At
UN, Taylor
Swift Oct 25 Event Will Be In But Not Of United Nations, UN For
Sale?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 1, 2010 -- Musician Taylor Swift announced
on
September 20 that she will “launch” her new album Speak Now “at
the
United Nations” on October 25. This seeming strangely, Inner City
Press on
September 23 asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press: Taylor Swift has announced via PR Newswire and elsewhere
that she would be performing at the United Nations on 25 October with
an album release. So it struck me like, I know we have had as many,
various sort of foibles here, of sort of commercial presentations
within the UN. But are you aware this is widely circulated, in what
context, what would be the rule that was applicable to…
Spokesperson:
It’s trending on Twitter or what?
Question:
No, no. No I’m talking; this is put up by a public relations
firm, saying the UN will be used for an album launch. And I just
wanted, maybe you don’t know now, but maybe you can find out
whether it’s true. And if so, who in the UN system would have
sponsored such an event?
Spokesperson:
Well, let’s find out. I am sure that my colleagues in the
Outreach Division will be able to help me.
This
last implied
that the UN Department of Public Information might be behind the
launch, perhaps naming Taylor Swift as a Goodwill Ambassador for some
cause or other.
While
not put into
the UN's transcripts, Inner City Press has since been told that
Taylor Swift's event at the UN has nothing to do the UN.
Taylor Swift, UN not shown
The
Delegates' Dining Room at the UN is run by the caterer Aramark. The
UN allows Aramark to rent the space out when it is unused. Taylor
Swift rented it, and then put out a press release that led many
readers to believe it was a UN event.
One
wonder what
standards the UN has for Aramark's renting out of the Delegates'
Dining Room. Could Aramark rent it to a political party based on
hate? For the burning of a religious text? Watch this site.
Ambulance
Carts
Off
Diplomat from Khartoum, Sudan Media Say “Security”
Pushed Him Down
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September
23 -- A member of Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha's
delegation was carted off 42nd Street in an ambulance on Thursday
night. Sudanese media at the scene told the Press that “security”
inside the Hilton (Tudor) Hotel had pushed Imad Habash to the floor.
Not long after, Habash collapsed on the sidewalk across from the
hotel.
As
Inner City
Press approached, Sudan's Permanent Representative to the UN was
speaking heatedly to security on the scene. He confirmed to Inner
City Press that it was a “member of the delegation.”
Others
present named him a protocol officer for Taha, who met US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton earlier in the week. On Friday, Taha and
the Permanent Representative will attend the UN's
summit with
President Obama Friday at 3 p.m..
Sudan's Taha previously at UN, protocol office Habash not shown
The
Sudanese media
filmed the FDNY crew and larger and larger numbers of security. One
imagines the Host Country Committee getting involved. Watch this
site.
* * *
As
Obama
Omits
Sudan in GA Speech, Trip “Is Dead,” Power Speaks of Kitchen Sink
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September
23 -- The UN
Security Council's long planned trip
to Sudan in early October “is dead,” a non Permanent member of
the Council told Inner City Press on Thursday.
Sudan
insisted that
Council members meet with the country's President, Omar al Bashir,
who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war
crimes and genocide. To the US, at least the US Mission to the UN,
this was a non-starter.
Inner
City
Press
asked US Presidential senior adviser and Senior Director for
Multilateral Affairs Samantha Power about the trip, and the
absence of the words Sudan much less Darfur from President Barack
Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday morning.
Ms.
Power acknowledged the absence of Sudan from the speech, saying that
“he didn't mention it, you're right, in the General Assembly today”
but “the truth is the President is giving a very substantial set of
remarks on Sudan tomorrow, so the judgment was, let's do this right,
you'll hear alot about Darfur, a lot about the CPA.”
But
it's not either
- or: if Sudan is so important, it could have joined such topics as
Poland and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in the speech.
On
the trip, Ms.
Power said “the details and logistics are still being worked out,
it's still very much in play, as part of this drumbeat...pretty much
the kitchen sink is being through at this challenge, the trip is
being seen in this light.”
But
multiple
sources tell Inner City Press that the trip is dead, killed by the
US' resistance to meeting with Omar al Bashir. Several Council
members expressed frustration to Inner City Press, that the US and UK
monopolized the deliberation on the trip. Some said the US wants to
get all the credit if things “somehow work out in Sudan” -- a
“strange multilateralism,” one called it.
Samantha Power viewing rights (commissioner), SC
Sudan trip not shown
In
terms of Obama
delivering a 14 minute speech at the September 24 meeting, the UN's
planners of the meeting, bragging about Ban Ki-moon's role and five
minutes speech, have indicated they hope all participants keep
themselves to five minutes. The US now seems to think that's good to
know.
There
is
a dispute
about whether the opening of the meeting will be open and can be
filmed. The US seems to want there to be footage of Obama talking
about Sudan at Friday's meeting. But he could have done it in the
General Assembly on Thursday. We'll see. Watch this site.
* * *
As
Clinton
Meets
Sudan VP, Bashir “Does Not Come Up,” UN Dodges on
Darfur
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September
21 -- When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
met Tuesday with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha, somehow the
topic of President Omar al Bashir and his indictments for genocide
and war crimes by the International Criminal Court “did not come
up,” Clinton's spokesman PJ Crowley told the Press.
Some
wonder
how
this is possible, not only given the US' claimed interest in
accountability for genocide but also Bashir's
importance in the
processes in South Sudan and Darfur. Could Clinton meet about
Zimbabwe and have Robert Mugabe “not come up”? Could she meet
about North Korea and not mention Kim Jong Il?
In
fact, the UN
Security Council's planned trip to Sudan about the referendum and
Darfur, slated for October 4 to 11, is being blocked by the stated
concern of the UK, France and the US to not have to have a photo op
with Bashir.
On
September 19, a
Permanent Five Council member Ambassador told Inner City Press that
the issue of the trip, and of having to meet Bashir, would be raised
with Taha as early as Monday night's dinner hosted by the Sudanese.
So how could the issue, and Bashir himself, not come up in Clinton's
meeting Tuesday with Taha?
Crowley
said
that
there will be other meetings throughout the week, in the run up to
the meeting involving President Obama on September 24. He also to his
credit promised answered to other questions at his next briefing in
New York. We'll see.
Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair & UN's Ban in
past, Bashir not shown - "did not come up"
Meanwhile,
Inner
City
Press on
Tuesday asked UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky five
questions about both Darfur and South Sudan:
Inner
City
Press:
First, can you confirm that some staff members of UNAMID
in South Darfur were attacked and injured near Muhajeriya. Do you
have anything on it?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I
have heard some reports. I don’t have details. I would
need to get some details on that. I don’t have that.
Inner
City
Press:
And I guess there is a few, yesterday I had asked you
this question…
Spokesperson:
Media
reports is what I am referring to.
Inner
City
Press:
Right. Yesterday
I
had asked you this question of
whether the Commissioner of the Referendum, the Secretary-General of
the Referendum Commission for South Sudan, was a UN staff member
previously serving with United Nations Mission for the Referendum in
Western Sahara (MINURSO) in Western Sahara. Were you able to get
the
answer on that?
Spokesperson:
I
think my colleagues in Department of Peacekeeping Operations
(DPKO) will be in touch with you. But as I understand it, the person
concerned was a UN staff member, but is no longer.
Inner
City
Press:
Right. Okay. And also, I mean, maybe it will be in
connection with that. I have heard that, in fact, the UN, while
saying publicly that they will be opening 80 monitoring stations
throughout South Sudan for the referendums scheduled for January, in
fact expects to open no more than 55 or so. That seems the number,
the difference between internal and external presentation seems so
wide that I wonder if you can confirm that.
Spokesperson:
I
am not aware of any change in the intention to open the number of
monitoring stations that has already been publicly stated. Let me
find out if there’s been a change. I am not aware of that.
Inner
City
Press:
And just one last one. This is a Secretary-General
question rather than DPKO, I believe. Can you, I guess, confirm that
the Secretary-General intends to name this panel of eminent persons,
three-person panel to monitor or at least he is attempting to name
this before Friday’s meeting? And can you give any sense of what
the back and forth is or whether it will contain a Head of State? There
is a lot of interest in this panel and not a lot of
information.
Spokesperson:
Well,
I can fully understand that there is a lot of interest in the
forming of a monitoring panel, which is something that, as you know,
was mentioned in a Security Council press statement last week, if I
am not mistaken, that the Security Council supports the request that
there has been for such a monitoring panel. This is something that
is in the works. We will have something to announce when it is
finalized. I think we are getting quite close to that. The
intention is to have something in place and the people in place in
good time for this to be useful for all concerned.
Inner
City
Press:
Even to participate in Friday’s meeting?
Spokesperson:
I
beg your pardon?
Inner
City
Press:
Even to participate in Friday’s meeting [inaudible]?
Spokesperson:
This
I don’t know, this I don’t know.
Inner
City
Press:
Okay.
Spokesperson:
More
important at the moment is simply to make sure that the pieces
of the jigsaw puzzle are in the right place. This is something that
is being worked on and I hope that we will have a little bit more to
say about this in the next couple of days.
Watch
this
site.
Footnote: Secretary
Clinton, after her 3 pm meeting with the Middle East Quartet, was
scheduled to appear at a 4 pm press conference at the UN on the topic.
The presser was canceled, Inner City Press was told by the UN, due to a
power outage. But Clinton's name plate wasn't on the rostrum, even
before the lights went dim.
Crowley said that Clinton had planned to meet with Tony
Blair. But as one reporter pointed out, Blair's name plate WAS on the rostrum. More than a
little strange.
* * *
, 
