FEDERAL COURTHOUSE, February 4 – A cyber hacking of a New York financial institution by a fraudster from Brazil was highlighted on February 4 by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, days after the filing of a much larger civil suit about the hacking of the Bangladeshi Central Bank, a case that will apparently not be heard for six months, see below. The Brazil case involved $750,000; the Bangladesh Bank hack began just under $1 billion, with tens of millions still missing.
On February 4 it was announced that "Marcos Elias, a Brazilian citizen and resident, pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for participating in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $750,000 at financial institutions headquartered in Manhattan using false representations and the stolen identities of Brazilian account holders at those institutions. ELIAS was extradited from Switzerland to the Southern District of New York on August 28, 2018, and entered his pleas of guilty today in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “As he admitted today, Marcos Elias engaged in a sophisticated fraud scheme from Brazil to steal over $750,000 from a Manhattan financial institution. He committed this truly international crime through a front company in Panama, a bank account in Luxembourg, and by using the stolen identity of a Brazilian account holder. Elias now awaits sentencing for his crimes.” Inner City Press will cover that - and this: the Bangladesh Central Bank was hacked for $81 million in February 2016, on January 31 sued in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case is Bangladesh Bank v Rizal Commercial Banking Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-00983. On February 3 in Dhaka Bangladesh Bank's lawyer Ajmalul Hossain said it could take three years to recover the money. The Bank's deputy governor Abu Hena Razee Hasan said those being accused -- in the civil not criminal suit -- include three Chinese nationals. Ajmalul Hossain said the Bank is seeking its hacked million plus interest and its expenses in the case. He said US Federal Reserve will extend its full support and that SWIFT, the international money transfer network, also assured of providing all the necessary cooperation in recovering the hacked money. The Philippines returned $14.54 million in November 2016, so $66.46 million has yet to be retrieved. Now defendant RCBC Bank of the Philippines has hired the Quinn Emanuel law firm to defend it, and it already fighting back in words. RCBC’s lead counsel on the SDNY case, Tai-Heng Cheng, said: “This is nothing more than a thinly veiled PR campaign disguised as a lawsuit. Based on what we have heard this suit is completely baseless. If the Bank of Bangladesh was serious about recovering the money, they would have pursued their claims three years ago and not wait until days before the statute of limitations. Not only are the allegations false, they don’t have the right to file here since none of the defendants are in the US." But it seems the funds were transferred to and through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And as Inner City Press reported in the US v. Patrick Ho case last year, the wiring of funds through New York can confer jurisdiction. Inner City Press will be covering this case. The first paragraph of the 103 page complaint reads, "This litigation involves a massive, multi-year conspiracy to carry out one of the largest banks heists in modern history right here in New York City. On February 4, 2016, thieves reached into a bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (“New York Fed”) and stole approximately $101 million (out of the nearly $1 billion they attempted to steal). The bank account was held for the benefit of Bangladesh Bank, which is Bangladesh’s Central Bank. Bangladesh Bank has had a 45-year banking relationship under which it has placed its international reserves with the New York Fed. The New York Fed is a critical component of the United States’ central banking system and its link to the international financial system." Bangladesh's lawyers on the case are "COZEN O’CONNOR John J. Sullivan, Esq. Jesse Loffler, Esq. Yehudah Gordon, Esq." We'll have more on this.
Debaprasad Debnath, a general manager at the central bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit, Joint Director Mohammad Abdur Rab and Account and Budgeting Department General Manager Zakir Hossain all left Dhaka to head to New York, for the filing of the lawsuit, which Inner City Press will be following.
They say the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which on January 29 was instructed by the US State Department to allow Juan Guaido to access Venezuelan accounts, will be helping its Bangladeshi counterpart to get to the bottom of the hack. Those eyed include Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation or RCBC and some of its officials, and Philrem Service Corporation, casino owners and beneficiaries. Ajmalul Hossain QC, a lawyer for the central bank, is with them to file the case.
It is an interesting twist on the SDNY as venue for the money laundering and FCPA prosecution of Patrick Ho of CEFC for bribery in Chad and to Uganda - in this case, too, the money flowed through New York. Inner City Press intends to cover the case.
UNdisclosed Location, September 13 -- Back on August 14 Brazilian journalist Maurício Campos Rosa of the newspaper O Grito was shot and killed in Minas Gerais as he investigated corruption by the authorities.
Carlos Dias Barbosa, editorial director of O Grito, told radio station Jovem Pan that Rosa feared retaliation, despite not having received direct threats. The station reports that at the time of his murder the journalist was investigating corruption involving city council members and a cooperative responsible for garbage collection.
At the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, embroiled in his own corruption (Ng Lap Seng) and nepotism (son in law) scandals, has said nothing about the murder of this journalist in Brazil. Perhaps if it were in North Korea, since Ban is already coyly running for president of South Korea, as reported by Inner City Press.
As the Egyptian government steps up its crackdown on the media, expelling Liliane Daoud after arresting Yahia Galash, the Sisi-supporting media has stayed quiet or participated. This now extends to the decision by the Shubra Al-Khaima Court to keep in prison journalist Mahmoud Al-Saqa's for an additional 15 days, "pending investigation," and has been criticized by AFTE, below.
Fellow journalist Amr Badr, and human rights lawyer Malek Adly attended Al-Saqa's session on Saturday with head of the Press Syndicate's Freedom Committee and lawyer Tarek Al-Awady.
By contrast, among the silent even in New York is Akhbar El Yom, the publication to whose rarely-present correspondent Sanaa Youssef, who never asks the UN any questions, the UN of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is giving the long time shared office space of Inner City Press, from which Ban's Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach evicted Inner City Press on April 14 (see New York Times of May 14, here).
"The first half of 2016 was the worst in terms of freedom of expression, press, and media under the rule of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression’s (AFTE) quarterly report issued this week. AFTE referred to the incident in May when security forces stormed the Press Syndicate headquarters to arrest two journalists, as well as the trial of three syndicate leaders including the head of the syndicate Yehia Qalash."
Tellingly, it was bragged in Egypt that Ban Ki-moon did NOT call for any investigation of “the killing of hundreds during the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in dispersal. 'The United Nations in Egypt denies the issuance of any statements today or yesterday regarding Egyptian affairs by the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, as was claimed in the media,' a statement read.
To this has Ban Ki-moon's UN descended: denying that it ever called for an investigation, while evicting the investigative Press to give its office to Egypt state media.
Gamal Eid was set to appear in a Cairo criminal court on August 15, along with investigative journalist / human rights activist Hossam Bahgat and others. CPJ, the Committee to "Protect Journalists," is rightly alerting on this - while remaining silent as the UN Secretariat evicts and restricts the investigative Press and gives its longtime work space to an Egyptian state media. Now CPJ and its director are slated continue their UN Censorship partnership on September 16, when they could instead appear in the UN Press Briefing Room, open (at least usually) to all. Hypocrisy?
Sanaa Youssef and Akhbar El Yom don't even arguably comply with the UN's stated rules: she never came to the UN three days a week in recent years, is only being used to censor Inner City Press. In the week of August 8, Ban's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit appeared to service Akhbar al Youm's Sanaa Youssef, being given the Press office as a former head of the Ban-friendly UN Correspondents Association who has yet to ask any question of the UN. From August 22 to September 6 she was entirely absent; upon brief return she asked no question, as Inner City Press asked about Yemen and Ban naming his own son in law to the top UN job in Kenya. On September 7 as Inner City Press pursued this and Ban's spokesman called it "ridiculous accusations" before walking off, she was nowhere to be seen.
On August 11, after Ban's spokesman claimed he was "bullied" in order to evade a Ban corruption question, a duoof MALU's supervisors cruised through the press floor. They are on notice that Akhbar Al Youm never comes, and of much else. Watch this site. On August 15, as Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman about failures in Western Sahara, Yemen and Burundi, and corruption, Sanaa Youssef and Akbhar El Yom were nowhere to be found. That's now Ban likes it; that what he rewards while evicting the investigative Press.
On July 29 when Egypt abstained on a resolution to send UN Police to Burundi, Sanaa Youssef of Akhbar Al Youm was nowhere to be seen; nor on August 12 when Egypt abtained on South Sudan, explanation of abstention here, published by Inner City Press. Meanwhile UNCA, her former presidency of which years ago appears to be the only basis for awarding her an office, put this out, forwarded by Inner City Press by a disgusted UNCA member:
“The UNCA Office will be closed for holiday from tomorrow, Thursday, July 28th to Tuesday, August 16th, 2016. All activities will be suspended during that period... Giampaolo Pioli, UNCA President”
Does “activities being suspended” mean they won't during that time at least be trying to get investigative journalists thrown out of the UN? Former UNCA president Sanaa Youssef was never in the UN even before this holiday. We'll have more on this.
On June 28, as Inner City Press confined to minder asked questions of the foreign ministers of Sweden, Kazakhstan and Italy, Akhbar Elyom's correspondent, a former UN Correspondents Association president, wasn't even in the building, having been awarded the space in contravention of the UN's supposed rules, simply to keep Inner City Press out of it. This was raised at the UN Human Rights Council on June 27, here.
Now, this: "The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the expulsion of TV host by authorities in Egypt late on Monday.... 'It is outrageous that Liliane Daoud was seized from her home and forced to leave the country without warning," Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said from Washington. "Where independent journalists are concerned, Egypt has given up even the pretense to rule of law.'"
On May 31 Inner City Press - not Akhbar Elyom - asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the crackdown in Egypt. Video here, UN Transcript here:
Inner City Press: in Egypt. I’m waiting for a statement there… [inaudible]
Spokesman: They apply across the board. We, obviously, have seen the reports of new charges being brought against the Union of Journalists in Egypt. We remain concerned at the situation. We’re following it closely.
If Team Ban saw the crackdown and was so concerned, why did it issue no statement until asked by Inner City Press? Why is it giving Inner City Press' long time UN office to Egyptian state media Akhbar Elyom, whose rarely seen correspondent Sanaa Youssef, last seen in 2002, a former President of the UN Correspondents Association, asks no questions at all? Perhaps the question answers itself. We'll have more on this.
Meanwhile the Committee to Protect Journalists has said “Authorities are pursuing Yehia Qallash, Khaled al-Balshy, and Gamal Abdel Rahim for trying to defend the Egyptian media against a thin-skinned and brutal security apparatus," CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said. "We call on Egyptian prosecutors to drop these charges immediately and stop harassing journalists."
But CPJ has yet to speak on Ban's UN evicting the investigative press, much less on Ban then giving Inner City Press' UN shared office to Egyptian state media Akhbar Elyom. We'll have more on this.
Amnesty International’s interim Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme Magdalena Mughrabi said:
"The arrest of key media figures at the Press Syndicate signals a dangerous escalation of the Egyptian authorities’ draconian clampdown on freedom of expression and demonstrates the extreme measures the authorities are prepared to take in order to tighten their iron grip on power.
“By prosecuting senior members of the Press Syndicate the authorities are clearly attempting to punish them for speaking out against the government and to send a strong message to intimidate all journalists into silence. The authorities must immediately order their release and drop the charges against them.” bo-translation here.)
Now it has been, and even as groups like the Government Accountability Project tell Ban to reverse the eviction and give Inner City Press back its long time office and Resident Correspondent pass, Ban's UN tellingly move to award Inner City Press' office to Egypt state media Al-Akhbar / Akhbar Elyoum.
Akhbar Elyom has been used to finger for imprisonment non-state journalists in Egypt. For example, in July 2015 Aboubakr Khallaf, the founder and head of the independent Electronic Media Syndicate (EMS), “was arrested after a news article was published by the government-owned daily Akhbar Elyoum.” (Article in Arabic here.)
According to CPJ, Khallaf's EMS “trains and supports journalists who work online in Egypt. The syndicate operates independently from the state-recognized Egyptian Journalists Syndicate... The local press freedom groupJournalists Against Tortureand the localAssociation for Freedom of Thought and Expression(AFTE) said Khallaf was also accused of 'taking pictures and displaying artistic works without a license,' among other allegations. A 1998executive orderstates that individuals conducting audio and audiovisual work must have a license from the Ministry of Culture. According to AFTE, the accusation is in connection with Khallaf photographing the funeral of Hisham Barakat, Egypt's prosecutor general who was assassinated late last month."
There are many echoes of this in Ban's UN: as simply one example Ban's Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach telling Inner City Press it takes photographs of things that "are not newsworthy." There are more, and more examples of Akbar Elyom.
Only when it questioned Ban's and its PR official CristinaGallach's roles in the John Ashe, Ng Lap Seng and Francis Lorenzo UN bribery scandal did Gallach order Inner City Press ousted then evicted, and now try to give its office to an Egyptian media which rarely or never asked questions. Ban Ki-moon claimed “That is not my decision,” but that is not true.
The New York Times on May 14covered the story. But they did not in their long process report, because it happened at the end, that Ban Ki-moon and Gallach are moving to give Inner City Press' long time office to Egyptian state media, Al Akhbar / Akhbar El-Yom / Akher Saa, to a correspondent Sanaa Youssef who most even on the UN press floor have never seen.
Her "in" seems to be that she was a previous president of the UN Correspondents Association, now become the UN's Censorship Alliance. As one respected usual UN interlocutor put it, "it would be a hugely negative symbolic step for Egyptian state media to replace Inner City Press in the UN."
A longtime UN correspondent who spotted her moving in on Inner City Press' office noted she had not been seen before; the name was confirmed by UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, which refused to provide the waiting list or describe the rationale.
But this is Ban's and Gallach's UN (click here for a Spanish take on Gallach's tenure.) We are beginning to report this now because it has proven nearly impossible to reach Al Akhbar / Akhbar Al Yom - the telephone numbers listed online are disconnected, or private homes; the correspondent at UNCA address has been unresponsive.The absurdity of this has been directly raised to Ban Ki-moon, his Deputy and Chief of Staff with enough time to stop it. We'll see.
For now from the NYT we note this quote: “It’s not exactly the same access,’’ Mr. Dujarric said, “but if he has an issue, there is a staff of media liaisons to help him resolve the problem and get where he needs to go.”
This is false. As Inner City Press has raised to Ban Ki-moon, "even when begrudgingly accompanied by a staff member of your Spokesperson's office, UN Security refused to allow me through the turnstile onto the second floor of Conference Building. I have been told not to ask questions of diplomats, just after you came out of ECOSOC and even with a MALU minder / escort with me, a UN Security official stood directly in front of me, apparently so I couldn't even try to ask you a question. This is censorship." We await response.
UN Correspondents Association boss Giampaolo Pioli lied, but at least on the record. (He rented one of his Manhattan apartments to Palitha Kohona then granted Kohona's request, as Sri Lanka's Ambassador, to screen his government's war crimes denial film in the UN. Then Pioli told Inner City Press to take its story about it off the Internet or be thrown out of the UN, which Gallach and Ban did: UN Censorship Alliance.)
In any event, who is a rarely present boss of an ostensible Correspondents Association (morphing into the UN's Censorship Alliance) to lobby for the ouster of an investigative journalist so that his office can be handed to a never present former UNCA president - a representative of state owned media who never asks questions? This too has been raised and we await response.
What's next? Is it acceptable for the UN to throw out a critical journalist writing four to eight stories a day, while leaving in people who write little, and ask nothing? Is Ban Ki-moon killing the UN? Watch this site.
The UN is now both corrupt -- a half a dozen indictments and counting, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon cavorting with the indicted and his team covering it up -- retaliatory and badly run.
Nowthe UN is moving to give away Inner City Press' long time office as retaliation for its seeking to cover the bribery and corruption scandal, including trying to cover a meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room of the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA), a group which took money from the indicteds' company, Ban Ki-moon's “Communications” chief Cristina Gallach threw Inner City Press out of the UN on February 19.
So to whom does the UN seek to give Inner City Press' office away? A former UNCA President, who it seems has not asked any question, much less a critical question, in the UN Press Briefing Room or stakeout in quite some time.
Inner City Press has in the past defended correspondents when the UN sought late in their careers to move them along, and is treading lightly for now: perhaps this former UNCA President didn't know the history here.
(The current UNCA website doesn't even list its past Presidents, perhaps wisely: it seems to be a Year Zero operation.)
But what is the UN's rationale of giving away the office of a working, critical journalist to a former UNCA president who asks even fewer questions than the current UNCA president?
It's called retaliation, or some say, human shields. Who is responsible?
Audio hereBan, when asked, said “that is not my decision.” But he heard about the ouster and eviction in advance and ok-ed it.
On April 16, the acting chief of Gallach's “Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit Tal Mekel oversaw the eviction of Inner City Press' office, leaving five boxes of its files out on First Avenue. Video here.
Some in Ban's team indicated to Inner City Press its office would be left empty until its four month “purgatory” or punishment-for-reporting period was over.
That was a lie: on May 13, after Inner City Press asked more questions about Ban's engagements with John Ashe and Francis Lorenzo - president of South South News which paid UNCA and still has a UN office - Inner City Press was informed that its long time office is being given out -- apparently, to a former President of UNCA.
When Inner City Press asked to see the supposed waiting list, this was refused by Mekel. It is apparently entirely up to Gallach - or UNCA - who is given UN office space, without which one cannot access the UN Conference Building's second floor, see below.
On May 13 as the UN Security Council began a meeting about Lebanon, the glass doors to enter the Council were locked. Apparenlty the UN can't afford one guard for a Security Council meeting, but won't provide information requested by the Press about Ban Ki-moon's endless and largely fruitless travel.
Inner City Press, which covers the UN corruption scandal and was ousted then evicted by an official implicated in the scandal, Cristina Gallach -- see OIOS audit Paragraphs 37 to 40 and 20(b) -- with Ban Ki-moon's full knowledge, was unable to get to the Security Council stakeout. Its pass, cut by Gallach, won't open the turnstile at the other end of the stakeout. This week a guard there even refused to allow Inner City Press through to a stakeout with a staffer of the Spokesperson's office.
Gallach, at least according to some paid to tweet for the UN, is in Washington. So Inner City Press undertook to document the restrictions and censorship. Another UN system spokesperson tried to undermine it, as did UN Security. They claimed everything is fine, even as Security Council Ambassadors asked them how can it be that the door is locked (and Press excluded). Some Security write-up began, sure to omit all of this. Watch this site - and see below.
While many try to insulate today's UN from the open corruption of the recent past of President of the General Assembly John Ashe, and of Francis Lorenzo who has pleaded guilty, there is continuity to this UN scandal. This includes a revival of the Ng Lap Seng's old "South South News" team, with El Salvador ex-Ambassador Carlos Garcia and others, even as those investigating this UN corruption are evicted and restricted, and those covering it up are rewarded.
Inner City Press has repeatedly asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Ban's appearance at an event sponsored by the Francis Lorenzo registered group Global Governance for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Q&A videos here and here.
Dujarric tried to answer about another group, then said Lorenzo's connection to the group isn't clear. Q&A video here.
Well, now Inner City Press can report that the "Global Governance for the UN Sustainable Development Goals"event Ban attended was with indicted John Ashe, his wife Anilla Cherian's book launch. Video here.
It featured speeches by Ban and by Francis Lorenzo, who in his speech named both GG-UNSDG and Global National Competitiveness Cooperation Organization for the UN, which sponsored the DPI-NGO conference last year at which Under Secretary General Cristina Gallach spoke.Q&A video here.
How did this not show up in the UN's audit of l'affaireJohn Ashe and Ng Lap Seng? How did this book launch event get inserted into UNTV archives, run by Gallach's DPI? On the video, Ban and then Mrs. Ban are thanked by Ashe and then Anilla Cherian. The indictment details how over $1,000,000 was withdrawn from the PGA Accounts and transferred to the personal accounts of Ashe and of Anilla Cherian; no-show jobs are also described.
Then there is the speech of Francis Lorenzo, how Anilla Cherian showed Ban the book even before Ashe. The UN has been trying to downplay or conceal Ban Ki-moon's contacts with Lorenzo, most recently saying it's unclear how Lorenzo is connected to a group that he, Lorenzo, register, and another one he founded. Those obfuscations cannot stand; separately, the retaliation is more and more clear. We'll have more on this.
And Gallach's Department of Public Information continues partnering with these organizations, even as DPI falls apart on Gallach's watch. The last NGO Conference at the UN, sponsored by South Korea among others, had as a sponsor and speaker the "Global National Competitiveness Cooperation Organization for the UN," one of four Sponsors of indicted Francis Lorenzo's Global Governance for the UN SDGs. Gallach even spoke at the event.
UNITED NATIONS, March 17 -- When the UN of Ban Ki-moon is asked about bringing cholera to Haiti, the answer is usually, “Our position remains unchanged” -- that is, immunity.
When the UN Security Council "debated" -- exchanged speeches -- about Haiti on March 17, some Council members like Venezuela and New Zealand mentioned cholera. But the US, which is in the position to urge Ban Ki-moon to clean up this and other errors, did not even MENTION cholera, despite letters from the Congressional Black Caucus to do so.
New Zealand said, “The UN must also continue to combat the ongoing cholera epidemic. We acknowledge the efforts of the UN and its partners, particular those that have contributed towards the Support Plan and the National Plan for the Elimination of Cholera. The UN will need to continue to support those affected in Haiti to help close this chapter and to ensure that the new Government is not left alone to address the ongoing consequences - and political legacy - of the outbreak.”
Venezuela tweeted about it; St Vincent and the Grenadines mentioned it. So why not the US?
Back on February 18, when UN OCHA official John Ging mentioned Haiti and cholera in a briefing and Inner City Press asked more about it, and what the UN is doing to people expelled from the Dominican Republic to Haiti where the UN introduced cholera? Video here.
Ging to his credit did not say “our position remains the same,” instead he reviewed the waning support from donors, after citing 105 families in a camp on the border with only two toilets. What are the UN's responsibilities? How can the UN shirk them so badly?
On February 25 Inner City Press was first to report that the appeal in a case seeking to hold the UN accountable Georges v. UN had been scheduled for oral argument on March 1 at the Thurgood Marshall courthouse in Lower Manhattan. On March 2, Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: yesterday, there was an… a court argument on the appeal in the case about the UN bringing cholera to Haiti. And a lot of argument turned on the UN's continuing failure to have set up any kind of a claims assessment mechanism to pay the survivors of people that were killed by the cholera. And the US said that it could… this could go to the ICJ [International Court of Justice]. But, what I really wanted to just ask you directly is, given the prominence of the case, given what was said in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, can you explain why the UN never set up the… a… a mechanism to assess claims and paid any compensation to the victims of cholera that was brought… were… was presumptively brought by the Nepalese battalion?
Deputy Spokesman Haq: Well, first of all, I challenge your presumptions, which are not something that has been accepted as fact. But, beyond that, all I really have to say is that I can confirm that there was a hearing yesterday, 1 March, in the case between the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In light of its immunity, the United Nations did not appear in court. The US Government attended the hearing and asserted the position that the Organization and its officials are immune from the lawsuit. At the end of the hearing, the panel of three judges reserved their decision, which we understand will be delivered at a later date. Consequently, I wouldn't have any further comment.
Inner City Press: Given that the UN always speaks against impunity and talks about accountability, I just want to square this position that what was being discussed there, many of the judges seemed sympathetic to the people that died getting no compensation… having had no compensation. How is the Secretariat and Ban Ki-moon comfortable with asserting unlimited, unqualified immunity in a case of people killed by… by… you know, you're saying it's not… most people accept it, but…?
Deputy Spokesman: No, that's not the case.
Inner City Press: Is that the reason… if you thought that the UN had done it, would Ban Ki-moon pay compensation?
Deputy Spokesman: The… for us, the bottom point on immunities is one that applies to a number of cases across the system. I'm not really talking about this in particular, but this is a part of the framework of how the United Nations was set up. Regarding this particular problem, the problem of cholera in Haiti — that, we care about very much. The Secretary-General has spoken about it. As you know, he's visited Haiti. He's made clear his own feelings of regret for the way cholera has spread and has affected the people of Haiti. And we have tried to make sure that Haiti gets the funding it needs so that it can deal with the cholera outbreak, so it has the medical expertise that it needs, and most crucially, so that it can repair its infrastructure, its sanitation… its water and sanitation infrastructure, so that it can actually deal with the sort of health crisis that's been prepared by the spread of cholera. We've been trying to do our part, and we continue to implore concerned nations to support Haiti and the Haitian people in their time of need.
Inner City Press: Will there be a new [Pedro] Medrano? Will [there be] a replacement for Mr. Medrano? Because Mr. [John] Ging said that the money is not being raised and that the rate of donations is going down, so what does the Secretary-General intend to do to do all of the things you just said?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, his functions have been taken over by other officials, including through the UN Mission there, MINUSTAH [United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti]. His time with the UN is done. We do continue to implore countries to give Haiti both the funding and the services, the sort of help that it desperately needs. And if further measures are needed down the line, we'll explore that. But, at this stage, Mr. Medrano's post has ended. Yes?
Yes.
On a daily basis across from the UN's 43rd Street entrance stands a Haitian journalist; Inner City Press' requests to the UN including former spokesperson Michele Montas to get him re-admitted fell on the UN's deaf ears. Now he wants to know the prospective Haitian military force's size.
On February 22 through 25, Inner City Press when ousted from the UN without any due process (see here) spent hours with this figure in the park, including interviewing him about Haiti, and the UN bringing cholera there. We'll have more on this. 7
On June 18, Inner City Press again asked the UN about the deportation threat, and if the UN might follow Jose Ramos Horta's advise that it compensate victims of the cholera it brought to Haiti:
Inner City Press: On Haiti I think it's, I guess, on Tuesday, I'd asked you about this planned repatriation from the Dominican Republic. And now that a variety of… the Mayor of the City of New York has spoken on it and most poignantly the President of Haiti, Mr. [Michel] Martelly, had said they won’t accept individuals that were not born in Haiti, which would stand to leave a lot of people stateless; meaning, Haitians… “Haitians that were born in Santa Domingo”. And I've also read that UN was attending meetings planning for what was to happen, so what is the UN's position on this?
Deputy Spokesman Haq: What I can say on that is the Dominican Government has given assurances that it will apply due process standards on an individual basis and will protect individuals against unlawful deportation. The United Nations urges respect for international law and humanitarian principles. In the event of an increase in the scale of deportations, the United Nations calls for close coordination between the Haitian and Dominican Governments to ensure an orderly and transparent process open to observation by the UN and the international community. The United Nations remains commits to resolve the problems of the people who are deprived of nationality as a result of the 2013 ruling of the Dominican Constitutional Court.
Inner City Press: Thanks. Also on Haiti, I wanted… I meant to ask you this yesterday, but I'll ask today, José Ramos-Horta of the panel in this room on Tuesday, on cholera in Haiti, said that he said he would believe, you know, I'm going to paraphrase here, that the UN should have paid compensation and he brought up as two examples peacekeepers in Timor-Leste, upon knowing that death had been caused inadvertently, they just offered to pay one individual, paid his salary over his remaining deployment there. I wanted to know, given he is a highly respected person to be the head of the panel, you know, not as a “gotcha”, but is there some response to the approach, the way that he laid it out, that making victims whole comes before any kind of legal argumentation?
Deputy Spokesman: Basically, of course, as you're aware well aware, he is essentially expressing his personal opinion on this. His panel's work was not on the question of Haiti. We have heard, as you know, a wide range of opinions over the years and have respected a wide range of views on this. The Secretary-General has tried as hard as he can to make sure that the situation of cholera in Haiti is resolved. As you have seen from the efforts of Pedro Medrano, what we are trying to do is coordinate efforts with the Government of Haiti and the international community to see what can be done to bring this cholera epidemic to an end. And so, we will continue with those efforts and we respect the views of people around. On the legal question, our position remains as it was.
What is wrong with this picture?
UN official Herve Ladsous, who has openly refused to answer Inner City Press question and was abetted in this by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson in his last press conference, used that to brag about ostensibly declining numbers of sexual exploitation and abuse complaints against his UN Peacekeeping: 51 worldwide for a whole year.
But now it emerges that in Haiti alone, the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services documented 225 women sexual exploited by Ladsous' peacekeepers. This is a cover up; Ladsous should answer or go. On June 10, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric,video here, transcript here:
Inner City Press: I want to ask about sexual abuse. I'm sure you've seen AP's report on the OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services] report on sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly in MINUSTAH [United Nations Stabilization Mission] in Haiti, saying 225 women testified that they were exchange — you know, asked by peacekeepers to exchange sex for money or food or whatever. So how do you square this with the report made here by the Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous that only 51 cases of sexual exploitation or abuse were alleged worldwide, 51 as opposed to 225 in one country? And what's going to be done to square what seems to be a dramatic underreporting by the UN?
Spokesman Dujarric: I think the — first of all, the report that you referred to in the Associated Press filing, as far as my understanding is concerned, it's still a draft report. There's still comments going back and forth, as usually there are between the concerned department and OIOS. So I'm not going to go into what's said in the report.
Obviously, the issue of underreporting is of concern. Every case needs to be looked into. Every case of sexual abuse needs to be looked into. The Secretary-General is determined to continue on the zero-tolerance policy. I think if you look at the special measures report that was issued earlier this year, I think it outlines a number of steps that were taken. And obviously, you know, all sorts of things are looked at in terms of prohibited conduct, discouraged conduct and others. So, you know, the report's still in draft form. I don't have any information on the specific cases you mentioned.
Inner City Press: Maybe the number will somehow be reduced, but what I did want to ask you is, can you say from this podium that peacekeepers requesting sex in exchange for money or food does constitute sexual exploitation and abuse, for the purposes of this 51 figure that was thrown out in this room?
Spokesman Dujarric: Again, I'm not go into that. I think if you look at the Secretary-General's special measures report, I think it outlines those things and it answers your question
This resistance to saying that eacekeepers requesting sex in exchange for money or food does constitute sexual exploitation and abuse is part of the problem. We'll have more on this.
On June 8, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric first about the French forces' non-inclusion in Ban's Children and Armed Conflict list, then about the whistleblowers, video here, transcript here:
Inner City Press: it seems like the abuse the UN was aware of in the Central African Republic by the French Sangaris forces, was there any consideration of including them and if so, why not?
Spokesman Dujarric: On the CAR [Central African Republic], the situation in the CAR, part of the CAR was drafted with the information available at the time of the writing of the report. As you know, the… we do hope to announce soon the external independent inquiry which will shed light on the process.
Inner City Press: I'm sorry to reiterate this. I'd sent you these questions but wanted to ask you. I asked the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights who said that Mr. Kompass is going to be extended, although he also said it's not Geneva's decision; it's up to New York. And there are several Member State who believe he's not being extended--
Spokesman: No, I have no indication whatsoever that his contract will not be renewed.
Inner City Press: It does apparently expire in one month.
Spokesman: Right. No, as I said, I have no indication whatsoever that his contract will not be renewed.
Inner City Press: ]OHCHR] had said something about contracts being automatically extended if a person is under investigation. Is that your understanding?
Spokesman: I think that is very likely a policy but as I said, for Mr. Kompass, I have no indication that his…
Inner City Press: The other thing I asked you is about Miranda Brown who was an… worked with Mr. Kompass and has since been terminated. I know that she wrote a letter to the Secretary-General dated 23 May saying she's willing to participate, but not if she's fired by the UN and has no immunity. Has the Secretary-General’s responded to the letter?
Spokesman: I don't believe there has been a response. I don't know if it was received. I don't believe she was terminated, I think her fixed-term contract was not renewed.
Inner City Press: What would you say to those who say if you actually want to know… this was a person who was number two to Kompass at the time involved. What arrangements were being made to try to get her evidence?
Spokesman: I think we would have to leave that to the panel once it's named.
As Inner City Press analyzed below, there is a history of UN panels being used to cover up.
Now Code Blue has these three recommendations:
"First, this must be a truly external and independent inquiry. No member of existing UN staff should be appointed to investigate nor to act as the investigators’ secretariat.
"Second, it must be understood that top members of the Secretary-General’s own staff will have to be subject to investigation. This must go right up to the level of Under-Secretaries General. No one can be excluded, whether the Director of the Ethics Office or the USG of the Office of Internal Oversight Services or the Secretary-General’s own Chef de Cabinet. It would appear that all of them and more acted inappropriately in response to the dreadful events in CAR.
"Third, the reference in the Secretary-General’s announcement of a review to ‘the broad range of systemic issues’ is crucial to the inquiry. What happened in the Central African Republic was an atrocity, but the fact that the UN stood silent for nearly a year after its own discovery of widespread peacekeeper sexual abuse (even if by non-UN troops) is itself a bitter commentary on the Secretary-General’s declared policy of ‘zero tolerance’."
Inner City Press would add, past UN staff and offiicals as well. Consider these past panels, as put together and at the end analyzed by Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access:
On 22 September 2003, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland, to chair an Independent Panel on the Safety and Security of UN Personnel in Iraq.
The priority of the Independent Panel’s investigation of the “oil-for-food” programme was to “get after” allegations of corruption and misconduct within the United Nations itself and, more broadly, the question of the maladministration of the “oil-for-food” programme, stated Paul A. Volcker, Chairman of the Independent Panel, in a press conference at UNHQ.
The UN Commission of Inquiry, appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the request of the Pakistani Government, reached no conclusion as to the organizers and sponsors behind the attack in which a 15-year-old suicide bomber blew up Ms. Bhutto’s vehicle in the city of Rawalpindi on 27 December 2007. The three-member panel, which was headed by Chilean Ambassador to UN Heraldo Muñoz and included Marzuki Darusman, former attorney-general of Indonesia, and Peter Fitzgerald, a veteran official of the Irish National Police, urged the Government to undertake police reform in view of its “deeply flawed performance and conduct.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon established the Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident on 2 August 2010. The Panel received and reviewed reports of the detailed national investigations conducted by both Turkey and Israel.
On 22 June 2010, the Secretary-General announced the appointment of a Panel of Experts to advise him on the implementation of the joint commitment included in the statement issued by the President of Sri Lanka and the Secretary-General at the conclusion of the Secretary-General's visit to Sri Lanka on 23 March 2009.
Meanwhile UN staff advocates have written to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, his chief of staff and Ladsous, among others, demanding resignations. On June 2 Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who Banned any Inner City Press question to Ladsous on May 29, what Ban Ki-moon DID, once he learned in March about the rapes.Video here and embedded below.
Dujarric said he had nothing to add to his previous answers. Huh?
Inner City Press asked Dujarric, in light of OHCHR Zeid using a private email address for UN business, what the UN's record retention policy is. Dujarric said the policy must be available somewhere. To this has the UN descended.
Dujarric said the investigation by Lapointe's OIOS, discredited in the leaked emails, will "lead where it will lead." But Lapointe has told OIOS invstigators to not go beyond what they are asked to look at -- in this case, only the whistleblower. This is called a cover up.
When Hillary Clinton used the UN Security Council stakeout to belatedly answer questions about her own use of private email while US Secretary of State, it was described as an accident of scheduling, or attempt to use the UNSC backdrop to convey gravitas. But the echo now with Prince Zeid also using private email for presumably public business raises similar questions.
Anders Kompass was asked to send his side of the story -- to a private email address, but wisely declined.
Beyond the treatment of Kompass himself, the documents show pressure brought to bear on lower-level staff to make and thereby launder the high officials' desire for an investigation of Kompass.
Most directly, it is asked, what UN staff member will now report fraud or misconduct, knowing that OIOS and the Ethics Office will then discuss the accusations with their boss? This is a question Inner City Press on May 29 asked UN Spokesman Staphen Dujarric, who BannedInner City Press from putting a single question to Ladsous - the question has yet to be answered.
UN staff advocates have written directly to Ban Ki-moon and his deputy, Ladsous and Atul Khare and others, demanding resignations. They are offended by the exposure of lack of independence at the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services and UN Ethics Office, and question whether the US should cut off funding under the 2014 U.S. Consolidated Appropriation Act, section 7048(a)(1)(B). After reading those leaked documents, how exactly can the U.S. Secretary of State (or anybody else) certify that the UN's whistle-blower policy fulfils the Act's requirements? Is there any "independent adjudicative body" in this chain? Evidently the Ethics Office and OIOS are not."
The staff notice Ban's appearance at another softball soccer game, among those who are supposed to hold him and the UN accountable. The call for Ladsous to resign out be fired has spread from the African Group to Latin America and GRULAC...
On May 7, Inner City Press asked more questions about this - including to Herve Ladsous himself.
After a long closed-door consultation meeting of the Security Council, Ladsous emerged. Inner City Press asked him, based on Paragraph 9 of the UNDT ruling, Why did you ask Kompass to resign?"
