UN
Said Poised
to Give Post
to Big Bank
Bloomberg,
Conflict of
Interest Not
in Report
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 30 --
When Michael
Bloomberg was
Mayor of New
York,
in light of
obvious
conflicts of
interest he
stepped back
from
Bloomberg
News. He was
criticized on
issues ranging
from
stop-and-frisk
to defending
banks against
minimal City
community
reinvestment
standards.
Now,
according to
one gushing
report, he is
poised to move
to the United
Nations, as
envoy on
cities and
climate
change. What
about new
conflicts of
interest, and
the above
critiques?
To
give what
credit is due,
on the evening
of January 30
Reuters' UN
bureau issued
a breathless
"exclusive"
with nothing
but
praise of
Bloomberg
-- not a word
of any
criticism,
nothing on the
conflict of
interest with
Bloomberg News
purporting to
cover the UN
and Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon. Given
the percentage
of the piece
praising
Bloomberg,
that would
seem to be the
(anonymous)
sourcing.
Meanwhile
at
the UN
on January 30,
Inner City
Press on
climate change
asked
Ban's
acting deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
of documents
leaked by
Edward Snowden
showing
that the NSA
spied on the
Copenhagen
talks in
2009:
Inner
City Press:
there’s one of
the [Edward]
Snowden-released
documents,
but there’s a
reason I’m
asking you is
it’s published
in a
Danish
website
“Information”
and it talks
about the
Copenhagen
climate change
talks of 2009.
And this seems
to be the
document and
it says that
the NSA
[United States
National
Security
Agency] was
involved in
monitoring
communications
at the
discussions in
order to
advise the
United States
on the
position of
other
Governments
and
presumably at
the UN. So,
I’m wondering,
this seems to
get more
closely into
things that
are of much
import to the
UN, to the
Secretary-General.
Is there any
response as to
this memo
coming out
and the
propriety of
such
surveillance?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson:
Well, we
wouldn’t have
any specific
response
to this
because
ultimately,
again, this is
a case where
we’d need
to know what
the basic
facts are and
whether there
was any such
surveillance
that’s
happened.
However, our
basic point
that we’ve
articulated
many times in
recent months
still holds:
that the
inviolability
of diplomatic
premises needs
to be
respected by
all
States.
If
Bloomberg is
named on
Friday, or is
named at all,
what will the
coverage of
criticism and
conflicts of
interest be?
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
While
giving what
credit is due
to Reuters' UN
bureau,
despite their
history,
it must be
noted that the
bureau chief
has not only spied
for the UN
-- he has also
misused
the US Digital
Millennium
Copyright
Act to get
Google to
block from its
search a leaked
document
showing
him trying to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN.
All
of this.. is
how this UN
works, or
doesn't.
, 
