| CIA Leaks
Trial of Schulte UNearths Wikileaks
History in Kenya and Iceland, Blogger's UN
Past
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
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Literary SDNY /
UN Gate, June 28 – When
Wikileaks smashed Kenya's
Daniel Arap Moi for
corruption, Kurt Wheelock had
just arrived at the United
Nations. It was an
organization intent on
covering up or silencing
coverage of its own
corruption, while pointing its
finger at others.
It was
before the global predatory
lending meltdown, which Kurt
after facing legal threats
from JPMorgan Chase and
Citigroup observed on an
analog television set raised
up near the ceiling of the
marble hallway outside the
clubhouse of the UN
Correspondents Association,
another corrupt organization.
In
that crisis, Wikileaks found
juice in the lava fields of Iceland,
stepping in when the national
broadcaster there was told to
stand silent. The UN,
meanwhile, bluewashed the Wall
Street predators as
environmental heroes, even as
they continued to fund
mountain-top removal coal
mining.
That had been how
Kurt began at the UN: at a
conference about banks and the
environment, held in the
mausoleum of the UN's
Trusteeship Chamber. From deep
in the cheap seats he'd pushed
the microphone button and
asked a question, about
CitiFinancial and predatory
lending, and Deutsche Bank's
securitizing of it. Both were
been given awards at the UN
that day. [Still in the
ether or Internet, this
report.]
After the
question was dodged from the
podium, the audience was told
to go buy lunch either in the
UN cafeteria on the first
floor, or the Delegates Dining
Room on the fourth, while the
organizers held a press
conference.
It was to that
that Kurt went, or tried to
go. But as he looked in
through the smoked glass door
of the UN Press Briefing Room,
he was told that it was only
for UN accredited
journalists. But I
have a blog, Kurt said. Inner
City Press dot
org.
The UN's media
man Gary Fowlie shook his
head. Dot org? That makes you
an NGO. This is for real
journalists.
Kurt thought
about it. But isn't Associated
Press a dot org? And National
Public Radio?
Whatever, Fowlie
said. You can't go
in. Kurt stood in
the hall, looking and
listening through the glass
door.
Inside an UNCA
correspondent asked, But tell
me, why is Bank of America so
deeply committed to the
environment? Why
indeed.
The next
day Kurt returned to the UN,
paying money to enter as a
tourist and going up to the
Media Accreditation and
Liaison Unit. He had purchased
the Inner City Press dot com
domain name, and thrown up a
couple of stories.
It worked.
They provisionally accredited
him for three months. "We'll
see if the other
correspondents accept you.
They do not want to be lobbied
by some NGO in their midst,"
he was told.
"Don't
worry," Kurt said. "I'm not
here to hand stories over to
corporate media. I'm here to
get scoops and leaks." That
word again. And so it
began. More on Patreon here.
***
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