Inner
City Press Asks UN About
Libya Coast Guard Boarding NGO
Ship, No Comment, Salame
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video;
Photos
UNITED NATIONS,
September 27 – When the
UN's new Libya envoy Ghassam
Salame came to take questions
on September 20, Inner City
Press went to ask him directly
about his quotes on ANSA
supporting Italy's cooperation
with the Libyan Navy and Coast
Guard. After several sycophant
questions, Inner City Press
asked - and Salame pushed
back, claiming he was
misquoted by ANSA. Video here.
But he went on to say that the
deal[s] between Italy and
Libyan forces are bilateral,
UNese for We will not comment.
On September 27, Inner City
Press asked Antonio Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
UN Transcript here:
Inner City Press: about
Libya, a video has emerged of
an NGO [non-governmental
organization] ship, the
Mission Lifeline, being
boarded and fired on by the
Libyan Coast Guard as they…
after they rescued people
seeking to flee. So, a
lot of people are saying it's
pretty surprising that the UN
hasn't said anything about
visual documentation on
armed…Spokesman: "I
haven't seen the report.
I will look into it." Six
hours later, nothing. Sources
tell Inner City Press the very
apartment Salame occupies was
paid for from the Gulf. We'll
have more on that - and on
Grandi's and Louise Arbour's
high minded answers to Inner
City Press earlier in the day,
here.
Who represents the UN system
on this: Arbour (and to a
lesser extent Grandi) - or go
along to get along Salame?
Guterres will one day have to
decide. Two days before
on September 18 when Italy's
Foreign Minister Angelino
Alfano took media questions at
the UN on September 18, they
were all in Italian except for
a final chosen question about
Donald Trump. Inner City Press
insisted and asked, in
English, if Italy funds
militia in Libya to detain
migrants and refugees.
Alfano's answer was in
Italian, but a handler from
the Italian Mission offered a
translation: that Italy has
denied it. So what due
diligence does Italy do, over
the funds it gives to the
UN-propped up government in
Libya? We'll have more on
this. Alamy photos here.
When US President Donald Trump
gave his UN reform speech on
September 18, he noted that UN
staff have doubled since 2000,
but we haven't seen the
results. He could have said
more: what HAS been seen
includes inaction on mass
killings in Sri Lanka and
Yemen, Myanmar and Cameroon.
Not mentioned in Secretary
General Antonio Guterres'
speech, nor in his answers the
two times Inner City Press has
asked him, is the UN bribery
guilty verdicts in the case of
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe. The
UN was shown, only this
summer, to be for sale. And
nothing has changed. As UN
General Assembly week started
up on Sunday, the US announced
that Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson would meet with his
Russian counterpart Sergey
Lavrov at 9 pm, at Russia's
Mission to the UN. Inner City
Press after asking Cote
d'Ivoire president Alassane
Ouattara a question about
Myanmar - without answer -
biked up to that Mission on
67th Street. There in the half
light were dozens of reporters
and photographers, waiting for
Tillerson to leave. In the
street were US body guards
with machine guns. Tillerson
emerged and said nothing,
driving away. Video here.
Most of the Western wire
service correspondents, one a
photographer who'd been at the
UN photo op with Ouattara but
not the stakeout with Ivorian
media, turned and left. Then
the spokesman for Lavrov, and
before him for now deceased
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin,
emerged and briefed in Russia.
Inner City Press was informed
second hard that she said the
topics had been Syria, Ukraine
and Minsk implementation, and
“North Africa.” Later the US
State Department said, “U.S.
Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson and Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov met
this evening in New York on
the sidelines of the United
Nations General Assembly. The
two recommitted to
deconflicting military
operations in Syria, reducing
the violence, and creating the
conditions for the Geneva
process to move forward,
pursuant to United Nations
Security Council Resolution
2254.” So what about North
Africa? Peacekeepers in
Ukraine? Watch this site.
***
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