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

UN Terror Post May Be For Orr, as Germany, UK & Pakistan Vie for WMD Slots

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 4, updated -- As the UN Security Council met Friday on terrorism, under the surface there was a fight between three Council members for two experts posts on Weapons of Mass Destruction or 1540 committee: Germany, the UK and Pakistan.

  During the session, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced, what else, a new high UN post, Counter Terrorism Coordinator. Immediately sources began to tell Inner City Press who is in the running to get this new job: Mike Smith, who already essentially does it, and long time American UN official Robert Orr.

  In surface compliance with Ban's Five Year Mobility Rule, Orr was recent shunted to a new job in Public Private Partnerships. There's only one problem, Budget Committee sources tell Inner City Press: this is not a funded post, and Ban can't just make up jobs and hand them out. Ah, Change Management.

  And so, cynics say, Bob Orr could get the new Counter Terrorism Coordinator post.

  A non-Western Security Council member asked Inner City Press, rhetorically it seems, "What, they can't find anyone new in the world?"

   When Ban Ki-moon and his entourage came out of the Council, Inner City Press posed the name of Mike Smith and Bob Orr, a close ally of Ban. There was an expression, but we don't interpret facial expressions here.

  Meanwhile, between Germany, the UK and Pakistan one prospective WMD expert will be left without a seat. Many say, let one of the two Europeans stand down, probably Germany.

  But a German diplomat, speaking as such, told Inner City Press that expertise should be the first and primary criterion.

  Pakistan counters that its candidate is an expert, that "not only Europeans have expertise," in this case in export controls.

  Germany questions why this is not viewed as nine candidates for the eight seats. But the six who have already informally "won" a position don't want to re-open the race, or the criteria. We hope to have more on this - watch this site.