UN's
Somalia
Scams &
Bax Continue,
Whistleblower
Cites
Spoon-Fed
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 19 --
Two months ago
on June 22,
Inner City
Press
published an
exclusive
story about UN
Mine Action
chief in
Somalia
David
Bax sharing
information
with US
intelligence
and running
around
Mogadishu with
armed guards
trying to save
a girlfriend
after an
attack on a UN
compound in
Mogadishu,
here.
On
June
24 (and June
26 and July 5),
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Office of the
Spokesperson
for an answer
from
UN
Peacekeeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous and
the head of
UNMAS to the
story and a
detailed
complaint from
a
whistleblower.
The UN
told Inner
City Press,
"we’ll have to
check on that
for you,
Matthew, we’ll
check
with DPKO,"
the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations.
But
the UN's
response was
to given to
another media,
from Ladsous'
and
DPKO's
spokesperson
Kieran Dwyer,
for a story
that made Bax
into
something of a
hero.
Inner City
Press wrote
and asked
about this
spoon-feeding
and was told
Bax as being
investigated,
nothing would
be answered
(again.)
For writing
about it, Team
Spoon-Fed
anonymous
used social
media to
attack
Inner City
Press as they
have in the
past,
including
predictably
and
intentionally
triggering
death
threats.
Now
the
whistleblower
has complained
again to
Ladsous and
UNMAS, saying
the UNOPS
"investigation"
was a scam and
the story that
resulted from
the
spoon-feeding
dropped
damning
information
because
"you put
pressure on
the journalist
about" it.
While
we'll have
more about the
UN's scams and
pressure, this
is what is
meant by
spoon-feeding:
the UN gives
answers to the
critical
Press'
questions to
hand-picked
others
seeking, or in
exchange for,
more UN
positive
coverage of
the story. As
noted this
happened on
the still
unacted on
murder of UN
Security
staffer Louis
Maxwell.
It
has also
happened on,
and been done
by Ladsous
and Dwyer on,
the 135
rapes in
Minova by
the UN's
partners in
the Congolese
Army, and even
just last week
on UN
political
chief Jeffrey
Feltman's
pre-planned
trip to Egypt.
On
that, Inner
City Press exclusively
published
audio on
August 15 that
Feltman would
go to Cairo
(and that it
had been
planned before
the
August 14
killing of
hundreds of
unarmed
protesters).
Another media
asked Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson's
office to
confirm Inner
City
Press' story
and was told
it's just a
rumor.
Then
three
minutes before
the noon
briefing at
which
Inner City
Press
asked
for and got
confirmation
Reuters ran a
two
paragraph
type-up of
"the United
Nations"
announcing the
trip.
This Reuters "report"
did not
mention that
the trip had
been planned
before the
killings (and
therefore does
NOT represent
a UN response
to the
killings)
or that
Feltman
represented
the US State
Department in
the Middle
East,
before doing
the same at
the UN.
This
is how it
works at the
UN -- this
spoon-feeding
and then
anonymous
attacks and reverse
spoon-feeding
TO the UN
(click here
for that),
and more
generally,
covering up
wrong-doing
including of
the kind
that puts UN
staff at risk.
This, and the
UN's
mis-direction
with
information,
unacted on by
the UN's Department
of
Information,
is now also
being opposed
by the new Free UN Coalition for Access (click here for
DPI's reaction.)
We'll have
more on this.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
Tellingly
since the UN's
spoon-feeding
on Somalia,
Inner City
Press asked
and written
about the UN's
"hands-off"
approach to
allegation of
gang rape in
Mogadishu by
the forces the
UN supports
there. This
too is how it
works with the
UN, as with
the UN's
denial of
bringing
cholera to
Haiti.
Attempts by
the UN to
cover up
misdeeds make
it silent and
complicit in
others.