ads

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 5 -- Now the UN Development Program has provided a justification to the Free UN Coalition for Access of the  $10 charge to hear Administrator Helen Clark speak, from Clark's personal spokesperson Christina LoNigro:

"The Tauranga Branch of the United Nations Association is a small local organisation and the fees charged for the event will be used to cover the cost of the venue.  Any additional proceeds will be given to the YWCA Future Leaders Programme."

  It's appreciated, but charging money to hear a UN system official speak -- in this case, charging $5 to children -- is not only unsavory, but may run afoul of General Assembly Resolution 92(I), which provides that

"Members of the United Nations should take such legislative or other appropriate measures as are necessary to prevent the use, without authorization by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and in particular for commercial purposes by means of trademarks or commercial labels, of the emblem, the official seal and the name of the United Nations, and of abbreviations of that name through the use of its initial letters"

  When previously raised by Inner City Press regarding a similar $10 charge to hear Robert Orr at the Korea Society, the oral response was to waive the fee. Presumably children weren't being charged in that case.

  Also, there may be a UNA pattern here: Inner City Press previously questions the charging of money for another UNA event, here.

  Meanwhile, now more than 24 hours after it was exposed,UNDP's Liberia website's "Delivering as One" section is stillre-directing traffic to airline advertisements.

  While the UN's main Twitter account @UN quickly responded to the Free UN Coalition for Access when @FUNCA_info raised this problem -- the UN deleted its own link, which it said worked when it had been "scheduled" -- UNDP has still not respond on that, or fixed the link.

  Beyond these, FUNCA asked LoNigro and UNDP lead spokesperson Satinder Bindra and Abdel-Rahman Ghandour this:

"This is  also a formal request that Administrator Clark belatedly hold a question and answer press conference in UN Headquarters in New York, and for an explanation of why she has done even fewer of these than Kemal Dervis or Ad Melkert. Thank you in advance."

  On this, no response yet. The decline in New York media Q&A by UNDP's Administrator began under a UN official now in charge of both accreditation and UN Television, about which questions asked Monday by FUNCA and others, about the low quality of audio for the MERCOSUR foreign minister's stakeout about US spying were not responded to. Meanwhile even UNWebcast gushed to the new US Ambassador. This is the UN.

Footnote: The quick response, and "thanks," of @UN to theFree UN Coalition for Access stands in contrast to that of the sub-unit Department of Public Information, which has threatened to suspend or withdraw the accreditation of Inner City Press for merely hanging a sign of the Free UN Coalition for Access on the door of its shared office, click here to view.

   FUNCA asked questions that have not been answered, about this and that, and noted that the UN or DPI can't outlaw an organization like the Free UN Coalition for Accesswhich would, has and will if necessary do its work without DPI. Watch this site.

   

As Samantha Power Cites Syria & South Sudan, UN Has Photo Ops But No First Amendment: A Problem from Hell, Day 1

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 5 -- There were four new Ambassadors presenting their credentials Monday to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, but the managed media throng was for only one: Samantha Power of the United States.

Earlier on Monday, also at the UN, the foreign ministers ofBrazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela (which Power called a "regime" in her Senate confirmation hearing) had told a different gaggle of media about meeting Ban about US spying and Edward Snowden.

  But Power in her remarks in the UN lobby did not allude to any of that. She cited "mass atrocities in Syria and South Sudan," saying that the US would work with the UN on these. Inner City Press wondered: why South Sudan and not Khartoum, Darfur?

  Why no mention of the Eastern Congo, including the UN still supporting the Army units which committed mass rape in Minova in November, 2012?

  Power took no questions. The next stop was up on the 38th floor, the ritual photo op. First former US official, now the UN's top political adviser Jeffrey Feltman came in, and Ban's chief of staff Susana Malcorra, from Argentina. What might her views be of l'affaire Snowden if not to say, Malvinas?

  Then came Samantha Power's husband Cass Sunstein. One wonders what he would make of the UN's lawlessness, represented by its terse "dismissal of claims" about bringing cholera to Haiti, or its lack of a Freedom of Information Act or even of content neutral accreditation and due process rules for journalists.

  (This, the new Free UN Coalition for Access is raising, following the UN's failure to respond to the NYCLU last year, here. The slogan? The First Amendment Stops on First Avenue.)

  The credentials were presented; the media was swept out with the option of waiting an hour for Argentine president Cristina Fernandez or rushing to the Security Council stakeout for Argentine Ambassador Perceval's read-out of a Council press statement condemning the attack on the Indian consultate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

  One can imagine a defense of all this: there are complaints that the UN is getting too anonymous, now there will be some complaints about a cult of personality. But to some it's the worst of both worlds: while the US is the superstar at the UN, other countries are ignored, even as they are spied on.

The application of Samantha Power's book A Problem from Hell to the UN would be interesting. We'll be here. Watch this site.

   

As MERCOSUR Complains to Ban Ki-moon of NSA Spying, He's Said to "Hide Behind" Pillay, UN's Censorship Circus

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 5, updated -- When Venezuelan foreign minister Elías Jaua Milano spoke to the media at the after he and MERCOSUR colleagues met with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about US spying, Edward Snowden and the treatment of Bolivia's President Evo Morales and his plane, the obvious questions were what did Ban say, and would the ministers raise this to Samantha Power on her first day as US Permanent Representative to the UN.

  Only the first of these two questions got answered, and that response was supplemented to Inner City Press by a MERCOSUR Permanent Representative who said Ban "hid behind" Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner on Human Rights.

  Ban was quoted in Iceland as saying that Snowden has "misused" information and his position. (The UN called it a private meeting.) But this resonated with questions raised byUN staff about Ban's treatment of UN whistleblowers. But now Ban says that Pillay has expressed the UN's position.

  Inner City Press asked the Snowden as whistleblower question, video here at Minute 15:20.

  One wanted to get this from Ban's office and not a diplomat, even a Permanent Representative, in the UN's first floor lobby to which the stakeout was moved from upstairs at the Security Council. 

   But Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky, at the noon briefing delayed (unlike for Rwanda's foreign minister on July 25, here) for the stakeout, said he did not yet have a read-out. This led some to surmise that he had not been at the meeting. Not to pry, of course, but this too would seem a fair question.

  The foreign ministers, the UN listing of which included Antonio de Aguiar Patriota of Brazil, Héctor Marcos Timerman of Argentina, and Luis Almagro, Minister of Uruguay while not mentioning Bolivia, spoke also aboutArgentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, the blockade of Cuba and, at Ban's request, Haiti.

One wanted to know if the Haiti discussion address cholera, which the UN brough to the island and then denied all claims about. This Inner City Press will be pursuing.

Footnote: At the stakeout, as another media began with a question, Pamela Falk of CBS shouted louder invoking the name of the UN Correspondents Association -- ironic, sinceit or at least its first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters has been demonstrably shown to spy for the UN. Story here, Charbonneau & UNCA audio here, document here.

  UNCA should not get the first question in a sit-down press conference, including because it gives it only to those who pay in money. But at a stakeout like Monday's it's even worse: a question was inappropriately grabbed for UNCA, and wasted on a softball. 

 Meanwhile the Department of Public Information, which gives UNCA this special status and attacks others for it, didn't have the video archive of the MERCOSUR stakeout online even as of 1:33 pm, and did not respond to a question why from the new Free UN Coalition for Access. And so it goes at the UN.

Update: after publication of the above, the archive video went online, here.  The sound quality, particularly at the beginning, is low quality. FUNCA would ask, surmising TeamPeople -- but it seems DPI doesn't answer, or only answers to UNCA, now known as its UN Censorship Alliance. We'll see.

  

UN Tells Inner City Press Herve Ladsous' Crash Prone Congo Drone, Selex Falco, Costs 10 M Euros, Run by Contractor, Still Murky

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 5 -- After Inner City Press published an exclusive story and asked about crashes in Pakistan and Wales by the the exact drone model that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has procured for Eastern Congo, the Selex ES Falco, and questioned the cost, management and use of information, the UN's spokesperson Martin Nesirky at Monday's noon briefing answered some of Inner City Press' questions.

  The single drone will cost 10 million Euros, apparently per year, for a three year contract with two additional years as an option. (Nersirky did not say at whose option these two years would be: the contract should be made public.)

  Nesirky answered that 25 companies from 11 countries visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo and "a number" submitted proposal. Nesirky did not say WHAT number: this, and the proposals, should be made public.

  When Inner City Press asked again who would run the drone, and who would get the information, Nesirky said that "the contractor" will run the UAV. Would that be Finmeccanica, the ultimate parent, also involved in cyber intelligence? This should be specified. 

  Will the drone be controlled from Goma, Kinshasa, or in US style, a room under Las Vegas? Or in Rome?

  Nesirky said that the information will be provided "exclusively" to the MONUSCO mission. Inner City Press asked if MONUSCO would then in turn provide information to the Congolese Army. Nesirky insisted: exclusively to MONUSCO.

Does that mean MONUSCO would never share the positions or movement of armed groups with the FARDC?

  Or with the Permanent Five members of the Security Council, one of which (France) Herve Ladsous represented in the Security Council as Deputy Permanent Representative during the Rwanda genocide, arguing for the escape ofgenocidaires into Eastern Congo which he will now be observing with this murky -- and crash prone -- drone? Watch this site.

   

At UN Youth Day, Ban Ki-moon Ignores Palestine Question, Seems Has Scripted Answers, from Broken News Booth

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 5 -- When for UN Youth Day, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon took questions from youth and advocates from Beirut to Brazil, from India and in the UN's new interim General Assembly Hall, there was some hope in the air - mostly from the youth. But there were false notes and unanswered questions.

As UN Youth Envoy Ahmad Alhendawi introduced questioners by video conference from Nigeria, India and Brazil, he said in advance what the question would be about. And, Inner City Press noted even from the broken down photo booth which is the only way to cover the GA, Ban Ki-moon looked down at notes as he answered.

The question arose: was Ban given the questions in advance? Inner City Press posed questions by Twitter not only to Ahmad Alhendawi but also Department of Public Information official Stephane Dujarric, who promoted the event in advance, and tweeted a photo of Ban as he began.

Dujarric was also the DPI official who, back in early June, replied to the Free UN Coalition for Access that something would be done or looked into at least about the broken down media booths above the GA floor. But on August 5, as before that for a session on Syria, there was no interpretation, a single broken chair, and no work table just as DPI has for now left the Security Council stakeout.

The question from Beirut cited Palestine and "Israeli occupation" -- but Ban's answer did not mention or address these. Dujarric was gone before Ban was.

 As Ban left, Inner City Press uploaded a story including unanswered questions about the drones that Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, has bragged about procuring, without answering on crashes, funding, and who gets the information. There's more to be said, and asked, but that's it for now. Watch this site.

Footnote: after Ban left, the questions got more wide open, for example to contraception. Had such questions been banned?

   

At UN, Herve Ladsous' Selex ES Falco Drones for DR Congo Crashed in Pakistan & Wales: Questions on Who Gets Info

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 5 -- The drone that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has procured for Eastern Congo, the Selex ES Falco, has a history of crashes, from Pakistan to Wales. How then was it selected? And who would run it? These are questions that the UN must answer.

  In Pakistan last year: "an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) crashed near PAF Mureed base during a test-flight mission due to a reported technical fault, some kilometres away from the district Mianwali in Punjab... The crashed UAV was identified as SG Falco-I (Selex), a sophisticated PAF surveillance drone equipped with the latest stealth and surveillance features."

  Before that in Wales: "a drone spy plane has crashed just weeks after an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle test centre was launched in West Wales. The crash, involving a Selex Falco unmanned plane, has raised fears about the safety of testing unmanned aircraft in the skies over Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.The crash happened at the Parc Aberporth UAV centre near West Wales Airport in Ceredigion, where new craft being tested include drone planes capable of delivering missiles."

  So how was the Selex ES Falco chosen? On July 31, with the UN then as now 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 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 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 Spokesperson Nesirky was further elaborating 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.

  Now these question must be answered, particularly given the history of crashes by the Selex Falco documented and raised (including h/t by a source the UN's former Group of Experts chief Steve Hege tried to intimidate by listing in his last report): how was the Selex Falco selected? How many other companies bid? 

  How much is the UN spending? Who would run the drones? Who would get the information? Watch this site.

   

UN Gives HIV / AIDS Post to Ugandan Official Being Probed for Embezzlement, Bans Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- Sometimes the UN announces top jobs given out by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and no one thinks much about it; sometimes the UN bans follow up questions without explanation at its briefings.

On August 1, Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky announcedthat "the Secretary-General has appointed Speciosa Wandira-Kasibwe of Uganda as his Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa... Ms. Wandira-Kazibwe will help advance the AIDS response in Africa by advocating for the active engagement and involvement of all sectors of society. In this role, she will replace Asha-Rose Migiro of Tanzania."

  This was dutifully transcribed and reported; at that day's noon briefing, Inner City Press was denied any follow up questions, which others were allowed.

Even a simple Internet search finds a report from Uganda dated July 10, a mere three weeks before, that

"Former ministers Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe, Syda Bbumba and current Fisheries minister Ruth Nankabirwa were yesterday implicated in the loss of more than Shs10 billion through a presidential project to support small businesses. There were also accusations that the suspected perpetrators who have been summoned to appear before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) passed off the project as a vote-winning scheme ahead of the 2011 election."

  Did this and other things show up in the UN's "due diligence" before giving Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe the position? Or are the legal problems the REASON the UN post was given?

  Jump cut to August 1, when Ban was giving her the post, and Nesirky was refusing any follow up questioons from the Press. Now the Ugandan media reported on questioning elsewhere:

"Former Ministers Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe, Syda Bbumba and current Fisheries minister Ruth Nankabirwa were yesterday questioned by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on allegations that they aided embezzlement of public funds used by the ruling party to finance its campaign in 2011 general elections. The President had directed that the money should not be released during election time."

  The questioning took place on July 31 - the day BEFORE Ban gave Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe the UN position. Did the UN check into the results of the questioning?

  Inner City Press and the new Free UN Coalition for Access have been opposing limits on questioning, including a mere three minute briefing that was not re-opened on the record, at least not on camera, the refusal of follow up questions, and the refusal by at least one Under Secretary General, Herve Ladsous, to answer critical Press questions (video here).

This is how Press questioning ended, at the UN in New York, according to the UN's own transcript:

Spokesperson Nesirky: Yes, last question to Mr. Abbadi?

[Inner City Press, and/for FUNCA: How can that be the last question?]

Spokesperson Nesirky: Why can’t it be the last question, Matthew?

Inner City Press: I have a lot of questions for you.

Spokesperson: Well, tomorrow is another day.

Inner City Press: Well, you did this yesterday, as well.

   Notably, on Inner City Press' July 31 question of the identity of the company UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous signed a contract with for drones, Nesirky withheld the answer until the August 1 noon briefing, read it out to all at once (Selex ES Falco) then took no follow ups. 

  Inner City Press got and reported some other answers on August 2; its questions submitted early on August 4 have yet to be answered as of this writing. But we will report all answers and communications. Watch this site.