Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

As UN Denies IIMSAM Reps Had Grounds Passes, Photo Shows Otherwise

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 21 -- The UN on Tuesday denied giving grounds passes to any representative of IIMSAM, the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina against Malnutrition.

But last year Inner City Press witnessed such passes and wrote a story questioning the “snake oil” like claims in the UN of the “Ambassadors” of IIMSAM.

After that article, suddenly the IIMSAM Ambassadors became less present inside the UN. It was said that their passes had been revoked or downgraded, and that they were asking for a meeting with Inner City Press.

Asked about the group on December 21, acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said again and again, “No grounds passes have been issued to representatives of IIMSAM.”

Inner City Press then specifically asked him about a revocation or downgrading of ID cards by the UN. Haq repeated the same: “No grounds passes have been issued to representatives of IIMSAM, this is all I can say.” Video here, from Minute 11:38.

IIMSAM's Maradona with PGA d'Escoto Brockmann - and UN ID card

In this light, Inner City Press is publishing a photograph of IIMSAM representative Maradona, previously ubiquitous in the UN, with a grounds pass on. That it is a Diplomat's pass raises even more questions. Watch this site.

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UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- On the fourth floor of the UN on Wednesday night, a restive crowd formed to shake hands with a Sheikh from Dubai, in the name of spirulina. This is an algae which, according to the videos shown at the subsequent dinner, can miraculously cure the disabled. It was rubbed onto knees in Kenya, it was shipping into the white phosphorous marked Iraqi city of Fallujah.

While one skeptic in the crowd muttered, "Snake oil," it was said from the podium that the UN in 1974 deemed spirulina the best hope to fight world hunger. Its proponents called themselves Ambassadors; they are omnipresent in the UN's Delegates' Lounge, passing out books of poetry and quoting Che Guevara. Wednesday night they kept a Dining Room full of freeloaders waiting for two hours for the main course, as representatives of wine firms and the "Official Spokesman of the Obama Family in Kenya" praised the qualities of spirulina.

Inner City Press, among the freeloaders, spoke with a Thai refugee of sorts, now with Smith Barney in San Francisco, who admitted to only coming because it was a chance to see the UN, and contrasted the evening's pomp to a Bay Area non-profit which helps recent immigrants. Next to her was a farm owner from Mississippi, who flew up from Jackson for the promise of US Department of Agriculture subsidies for spirulina farms on the Gulf Coast.

"It'll be like ethanol production there," she said. "Thirty six months to make money, then get out." One wondered if the cited connection to Obama might help with the USDA subsidy. A point was made from the podium of noting the attendance of Hillary Clinton's brother Tony Rodham.

The spirulina awardees, for the most part, did not come to the dinner. An award was given to an Jamaican soccer player -- called "the Diego Maradona" of that country -- and to a doctor who took spirulina to Falluja despite the dangers there. "I have a good nose for bullshit," said a woman from the Deep South, "and this is a Code Red, pure bullshit."

The evening's host and sponsor, Sulaiman al Fahim, is described in his spirulina bio as having begun "investing in the stock market under his mother's name" at the age of fourteen. An Inner City Press source saw him at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, while Sudan's press conference about their president's indictment went on, sitting in the delegate's lounge in what are described as dirty jeans. Hours later, in full dish-dash, he said "I have connections all over the world" and predicted a campaign for spirulina including "Hollywood" people.

In fairness, while not shown in the videos, sprirulina is said to re-open the digestive tract in under-nourished people. But to rub it on your legs? We will have more on this.

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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