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By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
Books
-
Guardian - NY
Mag - Brutal
Kangaroo
SDNY, August 5 – The
United Nations used for now imprisoned arms trafficker
Viktor Bout to move Pakistani "peacekeeper" to East
Timor, and Belgians to Somalia where they urinated on
corpses, is now silent on the impending trade of Bout
for Brittney Griner.
On the morning of August
5, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesperson Stephane
Dujarric, in writing, "What are the comments and action
if any of the offered and impending trade of arms
trafficker Viktor Bout, given his role in West Africa,
Colombia and elsewhere for which he was sentenced to 25
years in prison in SDNY court?"
Twelve hours later,
nothing, despite an on-camera promise to answer Inner
City Press' written questions after having it thrown out
of and banned from the UN, by Melissa Fleming, the
censorship chief of SG Antonio Guterres. The
UN is totally corrupt, as are some others - watch this
site.
One thing about the
Wikileaks data-dumps was that they often resurfaced,
made relevant again by current events.
As Kurt Wheelock
began digging through the more than 300 references to
Wikileaks in US Federal court cases, he came across the
State Department memo about bribes paid to witnesses
against Viktor Bout in Thailand.
Now in 2022 there
was talk of Bout being traded by the Administration for
WNBA player Brittney Griner.
The leaked memo:
"Classified By: Ambassador Eric G. John, reason: 1.4 (b)
and (d). 1. (S) Summary: The
Ambassador on March 4 pressed Thai Deputy Prime
Minister Suthep Thaugsuban to ensure retraction or
rebuttal of false court testimony in the
extradition proceedings of Russian arms trafficker
Viktor Bout, which resume March 6. Suthep
said Prime Minister Abhisit had previously
discussed the matter with him, and he would
investigate and take appropriate action."
Bout was
convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York, before then-Judge Shira A.
Scheindlin.
She shot down
Bout's argument as being "based on two 'secret United
States State Department cables which [were] leaked to
Wikileaks' that reveal 'a multi-pronged effort to seek a
successful reversal [of the Thai lower court’s denial of
extradition] during the appeals process.' However, far
from any impropriety, the cables merely demonstrate the
State Department’s view that Bout was “a high priority
for the United States," etc.
Now, with the
SDNY prosecutors raring to ask for a lengthy sentence
for Joshua Schulte, those above them were said to mull
freeing the merchant of death.
They'd made a movie
about Bout, with Nicholas Cage. But no movie, barely a
podcast, about Joshua Schulte.
There was, however,
as of July 16 a blues, here.
And as of July 13, a booklet
- now with eight typos fixed (better late than
never).
One thing not
corrected but amplified: while some set a strangely high
standard for "who is a whistleblower," not unlike "who
is a journalist," Kurt with experience as both thought:
having covered the United Nations, showing abuses of
power and immunity with the help of staff whistleblowers
who can not only be fired but also deported from NY if
they are found out, conclude a person doesn't need to
confess in order to be whistleblower.
Some were
comfortably setting a requirment of voluntary martyrdom.
But some martyrdom's are unintentional, ineffable. The
search continued.
This might be a new
project, a follow-up to Brutal
Kangaroo.
Order here.
Watch this site.
***
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC -
Honduras
- CIA Trial
Book - NY
Mag
UN GATE, July
27 – After UN troops in Eastern Congo shot
civilians, on July 27 in a UN briefing the
Press was banned from UN official Khassim
Diagne said that those shots were "looters,"
defined as those making off with bags of rice.
That
is, under UNSG Antonio Guterres, the UN had
moved from killing Haitian with cholera to
shooting Congolese who are hungry, and serving
up justifications to state media in
ill-attended briefings from which Guterres and
his media accreditation official Melissa
Fleming ban Inner City Press.
The
justification of shooting civilains was
coordinated on July 27 by deputy spokesman
Farhan Haq. Lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
like Guterres, remained on vacation while the
UN kills civilians in the Congo.
Inner City
Press will have more on this. It has asked
each of the above named about the killings,
about UN corruption and censorship, and to
respond to these: protester Jack Sinzahera
said: "We have our own police that will look
after our security and property. We don't want
anything to do with Monusco." and "They are
tear-gassing us because we came to say that
Monusco does not help us," protester Anselme
Musimbwa said "They've been in Congo for 22
years and nothing works;" and
On DRC,
immediately confirm or deny: At least five
people have died during protests against a UN
peacekeeping force in Goma in the east of the
Democratic Republic of Congo. Local
media have reported that they were shot by the
peacekeepers. The UN mission, known as
Monusco, has not responded to these reports. -
on deadline. No answers.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- NY
Mag Song
UN GATE /
SDNY, July 23 – As he slowly kills the UN,
Antonio Guterres has misplayed Ukraine at
every stage.
He assured
that there would be no invasion, then through
Melissa Fleming's Department of Global
Communications ordered UN officials to not
call it an invasion or a war.
After behind
chided, below, he tried to get back in the
game through food.
From an
undeserved vacation, he flew to Istanbul and
bloviated that "the initiative we just signed
opens a path for significant volumes of
commercial food exports from three key
Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odesa,
Chernomorsk and Yuzhny."
Through
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq - lead and
longtime spokesman Stephane Dujarric was also
on vacation - he refused to make his deal with
Russia public.
Now on July
23, this: "The Secretary-General unequivocally
condemns reported strikes today in the
Ukrainian port of
Odesa.
Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments
on the global stage to ensure the safe
movement of Ukrainian grain and related
products to global markets."
Not so clear.
Once again, predictably and some would say
intentionally, Guterres got played. Because
he's spend six years (so far) calling Putin
papacito. Week 21 song here;
Week 22 song (on Odesa) here.
Previously: at
the United Nations under Antonio Guterres
fails on Ukriane, belatedly some former UN
officials wrote to Guterres, (too) gently
chiding him for presiding over the UN's
morphing into the a League of Nations, useless
and now defunct.
On April
15 they wrote: "As former staff members of the
UN system, we, the undersigned... implore you
to intensify your personal efforts, deploying
all capabilities at your disposal and acting
upon lessons learnt from previous conflicts,
for the cessation of hostilities."
Inner
City Press, banned from the UN by Guterres,
has reviewed the signatories, see one below
and Dimitry Dovgopoly we've asked about. UN
associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko, refusing to
answer, on April 22 announced: "The
Secretary-General will visit Moscow, in the
Russian Federation, on April
[26th]. He will have a
working meeting and lunch with Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Secretary-General
will be received by President Vladimir Putin."
Kaneko
actually said April 25, but they later fixed
it. But the Russian government says only that
Guterres will meet Lavrov. As Inner City Press
noted,
maybe only if Guterres is obsequious with
Lavrov as usual will he get face time with
Putin, his papacito.
Hours later,
the UN put this out, trying to mirror the
"received by" language but not explaining why
Russia doensn't mention Putin - nor that he is
being used to normalize the slaughter.
Guterres is the worst SG ever - and that's
saying something.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- NY
Mag
UN GATE /
SDNY, July 15 – The United Nations has a
growing record of rapes by its peacekeepers,
including of children, under Secretary General
Antonio Guterres.
Inner City
Press has reported on the escalation in UN
rapes, even after Guterres had it thrown out
of the UN and banned since.
On July
15, Guterres named a new head of UN Sexual
Exploitation and Abuse: Christian Saunders. It
is no coincidence. Saunders oversaw the
physical ouster of Inner City Press from the
UN on July 3, 2018, as it covered the murky
deal-making around the UN's $6 billion budget,
video here.
(Since
the ouster and ban, Guterres' head of Media
Acceditation Melissa Fleming has refused to
respond, including to a polite letter from pro
bono law firm Quinn Emanuel, here.)
The
July 15 announcement was made by UN
Spokesperson Farhan Haq (lead spokesman
Stephane Dujarric is on vacation) - and none
of the few correspondents in the day's noon
briefing asked anything about it.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
SDNY
COURTHOUSE, July 2 – The United Nations has
hit a new low, after its supposed human rights
commissioner Michelle Bachelet whitewashing
China's genocide against the Uighurs during a
stage-managed trip to the country.
Now to
replace Bachelet, loudly rumored is another
Antonio Guterres crony, Volker Turk formerly
of UNHCR then a Guterres promoter. On human
rights, Inner City Press asked him about the
slaughter in Cameroon of Anglophones by the
army of Paul Biya - and he'd never heard of
it. Story
here.
When
Inner City Press published video
(here) of Turk's answers about Gramsci,
Inner City Press was then blocked from the
UN's web site. So he is a cover up man and a
censor. Anyone who had put up with Guterres
reign of censorship and corruption has no
human rights credibility or chops.
As to
Bachelet, at the end, in a press conference
dominated by scripted questions from Chinese
state media in response to which she read from
prepared notes, she said she was unable to
access what is happening in Xinjiang.
On June 13,
Bachelet having served China said she was now
leaving. And Guterres praised her: "She has
moved the needle in an extremely challenging
political context." Yes - she moved his UN's
needle even more pro-China. And did nothing
about Guterres' ban on Press. Defund the UN.
Some say
they are surprised by this outcome. But a fish
rots from the head. The head of the UN system
is Antonio Guterres, and the reasons for his
silence on China's abuses is more
sinister.
Before being
selected - by China, which like Russia could
have vetoed him - Guterres took money from the
Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The China
Energy Fund Committee, whose Patrick Ho was
convicted of UN bribery involving UN President
of the General Assembly, offered top dollar
for Gulbenkian's oil company.
Guterres omitted the money he took from
Gulbenkian from his financial disclosure form.
And after
Inner City Press, which had aggressively
reported on Guterres' predecessor Ban Ki-moon
from inside the UN, asked about it, Guterres
had Inner City Press roughed up and banned
from the UN ever since. Very Xi.
In the run up to Bachelet's trip, Inner City
Press put written questions repeatedly to
Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who
daily takes three of more questions in his
noon briefing from Chinese state media. But to
Inner City Press, no answer.
Likewise, when
pro bono law firm Quinn Emanuel wrote to
Guterres' head of media accreditation Melissa
Fleming asking for Inner City Press to be
allowed to re-enter the UN and ask its
questions, she refused to response, as did the
supposed UN Correspondents Association, on
whose Executive Committee China has a
permanent seat.
So how
is it surprising the the UN covers up for
China?
But
where if the US Administration and US Mission
to the UN under Linda Thomas-Greenfield on
this? They praise the UN and their work there,
amid all the failures and censorship.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
UN GATE, July
1– With Brazil taking over presidency
of the UN Security Council on July 1, 2022 on
June 30 Inner City Press wrote to the
Brazilian Mission to the UN to request in
advance access to its July 1 press conference
by Ambassador Ronaldo Costa
Filho.
Inner City Press asked asked
the Brazilian
Mission, and the UN,
about the murders in
Brazil of journalist
Dom Phillips and
indigenous rights
leader Bruno
Pereira. No answer
at all.
Instead,
Ronaldo Costa
Filho took
questions from
Chinese state
media, about food
and climate
change. On
this, he
said the IPCC
says the
connection
between
climate change
and conflict
is very weak. No
one said
anything. He
said he
wouldn't
promise to
doany
stakeouts. To
this has the
UN sunk. Here's
the
program of
work. We will
keep asking,
and we will
report on it.
Inner
City Press wrote to the Brazil Mission
including distri.delbrasonu@itamaraty.gov.br
and fabio.coelho@itamaraty.gov.br: "This is a
timely request that you send Inner City Press
the pass code(s) to access your UNSC
Presidency Program of Work press briefing, as
you've announced on Twitter (I notice your
Mission follows @InnerCityPress, along with
149,999 others, on Twitter).
Please confirm
receipt of this email and provide the WebEx
codes or other way to access, immediately. I
have questions to ask on what you will do this
month about the conflicts in Ukraine, Haiti,
Sudan, DRC, Cameroon, Yemen and Libya - and on
recent cases of sexual abuse and exploitatoin
by UN peacekeepers on Inner City Press
first reported - Inner City Press is asking to
be provided with access / the passwords to
your Brazil mission's stakeouts and press
conferences this month with Ronaldo Costa
Filho as UNSC President. Given your stated
focus on the rule of law, you should ensure
due process (and access) for Press covering
the UN. Please note that Inner City
Press and I participate in the WebEx briefings
of, for example, the IMF on March 31, 2022, here
As you all have now moved the Council back
into its Chamber, either way I would also like
to ask you to instruct MALU / USG-DGC
Melissa Fleming to allow me to enter to cover
it, for Inner City Press. She has not
responded to this
letter (your Brazil mission
should) Please immediately
confirm receipt, and provide the passcode or
state why not.
But by the
morning of July 1, nothing.
Inconsistent,
to say the least, with Brazil's duty as
President of the UN Security Council.
Inner City Press covered the UN and UNSC under
Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon then was thrown out
under Antonio Guterres after asking him
directly about [, among other things including
Cameroon,] the omission
from his financial disclosure covering 2016 of
his link, through Lisbon's Gulbenkian
Foundation which paid him money, to convicted
UN briber CEFC China Energy.
This was and
is a legitimate journalistic question however
Inner City Press has been banned by Guterres
and his USG Melissa Fleming.
There is no
commitment by the UN Secretariat to even
respond to a polite law firm letter seeking
access to Inner City Press, see video.
See also Press
Freedom Tracker and The
Independent (UK)
The Brazilian
Mission and Brazil have a duty to not collude
in censorship, and to take questions from
media. Inner City Press is permitted (in fact,
invited) to put WebEx questions to the IMF
briefings, see below, and is accredited at the
SDNY Federal court here in New York.
So it is up to
Brazil and the Brazilian Mission to provide
access.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
UN GATE, June
21 – The UN's retaliation is not limited to banning
Inner City Press that Secretary General
Antonio Guterres doesn't like - he also fired
and penalizes UN staff who dare speak out
about the Organization's abuses.
On June
16, a week before a documentary on the topic
that includes leaked audio first published by
Inner City Press, Inner City Press asked UN
Spokespeople Stephane Dujarric, Farhan Haq and
Melissa Fleming:
"What are the
comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on
the BBC piece about UN whistleblowers being
retaliated against, set for worldwide view on
June 21 but presumably already in the SG's
awareness? See this."
No
answer from the UN. Instead, they arranged for
a colloquy about a useless "hot line" with
pro-UN Qatar state media, which asked about
Guterres now acting on these "new" cases of
sexual misconduct. But the hands down the
pants happened long ago, and was exposed by
Inner City Press - and the audio used without
credit in the documentary shows Guterres
covered it up.
While
Team Guterres has not answered Inner City
Press, on June 20 BBC World tweeted, "The BBC
was handed a secret recording of Ben Swanson,
staff had come to him in tears describing how
an assistant secretary general had put his
hand down her trousers."
HANDED?
Inner City Press exclusively published the
audio long ago on SoundCloud here.
It has asked
the BBC about it, and why its
correspondents so rare ask about UN wrongdoing
including banning Press, in which some of them
have colluded.
BBC's arch
response: "Reference CAS-7209948-F6D6K3
Dear Matthew, Many thanks for contacting
us about ‘The Whistleblowers: Inside the UN’,
and our reporting around this story.
We’ve discussed your complaint with the
programme team. An audio clip featuring Ben
Swanson, director of the investigations
division of the Office of Internal Oversight
Services (OIOS) at the UN, was given to
us...we don’t see any need to credit this
further. We hope this helps to clarify
matters and wish you all the best, BBC
Complaints Team
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints Please
note: this email is sent from an unmonitored
address so please don’t reply. If necessary
please contact us through our webform (please
include your case reference number)." Not even
a "previously published by Inner City Press."
And BBC did not even bother to send anyone to
the June 21 noon briefing to ask.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
SDNY
COURTHOUSE, June 13 – The United Nations has
hit a new low, with its supposed human rights
commissioner Michelle Bachelet whitewashing
China's genocide against the Uighurs during a
stage-managed trip to the country.
At the end, in
a press conference dominated by scripted
questions from Chinese state media in response
to which she read from prepared notes, she
said she was unable to access what is
happening in Xinjiang.
On June 13,
Bachelet having served China said she was now
leaving. And Guterres praised her: "She has
moved the needle in an extremely challenging
political context." Yes - she moved his UN's
needle even more pro-China. And did nothing
about Guterres' ban on Press. Defund the UN.
Some say
they are surprised by this outcome. But a fish
rots from the head. The head of the UN system
is Antonio Guterres, and the reasons for his
silence on China's abuses is more
sinister.
Before being
selected - by China, which like Russia could
have vetoed him - Guterres took money from the
Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The China
Energy Fund Committee, whose Patrick Ho was
convicted of UN bribery involving UN President
of the General Assembly, offered top dollar
for Gulbenkian's oil company.
Guterres omitted the money he took from
Gulbenkian from his financial disclosure form.
And after
Inner City Press, which had aggressively
reported on Guterres' predecessor Ban Ki-moon
from inside the UN, asked about it, Guterres
had Inner City Press roughed up and banned
from the UN ever since. Very Xi.
In the run up to Bachelet's trip, Inner City
Press put written questions repeatedly to
Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who
daily takes three of more questions in his
noon briefing from Chinese state media. But to
Inner City Press, no answer.
Likewise, when
pro bono law firm Quinn Emanuel wrote to
Guterres' head of media accreditation Melissa
Fleming asking for Inner City Press to be
allowed to re-enter the UN and ask its
questions, she refused to response, as did the
supposed UN Correspondents Association, on
whose Executive Committee China has a
permanent seat.
So how
is it surprising the the UN covers up for
China?
But
where if the US Administration and US Mission
to the UN under Linda Thomas-Greenfield on
this? They praise the UN and their work there,
amid all the failures and censorship.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
UN GATE /
SDNY, June 7 – North Korea
is on a roll, firing missiles in disregard of
resolutions of the toothless UN Security
Council.
On June
7, US Department of State Special
Representative for the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (and simultaneously
ambassador to Indonesia) Sung Kim held a press
call on which he insisted that North Korea is
an "area for cooperation" with China.
When asked
what the US will do if or when North Korea
does a real nuclear test, Sung Kim said the
response would have a UN Security Council
aspect. What, with another double veto?
This was Sung
Kim's second such call in two months; on April
6 he spoke about a US draft resolution on
North Korea as if it had a chance in the
failed UN Security Council.
But of course
it didn't. Double veto. Why
pretend?
On April 5, Ukraine's Zelenskyy correctly said
that the UN and its Security Council have
failed on Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan
and Libya, and called for it to be dissolved
(like the League of Nations). Video &
commentary here.
He could have
added: North Korea.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Video
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
UN GATE, June
1– With Albania taking over presidency
of the UN Security Council on June 1, on May
31 Inner City Press wrote to the Albanian
Mission to the UN to request access to its
June 1 12:30 pm press conference by
Ambassador Ferit Hoxha. The Mission and its
spokesperson Anila Ajvazi did not answer by
12:30. Inner City Press live tweeted here:
It begins: Now
Albania PR Hoxha intones about
Press Freedom while his Mission
won't even answer written questions from Inner
City Press (unlike the IMF,
for example)
Ferit Hoxha is
today servicing state media from China,
Azerbaijan, Saudi
Now
Albania Mission hands first question to
Italian media, which again asks about...
Italy. Hoxha says, Grazie! For the
softball question? What is his answer about
the recently data dumped cases
of sex abuse by UN peacekeepers?
More parochial
games - Hoxha gives 3d question to, what
else, a reporter in from Albania, to ask a
softball qeustion about Kosovo. Ferit Hoxha is
reading from notes. Can't take real Press
questions?
Now the
spokesperson, who has refused to answer Inner
City Press' written questions from yesterday,
hands a question to China state CCTV.
Hoxha has said nothing on China genocide
against Uighurs, Bachelet's whitewash
trip
Now yet
another state media question picked by
spox for Hoxha : Turkey state media asks him
about Turkey's "dispute" with Sweden and
Finland joining NATO without arresting all
Gulenists. None of Inner City Press' emailed
questions have been answered.
In fairness -
and because with or without any even handed
treatment by Albania's Mission we will be
covering the UNSC in June, here
is their program of work, including Yemen
(14th), Ukraine (6th), CAR (22nd), Mali
(13the) and DRC (29th).
Inner
City Press wrote to the Albania Mission at
mission.newyork at mfa.gov.al and
OfficeofthePR.Albania and mfa.gov.al and to
its listed spokesman anila.ajvazi and
mfa.gov.al, apparently MIA: "This is a timely
request that you send Inner City Press the
pass code(s) to access your UNSC Presidency
press briefing on June 1, 2022. I have
questions to ask on what you will do this
month about the conflicts in Ukraine, Haiti,
Sudan, DRC, Cameroon, Yemen and Libya - and on
recent cases of sexual abuse and exploitatoin
by UN peacekeepers on Inner City Press
first reported - Inner City Press is asking to
be provided with access / the passwords to
your Albania mission's stakeouts and press
conferences this month as UNSC
President... I would also like to ask
you to instruct MALU / USG-DGC Melissa
Fleming to allow me to enter to cover it, for
Inner City Press. She has not responded to this
letter (your Albania mission
should) Please immediately confirm
receipt, and provide the passcode or state why
not."
But by June 1
at 12:30 pm, nothing.
Inconsistent,
to say the least, with Albania's duty as
President of the UN Security Council.
Inner City Press covered the UN and UNSC under
Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon then was thrown out
under Antonio Guterres after asking him
directly about [, among other things including
Cameroon,] the omission
from his financial disclosure covering 2016 of
his link, through Lisbon's Gulbenkian
Foundation which paid him money, to convicted
UN briber CEFC China Energy.
This was and
is a legitimate journalistic question however
Inner City Press has been banned by Guterres
and his USG Melissa Fleming.
There is no
commitment by the UN Secretariat to even
respond to a polite law firm letter seeking
access to Inner City Press, see video.
See also Press
Freedom Tracker and The
Independent (UK)
The Albanian
Mission and Albania have a duty to not collude
in censorship, and to take questions from
media. Inner City Press is permitted (in fact,
invited) to put WebEx questions to the IMF
briefings, see below, and is accredited at the
SDNY Federal court here in New York.
So it is up to
Albania and the Albanian Mission to provide
access.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
SDNY
COURTHOUSE, May 28 – The United Nations has
hit a new low, with its supposed human rights
commissioner Michelle Bachelet whitewashing
China's genocide against the Uighurs during a
stage-managed trip to the country.
At the end, in
a press conference dominated by scripted
questions from Chinese state media in response
to which she read from prepared notes, she
said she was unable to access what is
happening in Xinjiang. Defund the UN.
Some say
they are surprised by this outcome. But a fish
rots from the head. The head of the UN system
is Antonio Guterres, and the reasons for his
silence on China's abuses is more
sinister.
Before being
selected - by China, which like Russia could
have vetoed him - Guterres took money from the
Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The China
Energy Fund Committee, whose Patrick Ho was
convicted of UN bribery involving UN President
of the General Assembly, offered top dollar
for Gulbenkian's oil company.
Guterres omitted the money he took from
Gulbenkian from his financial disclosure form.
And after
Inner City Press, which had aggressively
reported on Guterres' predecessor Ban Ki-moon
from inside the UN, asked about it, Guterres
had Inner City Press roughed up and banned
from the UN ever since. Very Xi.
In the run up to Bachelet's trip, Inner City
Press put written questions repeatedly to
Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who
daily takes three of more questions in his
noon briefing from Chinese state media. But to
Inner City Press, no answer.
Likewise, when
pro bono law firm Quinn Emanuel wrote to
Guterres' head of media accreditation Melissa
Fleming asking for Inner City Press to be
allowed to re-enter the UN and ask its
questions, she refused to response, as did the
supposed UN Correspondents Association, on
whose Executive Committee China has a
permanent seat.
So how
is it surprising the the UN covers up for
China?
But
where if the US Administration and US Mission
to the UN under Linda Thomas-Greenfield on
this? They praise the UN and their work there,
amid all the failures and censorship.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
UN GATE /
SDNY, May 20 – It was World Press Freedom Day,
and in the UN which has no First Amendment
there was press conference on May 3 by the US
Mission to the UN. Inner City Press
asked, the previous week, to attend - but as
the press conference began, no answer.
So Inner City
Press live tweeted it, here
and below.
Nineteen days into is May UNSC Presidency, the
US Mission hit new lows. In the NGO Committee,
where usually the blocking of groups is by
China and now Turkey, the US representative
used unexplained questions to block groups,
for example one from India, asking about a
Swami. See here.
Maybe
there is a good explanation - but if the US
Mission to the UN won't even answer questions
on it from US-based Inner City Press, they are
just censors. The Mission has done nothing on
this.
And see Inner City Press May 19 tweets here
& here
(US)
Early on the
morning of May 20, Inner City Press asked a
number of people at the US Mission, including
specifically the Mission's spokesperson Olivia
Dalton at DaltonOA[at] state [dot] gov, this:
"This is a Press question on deadline for the
US Mission's explanation of why it is blocking
/ delaying via question, just as China does,
applicant NGOs in the UN Committee, including
but not limited to on May 19 the Ohio-based
Hindu group and the "BRICS" NGO -
and for an
explanation why USUN and Amb.
Thomas-Greenfield have done nothing about the
UN's ongoing ban on US-based Inner City Press
entering to ask questions as before. Here
is the letter the Quinn Emanuel law firm sent
on my behalf, pro bono, to USG Melissa Fleming
and each UNCA board members - there
has been no response. There should be, from
you. Today. On deadline.
Matthew
Russell Lee, Esq., Inner City Press Past
(and future?) Office at UN: Room S-303, UN HQ,
NY NY 10017[For now SDNY] May 19, 2022 Inner
City Press Q&A
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
UN GATE /
SDNY, May 13 – How corrupt and
misreported is the UN Security Council?
After the
murder of Shireen Abu Akleh there was a draft
UNSC statement which would have condemned
violations or abuses against
journalists.
Typically
China broke silence to block it.
With no public
comments by the US, or UAE, or French of UK
Missions - all of which have been complicit in
banning Press from the UN -- it was switched
for China to protecting journalists "as
civilians."
What - like
the Uighur civilians China mass incarcerates?
The migrant laborers the UAE mistreats? The
Anglophones killed in Cameroon with France's
complicity? The African asylum seekers the UK
sends to Rwanda?
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
UN GATE /
SDNY, May 5 – While in the United
Nations there is a flurry of statements about
World Press Freedom Day, there has been no
answer to questions about Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' ouster and banning of Inner
City Press which exposed the omission in his
financial disclosure of a link to UN bribery
firm CEFC China.
Inner City
Press these days daily covers the Federal
courts, where it covered the trial that
convicted on bribery charges Patrick Ho of
CEFC China Energy, which sought to buy the oil
company of Gulbenkian Foundation which paid
Guterres.
But on
July 3, 2018 Inner City Press was inside the
UN, as an accredited journalist, putting
questions to the Ambassador of Cameroon about
his claims that Guterres in his 38th floor
office never asking him about his government's
killing of Anglophones, only about favors he
could do while Cameroon was chair of the UN
Budget Committee.
Inner City
Press was roughed up and ousted, and had been
banned since.
In July
2021 the law firm of Quinn Emanuel, pro bono,
wrote
on behalf of Inner City Press to Guterres'
head of media accreditation Melissa Fleming,
and to each executive committee member of the
United Nations Correspondents Assocation,
seeking a dialogue to get Inner City Press
back into the UN.
There was no
answer from these, who have all
virtue-signaled about press freedom and WPFD
since. Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric
was asked about the Quinn Emanuel letter and
confirmed receipt, saying he didn't know if it
would be responded to. Video.
It hasn't been.
Late in 2021 Quinn Emanuel sent a copy of the
letter to the US State Department, through
Laurel Rapp, asking the Department and US
Mission to the UN and its Ambassador Linda
Thomas-Greenfield to ensure Inner City Press'
re-entry into the UN.
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
UN GATE /
SDNY, April 28 – As the United Nations under
Antonio Guterres fails on Ukriane, now
belatedly some former UN officials have
written to Guterres, (too) gently chiding him
for presiding over the UN's morphing into the
a League of Nations, useless and now
defunct.
On April
15 they wrote: "As former staff members of the
UN system, we, the undersigned... mplore you
to intensify your personal efforts, deploying
all capabilities at your disposal and acting
upon lessons learnt from previous conflicts,
for the cessation of hostilities."
Inner
City Press, banned from the UN by Guterres,
has reviewed the signatories, see one below
and Dimitry Dovgopoly we've asked about. UN
associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko, refusing to
answer, on April 22 announced: "The
Secretary-General will visit Moscow, in the
Russian Federation, on April
[26th]. He will have a
working meeting and lunch with Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Secretary-General
will be received by President Vladimir Putin."
Kaneko
actually said April 25, but they later fixed
it. But the Russian government says only that
Guterres will meet Lavrov. As Inner City Press
noted,
maybe only if Guterres is obsequious with
Lavrov as usual will he get face time with
Putin, his papacito.
Hours later,
the UN put this out, trying to mirror the
"received by" language but not explaining why
Russia doensn't mention Putin - nor that he is
being used to normalize the slaughter.
Guterres is the worst SG ever - and that's
saying something.
On April 26
cowering under Sergey Lavrov when asked of US
expulsion of Russian spies including a UN
staff member, Guterres said, "we believe that
it is very important that all Member States,
including the Russian Federation, have a
normal treatment of their visa requirements.
It is essential to have the full participation
of all countries in UN procedures. And we will
be keeping a very strong position with the
host country in order to guarantee that we
move swiftly in that direction." Guterres
lazed around on genocide but expulsion of
spies? He's all over it. Then he met Putin,
long table video here.
On April 28
the UN put out this transcript from Kyev,
intentionally making a question Guterres
didn't like "inaudible," then his dissing of
the question(er) -- "Question:
[inaudible]
Secretary-General: That's exactly what you
want, is for me to say things that would not
facilitate the work that we are doing at the
present moment, which is to guarantee that
that happens. I cannot admit that it will not
happen. If it will not happen, I will take the
right decisions at the right moment." Guterres
only makes decisions for himself, and has
banned the Press to not answer it questions,
today on two
new UN rapes.
Back on April
24 Igor Zhovkva,
Zelensky's top diplomatic
advisor said, "This
is not good idea to travel to Moscow. We did
not understand his intention to travel to
Moscow and to talk to President Putin. Any
peace talks are good if they end with a
result," Zhovkva said. "I really doubt if
those peace talks organized by
Secretary-General of the UN will end up with
any result." He added, "UN is lagging behind
in Ukraine in terms of humanitarian support to
my country. So it would be good if UN
Secretary-General would concentrate on these
things as well."
US Antony
Blinken, leaving Kyiv, was asked: "Secretary
Blinken, I understand you may have spoken with
the UN secretary-general about his upcoming
visit. What is the strategy for engaging
– for his engagement or for (inaudible)
engagement with Moscow and Kyiv to see if
(inaudible)?"
Blinken said:
"I spoke to the UN secretary-general on Friday
and he is heading to Moscow early this week,
and our expectation is that he’s going to
carry a very strong and clear message to
Vladimir Putin, which is the need to end this
war now – the need for a ceasefire; the need
for humanitarian corridors, for aid to get in,
for people to be able to get out; the need for
Russia to stop its brutalization of
Ukraine. It’s a clear, direct message
that he should be carrying on behalf of
virtually the entire international community."
First, the UN
never have a read out of, or even mentioned,
this call. Today's UN spokespeople, who ban
Inner City Press which asks, are liars.
Second, If
Blinken really believes Guterres will "carry a
strong message," he is not paying attention.
And his State Department, whose Lauren Rapp
was to convey the request of law firm Quinn
Emanuel about UN censorship of Press but has
done nothing, takes over the UNSC in May. We
will have much more on this.
Watch this site.
As to
the letter that belatedly raised Guterres from
his corrupt slumber, into corrupt "action,"
here's a signer: Flavia Pansieri, implicated
in the UN's cover
up of the rape of children in the
Central African Republic by (French) UN
Peacekeepers. Inner City Press asked about this
- before Guterres had it roughed and banned.
And what of the signatories done about that?
We'll have more on this.
Guterres couldn't or wouldn't resolve or
reduce even a smaller conflict like Cameroon's
Paul Biya killing the Anglophones. But who are
these former UN officials? We'll have more on
this.
They wrote,
"we are horrified at the alternative, the UN
becoming increasingly irrelevant and,
eventually, succumbing to the fate of its
predecessor, the League of
Nations."
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN NY
Mag
UN GATE /
SDNY, April 22 – As the United Nations under
Antonio Guterres fails on Ukriane, now
belatedly some former UN officials have
written to Guterres, (too) gently chiding him
for presiding over the UN's morphing into the
a League of Nations, useless and now
defunct.
On April
15 they wrote: "As former staff members of the
UN system, we, the undersigned... mplore you
to intensify your personal efforts, deploying
all capabilities at your disposal and acting
upon lessons learnt from previous conflicts,
for the cessation of hostilities."
Inner
City Press, banned from the UN by Guterres,
has reviewed the signatories, see one below
and Dimitry Dovgopoly we've asked about. UN
associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko, refusing to
answer, on April 22 announced: "The
Secretary-General will visit Moscow, in the
Russian Federation, on April
[26th]. He will have a
working meeting and lunch with Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Secretary-General
will be received by President Vladimir Putin."
Kaneko
actually said April 25, but they later fixed
it. But the Russian government says only that
Guterres will meet Lavrov. As Inner City Press
noted,
maybe only if Guterres is obsequious with
Lavrov as usual will he get face time with
Putin, his papacito.
Hours later,
the UN put this out, trying to mirror the
"received by" language but not explaining why
Russia doensn't mention Putin - nor that he is
being used to normalize the slaughter.
Guterres is the worst SG ever - and that's
saying something. Watch this site.
As to
the letter that belatedly raised Guterres from
his corrupt slumber, into corrupt "action,"
here's a signer: Flavia Pansieri, implicated
in the UN's cover
up of the rape of children in the
Central African Republic by (French) UN
Peacekeepers. Inner City Press asked about this
- before Guterres had it roughed and banned.
And what of the signatories done about that?
We'll have more on this.
Guterres couldn't or wouldn't resolve or
reduce even a smaller conflict like Cameroon's
Paul Biya killing the Anglophones. But who are
these former UN officials? We'll have more on
this.
They wrote,
"we are horrified at the alternative, the UN
becoming increasingly irrelevant and,
eventually, succumbing to the fate of its
predecessor, the League of
Nations."