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By Matthew Russell Lee, Video, 7/20, CJR, ICO ruling

UN GATE, Oct 7 – As the abuses by Cameroon's security forces have been ignored by the UN, whose Secretary General Antonio Guterres has UN Budget Committee deals with Paul Biya and a Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman who is bombing Yemen, the UK Mission to the UN and its parent the FCO withheld information on both countries from Inner City Press.

  Even after being belatedly admonished by the UK Information Commissioner's Office, in May and June 2019 the UK Mission and FCO did the same and worse, outright refusing to proceeding Inner City Press' request about Cameroon and Yemen after the UK Mission refused to answer basic written questions.

Now on October 7 from US State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, this:‎  "Secretary Michael R. Pompeo spoke with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today. Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Secretary Raab discussed the intention of the United States and the United Kingdom to negotiate an ambitious free trade agreement after the United Kingdom departs the European Union. They also discussed a variety of international security challenges, including Iran’s destabilizing role in the Middle East, Turkey’s plans to potentially invade Syria, and the tragic death of a British citizen in an accident involving the spouse of an American diplomat."

  After the UK Mission's refusal, under Ambassador's Karen Pierce and Jonathan Allen, to answer Inner City Press submitted a FOIA request to FCO: "This is request under the UK Freedom of Information act for the following records as that term is defined in FOI, including but not limited to all electronic records, emails, text/SMS message and communications in any form, involving the UK Mission to the UN in New York since July 3, 2018 regarding Cameroon or Yemen (on which the UK holds the pen in the UN Security Council), and regarding any UK national UN Under Secretaries General including but not limited to Alison Smale and any opportunity given by the UN Secretariat to the UK to replace her or gain a different USG position as she leaves at the end of this summer. This request specifically includes all records related to briefings given by the UK Mission to the UN to members of the major international media (and any mentions of that term), as that information cannot legitimately by made public to some but not to the public"

 While last time, for which it was ultimately admonished, the FCO slowed began assembling documents, this time they flatly refuse: "I can confirm that the FCO does hold information relevant to your request.... to refine your request to narrow its scope [suggesting dropping Cameroon, Yemen, and pretending no way to search for documents about Smale or getting UN USG  positions from Guterres] .. You can apply directly to the Information Commissioner. However, the Information Commissioner will not normally make a decision unless you have first exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the FCO."

  On July 4, Inner City Press has written both to the FCO and the ICO. The ICO said it would wait until FCO ruled, which it has today August 1, in continued corruption. To the FCO, cc-ing two at the UK Mission including Stephen Hickey: "July 4, 2019  Via email to foi-dpa.pmcs@fco.gov.uk    To whom it may concern at foi-dpa.pmcs@fco.gov.uk:  This is a formal request for review of, and complaint about, FCO's June 15 denial in full of Inner City Press' and my May 11 request under FOIA for documents concerning the UK Mission to the UN, Yemen and Cameroon.      Amazingly, despite the UK ICO's 26 February 2019 ruling on the FCO's improper delay and withholding of records on an nearly identical request by Inner City Press (FS50771047, incorporated herein by reference), and with the UK Mission to the UN now refusing to answer or even acknowlege Inner City Press' written questions about Cameroon and Yemen, the FCO denied this reques in full.    It did not provide a single documents, even amid the controversy about the UK's sale of weapons for use in Yemen, and increasing visibility of the slaugher of Anglophones in Cameroon, with whose Paul Biya Liam Fox bragged about UK-based New Age's hydro-carbon deal. Additionally, UK Under Sec-Gen Alison Smale is set to leave in August, making the censorship portion of the request all the more timely.     Hence this request for review - and for action for accountability for those who are improperly withholding information about the UK government, censorship and the killing of civilians in Cameroon and Yemen.    The requested records should be provided immediately."

  Four weeks later, this: "INTERNAL REVIEW: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA) REQUEST REF 0459-19 Thank you for your email of 4 July requesting an internal review (IR) of our response to the above request. I note that your original request covered a time period of approximately 10 months and was widely framed in terms of the type of information you were seeking. I also note that we suggested you might wish to refine your request before we accepted it, and that you declined the opportunity to do so. I am satisfied that an appropriate sampling exercise was carried out to ascertain how much information we might hold in scope of your request. The results of that initial search indicated that there were several thousand documents which might potentially contain relevant information. I am therefore satisfied that it would have taken us considerably longer than three and a half working days to comply with your request, and that the decision to refuse it under s12 of the FOIA was correct. In your IR request you refer to a request you made for similar information in 2017 (FCO ref 0783-17) and the subsequent ICO Decision Notice on that case. I note, however, that your 2017 request had been refined to cover a much shorter time frame and we were thus able to respond substantively to it within the specified cost limit. For your information, I have attached below some links to published material relating to your request that may be of interest to you. Yemen:  https://www.gov.uk/search/news-and- communications?keywords=yemen&world_locations%5B%5D=uk-mission-to-the-united- nations-new-york&order=relevance  Cameroon: Statement by Ambassador Jonathan Allen, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, at the Security Council briefing on Conflict Prevention and Mediation: ‘The role of mediation in  conflict prevention’, published 12 June 2019 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-role- of-mediation-in-conflict-prevention  Central FOI Unit Foreign and Commonwealth Office King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Website: https://www.gov.uk  Statement by Ambassador Jonathan Allen, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, at the Security Council briefing on the UN Regional Office on Central Africa: ‘Inclusive political dialogue in Central Africa’, published 4 June 2019 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/inclusive-political-dialogue-in-central-africa Statement by Ambassador Jonathan Allen, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, at the Security Council Briefing on the UN Regional Office on Central Africa: ‘Preventing further conflict in Cameroon and the Lake Chad Basin’, published 13 December 2018  https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/preventing-further-conflict-in-cameroon-and-the-lake- chad-basin  If you are not content with the outcome of this Internal Review you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire, SK9 5AF Yours sincerely,  Joint Head Central FOI Unit."

  We will be appealing. Because this is pure corruption - first colluding with Antonio Guterres to have the Press which asks about Cameroon and Yemen roughed up and banned, then refusing its questions, then trying to strong arm it into dropping whole parts of its FOI request. Disgusting. Watch this site.

   This while UK USG Alison Smale imposed an ongoing ban on Inner City Press even entering the UN, now at 347 days.

Inner City Press appealed the withholding of documents by the UK Mission to the UK Information Commissioner's Office which issued a ruling, quoted below. Now on March 25 the FCO has released some information it had withheld - shocking that it was ever withheld - including a "Foreign & Commonwealth Office Diplomatic Telegram" about IOCA who is now the foreign minister of Mauritania locking up bloggers for exposing Ponzi schemes in the country, and on Cameroon even the transcript of then-Ambassador Rycroft answering Inner City Press on 10 August 2017 about Guterres' deputy Amina J. Mohammed's craven meeting with Biya officials, prior to the refoulement from her Nigeria on which she and Guterres have said nothing, video here from 0:55: "Q. Amina Mohammed also on Tuesday met with this delegation from Cameroon. I just wanted to get your thoughts on whether the UN should be doing more, could be doing more? Have you seen a read out? Obviously I wasn’t in the meeting myself but I was very glad to hear that the delegation were here and they had a meeting with Amina Mohammed. I think that demonstrates that the UN is keeping it on their radar as they should and I support that." This took place BEFORE UK Alison Smale had Inner City Press banned from the UN, on which UK document have yet to be disclosed. We'll have more on this. The ICO ruling: "the Commissioner has concluded that section 21 does not apply and furthermore that the FCO breached section 17(3) of FOIA by failing to conclude its public interest considerations within a reasonable timeframe. 2. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Provide the complainant with a copy of the information to which it sought to withhold on the basis of section 21 of FOIA.  3. The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court." Full ruling here, on Scribd.

  Inner City Press submitted the following request to the FCO on 15 August 2017: ‘This is request under the UK Freedom of Information act for the following records as that term is defined in FOI, including but not limited to all electronic records, emails, text/SMS message and communications in any form, involving the UKMission to the UN in New York since January 1, 2017 regarding Cameroon and/or Southern Cameroons, or Burundi or Western Sahara; since June 1, 2017 regarding Libya or Yemen (on which the UK holds the pen in the UN Security Council), and regarding UN reform including the UN bribery case US v. Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe, if any.
This request specifically includes all records related to briefings given by the UK Mission to the UN to members of the major international media (and any mentions of that term), as that information cannot legitimately by made public to some but not to the public. Given the situations in Yemen, Libya and South Cameroons, I and Inner City Press asked for expedited processes of this request."

After more than year the FCO and UK Mission did not provide a single document about Cameroon. FCO has argued that its interest there is solving the Anglophone crisis - this while UK Minister Liam Fox has bragged about UK-based New Age's natural gas deal with 36 year "president" Paul Biya. What will the documents the UK FCO wrongfully withheld show? We should know in 35 days.  Inner City Press asked, without answer: "who is responsible for deciding, between 10 pm July 3 when I was assaulted by UN DSS Lt Dobbins and another UNnamed, and 10 am on July 5, that I was and am banned from entering the UN? Who participated in this decision? Your office yesterday told The Independent (UK) that “a review ha[s] been launched into the manner in which Mr Lee had been removed and his future accreditation.” How my accreditation should suffer for having been assaulted by Lt Dobbins and unnamed colleagues, for the second time in 11 days, is a mystery or worse. But please state how it is possible for DSS to investigate itself in this matter. What provisions does the UN have when abuse BY UN Security officers is alleged, and how does it impact for example their New York and other gun permits?" We'll have more on all of this. Guterres lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who will again be hand picking the questions and questioners present at noon on July 12, told another reporter on July 11 that Inner City Press' “status is being reviewed.  My understanding is that he will be having discussions with various parts of this administration, and then we'll keep you updated, and I'm sure he will keep you updated. His credentials and pass have been suspended, pending review." Video here.  Since Inner City Press alone has asked Guterres and his spokesman dozens of questions about the killings by Cameroon's government, it seems clear the goal of banning Inner City Press is to avoid those questions. What about the China Energy Fund Committee scandal of UN bribery of Presidents of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa - with whom Guterres still deals - and Vuk Jeremic? No one else asked.  When Inner City Press complained of Dujarric providing only to Al Jazeera the response of Antonio Guterres to the US leaving the UN Human Rights Council, Dujarric and the Al Jazeera trio claimed to MALU that the coverage was “too aggressive.” Journalism is not a crime? Next week, Antonio Guterres is set to give remarks, to which Inner City Press has requested the right to cover response, to the UN Correspondents Association, which not only has not acted on this censorship, but has fueled it.

  Inside the UN the Eid event continued, alongside a liquor fueled barbeque thrown by UN Security. This DSS sold tickets to non resident correspondents, and allowed in people who had nothing to do with the UN, including some seeming underage. When Inner City Press audibly raised the issue to UN Safety and Security Service chief Mick Brown, he did nothing.

   The Moroccan diplomat emerged and chided Inner City Press for even telling him of the ouster, claiming that “25% of what you write is about Morocco.” Some Periscope video here. Pakistan's Permanent Representative, who hosted the Eid event, said she would look into it. Sweden's spokesperson asked whom to call in DPI and when Inner City Press said, Alison Smale, responded, Who is Alison Smale? Indeed.

  Smale has refused to respond in any way to a 5000+ signature petition to restore Inner City Press to its unused office S-303 and to adopt content neutral media access rules going forward. That, and appropriate action on Lt. Dobbins and the others, must be among the next steps. Watch this site.

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