UN's
Budget Cut Pushback Includes
Stealth UN Foundation Meeting,
Dodging by Spox,
Press Ban
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Series
UNITED NATIONS,
March 13 – Facing budget cuts,
even on a delay, how does
today's UN react? By stealth,
and then denial. Recently in
the UN basement as Inner City
Press came in late through a
long line of tourists and
students at the metal
detectors Inner City Press
must now use everyday since
the UN evicted
it for covering corruption,
a meeting in a windowless side
conference room was ending.
Outside in the hall it was
labeled, Congressional Group.
But inside
on a TV screen it said,
“UN Foundation: Congressional
Learning Trip.” UN Foundation
was set up, with Ted Turner's
money, to help and now defend
the UN. The UN's point person
on sexual abuse, long a topic
of interest for such
Republicans as Senator Bob
Corker (R-Tennessee), is Jane
Holl Lute, who before that was
a high official of the UN
Foundation and of the Obama
Administration. She was
notably absent last week when
a “new” sexual abuse strategy,
immediately critiqued
by the group Code Blue and
others, was announced. On
March 13, Inner City Press
asked UN Spokeman Stephane
Dujarric, UN
Transcript here:
Inner City Press:
last week, I saw a meeting in
the basement 1B held by the UN
Foundation. It was
called Congressional Learning
Trip. And so, I guess I
wanted to know, number one,
what is the relationship
between the UN and UN
Foundation? Can it hold
a meeting of its own accord
with congresspeople? Are
you aware whether it was only…
you know, was it a bipartisan
meeting?
Spokesman: It was a
bipartisan… I mean, it wasn't…
it was far from a stealth
meeting as you described it,
because, obviously…
Inner
City Press:
On the outside, it was
congressional group, and then,
when you opened the door, it
said UN Foundation, so it was
stealth.
Spokesman: Right.
It was a programme run by the
Better World Campaign, and
they often bring up
staffers. And it was
very much a bipartisan group
of staff members who work with
senators and House members,
both Democratic and
Republican, an information
tour of the UN.
Inner City Press: Can
groups that are more critical
of the UN or do… or are
seeking UN reform, such as
Code Blue, such as Government
Accountability Project, can
they schedule their meetings
in 1B?
Spokesman: I think
we've… I think… I've been here
for about 16 years. I
think often groups that are
very critical of the UN are
able to speak at the UN.
Question: No, but in…
can they sponsor
congresspeople in 1B?
Spokesman: That's… it's
up to them to see who they're
willing to invite.
This is a
bogus answer: could GAP and
Code Blue book UN Conference
Rooms to instruct US
Congresspeople about what
needs to be reformed at the
UN? We'll have more on this.
Down in
Washington, Democratic sources
on the Hill tell Inner City
Press of a visit by the Obama
administration's appointee to
the UN, Jeffrey Feltman.
Strangely, perhaps, they list
the topic not as involving
only Feltman's specific UN
job, the Department of
Political Affairs he has been
held over to head until April
Fools Day in 2018, but “budget
cuts to peacekeeping.” The
head of that Department, held
by France for more than 20
years, should be the one
lobbying. But Herve Ladsous is
unappealing in the best of
times; now he is a lame duck
leaving on March 31, to be
replaced by his fellow
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
Will Lacroix be able to stave
off cuts? Will he continue to
use public funds, more than a
quarter of it from US
taxpayers, to pay peacekeepers
accused of rape such as in the
contingents from Burundi
and Cameroon?
Inner City Press exclusively
reported and followed
up on the extension of
Jeffrey Feltman's UN contract
with regard to his UN (largely
US taxpayer) pension vesting
after the five years which
Feltman recently pointed out
has not yet been reached, but
not until now how those close
to Feltman say it was
accomplished. They exclusively
tell Inner City Press that
among the lobbyists to keep
Feltman on was none other than
Bill Clinton, whom they say
said it on behalf of his
spouse, behind whom Feltman
was famously photographed
while she worked her
Blackberry.
Speaking of photographs, Inner
City Press on March 10, still
under censorship restrictions
imposed without
any hearing or appeal after it
sought to cover the fallout
from the UN bribery indictment
of Macau-based businessman and
former Clinton funder
Ng Lap Seng, was Banned
from a simple photo
opportunity on the UN's 38th
floor. The Ban's by the
Department of Public
Information under ostensibly
outgoing Cristina Gallach, who
did no
due diligence on Ng Lap
Seng. When asked the basis,
the UN's holdover Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq gave no
reason or definition being
used; he barely looked up from
his computer, from which he
never did answer Inner City
Press' questions
on Cameroon abuses and the
UN's Cameroon Resident
Coordinator Najat Rochdi blocking
it on Twitter, nor how much
"extra-budgetary" funds the UN
proposes to use on Louise
Arbour's D1 head of office.
The
moves are stealth, like much
in the UN these days - and
have the potential of
backfiring. Watch this site.
***
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