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

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 7 -- For whom would UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon write a book preface? While it's not clear how many people have asked Ban, he did say yes to former Qatar Ambassador to the UN Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, who after serving one year as President of the UN General Assembly has written, what else, “A Year At The Helm of The United Nations General Assembly.”

  Would Ban write a preface for other recent GA Presidents, like Nicaragua's Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann or Serbia's Vuk Jeremic? What we can say is that Ban recently accepted free private jet travel paid for by Qatar, click here for Inner City Press exclusive, credited by Newsweek.

  On October 7, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric if Ban has taken any country-paid travel since then. After initially not answering, Dujarric seemed to indicate “no.” Such disclosures should be automatic, the Free UN Coalition for Access has argued. But if there have been none since, it makes the private jet - book preface connection all the more unique.

  On October 9 at NYU, there will be a reception for the publishing of the book, by NYU Press. While the short excerpt offered on Amazon.com doesn't show one way or the other, one wonders if notably moments of Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser's GA Presidency, like having the UN Television cameras cut off when Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari spoke, are included in the book.

  Or, in Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser's time as Qatar's Ambassador before becoming PGA, getting the head of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate Javier Ruperez sacked. Description of these would be interesting.

  Who will be the Leon Panetta of the UN of the era of Ban Ki-moon and, for one year, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser? These are the exposes we are awaiting; it's not clear if we'll get them from NYU. Watch this site.