On Syria, Ban Ki-moon's Chemical Weapons Report Spoon-Fed 5 Days in Advance Shows He's a Minor Card

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 11 -- On Syria the contrived leak, five days in advance, that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will dutifully "finger" Bashar al Assadin a report to the Security Council on September 16 proves at least one thing.

  Ban is not the West's ace in the hole on Syria, but merely a minor card to be played as part of a larger strategy.

  Consider the timing, not explored in the leaks. If the unnamed Western diplomats already know what's in Ban's report, why is Ban withholding it another five days?

  Well, US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov tomorrow. Although Ban committed to speed up the investigation and report as soon as possible, to truly release the results now would get lost, in terms of leverage for the West.

  And so it's better to leak it, through a well worn pass through -- the same one used to deny the Inner City Press demonstrated cover up of the murder of UN Security officerLouis Maxwell, and to praise the mad cowboy of Mogadishu David Bax.

  Already it's had some effect. On Fox News on Wednesday night, Senator Kelly Ayotte said she's seen a report that the UN finds Assad guilty. Who cares if that's not even what the contrived leak is saying? It's the impact that's important, not the words. Or the truth.

Cynics among those UN reporters who actually ran up through the heat along with Inner City Press to the Russian Mission, where US Ambassador Samantha Power and her French and UK counterparts Gerard Araud and Mark Lyall Grant spent half an hour Wednesday afternoon wondered why this pass-through and his Mean Girl friend weren't there.

  Now it's known: there was real pass-through work to be done, blind quotes to be typed up. But where are the questions? Not only about the timing, but more fundamentally about how these leaks are consistent with Ban's mandate: to say IF chemical weapons were used, not who used them?

  But Ban has been in the bag throughout. He allowed the US to say that Syria blocked the Ake Sellstrom team for four or even five days, when his envoy Angela Kane didn't even made the request to visit Ghouta until August 24.

  Then his spokespeople in New York began to use a new phrase: the "evidence based narrative." They would not say who used chemical weapons -- but their "evidence based narrative" would allow that. 

  What did the phrase mean? Inner City Press asked. It was never explained. And now we see: the narrative begins even before the report is released, on delay, as a small card in a large deck. To what end? Watch this site.

   

As Reuters Calls Glenn Greenwald An Activist, And Ban Ki-moon Said Snowden Misused, Reuters Spies FOR the UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 8 -- Some were surprised when Reuters, reporting on US spying on Petrobras, said Globo's information came from "Glenn Greenwald, an American activist who has worked with fugitive former NSA analyst Edward Snowden." 

 Isn't Snowden a whistleblower, and Greenwald a journalist?

  But this is NOT surprising from Reuters. Its bureau at the UN has repeatedly tried to get the investigative Press thrown out, going so far as to spy for the UN to do it. 

  Reuters bureau chief Louis Charbonneau gave UN accreditation official Stephane Dujarric an internal document of the UN Correspondents Association, three minutes after promising not to do so. Story here, audio here, document here.

  So not only is Reuters amenable to the US' spying -- it does spying itself, for the UN.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Snowden "misused" information and his position, then insisted what he said was in a "private" meeting with the Iceland parliament.

  Reuters' Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols, not surprisingly, are routinely spoon-fed information by the UN and missions, particularly UN Peacekeeping as run by its fourth Frenchman in a row, Herve Ladsous. 

   And when challenged or scrutinized as it was by Inner City Press last week on Syria, Reuters UN bureau expands its anonymous trolling, now through at least two counterfeit Inner City Press social media accounts.

  This has been documented this year to Reuters' big shots ranging from Stephen J. Adler, Editor in Chief, Paul Ingrassia, Deputy Editor in Chief, and Walden Siew, Top News to its former social media editor; nothing was done. 

  It's Reuters which is an activist -- but in these cases, just an activist or assistant to power. And Power. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Ban Ki-moon Picks 4 Softball Questions, Egypt & Syria, No DR Congo or Haiti Cholera, Heads to South Korea: Of FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 19 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did a belated press "encounter" at UN headquarters on Monday, one expected him to have to answer for what the UN actually does (and doesn't do) with its 100,000 peacekeepers in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and now Mali. But no.

In Haiti, it has become increasingly clear Ban's UN brought cholera and killed 8,000 people. On Friday, the Washington Post editorialized for the second time, specifically calling Ban's office's reply non-responsive. But Ban did not mention it, nor did any of the four questions selected by Ban's spokesperson.

  In a speech Monday morning, Ban bragged about his supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. But in the DRC, his peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous still supports the Congolese 391st Battalion, implicated in 135 rapes in Minova and since then desecration of corpses. 

  But Ban didn't mention this; nor did any of the four questions selected. (Ladsous' spokesperson or spoon-feeder in chief Kieran Dwyer was in the room, and quite happy afterward. Ladsous refuses Press questions on these topics.)

  In Mali, the coup leader Sanogo has been made a general, and the UN has said nothing. Nor did Ban, nor did the questioners.

  Instead, the first question was given to UNCA, now known as the UN Censorship Alliance, and was wasted on a garbled softball question about Egypt. Ban was allowed to say he "finally" sent his envoy Jeffrey Feltman, which is the spin belatedly spoon-fed on August 16 to Reuters (which also "feeds" the UN, click here for that.)

  But as shown by Inner City Press on August 15 with audio,Feltman's trip was planned and arranged BEFORE the August 14 killing of hundreds of protesters.

  There was the obligatory question about chemical weapons in Syria, and one about a bone Ban threw over the weekend about discrimination against Israel. (This questioner to his credit pressed to follow-up).

 There was a question about the election in Zimbabwe -- a fine question, at least on Africa where most of the UN's work is, but not a country in which the UN has a peacekeeping mission or does much beyond covering up the spread of disease and then punishing whistleblowers.

  And then it was over. Ban insisted on calling his upcoming to South Korea an "official trip" and not a vacation. But Inner City Press long ago emailed Ban's spokesperson's office to ask for his position on the civil society movement to demilitarize Jeju Island there. No answer on that.

  It had been said that Ban would hold month press conference with more than four questions. It has not happened, but UNCA (formally the UN Correspondents Association) has done or said nothing. (We note, for fairness if nothing else, that UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk was not the one throwing UNCA's Monday softball, was not here for August 15 on Egypt either.)

  The new Free UN Coalition for Access, established in part to defend journalists from attacks by the UN and its UN Censorship Alliance, will now expand work on this. (Here is UN's reaction.) Watch @FUNCA_info and this site.

   

UN's Somalia Scams & Bax Continue, Whistleblower Cites Spoon-Fed, Staff at Risk

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 19 -- Two months ago on June 22, Inner City Press published an exclusive story about UN Mine Action chief in Somalia David Bax sharing information with US intelligence and running around Mogadishu with armed guards trying to save a girlfriend after an attack on a UN compound in Mogadishu, here.

  On June 24 (and June 26 and July 5), Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesperson for an answer from UN Peacekeeeping chief Herve Ladsous and the head of UNMAS to the story and a detailed complaint from a whistleblower.

  The UN told Inner City Press, "we’ll have to check on that for you, Matthew, we’ll check with DPKO," the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

  But the UN's response was to given to another media, from Ladsous' and DPKO's spokesperson Kieran Dwyer, for a story that made Bax into something of a hero. Inner City Press wrote and asked about this spoon-feeding and was told Bax as being investigated, nothing would be answered (again.) 

  For writing about it, Team Spoon-Fed anonymous used social media to attack Inner City Press as they have in the past, including predictably and intentionally triggering death threats.

  Now the whistleblower has complained again to Ladsous and UNMAS, saying the UNOPS "investigation" was a scam and the story that resulted from the spoon-feeding dropped damning information because "you put pressure on the journalist about" it.

  While we'll have more about the UN's scams and pressure, this is what is meant by spoon-feeding: the UN gives answers to the critical Press' questions to hand-picked others seeking, or in exchange for, more UN positive coverage of the story. As noted this happened on the still unacted on murder of UN Security staffer Louis Maxwell.

  It has also happened on, and been done by Ladsous and Dwyer on, the 135 rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army, and even just last week on UN political chief Jeffrey Feltman's pre-planned trip to Egypt.

  On that, Inner City Press exclusively published audio on August 15 that Feltman would go to Cairo (and that it had been planned before the August 14 killing of hundreds of unarmed protesters). Another media asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office to confirm Inner City Press' story and was told it's just a rumor.

  Then three minutes before the noon briefing at which Inner City Press asked for and got confirmation Reuters ran a two paragraph type-up of "the United Nations" announcing the trip. 

  This Reuters "report" did not mention that the trip had beenplanned before the killings (and therefore does NOT represent a UN response to the killings) or that Feltman represented the US State Department in the Middle East, before doing the same at the UN.

  This is how it works at the UN -- this spoon-feeding and then anonymous attacks and reverse spoon-feeding TO the UN (click here for that), and more generally, covering up wrong-doing including of the kind that puts UN staff at risk. This, and the UN's mis-direction with information, unacted on by the UN's Department of Information, is now also being opposed by the new Free UN Coalition for Access (click here for DPI's reaction.) We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

Footnote: Tellingly since the UN's spoon-feeding on Somalia, Inner City Press asked and written about the UN's "hands-off" approach to allegation of gang rape in Mogadishu by the forces the UN supports there. This too is how it works with the UN, as with the UN's denial of bringing cholera to Haiti. Attempts by the UN to cover up misdeeds make it silent and complicit in others.

   

Ex-UN Official Guehenno Says Successor Ladsous Must "Come Clean" on Haiti Cholera, Inner City Press Asks

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- With the UN of Ban Ki-moon and Herve Ladsous still denying all claims that Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping brought cholera to Haiti and killed 8,000 people, on August 7 after Inner City Press again asked Ban's spokesperson about it, Ladsous' predecessor Jean-Marie Guehenno tweeted this:

"Peacekeepers have done a lot for Haiti, but UN needs to come clean on cholera crisis."

  This is a former chief of UN Peacekeeping. So where is Herve Ladsous on this? He's out of headquarters, after refusing Press questions then spoon-feeding spin to a friendly scribe. August 7 video here.

  On Haiti, here's Inner City Press' question from the August 7 UN noon briefing:

Inner City Press: on Haiti first. There is a report that I am sure that you have seen, it came out of the Law School and the Medical School at Yale yesterday regarding the cholera in Haiti, it’s a medical and legal analysis that there should have been the claims process and saying that the UN needs to rehabilitate --

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: What’s the question?

Inner City Press: My question is: what’s your response to this study, and also, whether the new Head of the Office of Legal Affairs, whether there is any indication that, you know, like Nicolas Michel in the past, but unlike Ms. O’Brien, whether he will take questions on legal topics such as these? Why the claim was was dismissed and what the legal implications are?

Spokesperson: Well, on the second part of your questions, we just in the past few minutes announced this appointment, so I don’t think you would expect me to pass further judgement on what he may or may not wish to do with regard to speaking to the media, but we will certainly convey your wishes to him. With regard to the first part of your questions, I don’t have anything further to say beyond what we have said in the past. We are obviously aware of this latest report. [More here.]

  Thursday August 8 is a UN holiday. But what will the UN say about its own former head of peacekeeping, a post now devolved to Herve Ladsous who was rejected in favor of Guehenno, then in favor of Alain Le Roy, then a third strike in favor of Jerome Bonnafont -- only to be put in the job by France after Bonnafont bragged about getting it?

  The flaw was that Ladsous has a record, of arguing for the escape of the genocidaires from Rwanda into Eastern Congo. How can he lead an (all African) intervention brigade now in the Congo? Watch this site.

   

Of Somaliland & EU Conference, Somalia Oil & Idd Beddel, UN Fumbles & Spoon-Feeds

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- The UN has congratulated itself for how it handles Somalia, at least of late. The most recent UN Security Council resolution ignored issues raised by Somaliland; its letter to the Council wasn't even distributed.

  Now comes word to Inner City Press from Hargeisa that president Ahmed M. Silanyo has decided that Somaliland will NOT attend the European Union's "Somalia" conference in Brussels, per Free UN Coalition for Access member Mohamoud Walaaleye.

  This comes after Puntland severed relations with Mogadishu -- Inner City Press asked for and got UN envoy the response of envoy Nicholas Kay, formerly the UK's ambassador to Sudan, here -- and then a critique by Jubaland, not yet responded to.

  Mogadishu signed a deal with an oil firm called Soma Oil and Gas, led by UK former Conservative Party leader Baron [Michael] Howard of Lympne. (A report being inquired into by Inner City Press has it that Somali Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Idd Beddel Mohamad, a/k/a Mogadishu in Manhattan, claims he formed a similarly named company and so the contract is void.)

  Somaliland went in another direction: Turkey-based Genel Energy. A proxy war for oil?

  Before the attack on the Turkish compound on Mogadishu, in the attack on the UN compound it's reported that UN Mine Action Service boss David Bax was the hero. Maybe -- but he is accused of sexual harassment and of playing a role in the passing of genetic information to US intelligence. August 7 Q&A here.

  The UN stonewalled Inner City Press after its exclusive report to this effect on June 22; reclusive UN official Herve Ladsous through his spokesperson Kieran Dwyer spoon-fed a pro-Bax and UNMAS spin to a friendly scribe. This dysfunctional approach is unacceptable; the UN's spin on Somalia and environs isn't working either. Watch this site.

   

Reuters Plays UN Mouthpiece on DRC Rape Inaction, No Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 -- After publicly refusing questions from Inner City Press for months about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, on Thursday an unnamed UN official huddled with Reuters to try to rehabilitate the reputation of both.

  Now -- unnamed, of course -- the UN is said to be “threatening” the Congolese Army. Even giving the favor of anonymity and positive coverage, Reuters cannot or does not name the Congolese Army units present in Minova from November 20 to 22 at the time of the rapes.

 What triggered the UN's “anonymous” reach out? On March 5, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon himself about Ladsous' inaction on the Minova rapes, click here to view.

   Now, Reuters does not mention the very public stonewalling by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous. In fact, on November 27 when Inner City Press asked Ladsous about the Minova rapes, he abruptly left the stakeout and took a handful of reporters, including Reuters bureau chief Louis Charbonneau, AFP's Tim Witcher and Voice of America's Margaret Besheer out into the hallway. Video here.

  But Reuters UN bureau didn't write about the rapes then, nor when Ladsous did the same thing on December 7, nor even when Ladsous had his spokesman seize the UNTV microphone on December 18 to try to prevent Inner City Press' question on the Minova rapes. Video here.

   Charbonneau is the first vice president of the increasingly discredited UN Correspondents Association, which said nothing about Ladsous' unprecedented anti-press behavior. It is increasingly known as the UN's Censorship Alliance.

Reuters, at least at the UN, has a history of stealing stories, of granting anonymity without explaining it -- a trademark of the byline on this story, Michelle Nichols -- and of giving positive coverage to the UN in exchange for access. But this is a new low, not only for Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations but for Reuters. Watch this site.

Footnote: Some of the Ladsous stonewalling video footage above made its way into a short film, #LADSOUS2013, here,  which the other side of the UN Censorship Alliance urged not continue to be run. But it must be, it will be, and it will be followed up. Watch this site.