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  ICP has published a (double) book about a variety of Bronx-relevant topics -- a review in Commonweal magazine of Dec. 5, 2003, opines  that "Predatory Bender... is as vivid an account of life in the Bronx as you are likely to read" -- click here for sample chapters, here for an interactive map,  here for fast ordering and delivery, and here for other ordering information.  See also, "City Lit: Roman a Klepto [Review of ‘Predatory Bender’]," by Matt Pacenza, City Limits, Sept.-Oct. 2004. CBS MarketWatch of April 23, 2004, says the the novel has "some very funny moments," and that the non-fiction mixes "global statistics and first-person accounts." The Washington Post of March 15, 2004, calls Predatory Bender: America in the Aughts "the first novel about predatory lending;" the London Times of April 15, 2004, "A Novel Approach," said it "has a cast of colorful characters."   The Pittsburgh City Paper of Dec. 11, 2003, wrote that it "may, in fact, be the first great American lending malfeasance novel" including "low-level loan sharks, class-action lawyers, corporate bigwigs, hired muscle, corrupt politicians, Iraq War veterans, Wall Street analysts, reporters and one watchdog with a Web site."  And all in The Bronx!   Click here for that review; for more information, contact us.
2014: MRL on Beacon Reader

By Matthew R. Lee, Video, story, FOIA docs

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video I II III RS HK

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video I II III RS HK

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY Post

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 – The UN under Antonio Guterres has a non-public "BARRED" list which includes political activists, according to Guterres' own UN Security, audio link below. But when Inner City Press whom Guterres put on the list for asking him about corruption submitted a Freedom of Information Law request to the NYC Police Department, NYPD first called UN Security insider Matthew Sullivan, then claimed they have no records or information. This is a scam. Inner City Press submitted an appeal, below. And on December 10 the NYPD replied, repeating exactly what the UN's Sullivan said: "Upon conferral with the NYPD Intelligence Division, it was confirmed by UN security that the list of “banned” individuals to which you refer in your request is an internal UN record that is not shared with this agency." But the rest of the response show how in bad faith the initial claim of no responsive documents was: "As it pertains to your request for records related to the “review, suspension or revocation of pistol permits for UN personnel”, the appeal is denied, first, because the records that you have described are exempt from disclosure under FOIL law; first, in that they are inter-agency or intra-  agency records that do not contain: i.) statistical or factual tabulations or data; ii). instructions to staff that affect the public; iii.) final agency policy or determinations; or, iv.) external audits [Public Officers Law §87(2)(g)]. Additionally, the disclosure of any records related to the “review, suspension or revocation” of a firearms license would reveal non-routine criminal investigative techniques or procedures [§87(2)(e)(iv)]; would constitute an unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of the license-holder(s) [§87(2)(b)]; and could endanger the life or safety of that person [§87(2)(f)]."

  But that means they HAVE responsive records, but are seeking to withhold all of them. To say, No records, is in bad faith. The NYPD ended, for now "Finally, to the extent that you seek information related to the Complaint Report filed with the 17th Precinct on July 4, 2018, enclosed herein please find the requested Complaint Report." On December 11 Inner City Press wrote again to NYPD and New York authorities: "   This concerns NYPD's December 10 response “denying” Inner City Press' and my appeal under FOIL of the NYPD's 4 December 2018 denial of my FOIL request acknowledged 15 October 2018 and quoted below, which was submitted on behalf of Inner City Press and in my personal capacity.
  I am concerned that while the FOIL request was initially denied with the statement “The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has closed your FOIL request FOIL-2018-056-10172 for the following reasons: In regard to the document(s) which you requested, this unit is unable to locate records responsive to your request based on the information you provided.”
  But now it turns out that wasn't true. For example, the NYPD *does* have records concerning the pistol permits of and disciplining of UN Security personnel - it's that, on appeal, you've come up with an argument that you think it can be withheld.
  This should have been disclosed in the already delayed Dec 4 response. Now you leave no opportunity for an administrative appeal of the total withholding. The normal decision then decision on appeal process allows requesters to pursue their rights before having to resort to expensive litigation.
  So this is a request for a COOG advisory opinion on the now dubious Dec 4 denial stating there are no records. Even on the UN's barred list and any NYPD records related thereto, the fact that NYPD called the UN about it calls into question whether NYPD has no records. The argument that they are records of another agency or organization is a different argument.
Also, NYPD had the complaint information - with the name of the harasser mis-spelled. (It is Ronald E. Dobbins, not "Dobbing"). So why was I told, there are no record?
    Please explain, confirm that a substantive administrative appeal can be filed. And we will separately await an advisory opinion from the COOG so that does not keep happening. We want the requested records and the NYPD should not be protecting or running interference for the UN." We'll have more on this - the UN scam continues - as Guterres BARS Inner City Press in retaliation and to cover up his corruption.  This was the appeal: "To NYPD's FOIL Appeals Officer, and NYS Committee on Open Government, et al:

This is an appeal under FOIL of the NYPD's 4 December 2018 denial of my FOIL request acknowledged 15 October 2018 and quoted below, on behalf of Inner City Press and in my personal capacity.

In short, I believe the NYPD's denial is not only erroneous but is in bad faith in its claim the NYPD is “unable to locate records responsive to your request.”

The request involved not only the processing of a complaint I filed against abuse and harassment by UN Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins and others with the 17th Precinct on 3 July 2018 (report number #2018-017-2848) but also NYPD record about the pistol permits of UN Security officers and knowledge of the UN's “barred” list which includes, according to the UN, “political activists” - and me, confirmed by UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights email to me also pasted below and made part of this appeal.

Most troubling, and the reason for the cc, UN Security official Matthew Sullivan told me on camera on October 24, nine days after my FOIL request to the NYPD, that “NYPD called us, we called them also. 'Cuz it's an internal document.” See, from Minute 8:34, this video.

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video I II III RS HK

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video I II III RS HK

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR  Q&A, NY Post

UNITED NATIONS GATE,  NOVEMBER 19 -- As Inner City Press moved forward with its investigative reporting about the UN including its  Secretary General Antonio Guterres, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric on 20 June 2018 said that “things will soon be getting worse” for Inner City Press' reporter. Inner City Press has now been banned from the UN for 138 days and Dujarric is providing his and his boss' pretext, as purported background, to some of those asking questions, at least if they come from Europe, see below. But on November 19 Dujarric's former boss at UNDP Helen Clark, answering Inner City Press' question across First Avenue from the UN, pointedly called out "the exclusion of journalists across the road." Vine; longer version here. One might think this would be jarring for Dujarric. One might question if ANY of the other candidates for Secretary General would have been the censor Guterres has been for 138 days, enabled by Dujarric. Inner City Press at noon on November 19, before questioning Clark, asked in writing Guterres and Dujarric: "Now that the Trump Administration has given CNN time (44 hours) to response to their re-suspension, please explain why the UN did not nad has not provided even that amount of time or due process - and immediately provide it, readmitting Inner City Press in the interim to the noon briefing and SG and GA proceedings.

More specifically, please immediately explain how Mr. Dujarric's statement that “press credentials to work at the UN, just like any other institution, is a 'privilege'” is different in any way that the position taken by the Trump Administration in response to the CNN lawsuit. Now that the Federal judiciary has ruled that access to the White House is not, as OSSG Dujarric has claimed, a privilege but a right, this is a FORMAL REQUEST THAT THE SG LIFT MIS-USED LEGAL IMMUNITY IN THIS CASE." Eight hours later, no answer to this or any other question submitted, on DRC, Cameroon, Mali. Guterres' UN is corrupt, and Dujarric is a corrupter. We'll have more on this.

The pretexts of Dujarric for Guterres are lies - now that they are becoming public, the ban is more disgusting and should be UNtenable.

  Two days after Dujarric's threat this reporter was pushed out of the General Assembly lobby during a speech by Guterres by UN Security Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins, who did it again more violently on July 3. Since then Inner City Press has been banned from entering the UN, and Guterres even tried to get Inner City Press ousted from Park East Synagogue twenty blocks north of the UN on October 31.

   As many online have questioned this no due process ouster, including from Cameroon, Japan, the UK, Italy and other places in Europe, we can now report that Dujarric while refusing to answer Inner City Press' and a UN Expert's written questions about how to appeal this lifetime ban has reached out to try to quiet some critics.

Tellingly, while he has entirely ignored for example Anglophone Cameroonian critics regardless of how polite or articulate they are, or how many social media followers they have, Dujarric has reached out to European critics. What does he tell them?

  To give the UN its best chance, Inner City Press on the morning of November 8 emailed questions to Guterres, his Deputy Amina Mohammed, Alison Smale, Dujarric and his Deputy Farhan Haq including: "November 8-2: I am informed that the SG's spokesman has selectively contacted those (from Europe) raising questions about the UN 3 July 2018 Press ouster and ban since, including stating that unnamed UN staff members or officials demand a lifetime ban in order to feel “safe.” Given the lack of due process, please name which officials or safe claim to feel unsafe in order to justify censorship, and the basis for your claims. Also, again, answer UNSR David Kaye's and others' question: what is the appeals process for a unilateral no due process physical ouster and banning by the UN of a journalist?" But seven hour later, no answer to any of the questions.

   So, for now due to the UN's constant threat of retaliation even against those it has unilaterally chosen to reach out to with dirt that cannot stand the light of day, this is a composite:

Dujarric claims that Inner City Press made "diplomats" feel unsafe. But he has yet to provide the name of a single diplomat, other than the false Morocco Mission complaint in USG Alison Smale's 17 August 2018 ban letter.

Dujarric claims that his staff didn't like having the movement reported on. This seems to refer to Inner City Press, once it had no office to use, working on a bench in the Secretariat lobby and noting when spokespeople who refused to even acknowledge formal questions went out to lunch. This is not a basis to ban a journalist for life.

Dujarric goes low and says that unnamed female reporters didn't want to see Inner City Press doing stand-up Periscope broadcasts. But the purpose of these -- filming on the fourth floor was permitted without an escort, Inner City Press was told by Media Accreditation -- was to show EMPTY offices, for example Morocco state media, while Inner City Press had nowhere to work. In fact, Inner City Press went out of its way not to speak with or engage in any way with Dujarric's coterie of pro UN correspondents - that why it left the building after work through the garage, which was later used against it.

  There is more, and we will have more. But it is clear these are pretexts. And even if Antonio "The Censor" Guterres, who believes it is impermissible for a journalist to do a critical stand up on the public sidewalk across two lanes of traffic from the $15 million publicly funded mansion he (sometimes) lives in believes these pretexts, an interim solution was and is clear.

 Simply allow Inner City Press in to go to the noon briefing and asked question - unless that is what they are afraid of - and to cover UNSC stakeouts and Budget Committee meetings. It is pathetic that a UN and Secretary General that be focused on "conflict prevention" can't find a solution other than violent ouster and banning for a critical journalist. We'll have more on this.

   This is how any dictatorship would try to justifying physically assaulting and banning a reporter - say that the journalist's reporting made unnamed people feel unsafe in unspecified ways.

By Matthew R. Lee, Video, story, FOIA docs

By Matthew Russell Lee, Audio, Video, Alamy photos

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A

UNITED NATIONS, October 26 – There is in The Bronx an exhibition of photographs from Liberia by two martyred journalists, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros. Inner City Press went to see it - and an exhibition opening speech by senior UN official Amina J. Mohammed. Video here. This is, therefore, a hybrid review - but we'll start with the photographs. They are stunning. Child soldiers, internally displaced people in a former Masonic Lodge in Monrovia, US Marines guarding the port.

Any positive UN role at the time of the photographs is harder to find. But people assume that the UN is good, or project on it all of their good feeling. And so Deputy Secretary General Mohammed, arriving characteristically later accompanied by unneeded security guards whispering into microphones that a question might be asked - was the keynote speaker, pitching her Nigerian government's role in all these West African conflicts. But what about Biafra? What about Mohammed herself remaining silent less than a year ago about her Nigerian government illegally detained and sent to Cameroon UN-registered refugees, Ayuk Tabe and 46 others? This was beyond the scope of the (excellent) exhibit.

In full disclosure, Inner City Press has in the past known the organizer, Michael Kamber, when he photographed the Inner City Press homesteaders fixing abandoned buildings in the Crotona Park East area of the South Bronx for the now defunct Village Voice. Inner City Press made point of telling him afterward, I'm going to praise the exhibit but tell the truth about the UN. He said he understood, that is Inner City Press' way. And so:

  In 2017 it emerged that Amina Mohammed, just before she left her position as Nigeria's Minster of Environment, signed thousands of back date certificates for illegally exported rosewood sent to China from Nigeria and Cameroon. Inner City Press, then in the UN, sought to question her about it. Soon Inner City Press was roughed up by UN Security and thrown out onto First Avenue on 3 July 2018, video here, and banned since.

   In fact the UN of Mohammed and SG Antonio Guterres who nominated her - and whose son Pedro does UNdisclosed business in Angola, Namibia, Sao Tome and Cabo Verde - have a secret banned from the UN list, on which they have put Inner City Press amid its questions, and which their Security official Matthew Sullivan is telling NYPD not to disclose. No self respecting Bronxite would put up with such a scam, and Inner City Press is not different. As we told Amina Mohammed as she fast-toured the exhibition after her speech, the UN should belatedly take action on the slaughter of Anglophones in Cameroon, and UN Censorship must end. She could end it - but will she? The request is in. These questions might seem aggressive. But that is journalism. The UN cannot be allowed to rough up and ban the Press that asks the questions.

  There was a speaker from the Office of the Mayor - which, when Inner City Press asked under the Freedom of Information Law for its knowledge of the UN's secret banned list which includes "political activists" conferred with the UN and then seeks to delay response to 2019.

By Matthew Russell Lee, Audio

UNITED NATIONS, October 11 – The UN maintains a secret list of people banned from entering its premises. Even the Security officers who enforce the ban are not told the reason why a person is on the list: whether it was for actual violence, or writing articles questioning the Secretary General Antonio Guterres' misuse of public funds, for example. One told Inner City Press the secret list includes "demonstrators" and "political activists," audio here.

  Guterres or apparently his head of Global Communications Alison Smale, if only as a proxy, can put a journalist on the list without any review, any notice, any appeal. It is a dictator's dream come true.

   Inner City Press was physically ousted twice by Guterres' UN Security this summer as it reported on his now-15 flights to his home in Lisbon with public funds, his trading away of Cameroon human rights abuses for favors in the Budget Committee, and now his son Pedro's undisclosed business links in Africa. Smale on August 17, without once speaking to me covering the UN for Inner City Press for 11 years, withdrew my media accreditation.

  But it's gone further than that. For example, on October 11 I showed up for a film screening about sex trafficking, “Love Sonia,” to which I had been invited by the UN Office of Drugs and Crimes. UNODC's New York director personally put me on the list for a post screening reception and came and met me and took me to the UN gate to sign me in, since my ticket - which she said she'd seen - mysteriously disappeared.

  UN Security refused to allow the NY director of UNODC to sign me in. “Even if he had a ticket we'd have to check,” one officer said. I was told that a supervisor would come out, and that UNODC would speak to them. But after one hour it never happened. Guterres' chief of staff Maria Luiza Viotti left the building and I audibly told her, I'm invited but I'm being blocked. She did not even break stride.

  The UN has given me nothing in writing that I am banned. Guterres' spokesman has stated it as a fact, without explanation or rationale, on October 9 and 11, while refusing to answer my e-mailed questions despite Smale's promise they would be answered to supposedly respect my "journalistic endeavours."

   Another UN Security officer told me, No one is going to help you. You are on the list. I asked him, who else is on the list? He mentioned “demonstrators” and "political activists" and others. Audio here.

  Tellingly, NOT on Guterres' banned list are those who pleaded guilty to UN bribery for example in the Ng Lap Seng - John Ashe case. They are not banned by Guterres, UNlike the journalist who most closely covered those convictions, and the current UN bribery case of Patrick Ho and the China Energy Fund Committee. Guterres is fine with bribery, but bans those who investigate and expose it.

UNSG Guterres thinks he can ban people without no notice, no due process, no review? And that it won't be noticed or reviewed? Watch this site.

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video, Q&A, HK here

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFTracker Scope

UNITED NATIONS, September 14 – In US politics, the upset in June by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Joe Crowley for a House of Representatives seat in The Bronx and bits of Queens sent many to Wikipedia or Google to look up “Democratic Socialism.” On September 13 Ocasio-Cortez campaigned in The Bronx at least in some places for and with Alessandra Biaggi, taking on Jeff Klein for a State Senate.A flier supporting her said "Klein Vendio a los Neoyorquinos" on the "Ley de Votcion Temprana." Inner City Press, banned by the UN for the 72d day in a row, went to the Bronx intersection of Pelham Parkway and White Plains Road to cover Biaggi's campaigning, video here. And hours later Biaggi declared victory, 55-45, at the Bronx Ale House. She said, “This is because of every single one of you who were courageous, who saw a vision as well, who knew that we could not tolerate Democrats who would be empowering Republicans, that that was intolerable,” she said. “And we have now cut the head off the IDC snake.” Klein spent over $2 million in the race, while Biaggi had spent only $244,000 through the end of August, pursuant to state Board of Elections campaign finance disclosures.

Earlier, Ocasio-Cortez' press list was told to expect her at Pelham Parkway between 4:30 and 5 pm. Inner City Press went, banned from the UN now for the 72d day in a row for covering the corruption on Cameroon and elsewhere of Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Up on under the El train on White Plains Road the reviews of the UN and also the US Mission to the UN weren't very positive. But where was Ocasio-Cortez?

   Biaggi's volunteers handed out her laminated flier at the stairs up to the 2 and 5 train tracks. A couple arrived in a car with a small sound system. But still no Ocasio-Cortez. Finally Biaggi appears, speaking with people on the sidewalk and heading south toward Lydig Avenue.

Inner City Press did too, launching the Periscope live-stream which the UN cited in banning it for life, and on which the US Mission's Nikki Haley, a one time governor of South Carolina and seeming to want more, refuses to answer. One hopes those who now represent not only this district but areas like it can push to get from the UN less corruption, or at least an end to censorship. Politics retail and wholesale, immunity by the pound. At Tacos El Bronco II they serve them for two dollars, with big green onions. They get this reporter's vote. Watch this site

This was Ocasio-Cortez' schedule:

By Matthew Russell Lee, Letter PFT Q&A Haley

UNITED NATIONS GATE, September 6 – How arrogant or out of touch a self-styled world leader is has been revealed in the Leader's contemptuous approach to freedom of the press and whose who even gently chide him on it, including a Nobel Peace Prize winner. No, this is not a reference to Donald Trump, but to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, including as represented by his Franco-American spokesman Stephane Dujarric. And now Inner City Press is told that Guterres is cynically trying to recast his 65 days of censorship as being based on a request FROM the Trump Administration, or at least Trump's UN Mission to the UN and its ally, the UK. A UN Correspondent who sought as many have to get the ban on Inner City Press lifted at least from the upcoming General Assembly week has said, in writing: "I spoke with Stephane the other day and unfortunately your situation remains unchanged. The case against you is based on complaints from the US & UK Missions... I have tried to get you a waiver for the UNGA week but Security remains firm in their refusal." So, the answer is that Guterres ban on Inner City Press -- which began on July 3 right after I spoke with Cameroon's Ambassador -- is now based on questions I have asked the US Mission's Deputy Ambassadors including Jonathan Cohen and UK Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Allen at the Delegates' Entrance AFTER I was already banned. There was also serial questioning of Guterres and UK Permanent Representative Karen Pierce in front of IPI on July 20, Periscope video here. In fact, all of my questioning of the US and UK Missions, and all other Mission, is online on Periscope, full archive here. It is no different that the questions hurled at Trump. But there, the First Amendment applies. At the UN, it seems, an already censoring Secretary General can claim to get subsequent support from... Trump and his Mission. See 6 September 2018 question put to US Ambassador Nikki Haley, here. Inner City Press had already submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the UK government, after statements by UN (British) Under Secretary General Alison Smale. Now today a US FOIA request has been filed to the US State Department in Washington: