Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 4 -- The Goldstone Report filing by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been asked about for days at the UN. When it became available on the evening of February 4, it was a let down and, some say, a lie.

  The letdown part is easier to describe. Ban's submission is a mere 11 paragraphs, mostly boilerplate recitations, of which Ban's "Observations" comprise only four paragraphs. It is not even a cover letter, one involved source told Inner City Press. It is more like a fax cover sheet.

  The word "lie," when raised to Inner City Press, was directed at paragraph 9, which in full reads:

"9. I believe that, as a matter of principle, international humanitarian law needs to be fully respected and civilians must be protected in all situations and circumstances. Accordingly, on several occasions, I have called upon all of the parties to carry out credible domestic investigations into the conduct of the Gaza conflict. I hope that such steps will be taken wherever there are credible allegations of human rights abuses."

  Despite this claim of belief that "civilians must be protected in all situations and circumstances," during the bloodier Sri Lanka conflict in 2009, when tens of thousands were killed by air assault by the Sri Lankan government, Ban has not similarly called for credible investigations.

UN's Ban runs in Gaza -- from, some say, duty

  Most recently, when the UN's own Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions Philip Alston called on Ban to order an investigation of executions in Sri Lanka, Ban and his spokespeople went out of their way to say they have nothing to do with Alston.

  After Ban's 11 paragraphs are the submissions by Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Switzerland, each going up on the web site of the President of the General Assembly. Watch this site.

* * *

IMF's Strauss-Kahn Coy on Opposing Sarkozy and Intervening in Greece, Denials

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 4 -- The managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn bragged Thursday to radio station RTL in his native France that he might leave the IMF early -- and perhaps challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency -- and that if asked by Greece, the IMF could "intervene" in the country.

  Questions about both comments were dodged later on Thursday by the spokesperson for Strauss-Kahn and the IMF, Caroline Atkinson. Strauss-Kahn is quoted that "As it stands... I am planning to see out my mandate. But if you ask me whether in certain circumstances I could reconsider this question, the answer is yes, I could reconsider this question."

  This is consciously leaving open the door to reconsider and leave. But Ms. Aktinson emphasized only his "planning to see out my mandate" and called everything else "hypothetical."

  On Greece, Strauss-Kahn said regally, "I have a mission on the ground to provide technical advice requested by the Greek government. And if we're asked to intervene, we will." He added, "I understand that the Europeans don't want this for the moment."

Inner City Press on Thursday morning asked Dimitris Droutsas, Alternate Foreign Minister of Greece, to describe his government's thinking about IMF help. Mr. Droutsas responded on the record, "Categorically may I state, any idea of the IMF... there is no idea about that."

Still, at Thursday's IMF biweekly briefing, Ms. Aktinson emphasized the "the IMF" -- not just Strauss-Kahn -- "had a technical team in Athens because the Greeks are very interested in getting any help from us on the technical implementation of the plan." As with the wider UN, the rush to be relevant.

Strauss-Kahn, ready to "intervene" in Greece, could leave IMF - "hypothetically"

It was surprising, then, that when Inner City Press asked Ms. Aktinson about Yemen -- using as the lead in a quote by UK Foreign Secretary (Ivan Lewis) that "we address the economic problems that face Yemen, especially through the IMF program" -- Ms. Atkinson said she didn't have information about Yemen and would have to respond later to Inner City Press. Yemen is in the news, and one would expect the omnipresent Strauss-Kahn to be all over it. We'll see.

Ms. Atkinson gave a pro-IMF spin in responding to Inner City Press' question about the IMF's new loan to Haiti, but we'll be writing about that later, along with the IMF's Yemen response. Watch this site.