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UNITED NATIONS,
December 21 – Is the UN in
further decay? On December
15-16 on Wall Street Antonio
Guterres, who has refused to
hold any end of year press
conference amid scandals
including his Deputy's signing
of 4,000 certificates to
export endangered rosewood
already shipped to China from
Nigeria and Cameroon, is being
“honored” at a Wall Street
fundraiser charging $1200 per
table. Inner City Press went
to see - there was a $400,000
yellow Lamborghini parked in
front, with a guy periodically
toweling the snow off of it. Video
here.
Now at the UN
noon press
briefing on
December 21,
an UNCA
questioner
asked
Guterres'
spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, "the
UNCA [United
Nations
Correspondents
Association]
dinner,
Secretary-General
sounded pretty
disappointed,
first man of
the United
Nations when
it comes to
the promoting
the agenda
that he was
for very much
in his running
for the
highest office
here. I
mean, he
mentioned that
he was crying
together with
Jesus Christ."
What? Guterres
cried, he
said, with
Christ about
Trump, as
others said?
So Inner City
Press asked
Dujarric: it's
the first I hear of these…
these remarks, the Jesus
Christ remarks. And I
remember, I think, on that
Friday… Spokesman: Maybe
we should not refer to them as
"Jesus Christ remarks".
Let me pre-empt your question,
if I may…
Inner City
Press:
Can we get the speech… can we
get the speech released? You
said there was no reason not
to… Spokesman: No, the
speech… the remarks were, in
fact he wound up not using
notes. He spoke off the
cuff. He talked about
the need to defend and protect
journalists. And he
delivered what I thought was a
humorous joke about the… the
challenges, not
insurmountable, but the
challenges of reforming the UN
and that it will take close to
a miracle, but he believes in
it.
Inner City
Press:
Let's cut forward a couple of
further days. He gave a
speech, and it was definitely
from remarks. It was a
very well-thought-out speech
at UNICEF on the occasion of
the International Day of
Migration. And I didn't
see it released, but I did
hear him say that he's… he
opposed media that are, quote,
building up market share based
on… I guess he was saying
anti-immigrant sentiment or
xenophobia. But what I'm
just wondering is, it seems
like in the past, those type
of speeches… Spokesman:
You know, I think we've moved
to a thing where, when he
speaks off the cuff, which he
was speaking off the cuff, we
don't always transcribe it,
and I think the remarks are
available on video.
Inner City
Press:
And, also relatedly, I've seen
it said that he's given his
last interview of the year,
but I heard that he's giving
an interview in the
Netherlands to state
television. Can you
confirm that? And is there any
way we can get a transcript or
video or something?
Spokesman: No, we don't…
I think, as a matter of
journalistic ethics, we don't
talk about the interviews he's
given before… beforehand as a
matter of… as a matter of
courtesy. And,
obviously, when he does an
interview, it will be… it will
be shown. Inner City Press:
But it just seems… given that
he didn't do an
end-of-the-year… I think… I've
heard you say that in the
past…Spokesman: He's
giving a press conference at
the beginning of the
year. Which… which I'm
sure also will cover what's
happened in 2017 and what he
looks forward to 2018. " We'll
see. On December 15, Inner
City Press covered the event
to the end, complete with
vomiting attendees and the
three musketeers of
war-criminal landlord
Giampaolo Piolo with his
Sherwin Bryce-Pease
and Nabil
Abi-Saab
packing the (rigged?)
lottery
wheel and
other bags
into a black 4 by 4, Periscope
here, to the end.
In the interim
other
journalists,
even
attendees,
told Inner
City Press
that they
agreed, more transparency
by Guterres is more
important than this
dubious event.
Earlier ghoulishly inside
Antonio Gutteres, who has done
nothing for example for
journalists jailed in Cameroon
and has restricted the
investigative Press in the UN
which asks about it, was
presented as defending
(corporate) media. This is a
lie. It emerges from Twitter
that Amina "Rosewood" Mohammed
was there, but again not
available for questions. For
the record, over 90,000 people
have asked for her to be
investigated by SG Guterres,
but he cares more about the 90
who voted in the UNCA election
- a new low. The
correspondents however loved
it, with selfies by the Grey
Lady, AFP and others. This is
how the UN got as corrupt as
it has become. There were
three private security guards
for the entrance of Angelina
Jolie, greeted by UNCA's
Giampaoli Pioli who, after
being included in a story for
having rented one of his
apartments to a diplomat
implicated in the White Flag
killings in Sri Lanka
threatened to have the Press
thrown out of the UN if the
article didn't disappear from
the Internet. (It was not
removed, and the eviction did
happen). Going into the event,
in no particular order, were
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, then the Permanent
Representatives of the UK and
France -- but not of the US.
Instead US Deputy Sison
arrived. She has been
confirmed as Ambassador to
Haiti, where the UN killed
10,000 with cholera and paid
not a penny. The $400,000
Lamborghini was and is
ghoulish, toweled off or not.
A Comedy Central
tele-personality will m.c.
Inner City Press covered it
from outside, aiming to get
Guterres and his Deputy to
belatedly answer questions.
Inner City Press as one of
only two journalists asking
questions at the UN's dying
noon briefing on December 15
asked Guterres' spokesman if
his fundraiser remarks will be
made public - it is not clear
- and why he is not holding an
end of the year press
conference. From the UN
transcript: Inner City Press:
one time just as you were
leaving the podium, that
there's been some
adjustments. That may
have been about opening events
on the 38th Floor or not, but
it seems like you represented
Ban Ki-moon, as well. He
always did an end of the year
one, and I understand… I guess
my question is, I've heard it
said that… that António
Guterres doesn't want to do
one until he has something to
announce, but at the same
time, like he did Fareed
Zakaria, he does different
things, so is there some…
what's the distinction?
Spokesman: Listen, I
think, if I recall correctly,
there were some years when Ban
Ki-moon did one in January as
opposed to December." That's
the distinction? This less
than a month after the second
UN bribery indictment, this
time of Patrick Ho and Cheikh
Gadio, on which Guterres
hasn't even arranged for any
UN audit, after his DESA took
$1 million from Ho's
organization after the
indictment. His host and
enabler is the United Nations
Correspondents Association,
which not only took money from
the last UN bribery convict,
Ng Lap Seng, but also
arranged for softball coverage
of Deputy Amina J. Mohammed as
her rosewood scandal grew.
When Inner City Press went to
cover, in the UN Press
Briefing Room, an event of the
UN Correspondents Association
in January 2016 to see if the
Ng Lap Seng funds were
discussed, Stephane Dujarric
who Guterres has kept on as
spokesman evicted Inner City
Press from the UN Briefing
Room, then from its UN office
and the UN as a whole. While
Inner City Press reported on
the UN from the park across
First Avenue, UNCA's former
president had a colloquy with
Dujarric while it was fine.
Another former UNCA president,
Egypt state media Akhbar
al Yom's Sanaa Youssef,
was awarded Inner City Press'
long time UN office but rarely
comes in and has not asked a
question in two years.
Guterres' “Global
Communicator” Alison Smale has
been informed, and questioned,
but has refused to respond.
This is the UN's communication
strategy: answer no question,
evict critics, allow
sycophants to sell the UN for
money. This
UNCA didn't even
pretend
to complain
about the lack
of an end of
year press
conference, much
less about the
increasing
corruption.
Birds of a
feather. Here
are their
top-six
no-competition
elections
results, with
only 90 ballots,
a new low...
well here is
2017, to which
there is only
one change, the
2018 is
apparently not
yet "public" -
Prez - Sherwin
Bryce-Pease,
South African
Broadcasting
(SABC); Valeria
Robecco, ANSA
News Agency;
Melissa Kent,
CBC/Radio;
Carole Landry,
Agence France
Presse." And seehere,
saying Guterres
met with
Japanese media
on December 8
prior to his
trip. Guterres
had no news, as
he will not for
Dutch state TV
on December 20.
Watch
this site. Among the parts of
the UN facing budget cuts for
waste is not only the
Department of Public
Information, increasingly a
propaganda arm which, as if as
a sidelight, engages in
censorship of the
investigative Press, but also
the UN's Regional Commissions,
Budget Committee officials
told Inner City Press on
December 13. Inner City Press
has previously reported on and
asked about the presence of
the Latin American Regional
Commission (ECLAC) chief
Alicia Barcena with Antonio
Guterres when he spoke before
the Committee. The UN then
told Inner City Press Barcena
was called on by Guterres for
her expertise, but remains
head of ECLAC. We'll have more
on this. The Budget Committee
officials told Inner City
Press that if the Advisory
Committee on Administrative
and Budgetary Questions does
not finish "five big reports"
by the end of this week,
concluding the session on
December 22 may be unlikely.
At the noon briefing on
December 14, Inner City Press
asked the spokesman for the
President of the General
Assembly for the status of the
ACABQ reports, and about the
budget process. The question
has been answered in writing:
"The President of the General
Assembly is aware of and
concerned by the late arrival
of documents to the Fifth
Committee for its
consideration. This has been a
persistent problem, hampering
the work of the Committee. The
President has discussed this
issue with the Chairs of the
Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary
Questions (ACABQ) and the
Fifth Committee. He has also
been kept abreast of the state
of play in the Fifth
Committee, including through
periodic contact with the
Fifth Committee’s Chair. ACABQ
is a subsidiary organ of the
General Assembly and is
represented in the Fifth
Committee by its Chair." We'll
have more on this. New DPI
chief Alison Smale's swearing
in ceremony was closed to the
Press; she has still not even
responded to Inner City Press'
three petitions for review of
its eviction and restriction
for reporting on corruption at
the UN. Meanwhile, the UN
Budget Committee head for the
year, the Cameroonian
Ambassador who joined DPI in
its censorship after Inner
City Press asked about abuses
by his president Paul Biya,
told Inner City Press it will
all be done by December 22.
We'll see. The UN delivered a
threat
to Inner City Press to
“review” it accreditation on
October 20 at 5 pm. The UN
official who signed the letter,
when Inner City Press went to
ask about the undefined
violation of live-streaming
Periscope video at a photo op
by UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, had already
left, minutes after sending
the threat. This comes two
days after Inner City Press asked Guterres about the
UN inaction on threatened
genocide in Cameroon, and the
UN claimed
Guterres hadn't heard the
15-second long question.
It also
comes after Alison Smale the
head of the Department of
Public Information which would
“review” Inner City Press'
accreditation has ignored threeseparatepetitions
from Inner City Press in the
six weeks she has been in the
job, urging her to remove
restrictions on Inner City
Press' reporting which hinder
its coverage of the UN's
performance in such crises as
Yemen,
Kenya,
Myanmar,
and the Central African
Republic where Guterres
travels next week, with
Smale's DPI saying its
coverage of the trip will be a
test of its public relations
ability. But the UN official
who triggered the complaint is
Maher Nasser, who filled in
for Smale before she arrived.
His complaint is that audio of
what he said to Inner City
Press as it staked out the
elevators in the UN lobby
openly recording, as it has
for example
with Cameroon's Ambassador
Tommo Monthe, here,
was similarly published.
A UN “Public Information”
official is complaining about
an article, and abusing his
position to threaten to review
Inner City Press'
accreditation. The UN has
previously been called
out for targeting Inner
City Press, and for having no
rules or due process.
But the UN is entirely
UNaccountable, impunity on
censorship as, bigger picture,
on the cholera it brought to
Haiti. And, it seems, Antonio
Guterres has not reformed or
reversed anything. This threat
is from an official involved
in the last round of
retaliation who told Inner
City Press on Twitter to be
less "negative" about the UN -
amid inaction on the mass
killing in Cameroon - and who
allowed pro-UN hecking of
Inner City Press' questions
about the cholera the UN
brought to Haiti and the Ng
Lap Seng /John Ashe UN bribery
scandal which resulted in six
guilty verdicts. We'll have
more on this.
***
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