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October 15, 2018

Nikki Haley Took Names Then Went Native At the UN Now US Promotes Currie on Cuba Ignoring UN Censorship

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY Post

UNITED NATIONS, October 12 – When Donald Trump nominated Nikki Haley as his Ambassador to the UN, it seemed she would be a disruptor and clean up corruption. As she prepares to leave, though, at most one of those things is true: she was a disruptive force. But the UN's corruption and censorship remains. Now as didn't happen before, and ignoring the exclusion of the Press, the US is promoting one of Haley's deputies Currie: Ambassador Kelley E. Currie, U.S. Representative on the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, will deliver remarks at an event launching the campaign “Jailed for What?” about the continuing plight of Cuba’s political prisoners.  Her remarks will take place at United Nations Headquarters, Economic and Social Council Chamber in New York City on Tuesday, October 16, at 1:15 p.m. EDT.

The estimated 130 political prisoners held by the Cuban government are an explicit sign of the repressive nature of the regime and represent a blatant affront to the fundamental freedoms that the United States and many other democratic governments support.  Holding the Cuban regime responsible for its human rights violations and supporting the Cuban people’s aspirations to live in freedom are key components of President Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum of 2017.

Following Ambassador Currie’s remarks, Ambassador Michael Kozak of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor will moderate a discussion that will include Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro, Carlos Quesada, Executive Director of the Institute of Race and Equality, former Cuban political prisoner Alejandro Gonzalez Raga, and others who will discuss the Cuban government’s continued use of arbitrary detention and specious charges to silence the Cuban people

The event will be open to the press.. Journalists should be seated in the United Nations Headquarters, Economic and Social Council Chamber in New York City on Tuesday, October 16, no later than 1:00 p.m.

Journalists will need UN credentials to be admitted to the event.

Journalists should apply for their credentials directly with the UN’s accreditation office.. Media who have already completed the UN’s self-accreditation process but who have additional questions can contact Loyda Garcia." Self accreditation?? The US Mission still claims not to know that Guterres' UN censors and bans journalists it doesn't like? This is collusion.

 Haley's disruption of the UN was concentrated in her first few months, when she famously stood in the UN lobby and said she would be "taking names" of countries who opposed US interests, and when she blocked Secretary General Antonio Guterres' nomination of Palestinian candidate Salam Fayyad to be the UN's new envoy to Libya.

After that, however, Haley seemed to settle down and go native at the UN. Trump bragged at her send-off that Haley got to know "everyone" in the organization. But not well enough to get Russia's Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia to answer her calls before the UN's mechanism on Syria's chemical weapons expired. She cast vetoes on Jerusalem and Gaza, popular in some quarters but hardly a measure of the she-knows-everyone diplomacy that Trump spoke of.

Haley called for a UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry into the murder in the Democratic Republic of the Congo of American expert Michael Sharp and his Chilean-Swedish colleague Zaida Catalan. But the Commission never happened, and by June 2018 Haley was standing next to Mike Pompeo, explaining why the US was leaving the Human Rights Council.  The answer, some said, was John Bolton...

Haley got her fellow South Carolinian David Beasley installed as the head of the UN World Food Program; at her Press-less press conference as president of the Security Council in September 2018 a South Carolina journalist who'd flown up for the event asked if she'd be taking the Council members down to her home state. It didn't happen - until, in a different form, just after her resignation.

  Perhaps the most disappointing of Haley's failures to disrupt, or disruption interrupted, is on UN corruption. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres no fewer than 15 times since assuming office in January 2017 has used public money to fly to his home in Lisbon, where his spouse still lives. After for Inner City Press I asked questions about this, I was ousted from the UN and Haley did nothing. In fact, another journalist was told by the UN that the US Mission supported my ouster. Haley's spokesman also worked for Samantha Power; her Deputy Jonathan Cohen has yet to speak to the Press, now asking questions at the UN Delegates Entrance gate.

   Haley never even commented much less demanded UN action on a UN bribery case proceeding in Federal court in lower Manhattan against Patrick Ho of the China Energy Fund Committee for allegedly bribing then UN President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa for oil and other concessions in Uganda. While Guterres has refused to even start an audit to determine the full scope of CEFC's bribery at the UN, Haley has stayed quiet. Perhaps an expanded scope would call into question her oft-repeated claim that it is a new day at the UN. It is not. The UN tends to drag those who pass through it to its level. So it was time for Haley to declare victory and move on.

After twenty four Congressmembers urged Haley to schedule a Security Council meeting about the slaughter of Anglophones in Cameroon, I asked her about it, and she said she was “open” to such a Council meeting. But it never happened, and now even amid the re-coronation of 36 year president Paul Biya, there is no meeting on the horizon.

Haley came out a winner when the New York Times mis-reported that she had accepted $52,000 curtains for her penthouse apartment (the curtains were bought and paid for by the Obama administration). But the real story may have been her living in a $58,000 a month apartment. From there, how could she criticize Guterres spending public money to fly home? Haley herself was taking rides on private jets, as detailed in a formal complaint the day before her resignation was made public.

   Haley's shift from taking names to taking selfies was exemplified on the 4th of July 2018, when the UN gave her its fourth floor Delegates Dining Room and balcony for a party to watch the fireworks. Ambassadors of all stripes lined up, wanting photos with her just as she wanted photos with them, to show how well she was getting along. But what that supposed to be the point?

  The UN is the ultimate swamp, with reform always a chimera, blocked by immunity. Haley's narrative is that she came and quickly cleaned up the UN. Twenty one months in, little has been cleaned up. Perhaps it was time to get out before demands came for results and not rhetoric. At the UN, the corruption and censorship continue -- including with the discovery that under Guterres the UN maintains a secret "active ban" list that includes "political activists' - and Inner City Press. But that's another thing that Haley hasn't acted on; that's another story. Watch this site.October 8, 2018

In UN Bribery Case Patrick Ho Denied Bail Post Gadio Role in Qatar Arms But UN Guterres Bans Inner City Press

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

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 – Four months after the arrest for UN bribery of former Senegalese foreign minister Cheik Gadio and Patrick Ho, the head of China Energy Fund Committee full funded by CEFC China Energy, his ultimate boss at CEFC Ye Jianming was brought in for questioning in China. On October 4 Ho was again denied bail. Periscope video here. His lawyers argued that dropping the case against Gadio - who will testify against Ho - means that Ho conspired with no one. But Gadio will say he didn't know Ho had $2 million in cash for Chad President Deby in gift boxes; he's being allowed (or made) to say that Deby didn't know either. But this ham handed bribe was converted into a bogus philanthropic gift -- consciousness of guilt, as it were. The trial date of November 5 may not be set in stone, as the defense is planning a filing under Section 5 of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) to use classified information. Ho has a $2.1 million account in UBS, but Judge Preska said this wasn't the main factor in denying bail. The sleight of hand on Gadio has no impact on the "Uganda scheme" with Sam Kutesa, with whom UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has dealings. Guterres still hasn't started an audit of CEFC - which was openly named in the court hearing on October 4 - in the UN. We'll have more on this. This week in court filings the prosecution make it clear how corrupt the UN is, and why it has banned Inner City Press which reports on it: Ho bribed not one but two Presidents of the General Assembly, and brokered weapons not only to Chad but also Qatar, whose Al Jazeera got the exclusive of Guterres' selection as SG and after getting spoonfed by Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric on June 19 collaborated to get Inner City Press roughed up and banned since by Guterres' corrupt UN. And STILL  Guterres, whose son does UNdisclosed business in Angola, Namibia, Sao Tomo and Cabo Verde, has not even started an audit, only roughed up the Press and banned it now for 93 days. From this week's filing: "Evidence of Transactions with Iran The evidence of the defendant’s interest in and willingness to broker transactions in or with Iran principally consists of emails, spanning a multiple-year period. To choose a few examples: In October 2014, the defendant sent his assistant an email stating, “I am going to BJ [i.e., Beijing] this Friday to see [the Chairman of CEFC NGO and CEFC China] on Sat afternoon. The documents I want to send him before hand in separate items are: . . . 7. Iranian connection (brief).”4 On the same date, the defendant sent his assistant another email, attaching a document, which stated, in pertinent part: 7) Iranian Connection . . . Iran has money in a Bank in china which s under sanction. Iran wishes to purchase precious metal with this money. The precious metal is available through a Bank in HK which cannot accept money from the Bank in China which holds the money but is under sanction. The Iranian agent is looking for a Chinese company acting as a middle man in such transactions and will pay commission. (details to be presented orally) The Iranian connection has strong urge to establish trading relationship with us in oil and products . . . . The following year, in June 2015, the defendant received an email that stated, in pertinent part: “The Iranian team will arrive in BJ . . . . See the attached.” The attachment referenced in the email was a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Presentation to Potential Partners Iran Petroleum Investments.” The next day, the defendant forwarded the email to his assistant, stating, “For writing report to [the Chairman of CEFC NGO and CEFC China].”
The following year, in June 2016, the defendant emailed another individual, blindcopying
his assistant, and stated, in pertinent part, “Will get [two executives of CEFC China] to
meet with [oil executive at company with operations in Iran] in BJ, and [another individual] also on another occasion if he comes. You can start organizing these. . . . Other matters ftf [i.e., face to face].” And also "an email exchange in which Gadio asked the defendant: “Do you think CEFC can intervene with the Chinese state to get an urgent, extremely confidential and significant military weapon assistance to our friend [the President of Chad] who has engaged in the battle of his life against the devils of Bokko Haram?,” to which the defendant replied, “Your important message has been forwarded. It is being given the highest level of consideration. Will inform you once I hear back.”
The defendant also sought to and did broker arms transactions unrelated to the Chad and
Uganda schemes charged in this case. For example: In March 2015, an individual sent the defendant an email, stating, “I have the list and end user agreement. Pls advise next step.” On the same day, the defendant replied, in pertinent part, “Find a way to pass them onto me and we can execute that right away[].” The individual replied, “Attached. [W]e have the funding and processing mechanisms in place. If it works nice there will be much more. Also for S. Sudan.” The attachment to this email was a document entitled “End User Certificate,” certifying that the user of the goods in question would be the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Libya. The goods listed on the document included numerous arms. The following month, the defendant sent an email that stated in pertinent part: “It so turns out Qatar also needs urgently a list of toys from us. But for the same reason we had for Libya, we cannot sell directly to them. Is there a way you could act as an intermediary in both cases?” The person whom the defendant emailed replied: “Qatar good chance bc there is no embargo. Libya is another case bc going against an embargo is tricky.” The defendant responded: “Qatar needs new toys quite urgently. Their chief is coming to China and we hope to give them a piece of good news. Please confirm soonest.” This is outrageous, that an NGO still accredited under Guterres was selling weapons into South South, Libya and Qatar. Resign. And, on multiple PGAs: "among the individuals whom the defendant [Patrick Ho] is charged with bribing is Sam Kutesa, the Ugandan Foreign Minister. The Government expects that the evidence will show that the corrupt relationship between the defendant and Kutesa developed between in or about September 2014 and September 2015, when Kutesa was serving as the PGA (specifically, the PGA for the 69th session of the UN General Assembly). The evidence, in both the form of emails and a recorded phone call, also shows that, just
as he did with respect to Kutesa when he was the PGA, the defendant sought to cultivate a
business relationship with Kutesa’s predecessor, John Ashe, who served as the PGA between in
or about September 2013 and September 2014. As he did with Kutesa, the defendant began by introducing himself to Ashe as the Secretary-General of CEFC NGO. And just as he did with
Kutesa when he served as the PGA, the defendant invited Ashe to visit CEFC NGO in Hong Kong and to speak at various events.
In mid-April 2014, Ashe traveled to Hong Kong and met with the defendant and others.
After the trip, Ashe’s aide sent a letter to the defendant thanking the Chairman of CEFC NGO (who was also the Chairman of CEFC China) for the contribution of $50,000 to support the PGA. The aide had solicited the contribution from the defendant prior to the Hong Kong trip, and the defendant had confirmed that CEFC NGO would make the contribution.
In or about early June 2014, the defendant requested that Ashe officiate over a forum that
CEFC NGO was planning to hold at the UN, and also attend and officiate over a luncheon at the UN the following day. (The defendant made virtually the same request of Kutesa once he
became the PGA.) The day before the forum (July 6, 2014), the defendant emailed two business associates of Ashe, who assisted him in raising funds, to invite them to the forum and luncheon and to request their assistance in “urg[ing] the PGA to grace the occasion with his presence and to deliver a short remark.”
On or about the same day, the defendant and one of these associates (“Associate-1”)
spoke by phone. (See Ex. A (draft transcript).) During the call, which was recorded, the
defendant confirmed that he wanted Ashe to attend his event. The following conversation then took place:
Associate-1: So the last question, so sorry if I ask too direct. . . . [H]ave you, made some
contribution to him . . . ?
The defendant: Yeah, we already paid.
Associate-1: Oh you did? OkayThe defendant: Well, not a whole lot but it’s—it’s okay. On a couple of occasions. But I
think the major contribution will come in after we talk about what he can—what he can
help us with.
Associate-1: What you—what you mean major contribution? It’s after he return uh—
leave the job?
The defendant: Yes, yes.
. . .
Associate-1: Wonderful . . . okay.
The defendant: That’s not a—that’s not a problem. The problem is—uh, it’s give and
take.
Associate-1: Give and take. That’s—of course. This is the—this is business, right?
The defendant: Yeah, right.
 2 These two business associates subsequently pleaded guilty to bribing Ashe, based on
conduct unrelated to the defendant and CEFC. Ashe was charged with tax offenses arising from
his allegedly failing to disclose bribe payments as income. He passed away before trial, and the
charges against him were therefore dismissed." We'll have more on this.October 1, 2018

UN Guterres Revoked Inner City Press Access to UN Claims E-Answers and Has Not Said For Life

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, September 28 – How arrogant and counter-factual 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 and one of his envoys to a major country.. No, this is not a reference to Donald Trump, but to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. After revoking Inner City Press' media accreditation amid its questions on his use of public funds, silence on Cameroon and conflicts of interest, Guterres' UN did not respond to Inner City Press' request to cover UNGA 73 and blocked it from a "press freedom" event on September 28. On the same day Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric was asked by Simon Ateba of Today News Africa, transcript here, video here: "Recently, you banned Matthew Lee from Inner City Press and he was questioning you about Cameroon, the UN Secretary-General, the… the… he might have had a different method. Who decides what is right and who decides…

Spokesman Dujarric:  The question about… sorry, I'll let you finish first.

Question:  Yeah. Who decides, is it not… I mean, who gives you the power to ban people because they are challenging you, because they are questioning you?  Did you ban Matthew Lee because he was questioning you about Cameroon, where a dictator has been in power for 36 years? And you banned a journalist who's asking you questions about him? Is that right? Does it make sense to you?

Spokesman:  First of all, we've answered the question about Mr. Lee repeatedly, and we've also answered Mr. Lee's questions repeatedly.  But, can I just… I'll let you finish if you can let me finish.  We've also answered his questions repeatedly for the last 12 years, and we continue to answer the questions that he e-mails in.  His accreditation was revoked purely for having repeatedly violated the rules… the accreditation rules, which are transparent, and which you all agree to abide by, which are frankly… most of them are self-policing, and it had nothing to do whatsoever with the content of his writings or the questions that he's asking.

Ateba: I mean, what do you mean banning him for life? What does it mean?

Spokesman:  That's not an expression that anyone from here has ever used, and I think I've answered your question on Mr. Lee." Well, no. Dujarric has been answering less than 10% of Inner City Press' written questions. And Alison Smale's ghoulish revocation letter provided no road map to re-apply and she ignored Inner City Press' application to cover UNGA 73. Amina J. Mohammed and chief of staff Maria Luiza Viotti did not answer detailed question about the physical ban on Inner City Press entering the UN even when invited by countries' missions or UN partners like CPJ and Reuters. We'll have more on this. On August 27 Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric answered a question on camera about Guterres banning of Inner City Press by saying that "the revocation of Mr. Lee's credential has to do with creating a hostile environment for diplomats." Vine video with over 1270 views here. But on September 17 Dujarric after trying to avoid or intimidate a question on the same topic said that the decision was by Guterres' Secretariat "without any input from any member state." Video here. So how did Guterres and Smale "know" that diplomats felt a hostile environment? Or was it Guterres who didn't like questions and coverage about his mis use of public funds for junkets to Lisbon, his silence on the slaughter in Cameroon and his son's now exposed business links in Africa? Someone is lying. We'll have more on thisSeptember 24, 2018

In Cameroon Biya Targets Anglophones in Yaounde as Guterres Bans Press From Nigeria FM Briefing

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, September 21 -- As the Cameroon government of 36 year President Paul Biya slaughters civilians in the Anglophone regions as well as in the North, it re-engaged Washington lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs and Mercury Public Affairs, documents show. The UN belatedly acknowledged to Inner City Press, which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had roughed up on July 3 right after it spoke to Cameroon's Ambassador Tommo Monthe and on August 17 declared banned for life from entering the UN that Guterres met with a Cameroon delegation on July 11. And they discussed, disturbingly, strategies to reduce negative coverage of Biya's killings, see below. Now Biya's government is raising the specter of Anglophones, or as the UN of Guterres seems to say, secessionists, in the capital Yaounde. A crackdown is foretold in the neighborhoods of Obili, Biyem-Assi, Etoug-ebe. Photo here. And the UN says nothing, refusing to answer even the simplest of questions from Inner City Press which Guterres had roughed up and banned from the UN for 80 days now, on September 21 to be prevented from questioning Geoffrey Onyeama the foreign minister of Nigeria which engaged in the illegal refoulement Guterres supposedly cared about, for 47 including Ayuk Tabe. For now, here were Inner City Press' questions, and his answers, last UNGA High Level week before Guterres got even worse than he was then. On September 19 in a briefing Inner City Press was prohibited from attending, Guterres' special adviser on the prevention of genocide Adama Dieng said, as to Cameroon, that nothing must be done to encourage secession - a position that while Guterres' goes beyond what is supposed to be Dieng's focus, preventing the killing of people based on ethnicity or, here, language. As luck would have it, Inner City Press while conducting its daily sidewalk interviews at the UN Delegates' Entrance gate on September 20 asked Dieng why he'd done beyond his mandate. He said that he wants to visit the country. Video here. Then, still in the morning, Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who USG Alison Smale said would be answering writting questions, this: "September 20-3: On Cameroon, please confirm that the SG's adviser Dieng is seeking to visit the country and explain both how it is within his mandate to speak, as he did yesterday in the briefing like today's by the SG I am banned from, in opposition to any encouragement of secession and how the SG thinks this position is a legitimate one for the UN and separately how it could play a role if it has already said what the outcome should be." Six hours later, nothing at all. Guterres' UN is corrupt.  Now in North-West Region travel restrictions have been imposed - in fact, one can't leave without saying exactly where one is going. Photo here. It was impossible for Inner City Press to get any comment from the UN of Guterres, since he has banned Inner City Press from the building for 77 days now, and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric has not been answering any written questions, including about sexual abuse by a Cameroon Army "peacekeeper" in the Central African Republic, here. A campaign to gain the release of imprisoned and increasingly sick journalist Thomas Awah is being ignored by the authorities. In Ekona in South-West Region Cameroon's government has engaged in what's become their trademark abuse, the killing at point blank range of civilians, in this case Bezeng Jonas and his sons, one of whom was attending University of Buea. Where are the "positive steps" the UK Mission's Karen Pierce asserted this week to Inner City Press across the street from the UN, from which British USG Alison Smale has banned Inner City Press for 66 days with assists?  Things have reportedly reached the point that in Lebialem Division in the South West region officials have de facto separated the country by instituting an ‘Access Card’ from locals fleeing insecurity in the division. One needs to pay FCFA 20, 000 for the 'Laissez passer' to cross over." After Guterres did nothing, in order to try to get Cameroon's support as chair of UN Budget Committee, and after again refusing Inner City Press' questions on August 31, video here, is now in China which is arming Biya. Now with Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric cutting off question and saying Guterres' ban of Inner City Press is "settled" and that it cannot enter to cover the General Assembly high level week where last year Guterres greeted Paul Biya, Guterres is headed to China September 1-4. And here's from China state media: "In March, Cameroonian President Paul Biya was the first African leader to visit China this year. It was the sixth trip to China by the president. Fruitful deals from FOCAC Beijing summit can significantly revamp the country's economy," Mpoche said. "That is why, I think the Belt and Road Initiative is laudable."
According to the Cartel of Cameroon Entrepreneurs, known in its French acronym as GICAM, close to 100 Cameroonian businessmen will visit China on the sidelines of the Beijing summit, scheduled for early September. The businessmen traveling to China intend to seize the opportunity and sign deals with Chinese private companies to "boost our cooperation and create more jobs for the youths back home," said Magloire, the rapporteur at Cameroon's Ministry of Economy and Finance."  The article makes no mention of Southern Cameroons and Biya's killings - nor, apparently, will Guterres. We'll have more on this.Here are questions Guterres and his spokesman, contrary to the promise of evicter Alison Smale, has left UNanswered: "August 27-6: August 22-3: On Cameroon, your belated July 11 read out does not answer the questions Inner City Press has asked. Before asking more, there are now broken out by letter for ease of reference and for belated answer today, as well as this:

was DSG Mohammed present at the July 11 meeting? And what is the SG's response to what was said about him in the demonstration by Anglophone Cameroonians in Washington yesterday? How does he respond to their charges of corruption?

a) Cameroon has hired Mercury Public Affairs for $100,000 a month, even as the UN is paying money to the government. Is UN money being used for the mass killing cover up campaign? Are there any safeguards in place?

b) please disclose any and all other meeings the SG has had this year arranged by paid lobbyists.

[responded to Aug 22, but see (d) below: c) what is the SG's comment on the recent announcement of seven arrests for summary executions, and the newer video of Cameroon Army executions that has emerged?

d) Specifically, how are these videos being incorporated into the supposed vetting of Cameroon's contributions to UN Peacekeeping missions?

e) please provide a list and read-out of each of the Secretary General's meetings and communications with Cameroon Ambassador Tommo Monthe during Monthe's time as chair of the Fifth (Budget) Committee.

[semi-answered Aug 22 f) In light of statements at the August 8 noon briefing please state whether envoy Fall even requested to meet with President Paul Biya or whether the UN believes that Biya is once again out of the country, in Geneva. Has the UN ever met with Biya in Geneva? ]

g) I reiterate August 7-1 and 8-1 and 9-1, on this: was the SG or anyone else in the UN aware that this Biya delegation's lobbying trip was stage managed by the DC-based lobbying firm Patton Boggs? Why was this meeting not disclosed at the time? Why is there no photo, even just UN Photo, of it? Where did it take place? Who attended, on each side?

h)Has the Secretariat communicated since with the Biya government? Has it ever communicated with the opposition?"  On August 26, in Nigeria those Anglophones displaced by Biya's killings, covered up and support by Antonio "Mr. Refugees" Guterres simply so he could try to get Cameroon Ambassador Tommo Monthe's support for his power grab reform proposals, are called "invaders." But still when they are interviewed some truth emerges: "one of the refugee, Polycarp Ande who fled from Furawa Sub-division into Fikyu village alleged that Cameroonian soldiers led the ethnic cleansing of their people. According to him, hunger, elusive health care, lack of shelter and idleness were major challenges, which he noted has in turn had ripple effect on their host community, who are predominantly low scale farmers. He explained that the villagers and churches has been feeding them, and expressed worry over their increasing numbers amidst meager resources. “Some of our brothers who went back to see how the situation was in our villages keep running back as the onslaught is still going on. ” As at last Saturday, over 15 of our people came into Kpambo-piri in Ussa and more people keep coming into Nigeria every week. “Our children are the most affected because they can’t go to school and we want the government of Nigeria and the world to come to our aid." Inner City Press is inquiring with legislators in the area and others - watch this site.  On August 22, in response to detailed questions about what Guterres knew - including about Cameroon which received the public's funds through the UN paying Patton Boggs and now Mercury Public Affairs, see below - his spokesman Stephane Dujarric sent Inner City Press, whom he has played his role in banning for life, this which we publish in full: "On Cameroon: On new video released on alleged human rights abuses in Cameroon:
We are aware of the new video released on social media concerning alleged human rights violations in the country and remain deeply concerned over the continued violence. We are encouraged that the Government has pledged to carry out a thorough investigation into these incidents and to publish the results. We continue to ask the Government to grant unimpeded access to the UN human rights bodies. We further reiterate the need to lift all restrictions on humanitarian access to the North-West and South-West regions.
On SRSG Fall’s visit to Cameroon and upcoming elections:
With regard to SRSG Fall’s recent visit to Yaoundé from 4 to 9 August, as mentioned earlier, he met with the Prime Minister, the Minister of External Relations, the Minister for Territorial Administration, the President of the National Commission for the Promotion of Multiculturalism and Bilingualism, and the Director-General of Cameroon’s electoral management body, ELECAM, as well as the Chief of Staff of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon, among others. In his meetings with the authorities, he discussed the situation in the country in the lead-up to the 7 October presidential election, as well as humanitarian assistance to those in urgent need.
Meanwhile, the UN continues capacity-building activities, as well as voter education targeting the media and civil society in close cooperation with ELECAM ahead of the elections, and will continue to closely monitor the situation." The UN's no due process "investigation" of Inner City Press with the outcome pre-determined puts the first response into context, as does the government memo describing Guterres that the UN won't respond to. And UN "capacity building" for Biya's latest ghoulish "election"? We aim to have more on this. Watch this site.

   Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale's August 17 letter banning Inner City Press, on which she took 45 days to try to phrase censorship in terms of "professionalism," states that Inner City Press' questioning broadcasts on Periscope, for then 45 days at the gate outside the UN, are derogatory and even somehow dangerous. Dangerous to the cover up of Biya's killings, perhaps, and those who play a role in it.

September 17, 2018

Misplaced Focus on Nikki Haley Curtains While UN Says She Supports Censorship of Press So FOIA Filed

By Matthew Russell Lee, PFT Q&A Haley Scope

UNITED NATIONS GATE, September 14 – That the US government is paying $58,000 a month to rent the full floor penthouse across from the UN for Nikki Haley is one thing. The $52,700 for mechanized curtains was a decision made under the Obama Administration, when Samantha Power was US Ambassador to the UN.

But what needs to have the curtains drawn on it, so to speak, is the current lack of transparency. The UN of Secretary General Antonio Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up on July 3 as it covered the UN Budget Committee meetings on his $6.7 billion proposals, and has had it banned from the UN since - by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' head of Global Communications Alison Smale, until a year ago the Berlin bureau chief of the New York Times, which has backtracked on curtain-gate but remains silent on and stands behind Smale's censorship.

    The US Mission under Haley has done nothing - in fact, Inner City Press is informed that Guterres' UN is telling people that the US Mission supports and even requested the banning of Inner City Press.

   Inner City Press has filed a Freedom of Information Act request, no documents responsive to which have yet been produced. Asking question at the UN Delegates Entrance, since it is banned from the UN Security Council stakeout and noon briefing, Inner City Press has repeatedly asked Haley about the censorship (and about Cameroon, abuse by UN peacekeepers, and UN bribery). Haley does not answer. This is not transparency - the curtains should be and will be pulled back. Watch this site. 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:

"On behalf of Inner City Press and in my personal capacity as its United Nations bureau chief, Matthew Russell Lee, pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 for the following information: 1) Most pressingly, any and all record reflecting communications by the US Mission to the UN or its personnel to the UN concerning Inner City Press or me, including but not limited to my questioning and broadcasting on Periscope of and concerning such personnel; and 2) any and all record reflecting communications by the US Mission to the UN or its personnel to the UN concerning Inner City Press or me from January 1, 2017 to the date of your response.    This request, particularly (1) above which can and should be treated separately, should be afforded expedited treatment. I have today been informed that my banning from the UN, including prospectively from covering the UN General Assembly High Level week as I have for 11 years and for which I submitted a timely application on Sept 3, is based on complaints by the US Mission to the UN, who officials I have questioned in a journalistic capacity since July 5. Such a complaint would impinge on my First Amendment rights, and threatens imminent irreparable harm. Expedited treatment must be accorded.  If this request is denied in whole or part, please provide the basis for each such denial or deletion by reference to the specific exemption of the Act which you assert is applicable. Request for All Portions of Material for Which No Exemption to Production is Claimed Please provide all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material. We reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information... I am requested expedited treatment of the request for all USUN communications to the UN about Inner City Press or me since July 3, 2018 due to such communications being cited as a basis to ban me from covering the UNGA High Level week beginning September 24 - the US Mission is being called responsible for the ban and it is imperative to prove or disprove that before then, asap, before irreparable harm including to First Amendment interests takes place." ["Your request has successfully been submitted."] Watch this site. We maintain: on press freedom, in terms of actual acts, Guterres is worse than Trump: Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up, twice, and now banned for life. On September 5, after a report-back from a large democracy - not the United States - which sought to intervene to stop Guterres' censorship, Inner City Press turned it into a question to Guterres' spokesmen and Deputy and Alison Smale: "September 5-2: I'm informed that when approached by a major democracy the/your answer has been that my “issue is being treated as one which does not require consultation with Member States as it relates to Security & DPI taking action in pursuit of existing procedures” (which?) and that this is not the only case where restrictions have been placed and in the past other journalists too have been banned. Please explain by what right the Secretariat ignores member states, given the conflicts of interest and needs for recusals timely raised, and state the precedents of other expulsion, on what grounds, with what due process and for what periods of time. Note my September 3 application." Hours later - after Guterres' ASG Fabrizio Hochschild's declined to answer Inner City Press' question by claiming that Dujarric is answering - Deputy Farhan Haq replied, "as for question 5-2, the Spokesman has never said that." So Inner City Press immediately specified: "The "you" in question Sept 5-2 referred to the UN Secretariat for which you speak. And that's what they tell me was the answer. So the request pre-publication for your Office as the Spokesperson to "explain by what right the Secretariat ignores member states, given the conflicts of interest and needs for recusals timely raised, and state the precedents of other expulsion, on what grounds, with what due process and for what periods of time. Note my September 3 application." After having been told this afternoon by ASG Hochschild that that "Steph" is providing answers - after al this time, response on one (or I guess if you include Sept 5-3, two) out of 24 questions?  Please provide a list of and read outs for SG Guterres' meeting with African officials while in China, including in light of UNanswered question Sept 5-6" concerning Guterres' son's business links in Angola, Cape Verde, Timor Leste and Sao Tome. No answer - but a colleague from the UN's fourth floor said first there were boxes by Inner City Press' workspace then the boxes were gone. The UN went through Inner City Press' files. [Update: because of being contacted by concerned whistleblowers, clearly Guterres' retaliatory UN's goal, we specify: we never print out anything so this intrusion by Guterres and Smale will be for naught. But it shows what they have made the UN.] We'll have more on that, and this: while a major democracy is told Guterres' censorship is none of its business, Guterres' Smale in her letter and Dujarric in his briefing room have used unnamed member states' complaints as the basis of Inner City Press being banned. Smale used an old complaint by Morocco, which her own MALU (Marija) told Inner City Press was frivolous. Did she stoke up other missions to complain to her? Watch this site.

 On August 30, spokes-hatchet-man Stephane Dujarric was asked, again, about how and why Inner City Press was roughed up, ousted and banned for life without due process. Dujarric, with a smile, cut the question off and said to review his previous Orwellian answers, adding "The issue is settled as far as we're concerned." Like the way Guterres golden statue gifter Paul Biya is "settling the issue" in the Anglophone zones, pure force and cover up? Dujarric also called it "asked and answered." What, like the UN's failures in protecting civilians, in raping children, spreading cholera, selling out the Anglophones to Cameroon for a favor in the Budget Committeee? This is disgusting. Video here. Dujarric moved on with a "Mademoiselle," a question about the UNGA week which Guterres and Dujarric have worked - and lied - to ban Inner City Press from. On August 29, Guterres' spokes-hatchet-man Stephane Dujarric was asked, again, about the lack of due process and specifically about Guterres now banning a journalist who has covered the UN General Assembly high level week for a decade. Video here; from the UN transcript: Question: two questions related to the status of Matthew Lee.  The first is whether any consideration is being given to at least giving him temporary access to the UN Headquarters during the General Assembly week and, secondly, just if you would respond to his repeated claims that he was not accorded due process before being banned from the, from the premises.

Spokesman:  The process through which accreditation is given and withdrawal is clear, it’s written publicly in the media guidelines.  You all agree to the process when you accept your accreditation, which accreditation to any institution is a privilege.  Everybody has a right to, to report and to say whatever they, they wish.  But the accreditation process is such.  It’s very clear.  Really?

September 10, 2018

On Cameroon Inner City Press FOIAs US DOD For Report and All Records on Anglophone Areas

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, September 7 -- As the Cameroon government of 36 year President Paul Biya slaughters civilians in the Anglophone regions as well as in the North, it re-engaged Washington lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs and Mercury Public Affairs, documents show. The UN belatedly acknowledged to Inner City Press, which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had roughed up on July 3 right after it spoke to Cameroon's Ambassador Tommo Monthe and on August 17 declared banned for life from entering the UN,  that Guterres met with a Cameroon delegation on July 11. And they discussed, disturbingly, strategies to reduce negative coverage of Biya's killings, see below. Now after being informed that the UN is saying the US or at least its US Mission to the UN under Nikki Haley and/or her Deputy Jonathan Cohen and spokesman John Degory are supporting and even have requested Inner City Press' banning from the UN and UN General Assembly high level week featuring Donald Trump, Inner City Press on September 7 files its second Freedom of Information Act request: "On behalf of Inner City Press and in my personal capacity as its United Nations bureau chief, Matthew Russell Lee, this is a request pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 for the following information: 1) most pressingly, for the report on human rights abuse by the Cameroon military and of the US' knowledge thereof, on information and belief headed by Brig. Gen. Timothy McAteer and concluded in November 2017; 2) any and all other records in your possession concerning abuses by the Cameroon security forces, including but not limited to in the North-West and South-West regions, from January 1, 2017 to the date of your response to this request.

This request, particularly (1) above which can and should be treated separately, should be afforded expedited treatment. Inner City Press is reporting on abuses in Cameroon, including with the knowledge of the US - and why there has been no UN Security Council meeting on Cameroon. The US is for this month the president of the US Security Council and this request should be fully responded to in that time frame, including any necessary appeal." We'll have more on this.
 Now in Ekona in South-West Region Cameroon's government has engaged in what's become their trademark abuse, the killing at point blank range of civilians, in this case Bezeng Jonas and his sons, one of whom was attending University of Buea. Where are the "positive steps" the UK Mission's Karen Pierce asserted this week to Inner City Press across the street from the UN, from which British USG Alison Smale has banned Inner City Press for 66 days with assists?  Things have reportedly reached the point that in Lebialem Division in the South West region officials have de facto separated the country by instituting an ‘Access Card’ from locals fleeing insecurity in the division. One needs to pay FCFA 20, 000 for the 'Laissez passer' to cross over." After Guterres did nothing, in order to try to get Cameroon's support as chair of UN Budget Committee, and after again refusing Inner City Press' questions on August 31, video here, is now in China which is arming Biya. Now with Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric cutting off question and saying Guterres' ban of Inner City Press is "settled" and that it cannot enter to cover the General Assembly high level week where last year Guterres greeted Paul Biya, Guterres is headed to China September 1-4. And here's from China state media: "In March, Cameroonian President Paul Biya was the first African leader to visit China this year. It was the sixth trip to China by the president. Fruitful deals from FOCAC Beijing summit can significantly revamp the country's economy," Mpoche said. "That is why, I think the Belt and Road Initiative is laudable."
According to the Cartel of Cameroon Entrepreneurs, known in its French acronym as GICAM, close to 100 Cameroonian businessmen will visit China on the sidelines of the Beijing summit, scheduled for early September. The businessmen traveling to China intend to seize the opportunity and sign deals with Chinese private companies to "boost our cooperation and create more jobs for the youths back home," said Magloire, the rapporteur at Cameroon's Ministry of Economy and Finance."  The article makes no mention of Southern Cameroons and Biya's killings - nor, apparently, will Guterres. We'll have more on this.Here are questions Guterres and his spokesman, contrary to the promise of evicter Alison Smale, has left UNanswered: "August 27-6: August 22-3: On Cameroon, your belated July 11 read out does not answer the questions Inner City Press has asked. Before asking more, there are now broken out by letter for ease of reference and for belated answer today, as well as this:

was DSG Mohammed present at the July 11 meeting? And what is the SG's response to what was said about him in the demonstration by Anglophone Cameroonians in Washington yesterday? How does he respond to their charges of corruption?

a) Cameroon has hired Mercury Public Affairs for $100,000 a month, even as the UN is paying money to the government. Is UN money being used for the mass killing cover up campaign? Are there any safeguards in place?

b) please disclose any and all other meeings the SG has had this year arranged by paid lobbyists.

[responded to Aug 22, but see (d) below: c) what is the SG's comment on the recent announcement of seven arrests for summary executions, and the newer video of Cameroon Army executions that has emerged?

d) Specifically, how are these videos being incorporated into the supposed vetting of Cameroon's contributions to UN Peacekeeping missions?

e) please provide a list and read-out of each of the Secretary General's meetings and communications with Cameroon Ambassador Tommo Monthe during Monthe's time as chair of the Fifth (Budget) Committee.

[semi-answered Aug 22 f) In light of statements at the August 8 noon briefing please state whether envoy Fall even requested to meet with President Paul Biya or whether the UN believes that Biya is once again out of the country, in Geneva. Has the UN ever met with Biya in Geneva? ]

g) I reiterate August 7-1 and 8-1 and 9-1, on this: was the SG or anyone else in the UN aware that this Biya delegation's lobbying trip was stage managed by the DC-based lobbying firm Patton Boggs? Why was this meeting not disclosed at the time? Why is there no photo, even just UN Photo, of it? Where did it take place? Who attended, on each side?

h)Has the Secretariat communicated since with the Biya government? Has it ever communicated with the opposition?" September 3, 2018

UN Guterres Refuses To Answer Why He Bans Inner City Press From UNGA What Done on Cameroon Son's Conflict of Interest

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, CJR Letter PFT, Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, August 31 – Before Inner City Press was roughed up by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' Security on June 22 and July 3, 2018 and under a ban on entry since then, which his spokesman on August 30 called settled or final, it insistently asked about Guterres' conflicts of interest, for example with murderous Cameroon chairing the UN Budget Committee where Guterres sought support or with the business interests of his family, as for disclosure of how many of Guterres' publicly funded trip took him through his real home, Lisbon. (The answer, with no UN help, is at least 14.) The questions are not being answered by Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, and Guterres has had Inner City Press banned from the UN for life, by his Global Communicator Alison Smale who has failed to make even the minimal public financial disclosure called for under Guterres' predecessor Ban Ki-moon. Guterres' forms do not include the business interests of his direct children - but they should, see below.

On August 31, the 59th day Inner City Press has been banned from the UN by Guterres, there was nothing listed on Guterres' schedule until 4:30 pm: grip and grin photo op with the new Ambassadors on Armenia, Costa Rica, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sidhartha Francisco Marin Aráuz of Nicaragua. But at 1:10 pm some of Guterres many guards -- one, Lt Ronald E Dobbins, twice roughed up Inner City Press on June 22 (which Inner City Press wrote to Guterres about on June 25) and more so on July 3 - showed up telling other cars including diplomats' cars where they could and couldn't park on 46th Street. Soon fully three black 4x4s pulled up in front of the restaurant Aretsky's Patroon, which recently hosted Hillary Clinton. Out stepped Guterres and UN President of the General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak, who disclosed a 1:15 pm appointment with Guterres. First (silent) video here.  An hour and a half later, Guterres emerged with his chief of staff Maria Luiza Viotti and with Miguel Graca. Inner City Press asked, calmly but audibly, why Guterres is banning it from entering to cover the General Assembly Week, which is has covered for 11 years, about what he has (not) done on Cameroon and on conflicts of interest related to his son's business links, first reported by Inner City Press. As is the Guterres way, he got into his limosine. Video here. By contrast the President of the General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak listened when Inner City Press asked about access to the GA and seemed... well, we'll see and report.

Guterres, as is typically including on the business dealings of his son, did not even disclose his meeting with Lajcak. Guterres has shown such bias in having Inner City Prss roughed up and banned that Inner City Press has asked Lajcak, and will ask him and hereby his successor again, to take over the case and ensure Inner City Press can cover the upcoming UN General Assembly week. Lajcak's chief of staff says Lajcak is trying; his spokesman says "I discussed your letter with the PGA. Please know that he is personally sympathetic to your situation. He also continues to strongly believe that the UN should be as transparent as possible and that journalists should be able to do their work without hindrance.
At the same time, our practice here at the UN is for the Secretariat – not the Office of the PGA – to handle matters related to media accreditation and security. In that regard, we will continue to defer to the Secretariat in such areas. The PGA appreciates your interest in and coverage of the General Assembly. In that regard, from our side, we will continue to respond to your journalistic questions – whether you are inside or outside UNHQ. I look forward to our continued collaboration during the rest of the 72nd session." We'll have more on this As Inner City Press has now exclusively reported, Guterres' son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres has been Manager of Planning and Control at PT Portugal since 2009, see here. And "PT Portugal has significant interests in telecommunications companies in Angola, Cape Verde, Namibia and São Tomé and Principe in Africa and in Timor-Leste in Asia," see US SEC filing here. (Guterres recently rebuffed, in an entreaty to stop banning Inner City Press, Time Leste's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta, here). Given that his father, as a UN Secretary General who has shown himself willing to stay quiet of the deaths of Anglophone Cameroonians to gain the support of Cameroon's Ambassador as chair of the UN Budget Committee, has and can impact on each of these countries, where are the clearly needed controls against conflict of interest? Inner City Press Periscop stand-up, here. As Guterres flies off for a business confab about Africa and China from September 1 to 4, complete with 100 businesses from Cameroon where Guterres is complicit in the crackdown, how is he recusing himself there and in New York (and Lisbon) from involvement in things impacting where his son's company does business and makes money? We'll have more on this - for now despite the empty promises of Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale who has banned Inner City Press for life without any hearing or appeals process that written questions would be answer, none have been for three days, including on another Inner City Press exclusive noted from on high in UNDP, here.  Inner City Press on August 28 published the first in this exclusive and detailed series. Here from multiple member state sources are the dates of Guterres' 14 -- 30% of total UN trips - through Lisbon for each of which Inner City Press has asked, and not been answered, and live-stream Periscope of the UN's empty massion on 57th Street and Sutton Place for which it was roughed up and banned:

1/13/2017-1/20/2017    NY->Lisbon->Geneva->Davos Platz->Zurich

2/9/2017-2/20/2017            NY->Istanbul->Riyadh->Dubai->Abu Dhabi->Muscat->Doha->Cairo->Frankfurt->Bonn->Munich->Lisbon

2/24/2017-2/27/2017    NY->Lisbon->Geneva

3/25/2017-3/31/2017    NY->Lisbon->Amman->Baghdad->Arbil->Gaziantep

5/9/2017-5/22/2017            NY->London->Beijing->Strasbourg->Geneva->Lisbon

5/25/2017-5/29/2017    NY->Catania->Lisbon

6/20/2017-6/26/2017    NY->Entebbe->Lisbon

6/27/2017-7/4/2017            NY->Washington DC.->Geneva->Lisbon, (30/06/2017 - 04/07/2017 in Lisbon)

11/3/2017-11/7/2017    NY->Lisbon

2/12/2018-2/19/2018    NY->Kuwait->London->Munich->Lisbon

3/14/2018-3/16/2018    NY->Rome->Lisbon

5/11/2018-5/19/2018    NY->Lisbon->Vienna->Brussels->Washington DC

5/23/2018-5/31/2018    NY->Geneva->Lisbon->Paris->Bamako

7/6/2018-7/11/2018        NY->Lisbon->Addis Ababa->Kinshasa

  Do the member states paying for this - whom Guterres' Smale quotes without name as supporting the roughing up of and permanent ban on Inner City Press, agree with this? Do they know this? 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. The Nobel Peace Prize winner who has sought the reversal of Guterres' outrageous 56 day and counting ban on Inner City Press even entering the UN is Jose Ramos Horta of Timor Leste, still serving Guterres' UN, who told Inner City Press on August 27, "Dear Matthew I did reach the very inner sanctum of the UN system reporting on your case to no avail. Apologies but I don't know what else I can do." Later on August 27 an independent journalist asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric why things are not fixed with Inner City Press' access, since it "looks bad" given other attacks on press freedom. Video here. Dujarric tried to cut the journlist off, insisting to say this is about freedom of the press would be wrong. (Then why is it in the Press Freedom Tracker, here, and the Columbia Journalism Review, among others for example in the UK, Japan, Italy and Cameroon?)August 27, 2018

For UNGA Trump to Hold Drug Event Banned Inner City Press Learns By Not From USUN Notified of Ban Like Pressman

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, August 24 – A month from day on September 24, US President Trump will host his "big UN event, this time on the world drug situation," a source not with the US Mission told Inner City Press on August 24 as it staked-out the UN Delegates Entrance questioning diplomats as it has for the 52 days it has been banned from the UN - ironically, for its style of questioning. Another source told Inner City Press that the US circulating a draft outcome to the political coordinators all of member states, not just those on the Security Council. This source - ironically a pro-UN source who still leaks to Inner City Press after the UN banned it for life -- exclusively told Inner City Press of "pushback" that is coming. As the afternoon of August 24 progressed, while other information came in, as to the US Mission to the UN across the street there were peripheral developments. As Inner City Press reported on August 23, on the Periscope live-streaming platform which the UN cited in imposing its lifetime ban, the portrait of Mike Pompeo belatedly went up in the lobby of the Mission. On August 24 starting around 3:30 some USUN personnel boarded a chartered bus with coolers and in Jets and Giants (LT 56) jerseys, presumably to got to the Meadowlands in New Jersey and see a pre-season NFL game. Would anyone take a knee? In the bus stop Inner City Press works in it formally notified the two top US Missio spokespeople that its 52 day ban has had no due process and should be reversed at latest by September 5, the deadline for the UNGA week on which Inner City Press is reporting. The same was conveyed, and more, to former USUN Deputy Permanent Representative David Pressman, who to his and their credit bantered with the Mission's security officers. He's with the Clooney Foundation for Justice and the Boies law firm. Inner City Press asked, not joking, want to sue the UN on press freedom (and non assault) grounds? He said it might be a conflict given his previous jobs - though the UN's decision maker or letter signing Alison Smale ignored her own conflicts of interest - but he could, it would seem, find someone. Even a recent mother. For now, we report on Trump's upcoming event. Watch this site. With the UN General Assembly High Level week coming up next month, the UN of anti-Press Secretary General Antonio Guterres is still moving to push further away from the action the visiting media that he and Under Secretary General Alison Smale, in their lawless way, allow in. Now this UN dynamic duo have not surprisingly gotten buy in fro the insiders they give offices to and use to censor others, those who don't need the tent but rather complain about the air conditioning and TV reception in their offices. For years the so-called Media Center has been in Conference Room 1. But this year Guterres and Smale still want to put it even further away -- now in a tent. Typically, they are trying to blame their anti-press policies on member states. But this is the duo which had Inner City Press roughed up by their Security - twice - and banned for 52 days and counting. They are censors, and hypocrites (see Smale's ex NYT myopic hand-wringing, here.)  On August 17 Smale issued a ghoulish no due process ruling purporting to ban Inner City Press for life, which has put the UN into the Press Freedom Tracker. Back Oon August 8, Inner City Press during the noon briefing it is banned from 43 days and counting emailed the spokesperson for President of the General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak: "Hello. Since I am still banned from the UN noon briefing, I am e-mailing you this question during your August 8 briefing: What does the PGA think and do about the moves to push the media even further away from CR 1 during High Level week?" The spokesman Brenden Varma to his credit replied, just after the briefing, "For the President, it is important that journalists are able to do their work and cover the general debate. As for the logistics, that is a matter for the UN Secretariat."

August 20, 2018

On Cameroon Inner City Press Video Guterres' Smale Calls Derogatory for Lifetime Ban Remonetized by YouTube

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter The Hill

UNITED NATIONS GATE, August 19 -- As the Cameroon government of 36 year President Paul Biya slaughters civilians in the Anglophone regions as well as in the North, it re-engaged Washington lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs, documents show. The UN belatedly acknowledged to Inner City Press, which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had roughed up on July 3 right after it spoke to Cameroon's Ambassador Tommo Monthe and on August 17 declared banned for life from entering the UN,  that Guterres met with a Cameroon delegation on July 11. And they discussed, disturbingly, strategies to reduce negative coverage of Biya's killings, see below.

   Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale's August 17 letter banning Inner City Press, on which she took 45 days to try to phrase censorship in terms of "professionalism," states that Inner City Press' questioning broadcasts on Periscope, for then 45 days at the gate outside the UN, are derogatory and even somehow dangerous. Dangerous to the cover up of Biya's killings, perhaps, and those who play a role in it. Relatedly, Google's YouTube de-monetized Inner City Press' video of questioning Guterres' Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq about Cameroon's lobbying contracts, saying the video was not appropriate for all advertisers. While that YouTube phrasing, even if accurate, would not justify a ban on Inner City Press, it is significant that after Inner City Press submitted to YouTube an appeal -- something Guterres' Kafkaesque UN does not allow for journalists -- the demonetization has been reversed: "Hi Inner City Press, Great news! After manually reviewing your video, we’ve determined that it is suitable for all advertisers:
"Cameroon Leak Showed UN Guterres Offered Biya Help In Combating Bad Press He Banned No Answers"
Thanks, The YouTube team."
  So the coverage that UK national Alison Smale unilaterally asserts is so derogatory and dangerous as to be part of her Orwellian justification of a lifetime ban of Inner City Press is found by a party not named, as Smale is, in the video to be "suitable for all adversers." You can see it here. -- it already has 2000 views, more that the entire audience of some of those "professional" correspondents to whom Guterres and Smale give UN offices and full access. Alison Smale, and Guterres, are censors pure and simple, particularly on Guterres' shameful role in Cameroon. In a single sentence, Guterres stayed quiet on and helped cover up Paul Biya's killings of Anglophones in Cameroon because Guterres wanted the bureaucratic support of Cameroon's Ambassador Tommo Monthe, the chair of the UN Budget Committee, for his proposal some of which didn't even get enacted. Shameful, as is the lifetime ban. We'll have more, much more, on this. The Cameroon government's write up of the meeting obtained by Inner City Press, on which the UN has repeatedly refused to respond, quotes Guterres that the ("Anglo-Saxon") media is unfair to Paul Biya's Cameroun and that he, Guterres, will help them in the "propaganda campaign." Guterres said he "will contact reasonable people" and "counter the daily press briefs." August 13, 2018

On Cameroon Dutch and HRW Overplay UK Pres Vague Line on Violence As Guterres Bans Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, 30/7 CJR, 19/6 Video, Filing

UNITED NATIONS GATE, August 10 – As the Cameroon government of 36 year President Paul Biya slaughters civilians in the Anglophone regions as well as in the North, it has re-engaged Washington lobbying firm Patton Boggs, on a retainer of $100,000 per quarter plus expenses, documents show. Now on August 10, with Inner City Press banned from entering the UN for the 38th day by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the Dutch Mission to the UN and HRW started bragging about a UN Security Council Presidential Statement which they said embodied deep concern. At first banned Inner City Press, thanks to Guterres who took Biya's golden statue in October 2017, couldn't even see the Statement: it was not on the Security Council's website now run by the (Dutch) husband of the chief of staff of the UN Department of Political Affairs' Rosemary DiCarlo, and was not emailed out to those not (allowed) in the UN. But by mid afternoon it came out: and it was just a single line, about the "worrying increase in violence in the north-west and south-west regions of Cameroon." Why did Human Rights Watch make so much of this, after earlier this year telling Inner City Press - before Antonio "Golden Statue" Guterres banned it from the UN - that HRW omitted Cameroon from its 2018 World Report because it didn't view it as a top-90 problem? That's here. As Guterres and his Alison Smale and their stooges try to keep Inner City Press out even longer, we'll have more on this. After twice asking the Spokespeople for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (from the bus stop outside the UN Delegates' Entrance since Guterres has banned Inner City Press since July 3), UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq on August 8 belatedly told Inner City Press, "On your first question, we can confirm that, on 11 July, a high-level Cameroonian delegation was dispatched to UNHQ to brief the Secretary-General on the efforts carried out by the Government to address the crisis in the North-West and South-West regions. The Secretary-General stressed the importance of finding a peaceful resolution to the crisis through an inclusive dialogue and reiterated the UN’s readiness to support such efforts, including the provision of humanitarian assistance to the affected regions." But Inner City Press' question was, "On Cameroon beyond the questions you have left unanswered from August 3 and August 6-1, please state if anyone in the UN Secretariat met with a Cameroonian government delegation in the US from July 11 (whcn they met UK Ambassador Pierce) to July 20 and if the UN was aware that this Biya delegation's lobbying trip was stage managed by the DC-based lobbying firm Patton Boggs." No answer on this, nor on August 10, when Guterres' Deputy Spokesman Haq answered a past question from August 6, on using and paying for Biya's troops: "Regarding your earlier Cameroon question, here’s what we have for you: "August 6-1: On Cameroon, important and not answered - please immediately confirm and explain: “A 295-strong Cameroonian contingent including four doctors, will be deployed in the intervening weeks to the Central African Republic (CAR).They will be part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Mission for the Stabilization of CAR (MINUSCA), ministry of Defense sources in Cameroon disclosed on Thursday.” Given not only this military's torching of villages in the Anglophone areas but summary executions, why is the UN accepting this deployment at this time? How much of the money goes to / stays with the Biya government? What vetting has been done? Does the UN know the identity of the Cameroon soldiers recently shown killing women and children? What assurance does the UN have these soldiers will not “serve” the UN in CAR?"

The 295-strong Cameroonian contingent referred into in the article is not a new deployment. It is in fact a rotation of two Cameroonian Formed Police Units (FPUs) already deployed in MINUSCA.

In this specific case, the two Cameroonian FPUs will finish their tour of duty by mid-September, will substitute them. As per established procedures, all FPU personnel undergo extensive pre-deployment training to ensure they understand the rules, regulations and, standards and values expected of personnel deployed to UN operations, including respect for human rights.

With regard to the vetting process, the Policy on Human Rights Screening of United Nations Personnel places primary responsibility on Member States to ensure that the personnel they appoint for deployment have not been involved in violations. All countries contributing uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping operations have primary responsibility for screening individuals and for ensuring that personnel they nominate for service have not been involved, by act or omission, in violations of international humanitarian law or human rights law, and have not been repatriated on disciplinary grounds from a UN operation. Contributing countries have to provide a certification to that effect when they nominate personnel for deployment.

The Policy thus sets forth procedures to strengthen the ability of the United Nations to ensure that its personnel meet the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, and to promote and encourage respect for human rights, in accordance with the United Nations Charter. These procedures have notably led to strengthen pre-deployment screening and certification by contributing countries.

On your question regarding payment, countries contributing uniformed personnel to peacekeeping operations are reimbursed by the UN at a standard rate, approved by the General Assembly, of US$1,428 per person per month."

After Guterres remained disturbingly quiet about Biya's killing for a full year, when Cameroon was the chair of the Budget Committee whose support Guterres wanted for his proposal like moving jobs from Geneva to Budapest, New York to Mexico City, Entebbe to Kenya? We'll have more on this.

August 6, 2018

To Replace Zeid UN Guterres Who Bans Press Eyes 4 Latins from Mexico Colombia Argentina and Guatemala

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS GATE, August 3 – In choosing a replacement for Prince Zeid as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary General Antonio Guterres has typically under-performed, being so slow that who ever is chosen will have a nearly unprecedentedly short time to prepare. Now on August 3 Inner City Press' sources tell it of a short list of four: Pablo de Greiff of Colombia, Jorge Castañeda of Mexico, Claudia Paz y Paz of Guatemala and Argentinian judge Silvia Fernandez. If the decision is not made soon by Guterres, who has been on vacation location UNdisclosed since July 20 when he refused to answer Inner City Press why he had banned it (and had its reporter roughed up), then Guterres may name as Acting High Commissioner the current Deputy High Commissioner Kate Gilmore, from Australia like Guterres head of Security Peter Drennan. Gilmore has not been supportive of whistleblowers. She apparently continues to defend Rupert Colville and his egregious statements about Anders Kompass and others, with complete impunity (as, so far, Guterres Drennan and Alison Smale have enjoyed for having Inner City Press roughed up, ousted and now banned for 31 days and counting with no end in sight, Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II, Independent here - on August 3 while Inner City Press was reporting-out this story on Human Rights Commish short list, it was told by a free press group (not CPJ) that Guterres Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq told it Inner City Press will be told “in the coming days” if it's banned forever from UN for being roughed up covering UN Budget). How can a man who has ousted and banned a critical journalist for a Kafkaesque investigation by the one choosing a High Commissioner for Human Rights? Or deciding on bans for journalists who scrutinize and question him? Overall, the sources say, Bachelet and they say Bokova are out of the running. Traditionally the P5 UK, US and France play an important role in the selection of High Commissioner for Human Rights. But the UK is entirely focused on Brexit and the US is apparently disengaged, in part because of its withdrawal from the HRC and mooted funding cuts to OHCHR. The sources ay neither France nor the EU has a candidate. Nor have they done anything about Guterres' censorship of the Press at the UN. Today's UN system's attacks on whistleblowers extend from New York where Secretary General Antonio Guterres' armed Security officials ousted the Press on June 22 (video, new petition, Q&A) to Geneva where outgoing Human Rights Commissioner Zeid's Deputy Kate Gilmore and spokesman Rupert Colville deploy "hard talk" (and worse) against whistleblowers.

   Today in Geneva Deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore - in typical UN fashion, a good friend of Zeid's wife princess Sarah - who Amnesty International decided it was worth paying to leave a few years back because she was so toxic to the organization) had what she terms a “hard talk.” Whistleblower Emma Reilly, of whose case Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN, posed the first question. Reilly noted that the UN's Central African Republic panel  found that Zeid went after whistleblowers with a “single minded determination,” and said that her own experience confirmed this. She referred to emails sent by the OHCHR Spokesperson Rupert Colville to journalists that referred to  CAR whistleblowers Anders Kompass and Miranda Brown as “dishonest... disgusting... underhanded” and the “sh*ttiest” individuals he had encountered in a 30-year career, and even accused Anders Kompass - Sweden’s ambassador to Guatemala - as being “in the pay of the French.” Reilly noted that journalists reported to her that Colville regularly resorted to personal insults and questioned her sanity when “asked about OHCHR handing over names to the Chinese.”

  Reilly then asked if Gilmore agreed with the UN position that these emails, sent from a UN spokesman’s account during UN working hours in response to a request for comment from the UN, were personal. If so, she asked if the UN would lift immunity to allow her to sue the spokesperson in national courts.

   Gilmore avoided the question. We'll have more on this - and on Guterres' lead spokesman, who has moved beyond insults and exclusion of Inner City Press to bringing about physical ouster by armed UN Security officers who refused to give their names, and running off the podium as Inner City Press asks about it.  On June 29 after publishing the above, Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: I have a Human Rights Commissioner question.

Spokesman:  Go ahead.

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you.  There was a Q and A by Kate Gilmore, the Deputy High Commissioner of Human Rights, today in Geneva, and an issue arose in which… several whistle-blowers raised the fact that they have evidence, they say, that the spokesperson for, for Prince Zeid, Rupert Colville, has, from, on his UN computer during UN time, said that the whistle-blowers are the worst people he’s ever known, used a profanity.  And so they wanted to know, since it’s, it’s their understanding that this was then said in a personal capacity by the spokesman, not as a UN statement, whether the UN will, in fact, waive immunity so that they can take some kind of a legal action?  They’re very troubled that the spokesperson…

Spokesman:  I… I didn’t see the Q and A.  What I do know is that Mr. Colville does an outstanding, an outstanding job in promoting and defending human rights.

Inner City Press: Would you say it’s consistent with the whistle-blower protections…?

Spokesman:  I’m not going to, I’m not going to talk about things that I don’t know, most of the time." Really. The UN took most of its counter-terrorism money from Saudi Arabia, just as Secretary General Antonio Guterres smiled and took a $930 million check from Saudi's Crown Prince and said nothing about Saudi bombing of Yemen, and now assault on the port of Hodeidah there. On June 18 the UN in New York held a so-called background briefing for only some of the media which cover the UN day to day.  On June 19 Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson, the briefer and the UN's Global Communicator why, with no answer yet in 48 hours. Instead the response has been frivolous complaints about Inner City Press non- or anti-spoonfed coverage. And on June 22, Guterres' UN Security ousted Inner City Press from the UN without even its laptop, during an event at which Guterres gave a bragging speech. Video here, story here, new petition here.July 30, 2018

On Cameroon Inner City Press Asked UN's Zeid Before Being Banned Now A Belated Statement With Guterres Silent

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video Petition 7/11 Status, 7/20

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 – After the abuses by Cameroon's security forces have been ignored by the UN, as Inner City Press has repeatedly asked about them until being banned from the UN on July 3 and since, new leaked videos show summary executions and manhandling of prisoners. On July 23 Inner City Press raised the issue, and that of the UN's censorship
 to the Italian Mission to the UN, which split its UN Security Council term with the Netherlands and last year told Inner City Press that Paul Biya's abuses in the  Anglophone areas hadn't come up on the Council trip to Cameroon that it accompanied. Nothing, from Italy and from the Security Council as a whole, not even an "Any Other Business" briefing (Inner City Press has, even while banned from the UN by Secretary General Antonio Guterres who took Biya's golden statue, asked a number of non-Security Council UN member states for their position on convening a meeting in the General Assembly as has been done regarding other countries; watch this space). Now on July 25 from Geneva outgoing Human Rights Commissioner Prince Zeid, who like his spokesman has said almost nothing about Biya's killings for the past year despite written and in person questions from Inner City Press before the ban, has issued this: "UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Wednesday expressed deep alarm at persistent reports of human rights violations and abuses in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, as well as in the Extreme North. The High Commissioner said it was regrettable that the Government of Cameroon had failed to grant the UN Human Rights Office access to the Northwest and Southwest despite repeated requests. “Given the seriousness of the reports of violence against Cameroonians in the western part of the country, we have asked for access to be able to verify allegations made against both security forces and armed elements,” High Commissioner Zeid said. “We will now need to explore other options, including remote monitoring.” What began as protests in October 2016 in the Northwest and Southwest regions against structural discrimination escalated into violence in 2017, and the situation has worsened considerably since then. There are reports that armed elements have carried out kidnappings, targeted killings of police and local authorities, extortion and have torched schools. There are also reports that Government forces are responsible for killings, the excessive use of force, burning down of houses, arbitrary detentions and torture. UN figures indicate that more than 21,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries, while 160,000 have been internally displaced by the violence, many reportedly hiding in forests. “To prevent the situation from deteriorating further, I urge the Government to launch independent investigations into the reports of human rights violations by State security forces as well as abuses by armed elements,” Zeid said. “I condemn the attacks by Cameroonian armed elements, including the ambush on 13 July near the town of Kumba in the Southwest region on a Minister of Defence convoy. But the heavy-handed security response that the Government appears to have employed since October last year will only make matters worse for the women, children and men caught in the middle.” The High Commissioner also said he was “utterly appalled” by a horrific video reportedly showing members of the armed forces executing a woman, a child and a baby accused of being members of Boko Haram. “The Government of Cameroon has an obligation to investigate this atrocious crime urgently. I am deeply worried that these killings captured on camera may not be isolated cases,” he said." We'll have more on this, and Guterres' negligent delay in and moral disqualification from belatedly choosing Zeid's successor. As to Italy Inner City Press sent a formal request to the Italian spokesperson who told it that, Giovanni Davoli, and elsewhere including the Mission's official email address in UN Protocol's Blue Book, info.italyun [at] ester.it, as well as press.italyun [at] esteri.it: "Hello - This is a request for your Italian Mission's and Ambassador comment on the human rights abuses by the Cameroon army and security forces, not only in the Anglophone areas (which I have been asking about in the UN since early 2017) but now also in the north, video linked to in Inner City Press here, as verified by Amnesty International, here. Since the UN Security Council has not even taken up the issue in an Any Other Business briefing, with blockage by former colonial powers France and the UK, which recently bragged of a UK firm's natural gas deal with the Cameroonian government, this is also to know whether your Mission - which is still technically on the Security Council but not much seen, even before Inner City Press was banned since July 3 for covering the UN Budget -- would support General Assembly action on these Cameroon and regional issues, under Uniting for Peace or otherwise.

I am asking these questions in writing now because I have been banned since July 3 from entering the UN and could not ask them inside the UN building.

This notifies your Mission that I have been banned from the UN since at latest July 5, with no due process. See, The Independent (UK), July 12, 2018, “UN 'roughs up and bans' investigative reporter long considered thorn in side of world body officials, Mr Lee has written about UN in connection to Haiti, Burundi, Sri Lanka and other nations." July 23, 2018

Cameroon Not Seen By Human Rights Watch As Top 90 Problem But Now Spun For Money with UN Censorship Alliance

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 – As the crackdown in Cameroon by 36-year government of Paul Biya has grown worse and worse in 2017 and 2018 and Inner City Press has repeatedly asked why UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres only took a golden statue from Biya in October 2017, Guterres' UN itself has cracked down, now having banned Inner City Press from entering the UN for 15 days and counting. Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II. Back on 6 March 2018 before Guterres' UN