Targeting Press, UNCA Stokes Sri Lanka Extremists Now as in 2012, Its Turtle Slow and Exposed

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 -- In 2012 Inner City Press received death threats from extremist supporters of Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa government, triggered by a United Nations Correspondents Association proceeding against it that was likened to a kangaroo court.

The UNCA president at the time threatened to sue Inner City Press for reporting on it, so see this summary from the UK based Sri Lanka Campaign.

As detailed below, still now in 2013, UNCA is playing to the same audience. After UNCA's “new” president Pamela Falk of CBS took photographs while Inner City Press' office was raided by the UN on March 18, trolls not only from UNCA but from Sri Lanka have re-emerged: anonymous as always.

After the UN raid, which not only Falk but apparently other UNCA “leaders” photographed, a BuzzFeed article of March 22 contained photos that the UN will not explain. The UN's Stephane Dujarric has said the photos are not “ours,” leaving it unclear if this means only the UN Department of Public Information or other DPI allowed in on March 18.

Among the anonymous commenters on the BuzzFeed article, beyond some obviously with UNCA, there are at least two with a Sri Lanka focus.

There is a “David Knutsen,” which makes allegations echoing those of Margaret Besheer of Voice of America about long ago college attendance. But this David Knutsen has commented elsewhere twice trying to link Inner City Press to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, merely because it reported on war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Where did Knutsen make these comments? On the “Turtle Bay” blog, which tellingly never reported on the March 18 raid on a journalist's office in the UN, nor for example on UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous openly refusing questions from Inner City Press in May and October 2012 press conferences, stakeouts on November 27, December 7 and December 18, and now on March 24. Turtles are slow, apparently.

There, Knutsen linked to a blog about the International Monetary Fund reporting of Inner City Press, with a comment from one “Arash,” that “Matthew Russell Lee is [a MF] who deserves to be tried for being a sponsor of terror.”

On the same blog, an “Al Paul” opines the Inner City Press “deserves to be invesitgated [sic] and brought to justice in Sri Lankan courts for supporting terrorists.”

And now, on BuzzFeed, an “ArashPaul” rants that “I just checked out some of his blogs and his incessant attack on the UN spreading cholera in Haiti... We hear of some illegal outfits funding his one man crusade to damage people's reputation.”

Apparently those source are dead people in Haiti. But this is who UNCA was playing to in 2012, and is playing to now. 

  In 2012, when Inner City Press got death threats, UNCA vice president Sylviane Zehil said, "I have nothing to do with this." Denis Fitzgerald of Saudi Press Agency demanded, who funds you? Louis Charbonneau of Reuters smirked and said, "Tell NYPD." This is UNCA. Watch this site.

Censorship Before UN Raid, Camera Shoved in Photographer's Face at UNFCCC in Durban, FUNCA on the Case

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 -- While the UN's raid on Inner City Press' office on March 18 was extreme, in that while Inner City Press was never notified other were allowed to photograph, including Pamela Falk of CBS, the president of UNCA and now it appears other UNCA “leaders,” there have been other UN crackdowns on the media.

  We have reported on photographs being ordered to be deleted inside the UN's Headquarters in New York. Even when raised by the Free UN Coalition for Access to the Department of Public Information, the only response has been DPI's Stephane Dujarric communicating to Aramark, the UN's cafeteria and tent contractor.

  Since the March 18 raid, FUNCA has been contacted by another photographer, Orin Langelle, about being roughed up by security the UNFCCC meeting in Durban: an “officer shoved my camera into my face to prevent me from documenting the detention and expulsion of a UN-accredited delegate that occurred on 8 December 2011.”

  Langelle wrote in, “Dear colleagues at Inner City Press, yesterday, it was brought to my attention the actions taken by the UN in invading your office. I am not a bit surprised. I am providing some links concerning an assault on me while I was on assignment for Z Magazine during the 2011 UN climate conference (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa. I find that the UN security and UN officials operate without any principles that the UN is supposed to uphold regarding the rights of media.”

The links largely speak for themselves. Langelle adds, that “on 9 December 2011, I witnessed members of the media being shoved up a staircase to prevent them from reporting the actions of UN security who were ejecting people protesting the failing negotiations near a high level plenary room. Shoving the media, or anyone for that matter, up a staircase is dangerous and people could have been injured. That was clearly an act of censorship and reckless endangerment by UN security.”

FUNCA's perspective is that the responsibility goes above the security or DSS officers. For the March 18, 2013, raid they were called in by the Department of Public Information. And DPI up to the highest level has so far refused to provide basic information: who did they let into the office, who took photographs and to whom did they give them? We will continue on this.

In 2012, Lending Disparities Continued at Citi, Chase, BofA & Wells as Fed Lax, Inner City Press Studies and Challenges

By Matthew R. Lee

SOUTH BRONX NY, March 30, 2013 -- In the first study of the just-released 2012 mortgage lending data, Inner City Press and Bronx-based Fair Finance Watch have found that the Big Four banking behemoths Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo continued with high cost loans and disparities by race and ethnicity in denials and higher-cost lending.

  2012 is the ninth year in which the data distinguishes which loans are higher cost, over a federally-defined rate spread of 1.5 percent over Treasury bill yields.

  The just released data show that Citigroup confined African Americans to higher-cost loans above this rate spread 2.09 times more frequently than whites in 2012, Fair Finance Watch has found.

  Citigroup confined Latinos to higher-cost loans above the rate spread 1.83 times more frequently than whites in 2012, the data show.

 “Even after the bailouts, lending disparities grew worse and not better," said Fair Finance Watch. "Regulatory laxity, at least on fair lending, has continued despite the financial meltdown caused by predatory lending."

  For JPMorgan Chase, the disparity for African Americans in 2012 was 1.7; for Bank of America it was 1.61; for the largest of Wells Fargo's many HMDA data reporters, the disparity for African Americans in 2011 was a whopping 2.32.

  "The Federal Reserve is becoming more and more bank-friendly, including with recent Freedom of Information Act appeal denials by Governor Jay Powell, formerly a hedge funder and Deutsche Bank official Jay Powell. It remains unclear if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will get to this problem," Fair Finance Watch continued. "The disparities in the 2012 mortgage data of these banks further militate for aggressively watchdogging and breaking up these banks."

  Instead, the Fed allowed the creation of a fifth mega-bank in Capital One when it acquired ING DIRECT and the subprime assets of HSBC. 

  In 2012, Fair Finance Watch has found, fully 9.93 percent of Capital One's mortgage loans to African American were higher cost loans, versus 7.61 percent of Capital One's loans to whites. To Latinos, the percentage was even higher: 10.31 percent.

  And so Fair Finance Watch and Inner City Press have re-doubled watchdogging. Challenged by the groups in 2012 and still pending, with FOIA issues, are applications by Customers Bancorp and by M&T, to acquire Hudson City Savings Bank.

  Regulators had allowed Hudson City in 2011, for conventional home purchase loans in the New York City Metropolitan Statistical Area, to make 765 such loans to whites and only FIVE to African Americans (and only 44 to Latinos). Meanwhile, Hudson City denied the applications of African Americans 3.21 times more frequently then those of whites.

  In March 2013 Inner City Press and Fair Finance Watch began a challenge to Investors Bancorp's application to acquire Roma. In the NYC MSA in 2011 for conventional home purchase loans, Investors Bank made 220 such loans to whites, and only TWO such loans to African Americans. Its denial rate for Latinos was FIVE TIMES higher than for whites.

  The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act required that the 2012 data be provided by March 31, following March 1 joint requests by Fair Finance Watch and Inner City Press. Several banks did not provide their data by the deadline, despite confirming receipt of the request. Further studies will follow: watch this site.

In Lawless UN, CBS Pamela Falk's Trolls Akin to Racist EMT Supporters, But UNaccountable through UNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 -- In the past week, an Emergency Medical Technician in New York City Timothy Dluhos was exposed for racist tweets. In response, using anonymous Twitter accounts, his supporters have “trolled” the New York Post reporter who wrote the story.

  By week's end, the New York Police Department issued guidelines about its personnel's use of social media, whether in their own name or anonymously.

  But in another corner of Manhattan not subject to any laws or rules, the UN raid Inner City Press' office on March 18. It allowed the president of the UN Correspondents Association, Pamela Falk of CBS, to take photographs. Neither she nor the UN has explained why.

  On March 22 photographs of Inner City Press' office and bookshelf appeared on BuzzFeed, sent in by an anonymous e-mail account “Concerned UN Reporter.” This same commented anonymously on the resulting story, as did what are obviously other UNCA “leaders.”

  The UN has refused to disclose who its Department of Public Information let into Inner City Press' office on March 18 without its knowledge or consent. 

  Pamela Falk from her CBSNews.com e-mail address has issued a legal threat to Inner City Press to not even ask why she took photographs, or UNCA's and her role in passing raid photographs to BuzzFeed.

  This followed Falk screaming at Inner City Press in front of DPI on February 22, saying that to even contact UNCA leaders' big media employers to ask about their policies “might constitute a crime.” Really? What crime?

  The UNCA leaders are now using at least six anonymoussocial media accounts to try to undermine Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access. This trolling is not acted on by UNCA president Pamela Falk -- hereinafter, Queen of the Trolls.

The big media employers of the trollers apparently have no rules, or don't enforce them. This is what happens in a lawless corner of New York -- for now. And it's getting worse. Watch this site.

Footnote: Over on BuzzFeed, the UNCA “leaders” continueanonymous posts (compared yesterday to statements from Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, Denis Fitzgerald of Saudi Press Agency and Bloomberg's UN reporter. 

  The Brazilian co-founder of the Free UN Coalition for Access Luiz Rampelotto, on the record as his media Europa Newswire and with his photograph, continued his manifesto: “even UNCA have more credability then you if you keep using a fake name to discredit someone! Put up or buzz off! I know! I know! The minute you put your real name, you will be representing your 'Big Media' company and they will fire you.” Watch this site.

At UN, Ladsous' Refusal To Answer on DR Congo Rapes Began in 2012 on Haiti Cholera, UNCA Assisted Him, Video Here

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- When UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous on March 28 simply refused on camera to answer a Press question about his inaction for four months on 126 rapes in Minova by his partners in the Congolese Army, you'd think something would have been done.

   Video here, at Minute 4:29 and 5:53.

   After all, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has claimed a “zero tolerance” policy about rape, and more specifically a “Human Rights Due Diligence Policy” supposedly stopping UN support to army units which rape.

   But while Ladsous technically works for Ban, he was in fact give the UN peacekeeping job by the French government, which has appointed the last four occupants of the post.

   Ladsous was rejected for the job by Kofi Annan, and was not then-President Nicholas Sarkozy's first choice in 2011. But the UN thought Jerome Bonnafont was too brash -- for bragging that he had the job while in India, his posting at the time, as reported by Inner City Press.

   So France said, take Ladsous. Without any interview. Just take him. And Ban did.

   Inner City Press reported that, including that the French Mission to the UN told French media the morning of the announcement that it would be Bonnafont.

   Agence France Presse Tim Witcher then asked the UN Correspondents Association to censure Inner City Press for its report. Inner City Press fought back -- AFP was in no way the source, Inner City Press doesn't read their reports and hadn't even noticed Witcher to that point.

  Other big media in UNCA, Reuters' Louis Charbonneau and reporters from Bloomberg, Al Arabiya and BBC, among others, sided with AFP for their own reasons, and the fight was on.

  Ladsous, still mad about the Press reports, latched on to the UNCA fight and at a press conference on May 29, 2012 openly refused to answer Inner City Press' questions. 

  Click here for (newly edited) video.

  The UNCA “leaders” did nothing about this open refusal to answer questions by a UN Under Secretary General. In fact, one of them blamed it all on Inner City Press. Not enough of a lapdog?

  Flash forward to March 28, 2013, when the story Inner City Press has pursued since November 2012, the rapes in Minova, has been half leaked to, who else, Agence France Presse. Inner City Press asks Ladsous, at the Security Council stakeout, to be more specific and name the rapist units “and if not, why not.” Video here at Minute 4:29.

  Ladsous pretends he hasn't heard, asks for other questions. From who else? Tim Witcher of AFP. And then another French reporter.

  Inner City Press asks again, about the four months and Ban's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. Ladous walks away from the microphone. Video here from minute 5:53.

 In most governments, at least in democratic countries, such an official would be fired. And at the UN? Watch this site.

After UN Raid, CBS Pam Falk's Anonymous Trolls of UNCA Contrast With Brazilian's On-Record FUNCA Manifesto

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- While the UN raided Inner City Press' office on March 18, without notice or consent, it allowed Pamela Falk of CBS, the president of the UN Correspondents Association, to take photographs.

  In 2012 this UNCA tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN for stories it published about the fourth French chief of UN Peacekeeping in a row, Herve Ladsous, and about war crimes in Sri Lanka.

  In 2013 under Falk, UNCA has gotten worse, for examplepassing photographs of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf to BuzzFeed though an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail address.

  The UNCA leaders then followed up with anonymous comments under that and other monikers, including “Chocorama,” “UNmediadefend” and “Mundo111,” previously used to send an UNCA letter to the Guardian UK. Click here.

  Yes, Inner City Press has been critical of the UNCA leaders, particularly since the 2012 expulsion attempt. But its critique are on the record, in its name.

  We have previously shown the connection between Mundo111 in 2012 and the 2013 defense of Voice of America in a comment on BuzzFeed.

  But who are the elusive or ashamed UNmediadefend, the exotic Chocorama, the ubiquitous Concerned UN Reporter?

  Chocorama's repeated focus is on how Inner City Press is funded. This question was raised in the UNCA Executive Committee by Denis Fitzgerald, then a “judge” and now, perhaps as a reward, an Executive Committee member at large. Audio here.

  It was and is a strange fixation for Fitzgerald, who while employed by the Saudi Press Agency spend time tweeting and faux blogging about soccer, Ireland and sucking up to the UN how ever possible. 

  While operating as a hatchman in 2012 he said his acts shouldn't be linked to his employer, the Saudi Press Agency. What was that about transparency and (oil) funding?

  Concerned UN Reporter uses a unique phrase, calling Inner City Press a “cyber bully.”

  In the UNCA Executive Committee in 2012, it was Bloomberg News' UN reporter Flavia Krause Jackson who introduced that term. 

  It seemed strange, that publishing on the record a story about how Ladsous got the UN Peacekeeping job, then following up with Agence France Presse tried to get the story condemned or taken down, could be considered “cyber bullying.” But there it is.

  It is understood that Bloomberg News, unlike AFP or Reuters, instructed its UN reporter to stand down from prosecuting and voting against the Press. But Bloomberg has no rules on related anonymous trolling?

  UNmediadefend, in defense of UNCA, insists on its stated 200 members -- out of more than 2000 reporters accredited each year by the UN. Of the listed 200, many have long left the UN, some are retired. But UNmediadefend doesn't care -- and why not, it is anonymous.

  By contrast, Brazilian photographer Luiz Rampelotto of Europa Newswire who co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access commented on BuzzFeed, with name and picture, on the record. That is one of the difference between FUNCA and UNCA, now known as the UN Cowards' Association. There are others.

  A point here is that Falk and the rest have been on notice of anonymous UNCA social media accounts for some time, and have done nothing (except use them).

  A “David Spring” -- NOT his real name -- commented to BuzzFeed that Inner City Press made a reporter cry. This was a topic raised and used in 2012 by Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, then as now the first vice president of UNCA.

  To explain, an Italian reporter at the UN took so much offense to Inner City Press quoting another correspondent about the unfairness of so many Italian media getting offices, and all near each other as “Italian row,” that she cried.

  Inner City Press apologized but seriously, the UN's unfairness in given out office space has had to be raised in 2013 as well. Three separate affiliates of the US State Department, including Voice of America, each have separate offices, while other countries' wire services were asked to share space. Who's crying now? Watch this site.

Obama Didn't Raise Sierra Leone Ousting UN Envoy, Malawi's DRC Roles

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- After a staged Washington whirlwind of the leaders of Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Malawi and Senegal this week, on Friday US National Security Staff Senior Director for African Affairs Grant Harris took press questions about the visits.

  Inner City Press asked, regarding Sierra Leone, what the Obama administration thought of Ernest Bai Koroma having thrown UN envoy Michael von der Schulenburg out of the country as an “obstacle” to his re-election.

  No, Grant Harris answered, that did not come up. At the UN, even UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant told Inner City Press it was troubling.

  But the US wants friends or partners in Africa, for example talking up Senegal's role in Mali -- where apparently the real muscle with be a French “parallel force” which French Ambassador Gerard Araud this week would not or could not tell Inner City Press would be under any UN control.

  Inner City Press also asked Grant Harris if Joyce Banda's talks, including with Defense Secretary Chuck Hegel, had touched on Malawi's role as one of three brigade contributors to the Democratic Republic of Congo “intervention brigade” approved by the UN Security Council on March 28.

  It didn't come up in that level of specificity, Grant Harris replied. But did it come up even at all? Watch this site.

As Arms Trade Treaty Failed, New Low by UN Cowardice Association UNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- While diplomats milled around UN Conference Room 1 waiting to learn how theirlack of consensus on the Arms Trade Treaty would be phrased, what were the leaders of the UN Cowardice Association up to?

  Using their anonymous social media accounts to try to claim a victory for their role in the UN's raid of Inner City Press' office on March 18, at which UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS took photographs. 

  Then anonymous UNCA leader “Concerned UN Reporter” passed photographs including of Inner City Press' bookshelf to BuzzFeed. This is UNCA: the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  Their new anonymous social media accounts are associated with most members of the UNCA Executive Committee: Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, Tim Witcher of Agence France Press, Melissa Kent of CBC, Syliane Zehil of L'Oriente Le Jour, even Barbara Plett of the BBC and others pictured below.

  There's also former Executive Committee member Margaret Besheer of Voice of America, and former former Evelyn Leopold. But absentee president Falk, after screaming on February 22 that she didn't know which of her board members were behind the accounts, has done nothing to find out. Is she resigning?

Ban's UNCA Lunch of the Lost, Feb 7, 2013, credit Evan Schneider, UNPhoto. From left: OSSG's Del Buey; Denis Fitzgerald of Saudi Press Agency; OSSG's Nesirky; Melissa Kent of CBC; Sylviane Zehil of L'Orient le Jour; Tim Witcher of AFP; Ali Barada of An-Nahar; Ban Ki-moon, Kahraman Halicelik of Turkish Radio & TV; Pamela S. Falk of CBS; Lou Charbonneau of Reuters; Bouchra Benyoussef of Maghreb Arab Press; Yasuomi Sawa of Kyodo News; Masood Haider of Dawn; Unknown; Zhenqiu Gu of Xinhua; Stephane Dujarric of UN DPI

  Falk has only issued a legal threat to Inner City Press, from her CBSNews.com e-mail account, not to question why she took photos of the March 18 raid by the UN Department of Public Information.

  DPI is aware of the fake social media accounts and claimed to take them seriously. DPI's Stephane Dujarric is followed by a recently created one. But so what? Watch this site.

At Arms Trade Treaty, Woolcott Accused of Breaking Word Until Russian Point of Order

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- During the Arms Trade Treaty talks which failed on Thursday night, many called president Peter Woolcott fair and an honest broker.

  But according not only to Syria but other countries, it broke down at the end.

  Syria's Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari exclusively told Inner City Press that Woolcott had committed that once an objection was made “crystal clear,” he would announced there was no consensus, no adoption.

But after it was clear that Iran was blocking consensus, then North Korea and Syria, Woolcott gave the floor to Mexico and others to argue that the ATT should be adopted nevertheless, “since there is no definition of consensus.”

These arguments continued until Russia made a point of order, that it IS clear what consensus means, and that none existed here.

Then and only then did Woolcott say that he'd always thought it had to be by consensus, and none existed.

Ja'afari told Inner City Press he asked to speak again, and was told that if he did, he would be “last.”

Afterward a number of other countries, including some not opposed to the ATT, said that Woolcott was a tool of the big countries. “He let Mexico speak to try to change the atmosphere in the room... You see he only stopped when a big country like Russia spoke up,” one arms expert told Inner City Press.

Another said, we can't just change the rules. Another said, the US pushed for the ATT to be under the rule of consensus, to be able to block it -- then “pushed Iran to block it.”

Inner City Press asked the head of the US delegation about this; he did not disagree, including saying, it's not a criticism. Alright then. Watch this site.

Update of 9:30 pm - We'd be told there would be a Woolcott stakeout, to get his side. But it's canceled. To be fair we'll make his argument: there was a list of speakers.

Update of 10:26 pm - after a long stand off resulting in the phrase, “there was no consensus and the draft decision was not adopted.” There's laughter, cheering - and a cloud over the UN.

No Consensus on Arms Trade Treaty, Some Try to Re-Define Consensus

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- The Arms Trade Treaty talks were to have concluded this afternoon; chairman Peter Woolcott has scheduled a press stakeout at 6 pm.

But as delegates continued milling around in Conference Room 1, Inner City Press observed the UN Television stakeout being taken apart at 6:10 pm.

By 6:45 pm, Iran, North Korea and Syria had formally objected, blocking consensus. Mexico and some others argued that the ATT could still be adopted -- without a vote -- since there is no definition of consensus.

But Syria cited a definition, from the World Health Organization in 1987. Russia echoed that. Iran went further, saying that those trying to change the rules should “leave the building.”

Iran had earlier spoken up with sample objections; sources told Inner City Press their main issue was the inclusion of a reference to UN Security Council Chapter 7 sanctions, which they are under.

North Korea, too, is under them. So is Sudan, but several sources told Inner City Press Sudan does not want to stand alone, or even, as a source put it “be seen as one of the rogues.”

But there are principles, and the proponents of the ATT if they wanted consensus might have paid more attention to them.

As delegates milled around on the first floor, Inner City Press nearly alone staked out the second floor protocol room NLB-2109. Iran's Permanent Representative came out with his Syrian counter-part Bashar Ja'afari. Soon thereafter, the objections were made, then the attempts to re-define consensus. Only at the UN. Watch this site.

On Minova Rapes, Ladsous Refuses to Name Battalions After 4 Months, 1 Question

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- Even while the UN says that UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous has belatedly set a second “final” deadline for action on the 126 rapes in November in Minova by two battalions of the Congolese Army, Thursday Ladsous flatly refused to answer Press questions on camera.

   Inner City Press asked Ladsous to name the two battalions or to explain why not -- that is, why this silence and cover-up does not further impunity.

   Ladsous looked around, finally finding his favorite and longtime lapdog, Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, who dutifully asked a get-away question. In order not to hinder any other journalist's work, Inner City Press waited while another French journalist also asked Ladsous a question, in French.

   Then Inner City Press asked more directly, why did Ladous wait four months (so far) on the 126 rapes? What does this say about Ban Ki-moon's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence policy?

   Ladsous did not answer, walked away from the microphone. This week the UN has refused to answer a simple Press question about the training for UN peacekeeping missions of more than 800 troops from 23 countries -- in Nepal, from where the UN brought cholera to Haiti. What safeguards are in place?

   Ladsous won't answer that one either. There remains, it seems, only one question for Ladsous. Watch this site.

Footnote: by contrast, Inner City Press' DRC questions were taken by France's Gerard Araud and the DRC foreign minister, who would not name any action on Minova to be taken before Monday. So what is wrong with Ladsous? Like we said, one question.