At
CFR, Ban's All
About Syria,
Stonewalls on
Sri Lanka
& UN
Corruption
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 11 –
It was
carefully
scripted, when
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon spoke
at the Council
on Foreign
Relations
on
Monday
evening.
It was set up
to only take
questions from
dues-paying
CFR members,
chosen by
Christiane
Amanpour after
ten minutes of
her
own questions.
But
when two
unexpected
questions were
raised --
about the UN's
failure
in Sri Lanka
and what it
learned from
the so-called
Petrie Report,
and about the
UN's lack of
transparency
and hiring of
some
incompetent
high officials
under Ban --
the questions
simply weren't
answered.
And
neither the
softball Sri
Lanka
questioner nor
Amanpour
followed up.
Ban answered
the Sri Lanka
question by
talking about
Mali, then
praised the
questioner
(who had
refused to
disclose even
the topics
of his meeting
with Ban, or
his organization's
position on
Ban's UN
moving to use
drones).
The
session ended
with a
question
chosen from
the chair of
Ban's own
Democracy
Fund. It was
like Ban's lunch of
the lost last
week, with
the 13 opaque
apostles of
UNCA.
There, as at
CFR, the
topic of the
UN
bringing
cholera into
Haiti wasn't
raised, as
Ban's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky
tersely
disclosed
to Inner City
Press on
February 8. It
was
Syria, Syria,
Syria. And all
to what end?
One
good question
asked by
Amanpour was
who in North
Korean Ban has
spoken to. No
one, as it
turns out. Ban
says the North
Koreans don't
speak to any
outside by
telephone.
Then what is
the smart
phone Kim
Jong-Un was
seen with for?
Ban
said he is
going to
Washington on
Wednesday and
Thursday.
A
questioner CFR
member from
the UN press
corps, who has
hissed that
only UNCA and
not FUNCA, the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access
launched
after UNCA
tried
expelling
journalists
from the UN,
was called on
and
said that
Congress,
apparently as
a whole,
doesn't like
foreigners.
Tell that to
Chuck Hagel.
Down
in Washington,
one wonders if
Ban will be
asked about
the waste and
fraud in his UMOJA
program, and
the memo
exclusively
published
by
Inner City
Press today
complaining
that Ban's
Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services
dropped its
investigation.
And will the
session
and questions,
and
requirement of
answers, be
fairer than
Monday at
CFR? We'll
see.
Footnote:
at
other CFR
events,
similarly
attended,
Inner City
Press as a non
CFR member
journalists
has gotten
questions in.
But Amanpour
announced from
the start it
would be
members only.
In the front
row
was Ban's political
adviser
Jeffrey
Feltman,
and the
president of
his
partner in
censorship,
also a CFR
member.
That this UN
Censorship
Alliance or UNCA
has most
recently
mocked an
alleged victim
of sexual
harassment
, including
with a flyer
posted on the
door of Inner
City Press' UN
cubicle office
on February 8
and still up
late on
February 11
after the CFR
event, while
tearing down
FUNCA flyers
about free
speech and
reform, has
not been acted
on. But it
will be
raised. Watch
this site.
, 
