UN Wastes Funds Keeping Clinton-Aligned Feltman So His Pension Vests, Draft EO Here

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?

  This takes place after reporting on, but not publication of, a draft Executive Order to cut UN funding. Now Inner City Press publishes the draft, here. 

Here's UN Budget Cut Draft Executive Order, On Hold Jan 27 as Inner City Press Exposes Clinton-Aligned Felt... by Matthew Russell Lee on Scribd

Even as it's said it won't be signed imminently, there are scams at the UN, including Feltman, Cristina Gallach and Herve Ladsous, which can and should be stopped immediately.

 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, and this, Inner City Press at the January 27 noon briefing asked spokesman Dujarric, who called the questioning "despicable." Video here, UN transcript here: 

Inner City Press: I’ve asked Mr. [Jeffrey] Feltman and now I’m asking you, that his contract was extended from March through June so that his UN pension can vest.  And I wanted to know, just… you said something like it’s early days, but just, did that occur?  And was Katrin Hett from his office, placed in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, moved from P4 to P5?  I’m told by people in DPA (Department of Political Affairs), essentially, to kind of keep an eye on things.  But the most important thing I want to know is… and I’m asking not to be personal, but because it is public money.  That’s why I expected a yes-or-no answer… a yes-or-no answer.

Spokesman:  I think two things.  As I said, we’re in a period of transition.  The Secretary-General is looking at his senior leadership.  He’s taking decisions that will need… that will ensure the continuing smooth transition that is already ongoing.  That’s for Mr. Feltman.  I have… I don’t have the exact dates of his contract.  We’re in a period of transition.  As for… as for the other person you mentioned, you know, I… you’re free to ask.  I find it somewhat despicable that people use you or others to drag people’s names through the mud and insinuate things.  The… we’re in a transition period.  The Secretary-General’s Office is in the midst of changes.  New staff’s coming in.  All rules are being observed and… all rules and regulations are being observed.  And I’ll leave it at that.

Inner City Press:  I guess my… my… you can use the word “despicable” if you want.  What I wanted to know about the Mr. Feltman thing is, if… and you can easily ask… I guess he contacted you when I e-mailed him, but if, in fact, his contract was extended and if you know that he was appointed by the previous administration and you know that the new administration came in and said… I guess they believe they deserve a USG (Under-Secretary-General) post, what was the thinking behind extending and is it related… [inaudible]

Spokesman:  The only thing that matters is to have as smooth of a transition continue, as we’ve had.  Yeah, go ahead.

Inner City Press:  But you understand, other organizations actually transition. [end]

 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.

One Year Ago the UN Evicted Inner City Press As It Covered UN Corruption, No Due Process

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 – One year ago, covering the UN corruption scandals which have resulted in two sets of indictments for bribery involving the UN, Inner City Press was ordered to leave the UN Press Briefing Room by then Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

  Other correspondents were allowed to stay in the briefing room, which Dujarric had "lent" them. But he insisted that Inner City Press leave. Video here.

  Inner City Press asked to see any paperwork that the event was closed; none was provided. Inner City Press stated that if a single UN Security official asked it to leave, it would. Finally one guard came and said Dujarric wanted it to leave. 

  Inner City Press immediately left, uploaded the already live-streamed Periscope video, and continued digging into the corruption that's resulted in the indictment for bribery and money laundering of Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki Sang and nephew Dennis Bahn.

  But three weeks afterward, without a single conversation or opportunity to be heard, Ban's Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach ordered Inner City Press to leave the UN, after ten years, on two hours notice. Order here.

   This was enforced, as Inner City Press worked on its laptop at the UN Security Council stakeout, by eight UN Security officers led by Deputy Chief McNulty, who tore Inner City Press accreditation badge off its chest and said, "Now you are a trespasser." Audio here.

  Inner City Press was marched down the escalator and around the UN traffic circle, without even its coat which was up in its longtime office. It was pushed out of the gate and its laptop, in a bag, was thrown on the sidewalk and damaged.

  The next work day when Inner City Press arranged for a fellow journalist to sign it in as a guest so it could cover the Security Council, UN Security official Matthew Sullivan said it was Banned from UN premises worldwide. Audio here.

   After three days covering the UN from the park in front in the sleet, and articles like this one, Inner City Press re-entered with a "non-resident correspondents" pass - to which it is still, more than eleven months later, confined.

  The then-US Mission under Samantha Power and Isobel Coleman, even petitioned by the DC-based Government Accountability Project, did nothing. Indirectly, a offer was made of an upgraded pass if Inner City Press would agree to a gag order, to which it would not and will not agree.

  There has been no UN opportunity for appeal or reinstatement. After having five boxes of Inner City Press' investigative files thrown on the sidewalk in April, Gallach is giving its office to an Egyptian state media Akhbar al Yom which rarely comes in, a correspondent Sanaa Youssef who had yet to ask a single question. 

Her only claim is that she was once, decades ago, a president of the United Nations Correspondents Association, the group to which Duajrric "lent" the UN Press Briefing Room, without notice or written record, on January 29, 2016. 

 Even as the scope of Ban Ki-moon's corruption is being exposed upon his return to South Korea, here, his successor Antonio Guterres has yet to reverse this year of censorship and no due process. On January 6 Dujarric and Gallach led him on a tour of... the UN Correspondents Association, which now wants him again in their clubhouse. (More on this to follow.)

 On January 27 as Inner City Press moved to cover Guterres at the UN's Holocaust event, it was targeted by UN Security and told it could not proceed without a minder, who did not appear for over 15 minutes. 

  The harassment continued through the day, as Inner City Press exposed more corruption, including involving Jeffrey Feltman (Dujarrictold ICP its questioning was "despicable"), and the use of military contingents involved in war crimes in Herve Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, as criticized by new US Ambassador Nikki Haley.

 All of this must change. This is a scam, and censorship: the UN's Censorship Alliance. We will have more on this.

For Mali, ICP Learns UN Recruits Sri Lanka Troops Despite Record, As Minders Order ICP To Leave

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 – Amid attacks on and mismanagement from UN headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, an "extraordinary" meeting for troop contributors was held on January 27.

  Inner City Press, which has covered the disparate treatment in MISUSMA between for example troops from Chad and Europe, wanted to cover it. But due to a retaliatory evictionorder by the UN's Cristina Gallach, it could only do so with the UN "minder."

  Even so, UN Security officials demanded to know where its minder was, cutting off several diplomats who had approached Inner City Press to give it information.
 
  As the meeting wound down, Inner City Press worked around the minder to learn -- from UN official Atul Khare to his credit -- that there is discussion of moving the Senegalese "quick reaction force" from Cote d'Ivoire to Mali. 

  It was not possible yet to ask about the recent mutiny / unrest in Cote d'Ivoire. Khare had to go, and Herve Ladsous refused to answer any Press questions, having been exposed linking peacekeepers' rapes to "R&R."

  Other diplomats, even as Inner City Press was being told to leave the second floor where other journalist were free to stay (though none were in fact staking out the Mali meeting), told Inner City Press that Egypt is offering a battalion.

  Troublingly, to some, Sri Lanka is being recruited by Ladsous' UN to provide "convoy protection," despite its military's record of killing in northern Sri Lanka in 2008 and 2009and abuses since, to say nothing of sexual abuse in Haiti.

  Inner City Press wants to do more reporting into the UN's engagement with the Sri Lankan military. But Gallach's minder ordered Inner City Press to leave. This is censorship. To be continued.

As in The Gambia Yahya Jammeh moved on December 1 to shut off the Internet (and Viber, etc) for the / his election, there was again a deafening silence from the UN and its “communications” chief Cristina Gallach. 

 On January 5, Inner City Press asked holdover UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here,UN transcript here: 

Inner City Press: about Gambia.  The electoral commission chief has gone into hiding, and the Government has closed three radio stations, one of which reopened with no news on it.  So what's the status of the UN's work on this holdover presidency?

Spokesman:  We've had… various UN officials have had contacts with parties involved, and obviously we would like to see and are very keen to see a peaceful resolution to the current crisis in the Gambia and, notably, the… for the President… the outgoing President to leave way for the President that was just elected.

 As of January 7, new Secretary General Antonio Guterres had yet to speak publicly about Jammeh and Gambia. Meanwhile the US issued a travel warning:

  "The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens against travel to The Gambia because of the potential for civil unrest and violence in the near future.  On January 7, 2017, the Department of State ordered the departure of family members and authorized the departure of all employees who need to accompany those individuals from the country.

The security situation in The Gambia remains uncertain following December 1, 2016 presidential elections.  On January 10, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the current president’s petition contesting the election results, which is a potential flashpoint that could lead to civil unrest.  The sitting government has begun taking restrictive measures, which include shutting down and restricting radio stations, and making politically motivated arrests.  The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has stated it may intervene if the president does not step down by January 18.

U.S. citizens should consider departing on commercial flights and other transportation options now, as airports and ferry terminals may close unexpectedly in the event of unrest.  All U.S. citizens should have evacuation plans that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.  U.S. citizens should ensure that travel documents (passports and visas) are valid and up-to-date.  Consular services, already limited throughout the country due to very poor transportation infrastructure and security conditions, may be further limited, including in Banjul itself.

U.S. citizens who decide to remain in The Gambia should prepare for the possible deterioration of security."

  We'll have more on this.

UN Wastes Funds Keeping Clinton-Aligned Feltman So His Pension Vests, UN Says Q Despicable

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, and this, Inner City Press at the January 27 noon briefing asked spokesman Dujarric, who called the questioning "despicable." Video here, UN transcript here: 

Inner City Press: I’ve asked Mr. [Jeffrey] Feltman and now I’m asking you, that his contract was extended from March through June so that his UN pension can vest.  And I wanted to know, just… you said something like it’s early days, but just, did that occur?  And was Katrin Hett from his office, placed in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, moved from P4 to P5?  I’m told by people in DPA (Department of Political Affairs), essentially, to kind of keep an eye on things.  But the most important thing I want to know is… and I’m asking not to be personal, but because it is public money.  That’s why I expected a yes-or-no answer… a yes-or-no answer.

Spokesman:  I think two things.  As I said, we’re in a period of transition.  The Secretary-General is looking at his senior leadership.  He’s taking decisions that will need… that will ensure the continuing smooth transition that is already ongoing.  That’s for Mr. Feltman.  I have… I don’t have the exact dates of his contract.  We’re in a period of transition.  As for… as for the other person you mentioned, you know, I… you’re free to ask.  I find it somewhat despicable that people use you or others to drag people’s names through the mud and insinuate things.  The… we’re in a transition period.  The Secretary-General’s Office is in the midst of changes.  New staff’s coming in.  All rules are being observed and… all rules and regulations are being observed.  And I’ll leave it at that.

Inner City Press:  I guess my… my… you can use the word “despicable” if you want.  What I wanted to know about the Mr. Feltman thing is, if… and you can easily ask… I guess he contacted you when I e-mailed him, but if, in fact, his contract was extended and if you know that he was appointed by the previous administration and you know that the new administration came in and said… I guess they believe they deserve a USG (Under-Secretary-General) post, what was the thinking behind extending and is it related… [inaudible]

Spokesman:  The only thing that matters is to have as smooth of a transition continue, as we’ve had.  Yeah, go ahead.

Inner City Press:  But you understand, other organizations actually transition. [end]

 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.

Who Will US Send to Head UNICEF & WFP, As UN Refuses to Tell Press of Any Process?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 – With the UN system facing 40% budget cuts from the US, on January 25 UN Development Program chief Helen Clark confirmed she will leave on April 19. On January 26, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric refused to disclose when Inner City Press asked the process to pick a replacement.

  The unwritten process for UNICEF, the UN children's agency, and the World Food Program is better known. The current Democrat Party appointees, Anthony Lake and Ertharin Cousin respectively, are expected to resign and Secretary General Antonio Guterres will ask the US, presumably through Nikki Haley, for three American names. 

Will it go that way this time? Will Trump accept the decision being made between three names? If France was able to impose the incompetent Herve Ladsous on the UN, and Spain the censor Cristina Gallach, will even the three-name game now stand?

 Beginning on the day Nikki Haley arrived at the UN, and Inner City Press exposed the extension of the contract of Clinton-aligned Jeffrey Feltman so that his UN pension could vest, this will be an Inner City Press series.

  Even further back than the US has controlled the UN Department of Political Affairs (through Lynn Pascoe and Jeffrey Feltman, to whom we have questions pending), it has held WFP: Catherine Bertini, James Morris, Josette Sheeran, Etharin Cousin.

And UNICEF, under both political parties (see, Veneman): Bellamy, Veneman, Anthony Lake.

 So on January 27, Inner City Press asked the UN's holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric, after he called Inner City Press' questioning on the use of taxpayers' funds "despicable," this, from the UN Transcript

On W Sahara, UNSC Prez Tells ICP UN Mission Not Fully Functional, No Discussion of AU Bid

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 – After the UN Security Council held a closed door meeting about Western Sahara on January 27, Inner City Press asked the Council's President for January Olof Skoog of Sweden what happened in the meeting. Video here.

  Specifically, Inner City Press asked Skoog how many of the 83 members of the MINURSO peacekeeping mission expelled by Morocco have be able to return.

 Skoog did not give a number, but said that MINURSO is still no up to full functionality. He mentioned Guerguerat.

  Inner City Press asked if Morocco's attempts to join the African Union, and the impact that might have on the political negotiations, had been discussed. Skoog said no.

  There was no time to ask about the Norwegian oil fish ship that, it seems, violated the recent European court ruling. And less than two hours later, guards citing the eviction / Press downgrading order of Spanish UN official Cristina Gallach demanded to know where Inner City Press' "minder" was, putting an end to a diplomat's provision of information to Inner City Press. This is today's UN.

At UN, Gallach Evicted & Restricts Press From Mali Event, Targeted For Covering UN Corruption

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 – Eleven months ago, acting against Press coverage of her and Ban Ki-moon's links to UN corruption cases, Under Secretary General Cristina Gallach had Inner City Press physically ousted from the UN.  Audio here. 

  Since then a campaign of harassment by UN Security and the requirement that Inner City Press unlike other media have minders to stake-out public events in the UN has continued.

 This even as Ban Ki-moon left the UN and the United States on the day his brother and nephew were indicted for bribery and using Ban's and the UN's name to try to sell a 72-story building in Vietnam to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.

   The hindrance of Inner City Press' coverage ranges from formal General Assembly meetings to an "extraordinary" Security Council meeting about Mali on January 27, after Inner City Press exposed the extension of Clinton-aligned Jeffrey Feltman so his pension can vest, and Spokesman Stephane Dujarric called Inner City Press' questioning "despicable."

  Inner City Press went and got the UN minder that Gallach requires. As a diplomat was speakig to Inner City Press behind the stanchions it must stand behind, a UN Security official came over and stood looming nearby. He cut in to demand who was escorting Inner City Press.

  No one else gets asked this.  The diplomat joked, "You're an important person." But the conversation and information were over. This is censorship.

Earlier on January 27, an event about the Holocaust: after asking the Ambassador of Qatar about the war in (and bombing of) Yemen, Inner City Press went early to cover the even. New Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his team walked by, waving. Inner City Press, having seen there was no one in Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, was told by UN Security it could not cover the event.

  For 15 minutes Inner City Press waited, finally stating this was happening due its reporting on Ban Ki-moon and corruption. UN Security began to write up a report, a full Kafka. We'll have more on this.

  On January 24, there was an event ironically about "propaganda." Here was the definition given, in this tweeted photo.

 While the event went on, Inner City Press under Gallach's 11-month old eviction order was required to leave before 7 - its UN pass stops working in UN turnstiles at that time.

  On January 17, for an event involving Gallach herself as a speaker, despite having been invited -- not by the UN -- and having its RSVP confirmed, Inner City Press was stopped by UN Security and not allowed to enter. Video here.

     In any event, with the UN pass that Gallach has reduced, Inner City Press cannot get through any turnstiles to work after 7 pm. Gallach herself appears in the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services audit of the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe (RIP) UN bribery case, at Paragraphs 37-40 and 20b, as having done no due diligence of Ng Lap Seng's buying of UN events and even its Slavery Memorial. Audit here.

   She and Ban Ki-moon, to punish and make more difficult coverage of their links to these cases, evicted Inner City Press and restrict it to this day, 11 months later. As to Ban, Inner City Press on January 17 appeared in a 19-minute interview about corruption and censorship on Seoul's TBS radio. On the lower profile, entirely unaccountable Gallach, we'll have more. 

This is a litmus test of press (UN) freedom.

Gallach's censorship order of February 2016 prevented Inner City Press in December 2016, for the first time in years, from covering the UN budget process, including on human rights and Burundi, another of Ban Ki-moon's failures.

For years Inner City Press has been virtually alone in covering the late night Fifth (Budget) Committee session in which billions of dollars are carved up. But in 2016 for the first time, following Gallach's retaliatory eviction order and ghoulish restriction regime of minders and the putting off of pass, Inner City Press could not cover the budget.

   By seizing Inner City Press' long time office -- and awarding it to an Egypt state media Akhbar al Yom whose correspondents Sanaa Youssef rare comes to the UN and never asks questions -- Gallach and Ban have made so that Inner City Press cannot enter the UN after 7 pm. But that, of course, is when the budget process happens.

   In December 2016, for example, Burundi cut the funds for human rights observers and the UN mission the Security Council mandated but has yet to deploy. Inner City Press covers these, but was Banned from covering the process by Gallach. This is a cover up.

    Meanwhile Gallach is showing her true colors with article such as that “amateurs” killed journalism. Really? Energetic online media that actually covers UN corruption is a threat to deadbeat stenography or non-existent journalism like that of Akhbar al Yom's correspondent?

Gallach is the wrong person to have control of the UN Department of Public Information. She also did no due diligence on Macau based businessman Ng Lap Seng in the John Ashe case, and is responsible for the UN's Wonder Woman fiasco. She must go.

As Cuts Loom, UN Pension Fund Wines & Dines Brokers in Hospital(ity) Log, UNspun

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Series

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 – 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. And scrutiny on UN corruption is being ramped up, including the extension of Clinton-aligned Jeffrey Feltman so his pension can vest, here.

  Inner City Press continued its series on January 26 with this from the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund, which whistleblowing staff tell Inner City Press maintains a "Hospitality Log" of its wining and dining of brokers, leaving General Service staff to (mis) fill in the information.

  The whistleblowers tell Inner City Press of a directive from Sandhya Peerthum, citing Ban Ki-moon's corrupt boondoggle UMOJA:

"With the implementation of UMOJA, assistance from EO has been drastically reduced. Assistants can help schedule interviews, print PHP, book rooms, take notes, enter guests in workspeed for access etc. They can better support the SIO’s by taking on more administrative roles to free up the SIO’s time so that they can focus on their respective portfolios. Also, trading has been absorbed by Vicky so there is a lot of excess capacity."

  The staff whistleblowers tell Inner City Press there is a problem with "accurate record keeping including the Hospitality Log – Hospitality log is the responsibility of the P-staff (Investment Officers) who wine and dine with brokers, advisers and other investment professionals. So how would a GS staff know when and where a P-staff would be enjoying lunch, dinner and beer (and what else) on any given date or time to update the hospitality log? This is totally illegal" 

and needs investigation. The UN's holdover Spokesman Stephane Dujarric answered only two and a half of Inner City Press' 22 questions, and on January 25 and January 27 left the briefing room as Inner City Press was still asking questions. Then on January 27, this:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 12:35 PM
Subject: Your question on the Hospital Log of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Cc: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org

We have the following information provided by the UNJSPF:

The purpose of the Hospitality Log is to record events which Investment staff attend as part of their official functions, which may include meetings, conferences, meals or receptions.  These events are to the benefit of the Fund, as they enable investment staff to network and gather information which is helpful to their research.  As most of the Fund is internally managed, attendance at such events is not unusual.

The Investment Management Division (IMD) has a Gift and Hospitality Policy, which was reviewed by the UN Ethics Office and the Pension Fund’s Audit Committee. This policy requires events to be logged and it requires them to be reasonable and customary in cost.  Additionally, the Investment Management Division conducts annual ethics training."

We'll have more on this.

 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.