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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT

UNITED NATIONS GATE, June 30 – While the Saudi kingdom is still stonewalling on the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, many in the media headlined without irony that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres belatedly wanted an investigation that is "credible." Never happened. Now from the G20, criticism of Queen Máxima of the Netherlands" “Whoever approved this conversation between Máxima and the Saudi Crown Prince understands nothing of diplomacy and even less about what’s good public relations,” Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of the D-66 Party said.  Queen Máxima was at the G20 in her role as special ambassador for the United Nations on, get this, inclusive financing. If she works for Guterres, no surprise she colludes with MBS. The G20 will take place in Saudi Arabia next year.  Guterres must be impeached by then.

Guterres' Youth Envoy continued to partner with MBS's MiSK Foundation. As Inner City Press exclusively reported and documented, UNESCO has a Memorandum of Understanding to train the staff of MBS's Misk Foundation, Inner City Press has reported and exclusively published, here on Scribd; see below and for download on Patreon here.

Now on January 25, from Geneva this: "The UN human rights expert Agnès Callamard is to head an international inquiry into the killing of Saudi journalist Mr. Jamal Khashoggi, starting with a visit to Turkey from 28 January to 3 February 2019.     This inquiry, established under the authority of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings, and upon her request, will review and evaluate, from a human rights perspective, the circumstances surrounding the killing of Kashoggi. Callamard will be accompanied by Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, and Professor Duarte Nuno Vieira from the University of Coimbra.     The UN expert will assess the steps taken by governments to address and respond to the killing, and the nature and extent of States’ and individuals’ responsibilities for the killing. “The inquiry will also seek to identify ways by which States can strengthen fulfilment of their international commitments to protect the right to life, prevent violations and ensure accountability,” Callamard said.  Callamard will report her findings to the UN Human Rights Council during the June 2019 session." Seems a little slow. And will the UN, or at least this Rapporteur whom Inner City Press can no longer question having been banned from entering the UN Press Briefing Room or UN at all by Guterres for 205 days, at least review the UN's own connections to MBS? Watch this site. On January 3 Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres and his spokesmen, "January 3-3: On Saudi Arabia, what is the SG’s comment and action on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeking the death penalty against five people it says killed Jamal Khashoggi, but no charges against Crown Prince MBS? Does the SG’s Youth Envoy still have the MOU with MBS’s MiSK Foundation? Is so, why, after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi?" There was, typically, no answer despite the promise of answers by Guterre's USG Alison Smale to UNSR David Kaye. Now on January 4, the UN sleight of hand: concern outsources to Michelle Bachelet (sometimes) in Geneva, who owes her job to Guterres. Here's the UN's storyline: "SOUNDBITE (English) – Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “We, as you know, have been pressing for justice in the Khashoggi case for months now. We have been calling for an investigation, an independent investigation, with international involvement, and this has not happened yet.” Medium shot, journalists. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Now while we are aware that a trial has taken place in Saudi Arabia, this is not sufficient, first of all. Second of all, we are against the imposition of the death penalty in all circumstances, just to make that clear as well.” Medium shot, journalists. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “We are not present in Saudi Arabia to be able to assess these trials, so we can’t give an assessment of the trials ourselves.” But Bachelet has said nothing about Guterres roughing up and banning Inner City Press for 184 days and counting, allowing him to do it even from her own event in UN Headquarters. This type of go along to get along (and be able to use public money for personal travel) is killing the UN and we will not stop reporting on it. The MOU is signed between UNESCO and Ali Alzabarah, CEO, Misk Initiatives Center, and begins: "Considering the mutual désire of Misk Initiatives Center at MiSK Foundation (hereinafter "Partner Institution") and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (hereinafter "UNESCO"), to establish a general framework of collaboration between them and to provide an opportunity for the Trainees to acquire a firsthand working experience at UNESCO; The Partner Institution and UNESCO (together referred to as the "Parties") hâve agreed to establish the
Sponsored Traineeship Programme as follows:
ARTICLE 1 Purpose
1. The purpose of theSponsored Traineeship Programme is threefold:
a) To offer to the selected Trainees specialized in the areas related to the work of UNESCO, the
opportunity to enhance their knowledge and consolidate their experience through practical work assignments;
b) To expose Trainees to the work of UNESCO, and enable them to gain a better understanding
of its mandate, programmes and processes, and thus promoting and strengthening UNESCO's
work in the areas of its mandate;
e) To benefit from the input of professional individuals, who can bring new ideas." A fish rots from the head: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who earlier this year took a $930 million check from MBS, himself also partners with Misk through his  Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake. But the training role of UNESCO under Audrey Azoulay is particularly ghoulish. It comes as a Saudi diplomat is trying to get the post in UNESCO in charge of the protection of journalists, reported here by Inner City Press which is now informed from an insider in the bureau of human resources, that the Director of HR, Hong Kwon and close friend of Ban Ki-moon (as we already reported – see here and here) signed and MOU with the MISK Foundation to train staff. Inner City Press' sources, who see UNESCO being destroyed under Azoulay and Guterres, view this as a total breach of the UNESCO values and basic principles. Not abrogating the MOU after the murder Khashoggi is a new low - but follows Guterres continuing his Youth Envoy's MOU.
This is not the first time Hong Kwon is exposed to severe criticism inside UNESCO  for dealing with serious matters in a non-professional and incompetent manner. Seconded to UNESCO from the UN where he was promoted almost every two years by his countryman Ban Ki-moon, who pushed Bokova to appoint him with a promotion at UNESCO last year. Most of the staff is keenly expecting his departure back to New York like his predecessor Ruth de Miranda by the end of July 2019. Furthermore, the introduced illegal changes by Kwon Hong in the reclassification of staff policy last August, superseded the decision-making power of the General Conference of UNESCO. These changes are since then severely objected by the two staff unions of UNESCO and, together with other pending files reflecting accumulated problems due to the total malfunctioning of the bureau of human resources may lead to an official disruption of the relations between the staff unions and the administration of Azoulay. This is consistent with Guterres' contempt for staff's rights and even lives, as shown in the DRC. The newly appointed ADG for Administration from the UK is now expected to request his departure in the coming weeks, but this may be objected by the Korean Ambassador to UNESCO and close friend of both Ban Ki moon and Hong Kwon. We will keep following closely what the final say of Azoulay will be on that one and whether she will be politically strong enough to challenge the Korean Ambassador who is also the Chairman of the Executive Board of UNESCO for 10 more months. This as UNESCO, like Guterres, used also in decay UN Security to physically oust people based on their views. Another Guterres echo: the July 3 so-called altercation, ban, and bogus review.  Even as others issued Khashoggi-related cancellations of attendance as Saudi-funded events, two officials of the UN of Secretary General Antonio Guterres attended and even spoke on October 16 at the Saudi-funded event "New York/Arab World Culture Forum: Art for Sustainable Futures" at the Asia Society in New York. UNESCO's Marie Paul Roudil gave a speech (video here), and long time UN lobbyist Rob Skinner, a close collaborator and one time competitor for the job of Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric, was in attendance as not denied by the UN. Here is Skinner's speech, in which he calls himself a "UN bureaucrat." There was no misunderstanding: others have publicly pulled out of the event, funded by the Riyadh-based Misk Art Institute, founded under the auspices of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud: MBS. So why is Antonio Guterres' adminstration, which itself maintains a secret "banned" list which includes since July 3 not only Inner City Press but also "demonstrators" and "political activists," so chummy with MBS and Saudi? Guterres lavished praised on MBS on March 27 accepting a $930 million check from the Saudis and UAE, with not a word of the Saudi led bombing campaign that has killed civilians and caused cholera in Yemen. With critical Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi "disappeared" after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Inner City Press banned from the UN noon briefing by Secretary General Antonio Guterres for the 97th day, on October 8 Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesmen and deputy in writing, "what is the SG's comment and action on the disappearance of critical Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi?"  We'll have more on this. On October 15, with Inner City Press still unable to attend and ask, included on Guterres "banned" list along with political activists, thankfully the Khashoggi question was asked, by Richard Roth: "Now that he's home, is the Secretary-General planning to meet or has he met with the Saudi UN Ambassador?  What is the Secretary-General's comment regarding President Trump's remark this morning that the Saudi King said that there were rogue killers, rogue actors who were responsible?  And it might be nice if the Secretary-General stopped after his Security Council appearance tomorrow morning considering some of the events that have happened while he was gone.  Just a suggestion.  Thank you.

Spokesman Dujarric:  I’m always happy to take the suggestions on board.  You know, I think the Secretary-General was very clear in the comments he made, I think, to some of your colleagues in Indonesia, is that he thinks it's very important for the truth to come out.  Our understanding is that, obviously, the Turks… Turkish authorities are investigating.  I think we, like everybody else, would like to know what happened to Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi.  And as the Secretary-General said, as we've said from here, we've had… there have been contacts between the UN and the Saudi authorities." At what level? As Inner City Press showed, Guterres seemingly slept in on October 15. It was his chief of staff who presented in the Fifth Budget Committee. And this? On October 14 from US Senator Dick Durban, this: "Yesterday, Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Ambassador to the United States, called Durbin directly from Riyadh about Khashoggi’s disappearance. 'In my call with Ambassador bin Salman, he admitted to knowing Mr. Khashoggi and even said he counts him as a friend.  However, Ambassador bin Salman gave no credible explanation for Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.  He refused to comment directly on the video showing Mr. Khashoggi entering the Istanbul consulate but not exiting, would not respond to reports of intelligence showing a plan to lure Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, would not respond to a request for a third party to investigate, and gave me no timetable on the Saudi’s investigative report.

I told Ambassador bin Salman that he should expect a very negative response from both sides of the aisle in Congress if Mr. Khashoggi was in fact kidnapped and murdered.  And if that is the case, I do not believe the U.S. should continue to be party to supporting the Saudis in the bloodshed in Yemen -- a halt that is long overdue given the humanitarian disaster resulting from that conflict. 

This recurring theme of the Saudi government and royal family silencing their critics, such as the case with Raif Badawi and Waleed al-Khair, along with the fact that they continue to turn a blind eye to the export of Wahabbi extremism makes it increasingly difficult to accept Saudi Arabia as trusted ally of the United States.

Since Saudi arms are being used to ravage Yemen and they are apparently complicit in the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi, I cannot support President Trump’s proposed arms sale.  Secretary Mnuchin should immediately cancel his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia and after a two year delay, the Trump Administration should finally nominate a U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.'"  Earlier Dujarric's deputy emailed this to Inner City Press: "Regarding Mr. Khashoggi, we have said the following: The Secretary-General is very concerned about recent reports of violence against journalists, including the most recent cases - the reported disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi and the murder of Victoria Marinova in Bulgaria. Both publicly and privately, the Secretary-General has often raised this issue with Member States. It’s also important to note that that there’s also been a very worrying increase increasing violence, sexual and otherwise, against women journalists.
The Secretary-General’s position is clear: a free press is essential for peace, justice and human rights for all. He reiterates his call on all governments to strengthen press freedom, including ensuring that there is justice and accountability for crimes committed against journalists." This while Guterres himself has roughed up and banned the critical Press - and is now exposed as putting it on his secret banned list that includes "political activists."

And so too the story about the Saudi foreign minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir's speech in the UN General Assembly that Guterres banned Inner City Press from, by his state media "UN News Centre" run by Alison Smale. This story merely runs lines from Al-Jubeir such as, "On the conflict in Yemen, the Saudi Minister said that Houthi militia continue to manufacture missiles and carry out activities that destabilize the region. Underscoring the need for a political solution to the crisis, Minister Al-Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia will continue to facilitate all humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people." This story does not mention the Saudis bombing of children in a school bus. One might think Smale is just wasting public money, as usual, by reproducing the flat coverage of UN Meetings Covering. But it's worse: the lack of analysis or presenting the other side is selective. Smale's UN News Centre's write up of the Myanmar speech includes a description of and link to a report on the government's killings. Smale also barred Inner City Press from attending the Reuters and CPJ event on Myanmar's jailing of two journalists, here. We'll have more on this - due to Guterres and Smale's lawless censorship Inner City Press has had to cover UNGA 73 from the streets and is only now reviewing Smale's shameful production. Watch this site.

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