On Minova Rapes, 2d Final Warning Was By Meece, Not Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- Since the Congolese Army raped 126 women at Minova from November 20 to 22, Inner City Press has been asking UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous if the UN would just keep supporting the rapist batallions.

Ladsous refused to answer, on November 27, December 7 and December 18. After Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon on March 5, Ladsous' DPKO on March 7 handed a half answer to friendly scribes from AFP, Reuters and a few others.

On March 8, when Inner City Press asked at the noon briefing, DPKO's February 18 letter to the Congolese authorities was called “final.”

On March 27, Inner City Press asked what is the status of suspending support?

Later that day, it was promoted through lapdog AFP that Ladsous had offered another “final” warning to the DRC's foreign minister on March 27

When Inner City Press asked about it at an abbreviated UN noon briefing on March 28, Nesirky replied that on the 25 of March Roger Meece met with vice prime minister and minister of defense to give a final letter that would term of all support to 2 battalion should not action be taken immediately - in seven days.”

So, another “final” warning -- not initially by Ladsous, either. But you wouldn't learn that from his lapdogs. Watch this site.

On Minova Rapes, Ladsous Tells AFP Lapdogs, 4 Strikes & Maybe You're Out

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- When if ever will the UN act on the 126 rapes from November 20 to 22 in Minova by the Congolese Army, its partners?

  On March 27 at the UN's noon briefing Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky just that. Nesirky said he would get the answer from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which is run by Herve Ladsous.

  After that, without any response to Inner City Press, the answer was given -- not for attirbution of course -- to Ladsous' favorite lapdog, Agence France Presse.

  Previously Inner City Press noted that Ladsous made a mockery of Ban's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy by adopted for mass rape a “three strikes and you're out” policy.

  Now it is conclusively worse: Ladsous had given ANOTHER threat, as on February 4 and February 18, to the Congolese foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda at least pretend to take action or, God forbid, the UN might suspend some assistance to two unidentified rapist units of the army.

It and Ladsous -- and the scribes who channel him without analysis -- are a joke. Yes, lapdogs.

Ladsous, it will be recalled, refused to answer about these 126 rapes when asked at the Security Council stakeout onNovember 27, December 7 and December 18 (mic seizing video here, any UN public action not shown.)

  Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon himself at the stakeout on March 5.

  The result was Ladsous' DPKO giving a misleading half answer on March 7 -- but only to friendly scribes from his favorite, Agence France Presse, as well as Reuters and other wires (NOT the wire service of Russia, which has had the Security Council presidency in March and whose pilots were killed for DPKO in South Sudan in December).

Inner City Press objected, in writing, and while answering a question to another journalist on March 8 Tim Witcher of AFP hissed, “lies and distortion.” Inner City Press replied, “Lapdog.”

Witcher of AFP and Michelle Nichols of Reuters, whose repertoire consists almost entirely of craven re-typing of UN hand-outs or things seen on UN Television, filed complaints against Inner City Press with UN Security, entirely based on speech and publication.

The UN repeatedly demanded a written response charges it never showed or even summarized to Inner City Press.

Citing Franz Kafka, Inner City Press refused until it was shown a copy, and told what the rules are. Inner City Press complained in writing to the head of the Department of Public Information on March 15.

On March 18, DPI conducted a raid of Inner City Press' office without notice or consent, went through papers, and took photographs. Also taking photographs was Pamela Falk of CBS News, the president of the UN Correspondents Association on whose Executive Committee sit Tim Witcher of AFP and Nichols boss, Louis Charbonneau of Reuters.

The photos, including of Inner City Press' papers and bookshelves - what is has been reading - were given to and published by BuzzFeed on March 22.

Despite specific requests at the UN noon briefings of March 25 and March 26 that DPI disclose who it let into the office, who took pictures and who they gave them to, DPI has refused.

Now Ladsous has struck again, handing the “news” of his four strikes and you're out policy to AFP et al. Inner City Press says again: Lapdogs. Will there be new bogus complaints? Another raid? Something more? Involving Ladsous? Watch this site.

IMF Defensive on Cyprus & Lagarde Legal Bind, Ignores Africa, Tunisia, Answers ICP Late on Sudan

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- The seizing of bank deposits in Cyprus was not surprisingly the main focus of the International Monetary Fund's bi-weekly embargoed press briefing on Thursday.

In a careful worded and repeated response, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice called the situation in Cyprus “complex and unique in nature” and said the precedent of savings account levies would be “difficult to extend to the rest of Europe and the world.”

Rice was asked, but does the IMF want to extend it? Reference was made to Spain and Portugal. Rice repeated the same line. It was reminiscent of the claim that the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Kosovo was “sui generis.”

Still non-Africa, Rice took questions about Ukraine (online) and on Slovenia, from Bloomberg. Tellingly, Slovenia's prepared to put an IMF-er in as its finance minister.

Rice was asked, diplomatically, about Christine Lagarde's “legal problems in France” and if the IMF's governing bodies had been briefed on them. Rice said she is able to continue her work, but would not discuss any briefing of the board.

Of the proposed BRICS development bank, Rice was asked though not by the Western wires. Rice said the IMF is following the challenge “with interest” since infrastructure in Africa is also of interest to the IMF.

Is it? Inner City Press submitted, by e-mail and twice through the IMF's Online Media Center, questions on Sudan and Tunisia. Receipt was acknowledged, but neither was read out much less answered. Infrastructure, indeed. Watch this site.

After not taking the question, afterward an IMF spokesperson replied to Inner City Press:

We welcome the recent security and oil-related agreements between the two countries, which could enable South Sudan’s oil production to resume and relieve the economic pressures that have been building up since oil was shutdown in January 2012. The Fund stands ready to continue supporting both countries going forward.

We are providing policy advice to the Sudanese authorities that would allow them to address the domestic and external imbalances, which resulted from the secession of South Sudan. The Fund is also providing well targeted technical assistance in key areas like tax policy and administration, public financial management, banking sector reforms and exchange rate reforms.

As you know, we have also launched a three-year capacity building program for South Sudan on key areas including foreign exchange issues, central banking, oil revenue legislation, non-oil taxation, expenditure management, and macroeconomic statistics.

France Won't Compare Mali to Cote d'Ivoire, Yet, MONUSCO Goes Blue

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- After the Mali meeting of the UN Security Council, France's Gerard Araud came out and took questions from the Press. On Mali, Inner City Press asked if the so-called parallel force would be under UN control, who would pay for it, and how it would compare to France's parallel force in Cote d'Ivoire, the Force Licorne.

Araud said that this “didn't come up” but that it was a “real question,” to be discussed at another Council meeting next Tuesday. Other sources said there was grumbling because Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's report on Mali was, for this meeting, only in English.

A reporter from the US State Department asked Araud if he was “still shooting for April 15.” He laughed at the use of the term “shooting” applied to the situation in Mali, then said, “in April.”

On the Congo, Inner City Press asked how the concerns of Troop Contributing Countries like Guatemala and Pakistan were being addressed. Araud emphasized that the French draft is “in blue” and will be voted on tomorrow. He assumed that Pakistan and Guatemala will vote yes.

Inner City Press has inquired if there will be explanation of votes. “Or votes,” was the answer. Watch this site.

UN-Social Media: Fake Ban Ki-moon Tweets, UNCA Fakers As Lapdogs, of UN Peacekeeping, Citigroup, AFP, Reuters

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- Social media and the UN was the topic on Wednesday, when a representative of Mashable and an Internet activist from Egypt took Press questions along with ECOSOC President Nestor Osorio and the UN's Youth Envoy, Ahmad Alhendawi.

Inner City Press asked the two mostly non-UN guests to assess the UN's social media, including Herve Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping which does not answer tweets on Haiti cholera or rapes in the Congo, and the @SecGen Twitter account that Alhendawi that day cited. Video here from Minute 27.

  Mashable's Stacy Martinet acknowledged that the UN could do better. She advised letting other, “lower” levels of the UN do the tweeting.

  Wael Ghonim said that in Egypt, after the revolution, the military (SCAF) started a Facebook page and put its releases there first, bypassing the old media.

  Ahmad Alhendawi, who'd tweeted about @SecGen, said things should be a two-way street.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky replied that @SecGen “is not official, run by well meaning individual, I believe based in UK.” Nesirky said that his office, “without blowing our own trumpet,” has 36,000 followers.

  It is understood that the UN did not ask to shut down the unofficial @SecGen. But would they try to close, say, @RogueBanKiMoon, for example?

  These days in the UN press corps, the old media “leaders” of the UN Correspondents Association have started no fewer than six anonymous social media accounts to try to undermine the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which thanked the panelists on Wednesday, and Inner City Press which co-founded FUNCA.

  In their anonymous accounts, targeted at countries' mission to the UN, the UNCA “leaders” have falsely alleged Inner City Press receives terrorist funding, or -- somehow worse? -- funding from Rwanda.

But who are these leaders of UNCA, now known alternatively as the UN's Censorship Alliance or, due to anonymity, the UN Cowardice Alliance?

  There is UNCA President Pamela Falk, who send out corporate tweets from CBS, does not respond to questions or critiques, and deleted without explanation tweets that were inaccurate and came into question. 

  Falk has not tweeted since March 24, the day after she sent a legal threat to Inner City Press not to even ask why she was taking photographs of the UN's March 18 raid on the Press office.

  There's UNCA Second Vice President Masood Haider of the Dawn of Pakistan, with 87 followers and seven tweets in the 27 days of March including one that simple reads, @nypost.

  There's UNCA Third Vice President Sylviane Zehil ofL'Orient Le Jour with 92 followers and tweets, a recent sample of which is “Citigroup to Improve Anti-Money Laundering Controls,” without any link much less critique or analysis.

  There's UNCA First Vice President and Concerned UN Reporter candidate Louis Charbonneau, most of whose tweets are just corporate pass-throughs from Reuters, as if on auto-pilot. He also religiously re-tweets his Reuters underling Michelle Nichols, who filed a false complaint echoinghis, along with AFP.

  There's UNCA Executive Committee member at large Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, with 127 followers and seven tweets in March, the first of which was a re-tweet of the co-stolen Minova rape story of Reuters' Michelle Nichols, with whom Witcher went on to file a false complaint for being called, accurately, a lapdog.

  We could go on, as they do. Watch this site.

As UNSC Meets Mbeki on Sudan, No Statement, Nor onDarfur, Prodi Compared

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27, updated -- After Thabo Mbeki and Abdulsalami Abubakar had a closed door interactive session with the UN Security Council about the Sudans on Wednesday morning, again no outcome was agreed to.

  The day after Sudan and South Sudan signed their Implementation Matrix, Russia proposed a short press statement of praise. 

  The US wanted something longer including criticism, for example on Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, or their long-pending draft Presidential Statement. Sudan's bragging, reported that morning by Inner City Press, was cited in the Council. In pique, there was no statement.

  And now, again, no statement. Inner City Press asked Russia's Vitaly Churkin if that meant the US draft PRST was still pending. Video here from Minute 5:49. 

  Churkin scoffed, and mentioned that under the current dynamic nothing would be possible to be adopted on Sudan -- or on Darfur, he said, a reference to the pending UK-drafted Presidential Statement.

Update: Mark Lyall Grant of the UK later confirmed to Inner City Press that the Darfur PRST "is being blocked."

  Another Western source, insisting on anonymity, countered that it was Churkin who “blew up the press elements” by saying Russia wouldn't agree to anything that didn't include a lifting of sanction and debt relief. Could this be hyperbole?

  While we'll wait for Russia's response on this -- and will publish it -- a senior UN official complained, it's hard to work for this Council, they won't offer praise even when you get something accomplished.

  That doesn't seem to apply to Romano Prodi in Mali, who has accomplished little but still gets praised. Is there a double standard? Watch this site.

At UN, As Ban Ki-moon Gives DGACM to Gettu of Ethiopia, Echo of Addis Grab at UNDP

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- The day after Tegegnework Gettu of Ethiopia was given the top job at the UN Department of General Assembly and Conference Management, some of the reviews among even African diplomats were less than positive.

  A representative of another large African country complained to Inner City Press, “Under Gettu, UNDP moved so many of its operations on the Continent to Addis.” Another agreed, but shrugged. To the victors go the spoils.

  Inner City Press covered Gettu when he was chief of staff to UNDP Administrative Kemal Dervis. There was the stonewalling about irregularities in the North Korean program of UNDP.

   Later Inner City Press was complained to by Mathieu Koumoin about diversion of funds from Africa to European companies by the UNDP Global Environment Program; Gettu apparently did nothing with the complaint. But would he now?

  On the other hand, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is described as “cheap with USG spots” for Africa. He made Maged Abdelaziz of Egypt his Special Adviser on Africa and many say it's, diplomatically, a hard transition. How will Gettu do? Watch this site.

UN Won't Answer of Failures of Protection in Darfur, of Cholera, Haiti & Nepal Training

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- The UN's or at least its Secretariat's lack of seriousness about Africa, for which it receives most of its funds, is exemplified by the lack of answers, even days later, to questions asked about the UN in Africa.

  The worst culprit is the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous.

On March 25 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky why Ladsous' peacekeepers in Darfur had allowed 31 internally displaced people they were ostensibly protecting to be kidnapped. Neskiry said he would check on that with DPKO.

Inner City Press also asked if the UN's refugee agency UNHCR had transported deposed Central African Republic president Bozize's family inside the Democratic Republic of Congo, and if Bozize himself was in Cameroon.

On March 26, Nesirky had no answer back from DPKO about its failure to protect the IDPs, but he did have an answer from UNHCR: that they had not transported Bozize. 

  It didn't seem to answer the question, but at least unlike DPKO it was a response. Inner City Press has followed up: did Ladsous' MONUSCO fly a Bozize family entourage from Zongo to Kinshasa?

  On another of DPKO's major failures, the introduction of cholera to Haiti along with un-screened peacekeepers from Nepal and DPKO dumping raw sewage into the drinking water, Inner City Press asked about a reported training of over 800 troops from 23 countries for UN Peacekeeping missions -- being held in Nepal.

Any safeguards, to not spread deadly cholera again? Nesirky said he would check with DPKO.

  But by noon on March 27, there were no answers. Inner City Press reiterated the Darfur and Nepal questions; Nesirky said that he had asked DPKO and when he got something from them, he would pass it on.

  But that is the problem. On for example the 126 rapes in Minova, DRC, from November 20 to 22 by the Congolese Army, which Ladsous' DPKO supports, Inner City Press asked again and again. Ladsous refused to answer, directing his spokesman on December 18 to seize the UNTV microphone to avoid the question.Video here.

  The Department of Public Information tells Inner City Press it spoke to Ladsous' spokesman, but nothing has been said publicly about it, and Ladsous still refuses Inner City Press' questions about the deadline he supposedly set for suspending support to two unidentified rapist units. But when?

  So Inner City Press on March 27 asked Nesirky, when is the deadline, has any support of the units been suspended? Nesirky said he would check with DPKO. Right. Watch this site.

UNSC Move Pushed Past April 1, Press Later, No Fridges, Raiders' Pantry?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- At the UN everything gets delayed. Not only protecting civilians in Darfur or responding to having brought cholera into Haiti -- that's been delayed forever -- but even the small things, like moving the Security Council back to its traditional second story home.

  It was going to happen April 1, the day Rwanda takes over the Presidency from Russia. But Monday UN sources who would have worked last weekend to make the move possible told Inner City Press, it won't happened. Sound system problems were cited at the reason.

  Some say the move could take place in two weeks. But does moving it in the middle of a month-long presidency make sense?

  Still, tonight's End of Presidency reception by Russia will be, where else, in the renovated Council's Russian Room. A recent visitor described still some holes in the ceiling, some temporary chairs, and with related to the delay, “electronic problems.”

  There's also a strange "Turkish Lounge" which seemingly will block Press access.

  At an even lower level, the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit has announced it will move on April 15. It says the press will move later, and pointedly says that no refrigerators no matter how small will be allowed in the new offices.

  It was ostensibly to respond orally to written Inner City Press questions on the longer delayed move of the press corps that MALU entered and raided Inner City Press' office on March 18. MALU took pictures and allowed others too.

  Pamela Falk of CBS, the president of the UN Correspondents Association, was there ghoulishly taking pictures. But what for? 

 Falk has sent a legal threat against even asking this question. But we ask it. Who gave pictures to the UNCA “leaders” who passed them anonymously as “Concerned UN Reporter” to BuzzFeed and now comment, also anonymously, on them? They are now up to six anonymous social media accounts. It's nauseating.

Relatedly, why would the UN name even the journalists' pantry in the new space after UNCA? The Free UN Coalition for Access has asked the Department of Public Information, particularly in light of recent UNCA actions, that it be called journalists' pantry, journalists' club, not branded for UNCA. It's literally nauseating. Watch this site.

Mali Mission of UN's Ladsous Mirrors France in Cote d'Ivoire, Reuters UN Bureau as Plant

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- The plan for a “parallel” French force to rule Mali, alongside a Mission of UN Peacekeeping which is headed by the fourth Frenchman in a row, Herve Ladsous, shows how riddled with conflicts of interest and vestiges of colonialism the UN has become.

   Later today the UN Security Council will be briefed on the plan, with a vote slated for April.

   As Inner City Press reported on March 25, France which also “holds the pen” of the Council on the failed former (?) colony of the Central African Republic opposed following on CAR an African Union Communique listing seven Seleka and rebel leaders, including Seleka's Paris based spokesman, for a travel ban and asset freeze. 

 Because who knows better what's right for Africa than France?

  The parallel UN and French force proposed for Mali by Ladsous' DPKO is reminiscent of what France obtained in Cote d'Ivoire, with the Force Licorne running -- in short shorts -- alongside the UN Mission which it also through DPKO controlled.

  Recently Inner City Press asked Amnesty International's West Africa expert to assess the performance on human rights and accountability in Cote d'Ivoire, for crimes committed by the side the France favored and favors. AI called it appalling. 

   Why think it would be better in Mali?

  History is allowed to repeat itself in part because of the lazy and craven media coverage of the UN and its -- or Ladsous' and France's -- plans.

  Take for example the Reuters story by Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau. It consists of mere re-types of the plan “written by Ban Ki-moon” -- who recently in connection with the launch of Tom Plate's book of breezy conversationsadmitted writing very very little. There is no analysis, much less of any conflict of interest by France.

Charbonneau, concerned UN reporter, shakes with Ban, Timermon not shown (c) Luiz Rampelotto

  On March 26, Charbonneau of Reuters was mocked by Argentina's foreign minister Timerman for asking what he clearly viewed as a planted UK question about the Malvinas -- or in Reuters' speak, Falkland -- Islands.

  Did Reuters mention this? Seems not. So why did Charbonneau go and demand the first (and failing that, second) question at the press conference of four ministers from Latin America? 

 To fly the limp flag of UNCA, the UN Cowardice Association of which he is first vice president and Concerned UN Reporter in chief. At least we can say, not only the UK but also France can be channeled. Watch this site.

Falk's UNCA Starts New Fake Account, to Defend Her Photos of UN Raid

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- Since Pamela Falk of CBS became president of the UN Correspondents Association ten weeks ago, the gang has created at least five anonymous social media accounts to try to undermine its opponents.

  The newest one defends the taking and anonymous distribution of photographs of the UN's raid of Inner City Press' office, during which Falk took photographs. 

  Rather than explain why she took them, for UNCA or CBS News, Falk has issued a legal threat against even raising the question, from her CBSNews.com e-mail address. This is not a press freedom organization, from top to bottom. A fish rots from the head.

  Under Falk, UNCA “leaders” have torn down and defaced flyers of the Free UN Coalition for Access, and filed false complaints against Inner City Press based entirely on publications or speech.

  In the newest low, Falk herself on March 18 was ghoulishly taking photographs as the UN raided Inner City Press' office without notice or consent. Four days later, transferred by an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail account, three raid photographs appeared on BuzzFeed.

  What has been the response of Pam Falk? Not to tell her Executive Committee and organization not to sink so low; not to answer a simple question about why she took the raid photographs.

  Rather, after at a February 22 on the record meeting screaming at Inner City Press that it is a “mugger” and “you call yourself a journalist,” Falk on March 23 from her CBSNews.com e-mail address sent Inner City Press a legal threat to not dare even question why she took the photographs and what she did with them.

  Inner City Press has responded in the only free press way possible: it published the threat, and asked CBS News, Up To The Minute and now higher, is this is in fact their legal threat. It is anti anti-free press threat, that media cannot even ask questions, who took the photos?

And while some other have advised against it, Inner City Press will report on the UN Censorship Alliance's anonymous social media. 

  UNCA leaders' witch hunt in 2012 resulted in Inner City Press receiving death threats, and they've tried to push the same buttons in 2013. And so it will be confronted. Watch this site.

On Malvinas / Falkland Islands, Timerman Mocks Reuters, UNCA in Retreat

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 26, updated -- There were dueling press conferences on the Malvinas or Falkland Islands at the UN on Tuesday. 

  Argentina's Foreign Minister Héctor Marcos Timerman told Inner City Press that the US State Department's William Burns wants a peaceful settlement; the UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon offers his good offices.

  Minutes later, UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant said there is no need for Ban's good offices. 

   He recounted that Timerman turned down a meeting with his UK counterpart William Hague because Hague insisted that on this issue, the people living on the island must participate.

  Timerman said that forty percent of the residents were born in the UK. He mocked the UK, and Reuters, when Louis Charbonneau of that wire service asked if some of the residents hadn't been there longer than the Timerman family has been in Argentina.

  Timerman first said thanks for doing your research into the Timerman family, then asked, you did your research, right? As a journalist? Timerman directed several question back at Reuters, none of which were answered.

  This was capped off minutes later when Lyall Grant approvingly quoted the Reuters question, about some Falkland residents being there longer than most Argentinians have been in Argentina.

  That said, Lyall Grant responded to many of the points made by Timerman and the three other Latin ministers, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Cuba, on behalf of CELAC, Luis Almagro, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, of behalf of MERCOSUR and Jose Beraún, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Peru, on behalf of UNASUR. 

(A wag said you could almost feel Hugo Chavez in the room, with these acronyms.)

  Lyall Grant distinguished Gibraltar, when Inner City Press asked about Timerman quoting Jack Straw about that Rock; he said Argentina never made a claim of sovereignty for Sandwich, for example, until the twentieth century.

  Neither side took questions beyond the islands: Timerman turned down two questions on Iran, Inner City Press held off from asking Lyall Grant about the delayed Darfur Presidential Statement, much less the Syria chemical weapons probe. They say no man is an island, but in this case the two press conferences were.

Footnote: Reuters' Charbonneau tried to get the first question, but it was asked by another who was handed the microphone first. He took the second question, and offered thanks on behalf of UNCA, now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance or now UN Cowardice Association, since its “leaders” operate anonymously, in comments and through fake social media accounts.

  Most recently, after ghoulishly taking photographs of the UN's non-consensual raid of Inner City Press' office on March 18, UNCA president Pamela Falk refuses to say why she took the photos, only issues legal threats to Inner City Press for raising the question.

  So Inner City Press thanked Timerman for the Free UN Coalition for Access, in Spanish. Then when Lyall Grant spoke, thanked by FUNCA, UNCA pulled back. Was it the striking similarity on questions, on the relative stay of Brits and Argentines? Watch this site.

Update: here's from UK Mission transcript:

Inn Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about Sandwich and Georgia. I’m sure you heard what he said. He seemed to be saying that these are depopulated or unpopulated and that this proves... the colonial... the overall argument is that they view it as sovereignty and territorial integrity and you’re trying to say it’s self determination. Is there some difference with Sandwich or Georgia islands and what do you make, it seems like it’s a philosophical clash on.. rubric... to view the conflict under it? If an island is empty, what’s the self-determination issue to it?

A: It’s true there’s no settled population on South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia as far as I’m aware and the history of the separate islands is a little bit different, but the sovereignty of the United Kingdom goes back to exactly the same time. The one difference you can do is that Argentina never claimed sovereignty over South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands until the 20th Century, so they were never focussed on that at all, so there is a difference in terms of the Argentinean claim, but in terms of British sovereignty, it covers all three territories.

Inner City Press: What about him quoting Jack Straw, did you hear that one? What did you think of that? He was quoting a former Minister as somehow saying that a referendum was too expensive and wouldn’t change anything. What did you think of his quote?

A: As I understand it, that quote is about the referendum in Gibraltar, which as I say, a very different situation.