ICP
Asks Samantha Power
of Ban Ki-moon's Family Indicted,
She Says Doesn't
Involve UN
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 13 – There are those
in the UN who like Samantha
Power for what they think she
stands for. By the same token,
Power and the Obama
administration were
unrelentingly defenders of the
UN for what they said it stood
for. But were either right?
On January
13 Samantha Power took up the
UN Press Briefing Room for
more than an hour to extol her
and Obama's virtues. Her
outgoing spokesman called
early on two US Voice of
America affiliates.
Between
questions, Inner City Press
asked, What about the
indictment of Ban Ki-moon's
brother and nephew? Tweeted
video here.
Power
looked over and said, “I don't
have any comment. It's not
something that involves the
UN.”
Well, no.
The indictment by the US
Attorney's Office says Ban's
nephew repeatedly cited his
family's access to the Amir of
Qatar to help selling a
building in Vietnam. Ban knew
of this for at least a year
and a half. Any UN OIOS
investigation? But Samantha
Power was never about
reforming the UN.
Inner City Press asked, What
about Haiti cholera? Power
smirked / shrugged, and her
spokesman moved on. So the UN
bringing cholera to Haiti and
killing 10,000 people, not
paying a penny - that "is not
something that involves the
UN?" We'll have more on this.
When
the UN killed 10,000 plus
people in Haiti by bringing
cholera, what did the Obama
administration do? The issue
wasn't even mentioned in
Power's 8000 plus word Exit
Memo. Nor was Burundi or
Yemen, where US-made cluster
bombs have been dropped on
schools and hospitals. A
problem from hell, indeed.
Power and her Deputy Permanent
Representative for Management
and Reform Isobel Coleman have
said nothing about the
indictment for bribery of Ban
Ki-moon's brother and nephew
for using the UN, nor about
the John Ashe / Ng Lap Seng UN
briefing case about to come to
trial.
They did nothing
when the Press which
asked the UN about this
corruption was thrown in the
street and remains restricted
still today, ten months later,
despite a request from the
Government Accountability
Project.
Specifically, Power, Coleman and
the Mission / Administration did
nothing when Ban and his
holdover head of communications
Cristina Gallach had
investigative Inner City Press
thrown out onto First Avenue.
They were asked in
writing (by the Government
Accountability Project),
at the UNSC
stakeout (Power) and in Washington (Kirby). Nothing.
The UN is trying to give its
office to an Egyptian state
media which rarely comes in,
never asks questions.
The failure to
reform during a UN-sympathetic
Administration in Washington
will make the coming scrutiny
all the more painful. Call it a
Problem From Hell.
When the UN Security
Council members met about South
Sudan on December 15, the best
they could do was extend the
mandate of the UNMISS mission
for a single day. Even then,
there was already news of UNMISS
having given arms to warlord, or
“rebel general,” James Koang.
Inner City Press asked US
Ambassador Samantha Power about
this on December 16 and she said
she hadn't read it. On December
19, even while fielding a
pre-picked question on South
Sudan, Power still refused to
answer. Video
here.
We'll
have more on this.
***
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