UNSG
Guterres' S Carolina Speech
Facilitated by UNA-USA After
He Met 11
Democrats From Congress
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Series
UNITED NATIONS,
May 6 – Facing US budget cuts,
how does today's UN react?
Today May 6 Secretary General
Antonio Guterres is in
Colombia, South Carolina to
speak at the commencement
ceremony of the University of
South Carolina. Graduating
student Cory Alpert made the
invitation, at the suggestion
of the UN advocacy group
UNA-USA. This comes after
similar organization the UN
Foundation had Guterres meet
with 11 members of Congress:
all of them Democrats. As this
savvy South Carolina scribe told
@InnerCityPress, "no
coincidence that the @UN wants
to make appearances in the
home state of White House
budget director, Sen. Graham,
Haley." That last is Nikki
Haley, US Permanent
Representative to the UN, who
reportedly
will not be at Guterres' lunch
at the Governor's mansion with
the omnipresent Lindsey
Graham. We'll have more on
this. On May 1 Inner City
Press asked UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric about the
12:15 pm item on Secretary
General Antonio Guterres'
public schedule: meeting with
members of US Congress. Inner
City Press asked, who are the
members? Dujarric replied that
it was organized by the UN
Foundation and, pressed,
agreed to provide the list.
When it arrived, it consisted
of 11 House of Representatives
members -- each and every one
a Democrat. When Inner City
Press asked Dujarric which
Republicans Guterres has met,
he named only one: Senator
Lindsey Graham. Here is the
May 11 list of 11, all
Democrats: "Matthew, here's
the list:
1.
The Honorable Barbara Lee
(California)
2.
The Honorable Diana DeGette
(Colorado)
3.
The Honorable Val B. Demings
(Florida)
4.
The Honorable Lois Frankel
(Florida) TBC
5.
The Honorable Cheri Bustos
(Illinois)
6.
The Honorable Robin Kelly
(Illinois)
7.
The Honorable Chellie Pingree
(Maine)
8.
The Honorable Nita Lowey (New
York)
9.
The Honorable Yvette Clarke
(New York)
10.
The Honorable Carolyn Maloney
(New York) TBC
11.
The Honorable Sheila Jackson
Lee (Texas)"
Then Inner
City Press asked: "Can you say
who attended from the UN side
(beyond the DSG), if UN
Foundation attended and, given
the make-up of this
Congressional delegation, how
many Congress members from the
Republican Party the SG has
met with since January 1, and
who they are?" Dujarric
replied, "As mentioned the
visit was organized by UN
Foundation and they, of
course, attended. The director
of the UN Information Center
is Washington, Robb Skinner
was also there. The SG has
already meeting with Sen.
Graham and phone calls with
other republican leaders. As
Secretary-General he and will
engage with congressional
representatives from both
parties." We'll have more on
this. It is part of a pattern.
Guterres and/or the holdovers
surrounding him extended the
UN contract of Jeffrey Sachs,
for example, then refused to
explain his quotes or what the
upside of extending his
contract is. Inner City Press
had to repeatedly ask the UN
to get it to acknowledge the
contract extension, which was
then re-reported and added to
by Fox, here,
which noted Sachs did not
explain himself. Now on April,
citing and using his UN role,
Sachs has issued this
endorsement of Dho
Young-shim to head the UN
World Tourism Organization.
Sachs' letter
says "in my capacity as a
senior UN advisor." On April
24 Inner City Press put the
question to the UN's holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
who as before claimed he
didn't know but would look
into. UN
transcript here.
But a day later, nothing. So
on April 25 Inner City Press
asked again. UN transcript
here Inner City Press:
on the Jeffrey Sachs thing,
yesterday, you said you'd look
into it. I'm staring… I
mean, it's been
published. It's an open
letter that he wrote saying
that this candidate do should
get the job. Have you
seen it? Have you used
your Google machine to see
that…?
Spokesman: I have used
the Google machine. I
love the Google machine.
Inner
City Press:
Okay. What's… is… now…
yesterday, you said you
wouldn't say if it's
appropriate or not because you
hadn't seen it. Now that
you have, is it appropriate?
Spokesman: No, I don't
think UN officials should
endorse other UN officials.
Inner City Press: So
what's going to be done?
Spokesman: Abdelhamid?
So a UN
official, recently extended by
Antonio Guterres, is making an
endorsement in a contested
election to head a UN agency.
We'll have more on this. Back
on April 18 Inner City Press
asked UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric about not a quote but
an article Sachs had published
the night before on CNN, "How
Trump Could
Make the US a
Climate Pariah
over Paris
Pact." From
the UN
Transcript:
Inner City Press:
I'd asked you before about
some comments by Jeffrey
Sachs, the UN Special Adviser
on the SDGs, and you said you
hadn't seen them. I
don't know if you have yet,
but I want to ask you about an
article that was published
last night, yesterday evening,
by Jeffrey Sachs entitled How
Trump Could Make the US a
Climate Pariah over Paris
Pact. Given that it's
directly within the scope of
his mandate, is this a
statement as a UN
official? You said the
other ones weren't so…
Spokesman: No, his…
Inner City Press: It's
on climate change. It's
on the SDGs…
Spokesman: It's not, as
far as I know, it is not a
statement made in his… in… in
his capacity as a UN envoy.
Inner City Press: You said at
the time that you hadn't seen
the other comments. Have
you taken any time to actually
take a look at them?
Spokesman: I'm aware of
his comments.
And? On
April 11, Inner City Press
asked Dujarric, video
here, UN transcript here: Inner
City Press: you'd said
previously that the
Secretary-General had decided
to extend the contract of
Jeffrey Sachs as a Special
Adviser on the Millennium
Development Goals. So I
wanted to ask you, he has been
quoted that the US President
is "the quintessential
short-term populist and a
nonstop font of lies."
So I wanted to know, in what
capacity does he speak?
Is this something that the
Secretary-General considered?
Spokesman: If, indeed,
he said those things, that
would not be in his capacity
as a UN envoy, but I haven't
seen those quotes myself.
Inner City Press: Well,
there's a story…
Spokesman: Okay.
Inner City Press: He
didn't choose to answer about
them either to deny them, and
he has written an article
talking about climate change
fantasy, and he called…
there's a number of things
that he said.
Spokesman: He has a
role. When he speaks as
a UN envoy, it's fairly clear.
Inner City Press:
Right. But my question
is, do you think as a recent
article says, do you think
this is a wise thing, by the
Secretary-General, if he’s, in
fact, so concerned with
continuing US funding, that
he's even making post
decisions for that basis, is
this… what's the upside to
Jeffrey Sachs that justify
this downside?
Spokesman: A number of
people have been extended for,
for a year during a transition
period.
Why is
Sachs needed, for an entire
transition year? We'll have
more on this. Generally
Guterres' UN has been
cautious; many have portrayed
Guterres' acceptance of David
Beasley as an attempt to keep
the US funds flowing. But
there are more surprises. For
weeks the UN has refused to
answer Inner City Press if the
UN has kept Jeffrey Sachs on
as a UN official. Finally on
April 4, when Inner City Press
asked yet another time,
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric confirmed
that Sachs is still a UN
official -- even after he
stood on the steps of the UN
residence on Sutton Place when
Ban Ki-moon used
it for a campaign
announcement, and said he
would advise Ban's campaign
for South Korean president
(which quickly collapsed.).
Vine Camera video here.
From the April
4 transcript:
Inner City Press:
Yesterday, I e-mailed you
about Jeffrey Sachs.
Does he remain in his
position?
Spokesman: Yes, he does.
That
position is "Special Adviser
to the SG on the Sustainable
Development Goals." According
to the UN website, Sachs has
been a UN official since
2002: that is, for 15
years. As a UN official,
beyond flacking for the Ban
even as corruption scandals
enveloped him, Sachs has
written "Donald
Trump’s Climate Fantasies."
This is apparently a series:
there is also "Why
Millennials Will Reject
Trump." Sachs' forays
into politics have not been
limited to South Korea. From March 31:
"Trump Calls Congressional
Inquiry a ‘Witch Hunt.'
We obviously need a special
prosecutor at this stage."
Sachs is quoted,
on Trump: "'I have to live
with this idiot every day'
#pageberlin."
This
contrasts to the UN's parallel
M.O. of stealth and
stonewalling, with a limited
and carefully picked media,
describing lobbying for funds
as "UN advocacy." When
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres went on a trip to
Kenya, in New York the Press
was not informed of any chance
to go. But there Guterres
appeared with Al Jazeera, and
then in a profile
in the Washington Post from a
usually
hard-hitting reporter,
this time quoting the UN's
Herve Ladsous, who has mismanaged
UN Peacekeeping and the
Press
for five years. The article
described the UN Foundation as
"advocating for UN causes."
But shouldn't issues like
accountability for victims of
UN cholera in Haiti, and
opposing censorship in the UN
and for example in Western
Cameroon, with no
Internet for more than 70
days, be "UN causes"? In fact,
UN Foundation lobbies against
US budget cuts to the UN, even
if targeted and designed to
bring about reform. The UN's
cause, it seems, is to
perpetuate itself.
Recently in
the UN basement as Inner City
Press came in late through a
long line of tourists and
students at the metal detectors
Inner City Press must now use
everyday since the UN evicted
it for covering corruption,
a meeting in a windowless side
conference room was ending.
Outside in the hall it was
labeled, Congressional Group.
But inside
on a TV screen it said, “UN
Foundation: Congressional
Learning Trip.” UN Foundation
was set up, with Ted Turner's
money, to help and now defend
the UN. The UN's point person on
sexual abuse, long a topic of
interest for such Republicans as
Senator Bob Corker
(R-Tennessee), is Jane Holl
Lute, who before that was a high
official of the UN Foundation
and of the Obama Administration.
She was notably absent when a
“new” sexual abuse strategy,
immediately critiqued
by the group Code Blue and
others, was announced. On March
13, Inner City Press asked UN
Spokeman Stephane Dujarric, UN Transcript
here:
Inner City Press:
last week, I saw a meeting in
the basement 1B held by the UN
Foundation. It was
called Congressional Learning
Trip. And so, I guess I
wanted to know, number one,
what is the relationship
between the UN and UN
Foundation? Can it hold
a meeting of its own accord
with congresspeople? Are
you aware whether it was only…
you know, was it a bipartisan
meeting?
Spokesman: It was a
bipartisan… I mean, it wasn't…
it was far from a stealth
meeting as you described it,
because, obviously…
Inner
City Press:
On the outside, it was
congressional group, and then,
when you opened the door, it
said UN Foundation, so it was
stealth.
Spokesman: Right.
It was a programme run by the
Better World Campaign, and
they often bring up
staffers. And it was
very much a bipartisan group
of staff members who work with
senators and House members,
both Democratic and
Republican, an information
tour of the UN.
Inner City Press: Can
groups that are more critical
of the UN or do… or are
seeking UN reform, such as
Code Blue, such as Government
Accountability Project, can
they schedule their meetings
in 1B?
Spokesman: I think
we've… I think… I've been here
for about 16 years. I
think often groups that are
very critical of the UN are
able to speak at the UN.
Question: No, but in…
can they sponsor
congresspeople in 1B?
Spokesman: That's… it's
up to them to see who they're
willing to invite.
This is a
bogus answer: could GAP and
Code Blue book UN Conference
Rooms to instruct US
Congresspeople about what
needs to be reformed at the
UN? We'll have more on this.
(One of
Guterres' team is quoted that
Guterres' goal is to say out
of Trump's Twitter feed. Is
telling a newspaper that the
best way to make it come
about? And if Trump or Rex
Tillerson eschewed a traveling
press corps for hand-picked
coverage, there would be and
is outcry. The Free
UN Coalition for Access
asks, Is it acceptable by the
UN?)
Down
in Washington, Democratic
sources on the Hill told Inner
City Press of a visit by the
Obama administration's
appointee to the UN, Jeffrey
Feltman. Strangely, perhaps,
they list the topic not as
involving only Feltman's
specific UN job, the
Department of Political
Affairs he has been held over
to head until April Fools Day
in 2018, but “budget cuts to
peacekeeping.” The head of
that Department, held by
France for more than 20 years,
should be the one lobbying.
But Herve Ladsous is
unappealing in the best of
times; now he left
on March 31, replaced by his
fellow Frenchman Jean-Pierre
Lacroix. Will Lacroix be able
to stave off cuts? Will he
continue to use public funds,
more than a quarter of it from
US taxpayers, to pay
peacekeepers accused of rape
such as in the contingents
from Burundi
and Cameroon?
Inner City Press on March 10,
still under censorship
restrictions imposed without
any hearing or appeal after it
sought to cover the fallout
from the UN bribery indictment
of Macau-based businessman and
former Clinton funder
Ng Lap Seng, was Banned
from a simple photo
opportunity on the UN's 38th
floor. The Ban's by the
Department of Public
Information. When asked the
basis, the UN's holdover
Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq
gave no reason or definition
being used; he barely looked
up from his computer, from
which he never did answer
Inner City Press' questions
on Cameroon abuses and the
UN's Cameroon Resident
Coordinator Najat Rochdi blocking
it on Twitter, nor how much
"extra-budgetary" funds the UN
proposes to use on Louise
Arbour's D1 head of office.
The
moves are stealth, like much
in the UN these days - and
have the potential of
backfiring. Watch this site.
***
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