UN Guterres Puts American Atop UN Political Affairs, Rosemarie DiCarlo, Susan Rice's Deputy

By Matthew Russell Lee, Periscope

UNITED NATIONS, March 28, updated – In the week former US diplomat Jeffrey Feltman is leaving the UN Department of Political Affairs after more than five years, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is naming another former US diplomat to succeed him: Rosemary A. DiCarlo. She was the deputy US Ambassador under Susan Rice; one wonders how it is that the Trump Administration chose her are "their" American, just as French placed Lacroix as its Frenchman at UN Peacekeeping, and the UK placed Mark Lowcock. Earlier, sources told Inner City Press the push was for Trump ally Dina Powell, but that she didn't want it. 

But Rosemarie DiCarlo? Inner City Press' experience with her is not negative -- she spoke up, to some degree, on the slaughter by the Sri Lankan government in the Tamil north - and technically she is a long time / civil servant. But again: Susan Rice's Deputy? Is this really who the Trump administration put forward? The same Trump who has named John Bolton, also with his history at the UN, as National Security Adviser? In the minutes after the announcement, one UN official told Inner City Press maybe Trump didn't nominate DiCarlo. Another said, Maybe Trump just doesn't care (about the UN position, which the US has controlled under Obama via Lynn Pascoe and Feltman). As a matter of reporting, we'll have more on this. How untransparent is the UN under Secretary General Antonio Guterres? On February 9, after Inner City Press exclusively reported that the UN's top Middle East post is slated for Susanne Rose with only "basic Arabic," Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq refused Inner City Press' questions about the selection process. 

The top UN Political Affairs position belongs to the United States. With Obama-nominee Jeffrey Feltman set to leave by March 31, now Feltman has used his final days to name an ally or protege to head the Middle East and Western Asia Division, to continue his views even under his replacement. It is Susanne Rose, who worked for Feltman in Beirut. But she speaks only "basic Arabic." There is grumbling in DPA - and elsewhere.  

Here's from the letter, by Feltman's deputy Miroslav Jenca since Feltman is in South Korea with Guterres, or to create the illusion of recusal: Rose was "Political and Economic Counselor in Beirut, Middle East Officer in Rome (where she spent the first year as an exchange diplomat at the NATO office of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, and Economic Officer in Trinidad and Tobago.... Susanne speaks French, Italian, Spanish, German, and basic Arabic. She was born in Berkeley, California, and has a 14-month year old Havanese dog named Tartufo." 

Senior staff and diplomats have been asking Inner City Press which American will replace Feltman. On January 25, amid complaints of Guterres' silence and long weekends away, a name emerged leaving some shaking their heads: Dina Powell. "She's perfect," one said of Trump's deputy national security adviser for strategy of whom spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she's "returning home to New York. She’s expected to continue working with the administration on Middle East policy issues from outside the White House." Why not from the UN? (Some now tell Inner City Press she has declined the post.) Inner City Press notes she's been spotted in Davos, where Guterres at the last moment did not go. "Really?" demanded another, alongside a controversial Serbian government presentation in the UN Delegates' Entrance. Stranger things have happened. Guterres gave his "Global Communications" position to an official, Alison Smale, who refuses to answer Press questions even about whistleblowers'complaints about her Department of Public Information. 

Another Brit Martin Griffiths seems destined to take over the UN's Yemen envoy post, perhaps taking with him some staff currently assigned to Staffan de Mistura for Syria. Other Department of Political Affairs posts have already been given away, but not yet announced. Until now. 

To head the UN-affiliated International Organization for Migration (IOM), the US on February 2 nominated Ken Isaacs of the group Samaritan's Purse, active in Sudan and elsewhere. Inner City Press at the UN has been pursuing the story it first exposed of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres having recently met Sudan's Omar al Bashir, indicted for genocide in Darfur by the International Criminal Court, without even notifying the ICC in advance, as required. So after the US nomination, Inner City Press visited Isaac's Twitter account, to see if he'd opined on Guterres' unprecedented move. Isaacs' Twitter account, @KenIsaacs1, was accessible to the public; he had re-tweeted about the Nunes memo. 

But by February 3, the account was protected, not accessible. Photo here. Perhaps it's a function of the upcoming election among IOM member states, the scrutiny of involved officials - like Guterres himself. But what *does* Isaacs think of Guterres meeting with Bashir, indicted for war crimes in Sudan, without even telling the ICC in advance, and not disclosing it until Inner City Press asked at the UN noon briefing on January 29? Question here. Watch this site. 

Today's UN of Antonio Guterres, who just metwith ICC indictee Omar al Bashir, and his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed who has refused Press questions on her rosewood signatures and now the refoulement of 47 people to Cameroon from "her" Nigeria, has become a place of corruption and censorship. Amid UN bribery scandals, failures in countries from Cameroon to Yemen and declining transparency, today's UN does not even pretend to have content neutral rules about which media get full access and which are confined to minders or escorts to cover the General Assembly. 

Inner City Press, which while it pursue the story of Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng's bribery of President of the General Assembly John Ashe was evicted by the UN Department of Public Information from its office, is STILL confined to minders as it pursues the new UN bribery scandal, of Patrick Ho and Cheikh Gadio allegedly bribing President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa, and Chad's Idriss Deby, for CEFC China Energy. 

Last week Inner City Press asked UN DPI where it is on the list to be restored to (its) office, and regain full office - and was told it is not even on the list, there is no public list, the UN can exclude, permanently, whomever it wants. This is censorship...

US Nikki Haley Questions Monthly Palestine Meeting, ICP Asks If OK-ed Feltman Extension

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 16 – When US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley spoke to the press on February 16, she questioned why the UN Security Council meets every month about Palestine. 

  Inner City Press, returning from the UN noon briefing where it asked about UN corruption, asked or tried to ask Ambassador Haley if the US supports the UN's decision to extend the contract of Obama-nominee Jeffrey Feltman through April 2018. Video here. We will continue to pursue an answer to this, and believe others will as well.

  The US blocked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' nomination of the Palestinian Authority's Salam Fayyad to be UN envoy to Libya. Inner City Press asked the UN about the nomination earlier on February 10, noting that its sources told it the nomination was really by Jeffrey Feltman, the Obama administration's appointee to head the UN Department of Political Affairs. Can Feltman stay on, given the new Administration in Washington?

  Did Antonio Guterres err in nominating the PA's Fayyed on February 8, then heading out on a 12-day trip just as the US expressed disappointment and blocked the nomination?

   Nikky Haley, US Permanent Representative to the UN, issued a statement on the evening of February 10 that “The United States was disappointed to see a letter indicating the intention to appoint the former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister to lead the UN Mission in Libya. For too long the UN has been unfairly biased in favor of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of our allies in Israel. The United States does not currently recognize a Palestinian state or support the signal this appointment would send within the United Nations, however, we encourage the two sides to come together directly on a solution. Going forward the United States will act, not just talk, in support of our allies.” 

That the UN would be naming a successor as its Libya envoy to Martin Kobler of Germany was reported by Inner City Press in December along with the name of one of the candidates, the UK's Nick Kay. 

  Later, after Antonio Guterres took office at Secretary General, a Permanent Member of the Security Council confirmed to Inner City Press the candidacy of Kay adding that there was "another strong candidate" while declining to name that candidate.

  Guterres has written to the Security Council that "following the usual consultations" he is giving the post to longtime Palestinian Authority politician Salam Fayyad, some are asking of just what these consultations consisted.

  Already significant forces in Libya are opposing the nomination; others are linking it to Jeffrey Feltman, the Obama Administration's head of UN Political Affairs who has arranged to stay on until July 4 so that his UN pension vests. How will this sit with Washington?

  On February 10, Inner City Press asked the UN spokesman, Transcript here: 

Inner City Press: there's a silence procedure.  Right?  Because the letter dated 8 February is out, and it says that António Guterres, following the usual consultations, is… is proposing Salam Fayyad as the new… I mean, people have seen the letter.  So I guess what I'm wondering is, what were these consultations?  Did he speak to the US Mission?  Did he speak to people in control in Benghazi?  Can you give some sense… I guess there's already some questioning of this, and I'm wondering, what consultations?  Is it only with the Security Council or with others?

Deputy Spokesman:  There's a normal process of consultations that occurs when envoys are selected, and part of that policy for envoys that report to the Security Council involves informing the Security Council.  That's the only real detail I'd be able to share at this stage. 

   The president of the Security Council, Ukraine, told Inner City Press silence expires at 5 pm on February 10...

  They note that the Trump administration, in its draft Executive Order, proposes cutting US funding to any UN entity which allows the Palestinian Authority as a member, and is discussing cutting funding to the PA. Was the US Mission to the UN consulted? Which Mission? 

  And what of Nick Kay, formerly UN envoy to Somalia, now back with the US FCO? Does Kobler return immediately to the German foreign service, where he still has a position as he told Inner City Press when questioned about his predecessor at UNSMIL Bernardino Leon selling out to the UAE diplomatic academy? What Under Secretary General post will Germany get in the UN? Watch this site.

Exclusive: UN Wastes Funds Keeping Clinton-Aligned Feltman So His Pension Vests, UN Says Early Days

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 – The United States has controlled the UN Department of Political Affairs under former Clinton State Department official Jeffrey Feltman, and Inner City Press is informed by whistleblowers that Feltman is trying to stay on at the UN until July 4, 2017.

  The reasons, the whistleblowers tell Inner City Press, is so that Feltman's UN pension can "vest."

 But is it wise for the UN to spend taxpayer money in this way, keeping on an official so closely aligned with Hilary Clinton?

 Inner City Press put the questions directly to Feltman:

"Dear Mr. Feltman - These are Press questions very much on deadline, very straight forward:

1) When does your contract with the UN end?

2) Separately, please confirm or deny that your contract got extended.

3) Separately, that your contract was extended through June.

4) Separately, that this was related to your UN pension vesting.

5) Entirely separately, whether Katrin Hett is taking up a position in the Secretary General's office.

6) Separately, does this involves a jump from P4 to P5?

As noted, very much on deadline. Thanks in advance for your answers, asap."

  Current UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, also a holdover, does not answer Inner City Press' management and reform questions, most recently about a UN "Hospitality Log" of wining and dining, click here for that. In fact, Dujarric and the UN threw Inner City Press out of the UN without a hearing, and restrict it still.

  After publication of the above, it was not Feltman but surprising Dujarric who replied:

"Matthew, I know you had some questions regarding Mr. Feltman and others.

Here's our answer

As we are still at the beginning of his mandate, the Secretary-General is considering the status of his senior officials to ensure a continued smooth transition. This also includes the staffing in his immediate Executive Office for which various departments have contributed staff."

 As the UN remains unreformed after Ban Ki-moon's ten years ended with corruption, long asked about by the Press, exposed, budget cuts are coming.

 In Washington executive orders are being prepared to cut up to 40% of the US' contributions to the UN, and to fully cut funding to entities blamed for violation of human rights.

  One obvious question is whether the total denial of due process for whistleblowers - already part of US law - and investigative press which covers UN corruption constitutes such a violation.

  For example, the UN Department of Public Information under Cristina Gallach in early 2016 threw Inner City Press out of the UN, dumping its investigative files onto First Avenue, without a single hearing or opportunity to be heard, and no appeal since. 

All this for seeking to cover an event in the UN Press Briefing Room which was nowhere listed as closed, and leaving as soon as a single UN Security officer said the Spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, wanted Inner City Press out.

Gallach had a conflict of interest, having been asked by Inner City Press about her own links with Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng, facing trial (like Ban Ki-moon's nephew and brother) on bribery charges.

There are no rules, only the one-person fiat rule of an official dumped on Ban's UN by Spain, where she had previously managed, at most, seven people as spokesperson to Javier Solana. Nothing has been done; eleven months later Gallach still requires Inner City Press to have "minders" to cover the UN Security Council. 

  The cuts, and a new US Ambassador, are coming. Six days after a confirmation hearing in which she called for accountability at the UN, including for peacekeepers' abuses, Nikki Haley on January 24 was confirmed to replace Samantha Power as US Ambassador to the UN.

  This came after at least two business days of no photos replacing those of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the US Mission to the UN. 

  On January 24, Inner City Press asked former UN official, now Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom about Haley's call to defund countries whose peacekeepers abuse. Tweeted video here. There are reforms needed at the UN.

  Back on January 18 before Haley spoke as nominee for US Ambassador to the UN, Senator Bob Corker said he sometimes wondered if just-left Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had a pulse.

  In fact, Ban was quite active in helping his own relatives at the UN, promoting his son in law to the top UN job in Kenya, his brother mining in Myanmar with a "UN delegation," indicted nephew using Ban's name to sell real estate.

  When Haley began, she said the UN has a "checkered history." That's being diplomatic. Consider a head of Peacekeeping who has linked rapes to R&R, video here.

  Consider a head of the UN "Department of Public Information" who did no due diligence over indicted UN briber Ng Lap Seng - then evicted and still restricts the Press which asked here about it. Audit here, Para 37-40, 20b; NYT here.

   In response to questions, Haley praised the UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone, questioned the one in South Sudan and that country's government. She noted that countries make money off their peacekeepers. The case in point, we note, is Burundi, here.

Exclusive: On Yemen, UN Had Planned May 11 Talks in Geneva But US Kerry Said No, UN Sources Tell Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- The UN's bungling of Yemen mediation has become ever more clear, according to multiple sources and documents exclusively seen by Inner City Press.

  On April 29, Inner City Press asked the UN's deputy spokesperson to confirm that the UN was considering Geneva as a venue to continue Yemen talks, after its previous envoy Jamal Benomar resigned in protest of Saudi airstrikes and was replaced by a more amenable envoy, Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

   UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq replied that “we do not officially have a venue yet.  Geneva is certainly one of the venues that is being considered, and that may very well be where it's taking place.”

   After that, Inner City Press has learned, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who discourage -- rejected, in essence -- the date of May 11 in Geneva which the UN had put in writing, in multiple documents since seen by Inner City Press.

  The UN's argument, tellingly, was the May 11 would work well for Ban Ki-moon's schedule (he would be returning from his May 9 attendance of Victory Day in Moscow) and that the Houthis were more likely, but not certain, to attend in Geneva rather a Saudi selected venue.

   In an echo of the UN's failing mediation on Syria, the UN acknowledged that while Iran should attend in Geneva, Saudi Arabia might refuse to attend in Iran did. 

 And so the UN's idea was a Yemeni-only event in Geneva, with Ban Ki-moon to speak and then leave. New enovy Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed would then conduct consultations -- like Staffan de Mistura is doing on Syria, the UN analogized without apparent irony -- and perhaps move the ongoing talks to Muscat, Oman.

  (Involved in all this planning, not surprisingly, has been American Jeffrey Feltman, previously of the US State Department. While a nice enough guy, this combined with France's even more open domination of UN Peacekeeping through USG Herve Ladsous, has also caused the UN to increasingly be viewed as partial. The UK controls Humanitarian Affairs through incoming Stephen O'Brien as exclusively reported by Inner City Press, credited byUK Channel 4 and the Telegraph.)

  As to the UN's idea of May 11 talks in Geneva, Kerry said no, that the UN should wait until after the Saudi convened event, now set for May 17 in Riyadh. The Houthis, of course, will not attend that. Ban Ki-moon is invited, but might see it smells of failure or partiality.

   In any event, while the UN has not announced it South Korean sources say Ban will be in South Korea for four whole days around May 20. (Some say he has an interest in running for office there.)

  But if Ismael Ould Cheikh Amhed attends the Riyadh meeting and is put on display on the podium, what possible credibility with or access to the Houthis could he have?

  Tellingly, while others have reported the Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed is going to Paris before visting Riyadh, they have not said why. Inner City Press is informed the Paris stop over is at the request or demand of the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council, who is on vacation in Paris. This is today's UN.

 On April 25, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on April 25 named Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed to replace Jamal Benomar as envoy on Yemen.

  Three times Inner City Press had asked the Office of the UN Spokesperson why Ould Cheikh Ahmed is not listed on Ban's webpage of public financial discloure and to say, yes or no, if he has an interest in a business which received funding from the Gulf. Three times the Office of Spokesperson promised to look into and give an answer, but never did. This is Ban's UN.

  On April 28, Inner City Press asked again:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask on the new Yemen Special Adviser, Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed, there was this understanding of why on the page of the Secretary-General there's no public financial disclosure.

Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq:  Regarding that, we did check with the ethics office, and he has made available his disclosure in line with the existing rules and procedures, and so he is up to date on those.  There are times when for… for a variety of different reasons people's disclosures may not be on the website.

Inner City Press:  But is he one of the officials that's decided to not make even the summary public?  I want… because when the name is listed, there’s a checkbox…

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  I've said what I have to say on that, but he has made his disclosures in line with the appropriate rules and regulations.

Inner City Press:  And also Stéphane had said that he would check whether a letter was received by the Office of the Secretary-General from a number of parties in Yemen concerning the appointment of this new envoy.  Did he do that?  Have you received that letter?

Deputy Spokesman:  I don't know.  This was when?

Inner City Press:  It was on Friday, I believe, that I asked him and he said he would check.  The reports are that the… a variety of the parties in Yemen wrote a letter about the process of replacing Mr. Benomar.  And I wanted to obviously just to know if you got it…

Deputy Spokesman:  Certainly… In the day after you asked, we announced the appointment, so that is part of our answer. And with that, let me bring our guest.  

 So, none of the public financial disclosure which Ban talked so much about. Why not?

 On April 24, Inner City Press had asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

Question:  Okay.  I'm also informed of a letter from political parties in Yemen, including those representing Houthis and others, directed at the Secretary-General making two requests.  One, that Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed not be named as a replacement to Mr. [Jamal] Benomar and that someone be appointed or retained who actually they will speak with.  And I wanted to know… you may not know of this letter yet, but I'm reliably informed it is either there or on its way…

Spokesman:  All right.  I will look for the letter.

Question:  And I guess my question would be, do you… has the Secretary-General… since we've already… we've heard from some of the ambassadors from the Security Council that he's put forward a name.  Did he put any effort to speak to the parties on the ground in Yemen, the actual Yemenis?

Spokesman:  I think the… when we're ready to announce the person, we will.  Obviously, for a… an appointment as delicate as this… as this ongoing… to represent the Secretary-General in this ongoing crisis, it is normal to have as broad of a consultation as possible, and what is obviously extremely important is that once that envoy is named, that adviser is named, that all the parties give him access and engage with him.

Question:  If you get the letter, will you squawk it?  Does it mean that these parties that wrote…

Spokesman:  I think…

Question: …once consulted…

Spokesman:  It's an ongoing humanitarian crisis.  It's an ongoing conflict.  And we are trying to get the political process back on track.  So we'd like to have a special envoy as soon as… a Special Adviser as soon as possible, and again hope that all the parties engage with him.

Question:  Didn't you have one? That's my question.  Didn't you actually have a Special Adviser?

Spokesman:  Yes, we have Mr. Benomar…

Question:  Is it your understanding that he's entirely unwilling to continue in the post?

Spokesman:  Well, I think he's… he's… he's expressed his desire to move on and, as we said, we are… we're in the process of naming somebody shortly.

   No response about the letter, either. This does not bode well.

  After Saudi Arabia was allowed to oust UN mediator Jamal Benomar for being insufficiently supportive of its airstrikes, the UN is being promoted, again, as an honest broker.  How so, when the UN is UNtransparently naming as a replacement mediator an individual who previously failed in Yemen, refusing to make public financial disclosure?   How weak and untransparent is today's UN?  It it apparently considering appointing as replacement envoy to Yemen a partial individual whom one side has indicated it would not speak with.

   

At UN, Javad Zarif Asks Envoy to Syria Brahimi If He Comes to Iran Next, Ishallah Is Brahimi's Reply, Censors Jarba Games

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- "I came to say goodbye," envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi told Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Wednesday. "I am leaving."

  "Leaving to our place?" Zarif asked. "Are you coming to Iran next?"

  "Inshallah," Brahimi said. "Insha'Allah."

  UN General Debate week was over, but at 4:10 pm on Wednesday Iran's Zarif met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his team, on the UN's 38th floor.

  Inner City Press went up for the photo-op, along with other camera-people: four Iranian and one Lebanese, for the station Al Mayadeen. No one else, apparently, cared. But up on the 38th floor, even before the meeting, envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi came into view. A UN Security guard ordered, with authority unclear, not to film Brahimi.

  Also present on the UN side were Jeffrey Feltman, formerly the US State Department's Middle East chief, and Angela Kane, the head of UN Disarmament. There was Ivan Simonovic on human rights, and Valerie Amos on humanitarian affairs.

  There was Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson, seen earlier in the day at the press conference on migration, graciously making sure that the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info got a question, about the death of workers from Nepal in Qatar.

But it was Zarif who appeared most collected and in charge at the beginning of the meeting with the UN. He said in passing this was his third time up here, "once with the President," Hassan Rouhani. As he signed Ban Ki-moon's book he said, I'll give you one more signature.

Ban's just prior meeting had been with Israeli politician Zehava Galon, Member of Knesset and Chairperson of the Meretz Party in Israel.

  After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Tuesday speech -- for which Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky postponed the noon briefing -- and Iran's right of reply, which Nesirky talked over, it was reported as newsworthy that Iran called Israel, Israel. But that as subsequently corrected, that had been done before. What's in a word?

  While the four Iranian and one Lebanese camera-people and Inner City Press were up covering Zarif, Brahimi and Ban, down on the third floor of the UN there was a 4 pm party for the "end of the GA," in a space which only in July hosted a faux UN briefing by Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba. 

  Those are the politics of those running that club or alliance, the UN Correspondents' Association, UNCA, or UN's Censorship Alliance, to which Ban's UN gives a lock clubhouse for faux UN briefings -- the backdoor way into the UN, it's become known.

Nesirky when Pressed to explain why he postponed for Israel but spoke over Iran's reply replied, as transcribed by the UN:

Question: I understand there was a lot of interest in the speech of the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. [Benjamin] Netanyahu, and there have been other times where I’d wished the briefing had been postponed to hear, for example, the Foreign Minister of Rwanda. But, I just want to know what the policy is, because every day in this last seven days at noon there’s been somebody speaking. What’s the policy on when the briefing is postponed for a particular Head of State? Currently, Iran is speaking, giving its response to what Mr. Netanyahu said, and we’re, obviously, having the briefing at the same time. So, I just wanted to sort of ask you that, in an open-ended fashion, what is the policy?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I think journalists who are covering hard news do understand why I would not think it advisable to go head-to-head with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He’s the Head of Government, not the Head of State, by the way; that’s Shimon Peres. And, that’s the first thing. The second is that there is no hard and fast rule. It’s simply to try to help journalists, like yourself, to be able to cover things to the best of their ability. The fact of the matter is that the journalists in this building, for the most part, were focused today very much on what Prime Minister Netanyahu would have to say, and he was the last speaker in the general debate; and therefore, I took the decision that it would be better not to go head to head with Prime Minister Netanyahu, but to listen to what he had to say and to allow the journalists who are covering him to be able to listen, too, and not be… have their attention divided by wondering whether there was anything going to be said at the briefing, for example, about the chemical weapons team that went in today. As for the rights of reply, that’s a separate matter. That is a procedural matter. This was a speech that was the last one in the general debate.

Inner City Press:: And I really appreciate that. My only question would just be… since you’re using this term “hard news” and that this is harder news than other Heads of State or Heads of Government. Isn’t a definition of “hard news” hearing what the other side has to say, which is taking place right now?

Spokesperson: I think you understand the distinction, Matthew, and I think that most journalists in this room and watching this would understand the distinction

Inner City Press: Did you take a poll? Is that based on any polling data?

Spokesperson Nesirky: It’s based on my experience, for a quarter of a century — far longer than you, Matthew — as a journalist. Thanks very much. Good afternoon, thank you.

And that is another reason for the founding of the Free UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info. Watch this site.

   

Behind the News: UN "Irrelevant" on Egypt, Calls a "Failure," African Coup Verdict Overruled, Spoon-Feeding Feltman to Reuters

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 19, updated -- On the crisis in Egypt, why is the UN so irrelevant? In the Egyptian presidency's hour long press conference on August 17, the UN was absent. In the US State Department briefing on August 19, a question about the UN was answered by referring to Secretary of State John Kerry's telephone calls.. with the European Union.

  Inner City Press has interviewed a range of knowledgeable sources on this, including since being first to report on August 15 that former US official, now head of the UN Department of Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman had been arranging a trip to Egypt before the killings of August 14.

  The UN first on the evening of August 15, after Inner City Press' exclusive report, called it a rumor, then spoon-fed confirmation just before the August 16 noon briefing to Reuters, which simply retyped it without adding Feltman's previous US role or that his trip was planned before the killings. (The flow goes the other way too, as noted.)

  Now Inner City Press can report the following: calls by the UN Secretariat of Ban Ki-moon and his deputy Jan Eliasson to current and just-resigned Egyptian authorities are described by knowledgeable UN sources as failures, garnering responses that "Egypt does not need the UN, it has enough expertise" and that Morsi was being held for his own protection.

  Within Feltman's UN Department of Political Affairs, Egypt is not part of the Middle East but rather of Africa. And, sources tell Inner City Press, the African unit of DPA viewed the ouster of Morsi as a coup, as the African Union views it. But they were overruled.

  Now, they ask, how long will Feltman really be working on his pre-planned trip to Egypt? Who will meet with him? [Update: Egyptian diplomats tell Inner City Press: two days.] Will the UN be transparent? Will they make Feltman's schedule at least as public as Ban's or Eliasson's?

  Some who question why even UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Navi Pillay has been more forceful point, in the OHCHR bureaucracy under her to "a Coptic Christian view against the Muslim Brotherhood, like, look the other way for now."

Is this how the UN system is supposed to work? Watch this site.

   

On Egypt, After ICP Reports Feltman Trip & UN Denies, Spoon Feeds to Reuters, Which Has In Turn Spied for UN: Quid Pro Quo?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 16 -- The UN confirmed that its Jeffrey Feltman is going to Egypt, when Inner City Press asked it at Friday's noon briefing. 

  But Thursday night after the UN Security Council meeting, and after Inner City Press had exclusively reported that Feltman would go, the UN Spokesperson's Office called this just a rumor.

  That the UN Spokesperson's Office might not have had the information, from the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's other offices, on Thursday night is one thing. But on Friday at 11:57 am, Reuters' UN bureau ran a two paragraph "report" that

"U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman plans to visit Egypt next week to hear views on the crisis and the way forward, the United Nations said on Friday. 'The schedule is still being worked out. However, it goes without saying that Mr. Feltman intends to meet with a range of interlocutors, inside and outside the government, including the Muslim Brotherhood,' the United Nations said."

  At the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey how this information had been released.

  Who is this "United Nations" that speaks to Reuters? If it is some sort of faux whistleblower in the Department of Political Affairs, that's one thing. But other alternatives are less palatable or acceptable.

It has been demonstrated that Reuters' UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau, as first vice president of the UN Correspondents Association, gave an internal anti-PressUNCA document to UN official Stephane Dujarric, three minutes after saying that he wouldn't. Charbonneau wrote, "You didn't get this from me."

Story here, audio here, document here.

   Now Reuters is spoon-fed information that the UN Spokesperson's office had told others was mere "rumor" after Inner City Press reported it, along with uploaded audio of Egypt's Permanent Representative Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil said that "we have been contacted by the Secretariat" of the UN, "Mr. Feltman expressed his interest to go." He said, through Egypt's Mission to the UN, Feltman asked "to set up a number of high level meetings and we have done so." Inner City Press audio online here.

How does this UN work? We'll have more on this. 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.