In Liberia, UNICEF Calls Quarantine in Schools "Not Ideal," But Is the UN Involved?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 17 -- When UNICEF's Sarah Crowe upon her return from five weeks in Liberia held a UN press conference on October 17, she described people quarantined in a school surrounded by barbed wire.

  Inner City Press asked her about the UNMEER mission -- there was no answer -- and if international and national staff in Liberia have the same right to medical evacuation (she referred the questions to UN Medical; it hasn't been answered.)

  Anecdotally, Crowe said she wasn't checked for Ebola or fever at JFK Airport or in Europe. She said that when she got back to Manhattan and told a bus driver where she'd been, he loudly asked if she should be getting on the bus. (For the MTA's information, it was the M15 First Avenue line - but was it appropriate?)

   On quarantines, Inner City Press asked Crowe what UNICEF's and the UN system's position is, for example on that of the West Point neighborhood in Monrovia. Crowe called the situation in the school "not ideal," saying that the people quarantined inside wanted to leave.

UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous on October 14 said his DPKO officials "are working closely with Liberia's security agencies to plan future security operations conducted in the context of the state of emergency."

  Inner City Press asked, what does that mean -- UN Peacekeeping participation in curfews? Cordon and quarantine? Martial law if it comes to that? 

  Early on the morning of October 15, Inner City Press put these questions and others to three spokespeople of the UN Mission in Liberia, UNMIL. See below. By noon, no responses had been received, so Inner City Press posted the UNMIL mandate question, and one about MEDIVAC, to UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq at the day's noon briefing. Video here.

  Despite the fact that Liberian authorities have already engaged in a quarantine, of Monrovia's West Point neighborhood, Haq called the questions hypothetical, and had no direct response to UN staff's demand that the right to medical evacuation be assured.

  Inner City Press had put that question, as well, to UNMIL's spokespeople, along with these, based on whistleblowers' complaints to the Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access:

"This is a Press request for confirmation or denial that SRSG Landgren rents living quarters in Monrovia, (2) from the Swedish government / embassy (or if not, from whom), (3) at a cost of over $8000 a month. Also, please describe the medical evacuation procedures that have been in place for UNMIL staff for the past six months. One further question: it has been said that UNMIL officials 'are working closely with Liberia's security agencies to plan future security operations conducted in the context of the state of emergency.' Please explain, including stating whether UNMIL would take part or assist in quarantining, curfews or even martial law."

  This has been UNMIL response, hours later to these questions:

Dear Matthew, You can attribute these to me:

On the SRSG’s accommodation, the UN does not disclose its staff members’ personal information.

Decisions to medevac are made on a case-by-case basis and depend on factors such as the stage of the disease and the ability of receiving facilities to take patients.

Best regards,

Russell Geekie, Chief of Public Information
United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)

  How the UN spends money, including to house its high officials, is not private - the UN is ostensibly a public organization, and certainly spends the public's money, as FUNCA has pointed out. 

  "Case by case" does not sound like the right to medivac that staff are demanding. We'll have more on this.

  As to planning for "security operations" in Liberai, Ladsous should answer - but he has refused Press questions (video compilation here), blocked the Press' camera (Vine here) and more recently his Officedemanded that an on the record interview about DPKO bringing cholera to Haiti not be aired.

  But the questions should be answered, as should the impact on this mission in Mali of its chief, Bert Koenders, so quickly leaving to become Dutch foreign minister. Inner City Press wrote about this early on October 14; at the day's noon briefing UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq wouldn't even confirm that Koenders is leaving. This is the Ladsousification of the UN.

  Back on September 24 for the UNMEER Ebola response mission, UN official Tony Banbury said “we're moving 470 four by four vehicles” into the impacted zone of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

  Inner City Press asked Banbury if these vehicles are all coming from existing UN Peacekeeping missions. Banbury replied, “some peacekeeping missions are downsizing [so] all of them are coming from peacekeeping missions.”

  As Inner City Press exclusively reported a week ago, as the final point in an otherwise positive profile of this UN mission's lightening speed, the UN is seeking to withdraw vehicles from its mission in Darfur, where it is also accused by whistleblowers of covering up continued killing of civilians.

The UN seems to have no problem pulling its vehicles and forces out of Darfur - the only problem is getting the government in Khartoum to agree to big Western transport planes to fly into Darfur to move the vehicles.

  Banbury continued that “some are very close to the end of their serviceable life for the UN. The requirement in some cases is for burial parties, to transport corpses.”

  Banbury said the UN is told by doctors that “after use for that purpose for a length of time, it should be burned.”

  So the UN is bringing peacekeeping vehicles from Darfur, to transport corpses in and them burn them. Watch this site.

First Person: NYC 7 Train Fills With Smoke Under E. River, MTA Silent, Lines Stay Closed

By Matthew Russell Lee

NEW YORK CITY, June 2 -- A New York City subway on the 7 line running east from Grand Central jolted to a stop on the night of June 2, under the East River, and filled with smoke. Inner City Press photo here, picked up with credit by NBC, here.

  There were no announcements by the train conductors or MTA. Riders began pushed their way back from where they thought the smoke was coming from, yelling for others to hurry up, knocking some down.

  But when the door between subway cars were opened, more smoke came in. There was panic. Some covered their faces with their shirts, photo here; others began to pray. In one car a man said loudly, “My cousin died in Nine-Eleven.”

New York City and its Metropolitan Transit Authority have been given many reasons to improve. Long since Nine-Eleven, in The Bronx we had a major derailment, which Inner City Press covered in detail. Promises were made. But the system remains sclerotic, unable to respond quickly to anything.

The 7 train was jammed although it was pasted 10 pm, because the MTA had stopped all service on the N, Q and R lines, shunting all of those passengers to the 7 line. Amid the smoke-filled pandemonium, some were still calculating how to get home: the 4, 5 or 6 north to catch the E train? Others continued to pray, preparing themselves for death.

The train lurched backward toward Grand Central, but then stopped again. A woman began to scream; others tried to calm her. One man, with a thick Irish accent, joked that bad things happen when the New York Yankees lose. 10 to 2, another said. Oh my God.

   A half-station under the United Nations at First Avenue has been reported on by Inner City Press, but the MTA did not use it.

  There were still no announcements by the train conductor or MTA. One rider opened the side window; smoke came in. Finally the train pulled back into the Grand Central stop, where the platform was jammed. Photo here. People bought bottles of water from the news stand; one woman fell to the platform, writhing. Still no explanation.

The N, Q and R were not re-opened; no new E trains came. Stoic New Yorkers set off on foot. “Take a picture to show your boss,” one rider shouted. It inched toward midnight...

Update: above ground, the three e-mail alerts from the MTA were:

11:05 pm: b/d, 7 trains are running with delays, due to a FDNY activity at 42 St. Allow additional travel time.

11:09 pm: Main St bnd, 7 trains terminate at Vernon Blvd, due to a FDNY activity at 42 St. Allow additional travel time.

11:22 pm: Times Sq bnd, 7 trains terminate at Hunters Point Av, due to a FDNY activity at 42 St.

  That's it...

  

Police Push Occupy Wall Street Out of Zuccotti Park Again, American Spring?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 17 -- When Occupy Wall Street rallied Saturday night in Zuccotti Park, police began to assemble on Broadway and Liberty Street. In the part, a small green tent went up, no more than a tarp hung on a line between two trees.

There was chants about an "American Spring," and against banks: "hit the road, banks, and don't ya come back no more." Then the police moved in.

First they surged in from Broadway, pushing the crowd back. Some were arrested and pulled up to Broadway where a paddy wagon was filled.

To the south of the park, a march arrived with a band playing Irish music on bagpipes, on this St. Patrick's Day. The police shut that down too. An MTA bus showed up, "Not in Service," to be filled with other arrestees. From inside an arrested tweeted there were 16 others; it was Bus Number 6694.

A woman flopped on the sidewalk; people said she had a seizure. Photos on www.twitter.com/innercitypress; video here

While the crowd was focused on that, police and security from Brookfield Properties, the owner of the prviate public public, rushed in with metal barricades to close off the park again. Meanwhile more NYPD vehicles showed up.

As Inner City Press sought information about the woman with the seizure, a three wheel police scooter drove up fast and did not stop. It was Vehicle Number 3530, in from the 78th Precinct.

Soon a wall of police was pushing the crowd south on Broadway to Thames Street. The police pushed, and some people fell down. But the police kept pushing forward.

Who ordered this crackdown, several in the crowd asked. There was some ugly back and forth. Buzz went through the crowd of more arrests, further north, and a march set off. American Spring? One hopes the focus remains on the banks, which continue to get over. We'll see.

Occupy Wall Street Target JPMorgan Paid Police Monitors, Paid Blair for Occupied Palestine

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- As over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested Saturday by the New York City Police Department, in the scrum at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge there was talk of mega-bank J.P. Morgan Chase having given money to the NYPD.

It's hardly hidden: the bank's web site brags that

"JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD's main data center."

Given that the protests are largely directed that bailouts to and abuse of the political system by JPMorgan, Citigroup,Bank of America, Wells Fargo and prospectively Capital One, it is certainly relevant, and to many troubling, that the police take money from the very target of the protest.

The police will use the money for laptops and "security monitoring software" - would that target the anonymizer app Vibe that's emerged, created by Hazem "White Hat" Sayed?

Ray Kelly, widely touted as a candidate to replace Michael Bloomberg as Mayor, offered his "profound gratitude" to JPM Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Will this relationship and the mass arrests be explained?

Chase-funded police block bridge, (c) MRLee 10/1/11

And what of the use of MTA busses to arrest protesters, as photographed by Inner City Press in its story last night? On Sunday morning, Inner City Press asked the Transit Workers Union Local 100 for its comment and what it will do. Watch this site.

MTA bus used for arrests. Who's driving? (c) MRLee 10/1/11

JP Morgan Chase stands accused of improper involvement not only in New York City policing, but in corrupting the Middle East peace process through UN envoy Tony Blair, who is also a JP Morgan consultant.

For some time Inner City Press has asked the UN, and Blair himself after a New York City meeting of the Middle East Quartet, about his involvement in cell phone deals in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, without answer.

On Friday, September 30 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky:

Inner City Press: I am sure you’ve seen these stories of late about Tony Blair. Often you’ll say, speak to Tony Blair. It’s not that easy to do, as you might imagine. So I wanted to ask the UN side of it. These articles are saying that increasing questions have arisen about the double service of Tony Blair for J.P.Morgan as a consultant and as the Middle East peace envoy. And they point to particular deals around cell phones... I don’t expect the UN to say anything anti-Blair, but what is the UN’s role in reviewing those conflicts of interest? Is there a kind of review that’s done for other UN officials to view whether the outside activities or other activities of Tony Blair conflict with what he does for the UN system?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, as we have said before, Tony Blair is the Quartet envoy. He is the Representative of the Quartet. He is not the UN envoy in the Quartet. That is not his role, okay? And so, I think you’re knocking on the wrong door here.

Inner City Press: who does the review of whether there is a conflict of interest? Is it just up to Tony Blair himself or is there some, does the Quartet have some secretariat or administrative body to review these charges?

Spokesperson: Well, I think you’d need to check with, first of all, I think it’s right, you could certainly check with Tony Blair’s office in the first instance. But, also of course, you could check with the other participants in the Quartet, as well. But, just to be clear, it’s not a UN role.

So JP Morgan Chase with its money can corrupt the UN Middle East process -- then say "it's not a UN role." And the bank can pay the New York police, which mass arrests those protesting its bailout. What's next? Watch this site.