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UN GATE, July 23 – Three weeks after Inner City Press published leaked audio of UN Office of Internal Oversight investigator Ben Swanson recounting being ordered by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres  NOT to investigate sexual harassment committed by a UN Assistant SG, now more Swanson audio has emerged, see below.

 And now Guterres' personal spies OIOS under Swanson, like his UN Security thugs including Ronald E. Dobbins told to target, rough up and ban Inner City Press, now assert the right to seize and search personal cell phones in the UN, in a message leaked to Inner City Press:

"Thu 7/23/2020 9:23 AM - We wish to bring to your attention an alarming precedent established in a recent (still unpublished) decision issued by a United Nations Dispute Tribunal (UNDT) judge, which jeopardises our right to privacy going forward.   In her decision, the judge endorses the DMSPC/Administrative Law Division’s argument whereby Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigators are entitled to seize any personal IT device (cell phone, laptop or desktop) that has been used by a staff member in conjunction with their UN work (for instance, by using a UN-issued SIM card on your private phone, or by installing UN licensed software i.e. MS Outlook on your personal phone/laptop).   The legal question relates to the interpretation of ST/AI/2017/1 (Unsatisfactory conduct, investigations and the disciplinary process) in conjunction with ST/SGB/2004/15 (Use of information and communication technology resources and data). Based on the argument of the Administration Law Division, who supported the OIOS’s practice of seizing of personal devices, the UNDT judge questionably ruled that ST/AI/2017/1 overrides ST/SGB/2004/15. It is unfortunate that the judge failed to observe that neither ST/AI/2017/1 nor ST/SGB/2004/15 stipulate in any way or form the seizure of personal devices.   The Staff Union disagrees with this interpretation of the rules, in view of the definition of “ICT resources” (Sect. 1.b) in the higher-ranking ST/SGB/2004/15, which should take precedence and limit the provisions of Sect. 6.2 of ST/AI/2017/1 to those devices issued by the UN that are “under the staff member’s control”.   We believe this manner of proceeding constitutes a grave violation of a staff member’s right to privacy and to their private property. Needless to say, that seizing of a staff member’s personal phone and laptop for a minimum of two weeks would cause extreme inconvenience to any colleague who is involved in an investigation, sometimes for no wrongdoing of their own.   In sum, we are calling on the OIOS to suspend these practices, especially under the current working arrangements imposed on staff due to COVID-19, when many of us are required to use our personal devices, due to the fact that the Organization was not always able to provide UN-issued devices to ensure business continuity.... We advise all staff on this issue and encourage you to reconsider your use of personal devices for UN-related work, as well as the utilization of any UN-licensed software on your personal devices."

  Guterres is a gangster- he should be impeached.

In the newly leaked audio, OIOS' Swanson says.

"this whole thing of retaliation has got the potential to cause us massive, massive problems if we get it wrong.”  As he describes the system, he says the U.N. used to open an investigation in response to a complaint, “and it was taking a long time because some of them are horribly complicated and some of them are just so trivial that they’re just not worth investigating entirely.”  He says the office trialed a process of getting the complaint from the U.N. ethics office, at which point it would write to the person accused of retaliating against a whistleblower or someone who reported misconduct, and ask them to “tell us why you’re not guilty.”   ”We’d get the stuff … in from the ethics office, we then write to the subject and, I’m paraphrasing here, saying, ‘Look, the ethics office have said that prima facie that you have retaliated therefore you are guilty of retaliation against Staff Member A, here’s all the material, here’s the ST/AI, write back to us in 10 days and tell us why you haven’t … why you’re not guilty of retaliation,'” he says, to chuckles from others in attendance.  Continuing, he says: “We’ve managed to cut the time down from 247 days down to about 45 because they write back straight away and invariably it’s ‘I don’t know anything about a protected act and this is nonsense, all I did was send out an email telling people to behave themselves.'”  “Then we sort of make the judgment of whether, is it worth getting 64gb of emails to prove that they haven’t only sent the email out, or do we take their word, their sworn word, for it and then say ‘well, ethics office, there is never ever going to be any sanction imposed for this retaliatory act, or whatever it’s called, and we’re not going to do anything else’?”  He says they are effectively doing the ethics office's job and the office had “swallowed it up and accepted it. We’ve done two now, and I think we’ve got another two in the pipeline, and it’s working quite nicely, that brings the figures down [and] that gets the Americans off the U.N.’s back, [it] means they don’t reduce their contribution.”

  Quoting whistleblower Emma Reilly's letter asking for the 15% cut in US contributions to the UN that are required under law, Fox News gets some response from Capitol Hill. But will this be followed through, as to retaliation and Guterres' censorship of Press? Watch this site.

   The United Nations claims to have a zero tolerance for sexual exploitation by its staff and peacekeepers, but routinely covers up their abuses including the rape of children, withholding basic information which was provided to the Press under Ban Ki-moon but not now under Antonio Guterres. 

   Inner City Press, which Guterres has banned from the UN for 724 days as it asks about these and his abuses, on June 23 received from outraged UN whistleblowers video of sexual exploitation, they said, in a white UN-marked vehicle, here.  Now Instagram, Facebook.

  On July 1 at noon, Guterres' UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said he would release the results of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigation in the afternoon. By midnight it had not happened.

 Now Inner City Press exclusively published audio of OIOS' Ben Swanson saying that one of Guterres' Assistant Secretaries General thrust his hand down the pants of a female staffer - and Guterres, "a politician," said to cover it up. Audio here, here on Patreon, transcribed here:

"I was summoned to a meeting in the SGS conference room in February (2018) where the SG, DSG, Legal Counsel and of all the special advisors and all that were there.  The SG is a politician and he wanted a sound byte result and the soundbite result was that paragraph which I showed you before.  I tried to make the point that there's three overlapping things with this, there's the culture, the investigations and there's the accountability piece.    Now, I was trying to tell him what actually apart from the numbers that's coming in, the investigations piece is already, we're OK because we know what we're doing and we're able to do the investigations. It's just with the increase in demand and I said the accountability is a problem because of whatever the tribunals are doing. And it's your culture's the problem.  I said I said I had a D1 female D1 in my office last week. She in tears telling me about how an ASG put his hand inside her trousers and when she tried to discuss how to complain about it, she was told it wouldn't do her any good and he was a favored son. And you're a woman.  So I tried to tell the story and I got (knock on table) I was cut there."

  Guterres' OIOS investigations are a politicized scam. A fish rots from the head - Guterres covers up for his Assistant Secretary Generals grabbing crotches, and for whoring by UNTSO staff. Guterres should resign.

  On July 1 AFP reported of the UNTSO video that "It was originally published on June 23 on the Twitter account of Inner City Press, a blog in open conflict with the UN, which has been denied access "for 721 days" , said its author Matthew Lee.  The account claimed a few days later that this scene was filmed in Tel Aviv (Israel)." [Would they say that the Rappler is "in open conflict" with Duterte?]

  The UN after Inner City Press' video went viral claimed they were quickly investigating; a French journalist even (falsely) reported that sanctions had already been announced.

  But now, days after Inner City Press identified to the UN the nationality and then the names of the men in the vehicle, nothing. It is another cover up by Guterres, this time funded not only by taxpayers but also IKEA and Pierre Omidyar.

  Early on June 29 Inner City Press has asked Guterres, Melissa Fleming, Stephane Dujarric and others: "Please confirm or deny that Michael Antoine, whose past promotions and transfers out of UNTSO including to the UN-OPCW mission in Syria Inner City Press has previously asked the UN spokesmen about without answer, is with UNTSO (and his role in this).   Same question regarding Ray Milan. On deadline. Please immediately confirm receipt." No answer. Guterres' UN is corrupt, now using Omidyar and IKEA funds.

 On June 28 Inner City Press asked Guterres, Melissa Fleming and UNTSO: "confirm or deny that Michael Antoine, whose past promotions and transfers out of UNTSO including to the UN-OPCW mission in Syria Inner City Press has previously asked the UN spokesmen about without answer, is with UNTSO (and his role in this).   Same question regarding Ray Milan." No answer.

  We now report - Milan is, as Inner City Press asked and reported, from Puerto Rico. And in the back, Michael Antoine has both Trinidadian and US citizenship - and quite a history. Inner City Press previously asked the UN about him (for example here). and his sponsor / Godfather Fadil Abdullah, since promoted out to UNICEF in Sudan. Inner City Press asked the UN about him, again, in 2019, here - no answer. UN cover ups.

  Whistleblowers exclusively tell Inner City Press this is being covered up: Antoine is "protected."  He is known in all the bars of Jerusalem.  The military observers know him as the jackass. That is his nickname.  Military observers were told not to place complaints about his antics, that nothing would be done.  They would see his UN vehicle out late in the bars in Jerusalem. He would drive with Ray to Haifa Russian bars.  Ray Milan and Antoine would also use prostitutes regularly.   Senior management refuse to address the misdeeds of civilian staff.  Antoine is part of culture of civilian UN staff who are undisciplined and there is no accountability.   Antoine had many Palestinian girlfriends and this would also cause problems for UN. Guterres is to blame for this.

  Inner City Press has been encouraged by UN staff to publish this now to try to ensure that Guterres doesn't once again cover up for a "whoremonger." They say Guterres should resign.

 Inner City Press will continue to demand re-accreditation.

  On June 26, despite the story now being reported from Austria to Israel to Switzerland, those let in from Al Jazeera and other publications asked nothing. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

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