Who Picked Ban's Google+ Hangout Guests, Soft on UN, No Cholera or War Crimes Qs?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 10, updated -- Partnering and not for the first time with Google, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday afternoon took scripted questions over YouTube and Google+ from six young people, up to 29 years of age, from the US, Kenya, UK, Brazil and Sri Lanka.

It was unclear how the questioners were selected. (Inner City Press submitted this as a question, but it was not answered by the end or this publication.) The youth jobs question came from the self-proclaimed owner of a technology company receiving investment from a Hong Kong billionaire.

A questioner from Nairobi, Kenya -- from where there appeared to be two -- asked how to avoid discrimination by ethnicity while combating terrorism. While this might seem to refer to crackdowns on ethnic Somalis when Kenyan including soldiers suffer losses to Al Shabaab, Ban's answer was to tout the UN's bureaucratic CTITF, then thank Kenyan "women and men" as troops in Somalia.

The UN is under fire for having brought cholera into Haiti and then refused to acknowledge or try to make amends for it. Inner City Press wondered, including online, whether the "hang out" would include this Haiti cholera question, about which Inner City Press also asked at the day's noon briefing.

Ban, as it happened, brought up Haiti but largely to praise the band Linkin Park. When they came to the UN, Inner City Press asked some band members about the complaints of Haitians against the UN, but the band did not answer.

It appears that Linkin Park, like Google or at least the executive who moderated the hangout, vaguely believe the UN to be only good, that promoting the UN without any questioning or accountability is a good thing in itself.

Perhaps most strikingly, this small Google+ plus hangout included a youth (of 27 years old) in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Despite the controversy about the UN there, with many Tamils feeling sold out by the UN and Ban, and Sinhalese nationalists denouncing the UN Human Rights Council for its recent vote, the question was about Rio + 20, from a UN Volunteer. Who selected this guests? The question remains.

Through the UN site and otherwise, Inner City Press asked again how Ban can say nothing about having as an adviser on peacekeeping Shavendra Silva, whose 58th Division is depicted in Ban's own Panel of Experts report as engaged in war crimes, and why Ban's "minders" now seek to hinder press coverage of this. The question itself has led to pushback, and was asked again at Tuesday's noon briefing. Watch this site.

As Linkin Park Joins UN on Energy Citing Haiti, No Cholera or BofA Coal Answers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 8 -- As four members of the band Linkin Park stood with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on November 8 talking about people in Haiti, five blocks south the plight of the more the six thousand Haitians killed by cholera which four reports say was brought in by the UN was being discussed.

Inner City Press, carrying a copy of the Petition for Relief filed with the UN on behalf of the Haitians ran to Ban Ki-moon's stakeout with Linkin Park, but Ban Ki-moon was gone.

Band member Mike Shinoda was speaking about participating in Ban's "Sustainable Energy for All" initiative, co-led by Charles Holliday the chairman of Bank of America, protested at Occupy Wall Street for being the number one funder of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Inner City Press asked Shinoda and the three others about the UN's role in the cholera in Haiti, and about Bank of America, MTR coal mining and if they would use their access to make the UN improve. Video here, from Minute 19:47.

Shinoda gestured to Ban Ki-moon's adviser on such issues, Bob Orr. Band member Brad Delson took the microphone but did not directly answer. He spoke about solar lamps the Linkin Park fan base helped purchase. He said, "We're here for humanitarian issues.. we're not politicians, we're musicians." Not a politician yet, one wag snarked.

But it's clear that the UN, and the UN Foundation wanted Linkin Park to appear with Ban. So how will the band use this access, given that the UN has so far claimed immunity when charged with misdeeds and negligence in Haiti and elsewhere?

Again Delson answered for the band, if not responded: "We're talking about solutions we believe in." Fine. To raise money for lamps in Haiti is good. But to appear, twice now, with Ban Ki-moon and the UN, one might expect some due diligence, some follow through. What do the (other) members of Linkin Park incluing Rob Bourdon and Joe Hahn who were at the stakeout but said nothing, and fan base, think of Bank of America and its practices?

Bob Orr finished up, saying that for sustainable energy "we need everyone on board." One wag wondered: BP? Bernie Madoff? It would seem a line is drawn somewhere: the question is where.

Footnote: Orr also said, "We are not hiding any facts... Yes Bank of America is involved." But less than an hour later at the UN's noon briefing when Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky why Orr is not even named on the list of Ban's senior officials making public financial disclosure, Nesirky had no answer. Watch this site.

Amid Cholera in Haiti Demand to UN for Negligence, Ban Brags With Linkin Park

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 8 -- More than a year after the cholera outbreak began in Haiti, on Tuesday lawyers seeking compensation from the UN for the victims spoke to the Press about the Petition for Relief they've filed with the UN Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, and the Office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Video here.

Inner City Press asked lead counsel Ira Kurzban if similar evidence existed against a private corporation, if it would support the relief he is requesting. Absolutely, he said, the evidence is clear. There was no cholera in Haiti before the UN brought in peacekeepers from a region of Nepal beset by cholera.

Kurzban and Brian Concannon of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti said that the UN has been engaged in a cover-up, both of cholera among the contingent from Nepal and through the purportedly independent study Ban Ki-moon commissioned.

As Inner City Press asked the UN about with regard to Port Salut, where the most recent publicized incident of sexual abuse by UN personnel occurred, there is still evidence of the UN dumping garbage and sewage. IJDH says it wants to force an improvement of the UN's practices in Haiti.

But can they break though the UN's usual immunity?

The petition for relief says that the Status of Forces Agreement "requires that the UN establish a standing claims commission to settle all third-party claims."

Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky at Tuesday's noon briefing if MINUSTAH had, in fact, established such a claims commission. Nesirky said the UN is "studying the letter" from IJDH. But it is about the letter, it is a factual question: was a claims commission ever established, and has it adjudicated any cases?

Immediately after the IJDH question and answer session Inner City Press saw on UN Television -- which did not broadcast the Haiti press conference -- Ban Ki-moon speaking at the stakeout below his office with members of the Linkin Park band, mentioning the UN's good work in Haiti.

Inner City Press ran to the North Lawn building but was told that Ban Ki-moon has already left the stakeout. Inner City Press asked the members of Linkin Park, who had also spoken about Haiti, about the cholera issue.

They did not answer, deferring instead to Ban's Assistant Secretary General for "global goods" Robert Orr. The Linkin Park / Orr stakeout is a separate story. But tellingly, and as uncontroverted and unexplained by Nesirky, Orr is not even named on Ban's list of senior officials making public financial disclosure in 2010. Watch this site.

On Haitian Rubble, UN Ban's Estimate Is Amended Overnight, Downplaying Cholera

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 17, updated -- Bragging to Central American leaders about the UN's performance in post-earthquake Haiti on March 16, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that “by the end of this year we expect roughly half the rubble is being reused, recycled or disposed of an an increasing rate.”

At least this is what Ban's spokesperson's office e-mailed out to the Press at 6:56 pm on March 16.

Eight hours later at 3:10 am on March 17, Ban's office sent a new version of his Guatemala City remarks, this time portraying Ban has having said only that “The rubble is being reused, recycled or disposed of at an increasing rate.”

Did Ban's expectation for “roughly half the rubble” change overnight? The new version was labeled “amended,” as if Ban and his remarks were a Constitution or draft resolution such as the one on Libya Ban was missing during his Central American foray.

Earlier on March 16, Inner City Press had asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky for the UN's response to criticism published that day in The Lancet, saying that the UN had under-estimated Haitian cases of cholera by nearly 100%.

Both are just estimates, Nesirky replied reading from notes. So what was wrong about the estimate about “roughly half the rubble” that Ban reportedly said in Guatemala City? Watch this site.

Update: on the UN's panel on cholera in Haiti, and its causes, Inner City Press on March 16 asked Nesirky when the report will finally be ready, and if it will be public. Late March or early April, he said, and yes. We'll see.

Ban in another foray this year, to Los Angeles, did a "Facebook townhall meeting" about Haiti with the band Linkin Park in which cholera in Haiti and its causes were barely discussed.

In a recent interview, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park explained the session: "we got an email from the UN. They were asking if we wanted to do a meeting wiht the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon."

With Libya on fire, and Haiti under-estimated, who is Ban e-mailing now?

Update of March 18: When Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky to explain the amended transcript and, separately, the state the UN's expectation of when 50% of the rubble would be addressed, Nesirky said he would deal with this outside of the briefing room. After that, and not receiving an answer from Nesirky by email or otherwise for 24 hours, Inner City Press asked again at the March 18 noon briefing.

Nesirky said it was an error by his office. When Inner City Press asked, without regard to the unamended or pre-amendment Ban statement, when the UN expects half the rubble to be addressed, Nesirky repeated that the first statement was an error by his office. But what is the UN's expectation? Watch this site.