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ICP has published a (double) book about
a variety of inner city-relevant topics, including racism,
environmental and otherwise - click here for
sample chapters, here for
an interactive map,
here
for fast ordering
and
delivery, and here for
other ordering
information. 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." See
also, "City
Lit: Roman a Klepto [Review of ‘Predatory Bender’]," by
Matt Pacenza, City Limits, Sept.-Oct. 2004. The Pittsburgh
City Paper says the 100-page afterword makes the
"indispensable point that predatory lending is now being
aggressively exported to the rest of the globe," and opines that
that the "novel Predatory Bender: A Story of Subprime
Finance 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 environmental
justice too! Click here
for that
review; for or with more information, contact us.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT Video
UN
GATE, September 21 -- Who
gets to decide
which media
can enter the
United Nations
to cover this
week's United
Nations
General
Assembly
meeting, for
example the
September 21
"Youth Climate
Summit"? It's
Antonio
Guterres, who
as Secretary
General has
covered up
child rapes by
UN
peacekeepers
and his many
jet flights to
his real home
in Lisbon, and
has banned
Inner City
Press which
asks about
both for 445
days now.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT Video
UN
GATE, Sept 14 -- Who
gets to decide
which media
can enter the
United Nations
to cover this
month's United
Nations
General
Assembly high
level week?
The answer in
today's UN,
not unlike in
any
dictatorship
whether China
or Cameroon,
is one man and
his small
circle of
yes-men and a
yes-women,
with no due
process, no
right to
appeal, no
judicial
oversight.
In this case
the man is
Antonio
Guterres, and
the new
yes-woman is
Melissa
Fleming. She
previously
served as his
spokesperson
during his
tenure at the
UN refugee
agency UNHCR.
Guterres
parlayed that
into the top
UN job by
showing great
deference to
China on its
refoulement to
North Korea
for torture.
And
what does
Guterres do as
Secretary
General,
beyond seeking
a second term
include by
censoring the
Press? He flew
down to the
Bahamas and
said this:
"it's
important to
say I just
visited a
reception
center in
which the
overwhelming
majority of
the population
is not
Bahamian it’s
Haitian."
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT Video
UN
GATE, September 2 -- Who
gets to decide
which media
can enter the
United Nations
to cover this
month's United
Nations
General
Assembly high
level week?
The answer in
today's UN,
not unlike in
any
dictatorship
whether China
or Cameroon,
is one man and
his small
circle of
yes-men and a
yes-women,
with no due
process, no
right to
appeal, no
judicial
oversight.
In this case
the man is
Antonio
Guterres, and
the new
yes-woman is
Melissa
Fleming. She
previously
served as his
spokesperson
during his
tenure at the
UN refugee
agency UNHCR.
Guterres
parlayed that
into the top
UN job by
showing great
deference to
China on its
refoulement to
North Korea
for torture.
And
what does
Guterres do as
Secretary
General,
beyond seeking
a second term
include by
censoring the
Press? He
issues empty
statements
about storms,
like this one:
"Statement
attributable
to the
Spokesman for
the
Secretary-General
– on Hurricane
Dorian
The
Secretary-General
is deeply
saddened by
the terrible
devastation
caused by
Hurricane
Dorian, which
is still
impacting the
Commonwealth
of The
Bahamas.
The
Secretary-General
expresses
solidarity
with the
people and the
Government of
the
Commonwealth
of The
Bahamas.
The United
Nations will
continue
supporting the
Government-led
ongoing rescue
and relief
efforts.
Stéphane
Dujarric,
Spokesman for
the
Secretary-General
New York, 2
September
2019."
Dujarric too
in a censor.
Guterres took
money from
Lisbon-based
Gulbenkian
Foundation
during the
year after he
left UNHCR.
Then once
despite his
feminist
rhetoric
Guterres
shouldered out
women
candidates to
take over the
UN with
China's
support,
Guterres
omitted these
Gulbenkian
payments from
the UN public
financial
disclosure he
filed covering
2016.
When Inner
City Press
which while
reporting
daily from
inside the UN
also covered
the UN bribery
trial of CEFC
China Energy's
Patrick Ho in
the federal
courthouse in
lower
Manhattan
asked Guterres
about that
case, Guterres
refused to
answer.
By Matthew
Russell Lee
SDNY
COURTHOUSE, August 29 – To ship 513
wind turbine generator blades from Shanghai to
Corpus Christi, Siemens Gamesa Renewable
Energy said it would pay BBC Chartering
Carriers $2.7 million. Then after having paid
for only 336 blades, Siemens stopped paying.
BBC Chartering Carriers sued and appeared on
August 29 before U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Gregory H.
Woods.
Judge Woods
asked each
side what law
should apply. The
two lawyers said
they had both
worked in
maritime law
for some time;
Siemens said
it wants to
file a motion
to dismiss.
Judge Woods
set a schedule
and said he
was looking
forward to construing
the contract.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR Letter
PFTracker
Q&A
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, July 29 – The
corruption in
the UN system
under UN
Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres
ranges from
impunity for
sexual abuse
and harassment
to lack of
financial
disclosures
and audits to
outright
double-dipping
of benefits,
whistleblower
UN staff have
repeatedly
complained to
Inner City
Press.
A
fish rots from
the head, and
it is Guterres
(now missing
without
explanation
for two weeks)
who is
responsible.
But why then
is Guterres
given a pass
in an
increasingly
rare selective
take-down of
part of the UN
climate scam
by Foreign
Policy, a
publication
whose UN embed
UNchecked by
headquarters
never wrote a
word as
investigative
Inner City
Press would
evicted from
its UN office,
then roughed
up and banned
now 408 days?
In terms of
their recent
piece, the
scam of the
Global
Environmental
Fund goes
further back
than they say,
reported
exclusively by
Inner City
Press for
example here,
regarding
Tatiata
Gorlatch and
others.
And now
consider this,
from March:
Rastislav
Vrbensky just
left UNDP
having allowed
his wife to
earn over a
million
dollars in
contracts from
UNDP offices
that report to
him in the
Istanbul
Regional
Office of UNDP
in breach of
UNDP's Ethics
Rules. And it
looks like
there is more.
All staff have
been too
scared to
report for
past 2 1/2
years.
He is a senior
UNDP official
and Deputy
Director of
UNDP in Europe
in CIS region.
He left the
organization
with no
official
announcement
from the
Adminstrator
(Achim
Steiner), no
official
announcement
from the
Europe &
CIS Bureau
Bureau
Director
(Mirjana
Spoljaric
Egger) and no
official
announcement
from anybody
in UNDP.
Vrbesnky
reported to
Spoljaric who
reports to
Steiner.
Out through
the back door
...
There
are no fewer
that four big
oil cases
pending
against the
Nigerian
National
Petroleum
Corporation
(NNPC) in the
U.S. District
Court for the
Southern
District of
New York. The
cases involve
arbitration
awards and
various oil
fields; a
backdrop
includes
longstanding
human rights
abuses by and
allegations of
corruption in
Nigeria's oil
sector.
Back
on July 16
Inner City
Press sought
to attend and
cover a status
confernce in
one of the
cases, Statoil
and Texaco v.
NNPC,
18-cv-02392
before SDNY
Judge Richard
M. Berman. But
the matter was
put over until
July 23 at
noon.
When Inner
City Press
arrived at
noon, both the
plaintiffs and
defendants
tables were
full; the
courtroom was
otherwise
empty.
The
law firm for
Texaco and
Statoil,
Freshfields
Bruckhaus
Deringer US
LLP quickly
told Judge
Berman that
the proceeding
should be off
the record and
"in
camera."
Judge
Berman said
"we have a
member of the
press in the
courtroom, a
blogger," and
asked the
parties to say
what they
could in open
court. The
request, in
essence, was
for a stay of
the
proceedings,
such as
similar cases
before SDNY
Judges Stanton
and Kaplan
have been
stayed. (SDNY
Judge William
Pauley has
pushed one of
the four cases
forward, on
which we
intend to
report
more.)
The
Freshfields
counsel told
Judge Berman
that a six
months stay
would avoid
for the court
"the burden of
heavy
discovery and
motion
practice."
Judge
Berman
replied,
"That's why
we're here,
it's not
really a
burden for
us."
The
law firm for
the Nigerian
state oil
company,
Chaffetz
Lindsey LLP,
repeated the
argument for
secrecy. In a
July 18 letter
to Judge
Berman marked
"MEMO
ENDORSED" the
firm wrote "on
behalf of all
parties to
respectfully
request that
the status
conference
scheduled for
next Tuesday,
July 23, take
place in
camera and
that any
transcript of
the
proceedings be
placed under
seal."
Judge
Berman to his
credit
declined to
taken things
off the
record. He
told the
parties that
he was
granting their
request for a
stay, until
January 14,
2020 at 11 AM
but that it is
"very likely
there will be
no further
stay."
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video
By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, CJR Letter PFTracker
UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 16 – Before Inner City Press was roughed up by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' Security on June 22 and July 3, 2018 and banned since then, it insistently asked for disclosure of how many of Guterres' publicly funded trips took him through his real home, Lisbon. The questions are not been answered by Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who on 2 November 2019 simply bicycled away as Inner City Press asked about Guterres' failure in Cameroon and attempt to get even Park East Synagogue to oust Inner City Press from covering his October 31 speech about tolerance. Now on Saturday 16 March 2019, the supposedly environmentalist UNSG Antonio Guterres arrived at the $15 million publicly funded mansion in which he lives alone in not one but two large four by four vehicles, with six guards. Video here. What a waste, what hypocrisy. This was two days after Guterres guards physically pushed Inner City Press out of the line for a press freedom event in the UN it was invited to and had a ticket for, then refused to provide the banned-by-Guterres list they said was the basis of their action. Totally corrupt.By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR
PFT
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR
PFT
At UN
Environment
Solheim Blames
His Travel
Abuse On His
Staff In Email
Leaked to
Banned Inner
City Press
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive, CJR
PFT
By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR, Petition, Filing
UNITED NATIONS GATE, August 9 – How does today's UN under Secretary General Antonio Guterres protect those who testify to it? Or does his UN, as with whistleblowers and the investigative Press, leave them to be attacked, even by UN Security? The question is raised by the case of Thirumurugan Gandhi, a May 17 Movement activist who after testifying about the the security forces' Sterlite slaughter, has been arrested in Bangalore. The May 17 Movement has messaged Inner City Press, which has been banned from the UN by Guterres for 37 days and counting, that "Thirumurugan Gandhi has been arrested at the Bangalore airport early morning today. Thirumurugan Gandhi was traveling back from a recent visit to Europe, where he addressed the UNHRC [UN Human Rights Council] meeting in Geneva where he spoke about the recent protest against the sterlite plant in Tuticorin in which 13 people lost their lives in police firing. He was en route to Chennai city, where he hails from. This snooping upon him at the Bangalore Airport, is a gross violation of his fundamental rights. Though the police have just mentioned two old cases in Tamil Nadu to arrest Thirumurugan Gandhi, one wonders why this kind of a operation in Bangalore at the early morning hours as he was arriving here to reach Chennai. Given the total disregard for law and constitution by the State in general, especially in the background of the tumultuous political situation in Tamil Nadu, where the awakened youth of the state are up against the proxy government there, this arrest stinks. Chennai police have even detained Thirumurugan Gandhi even on flimsiest reasons in the recent times. Treating him like a common criminal, is Political Vendetta and nothing else. Thirumurugan Gandhi and the May 17th movement have been in the forefront of many pro-people mass movements. #ReleaseThirumurugan." This is something on which the UN should have to answer, particularly given his testimony to the UNHRC. Outgoing High Commissioner Zeid, and incoming Bachelet, should speak on this and other recent failures to protect (and worse) by the UN. (Inner City Press' August 8 UN GATE video here.) As to the UN Secretariat itself, when Inner City Press e-mails in this question since it remains banned by Guterres from the UN noon briefing, will it remain unanswered like so many others, as on Patton Boggs and Cameroon? Watch this site. August 6, 2018