UNITED
NATIONS GATE,
February 27 – How
lawless is the
United Nations of
Secretary General
Antonio Guterres?
In mid
2018 it roughed
up Inner City
Press which
asked about
Guterres'
corruption on
Cameroon
and the China
Energy Fund
Committee,
then refused
to waive
immunity even
as to the UN
Security
officers who
roughed up the
Press and
refused to
give their
names. But now the
U.S. Supreme
Court on
February 27
has ruled
against such
total impunity
for
international
organizations, in
Jam v.
International
Finance
Corporation.
From the
Court's syllabus:
"the fact that
the President
has power to
modify
otherwise
applicable
immunity rules
is perfectly
compatible
with the
notion that
those rules
might
themselves
change over
time in light
of
developments
in the law
governing
foreign
sovereign
immunity. The
Atkinson court
also did not
consider the
opinion of the
State
Department,
whose views in
this area
ordinarily
receive
“special
attention,” Bolivarian
Republic of
Venezuela v.
Helmerich
& Payne
Int’l Drilling
Co., 581
U. S. ___,
___, and which
took the
position that
immunity rules
of the IOIA
and the FSIA
were linked
following the
FSIA’s
enactment."
Watch this
site.
In
the midst of Inner
City Press'
questioning
in 2018 about
Guterres' links to
now convicted UN
bribery Patrick
Ho's China Energy
Fund Committee and
Guterres' failures
on Cameroon
and elsewhere, his
UN Security twice
roughed up Inner
City Press on June 22 and July
3, 2018.
Then
after Inner City
Press filed a New
York Police
Department
complaint against
the UN and its
Lieutenant Ronald
E. Dobbins, Inner
City Press as
banned from
entering the UN in
retaliation.
After
a UN "review" that
did not include
any opportunity to
be heard for Inner
City Press,
Guterres' Under
Secretary General
Alison Smale on 17
August 2018 issued
a
letter
"withdrawing"
Inner City Press'
UN media
accreditation.
Smale was asked
how Inner City
Press could
appeal, including
by UN Special
Rapporteur on
Freedom of
Expression David
Kaye, but did
not answer
that.
On 3
September 2018,
facing the
prospect of being
unable to enter
the UN to cover
the General
Assembly "high
level" week for
the first time in
a decade, Inner
City Press
submitted an
application for
accreditation. But
there was no
action on it - in
fact, during high
level week, it
emerged that Inner
City Press had
been put on a
non-public
"barred" list such
that even if
invited by a
member state or UN
agency, it could
not enter the
building.
Patrick
Ho of CEFC was
convicted on 5
December 2018.
Inner City Press
again exclusively
reported
that Guterres had
failed to include
his paid position
on the board of
the Gulbenkian
Foundation in his
Public Financial
Disclosure
covering 2016 -
and that
Gulbenkian in 2018
was trying to sell
its Partex Oil and
Gas affiliate to
CEFC as Guterres
refused to audit
CEFC and had Inner
City Press which
asked roughed up
and banned.
And
now on 2 January
2019 Smale's Media
Accreditation and
Liaison Unit has
issued a denial of
Inner City Press'
September
application for
accreditation,
stating only that
"Greetings
Matthew LEE from
ICPINNER CITY
PRESS,
Your
media
accreditation
request, with
reference no:
M72295425, has
been declined for
the following
reason:
Accreditation was
withdrawn on 17
August 2018."
This is
Kafka-esque. Accreditation
was withdrawn without any
hearing or chance to
appeal, but that decision
is used to deny future
accreditation. While
preaching about due
process and freedom of the
press, Guterres' UN has a
"one strike and your out"
policy - even if there is
no strike. The alleged
violations were filming in
place Smale's own MALU
staff told Inner City
Press it could film with
out an escort, and
recording her deputy in a
known media stakeout
position.
Guterres is a censor, to
conceal his own conflict of
interest. He has failed many people,
including the Anglophones being
killed by the Cameroon government of
Paul Biya, from whom Guterres
accepted a golden statue and Budget
Committee favors. This is corruption
and the reporting on and exposing of
it will not cease. No due process
censorship by the UN is
UNacceptable.
While
Guterres was refusing
throughout 2018 to
begin any UN audit
into China Energy
Fund Committee,
implicated in the UN
bribery prosecution
US v Patrick Ho,
Guterres had a
secret: his role
on the board of
Gulbenkian
Foundation which was
trying to sell
its Partex Oil
affiliate to CEFC.
See Inner City
Press' first
exclusive report here.
Today Inner City
Press continues its
exclusive series on
some of the CEFC
connections in and
through the UN that
should have been
identified in the
audit that Guterres
corruptly refused to
begin, with his
conflict of
interest. (Even his
predecessor Ban
Ki-moon ordered an
audit after Ng Lap
Seng was indicted -
Guterres still
hasn't after Patrick
Ho was convicted.)
It's time to
consider the
Guterres-like
hypocrisy of
Gulbenkian, publicly
tying itself to the
"blue ocean economy"
while taking money
from the oil company
Partex they tried to
sell to CEFC which
Guterres has covered
up for. Antonio
Guterres was a paid
board member of
Gulbenkian; his wife
Catarina Vaz Pinto
was paid by them as
well. Antonio
Guterres' daughter
Mariana Guterres
actively promotes
Gulbenkian (as well
as, troublingly,
dead children in
Kenya); his daughter
in law Vanda Onnesjo
Lobo gushes about
its causes.
In fact, Gulbenkian
which tried to sell
its Partex Oil to
CEFC in 2018 partners
with "Oceano Azul
Foundation" - which
just happens to have
in 2018 hired
Antonio Guterres'
daughter in law
Vanda Lobo, see here.
Given Gunbenkian's
business dealings
with UN briber CEFC,
shouldn't this all
have been disclosed?
Isn't it an abuse
that Antonio
Guterres would have
the only media
asking about it
roughed up and
banned? This is UN
corruption.
(His
son Pedro Guimarães
e Melo De Oliveira
Guterres, after
being a part of the
defrauding of PT
Portugal as it
was passed from Brazil's
Oi to France's
Altice, seems to
have gone to ground,
with not a single
legitimate question
about his business
links
answered). But
now in 2018 - and
according to
Guterres' publicly
funded propaganda,
2019 - it is all a
front. Guterres has
shown himself
willing to rough
up a
journalist who asked
about this and more,
banning the
Press for 182 days
with no end in
sight.
Consider
Guterres' lead
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric has
family links
to Gulbenkian.
Inner City
Press asked
Dujarric in
writing to
disclose these
(no answer,
and Stephane
Dujarric blocks@InnerCityPress
on Twitter),
just as it asked
him in person
why CEFC
wasn't being
audited in
March 2018,
before
Dujarric and
Guterres had
Inner City
Press roughed
up and banned,
238 days
now.
Why did Gulbenkian take
down its webpage
disclosing that
Guterres remained on
board into 2018? Why
- sixteen months
after Guterres
ostensibly left -
did they wait until
February 2018 to tweet
that he left?
Because their
negotiations with
CEFC became public
(see 2 February 2018
Bloomberg here,
and 6 February
MacauHub here:
"CEFC China Energy
buys Portugal’s
Partex Oil &
Gas.")
In any event,
Guterres' "2017"
Financial
Disclosure, which
explicitly says it
covered the year
2016 in which even
in this new story he
remained on
Gulbenkian's board
into November, more
than 80% of the year
- did not disclose
his role in
Gulbenkian, only on
the Club of Madrid.
Guterres has had
previous financial
disclosure
omissions, for
example in Portugal,
here.
CEFC was hardly
unknown: it bought a
Portuguese insurance
company in November
2017, here.
Guterres' failure to
disclose and,
separately and even
more so, his refusal
to audit CEFC in the
UN was a direct
conflict of
interest, which he
has tried to cover
up by roughing up
and banning Inner
City Press which
asked him about it.
(See January 2018
press conference here, July 2018 roughing up by
Guterres' UN
Security here,
banning letter via
Press Freedom
Tracker here.)
Three
times now Dujarric,
his deputy Farhan
Haq and Office of
the Spokesperson
colleagues Marcia
Soares Pinto
and Keishamaza
Rukikaire, as
well as
Guterres, his
chief of staff
Maria Luiza
Ribeiro Viotti
and Deputy SG
Amina J.
Mohammed have
refused to
answer this:
"Beyond the 36
questions from
Inner City
Press you
refused to
answer last
week, still
set forth
below for
promised
answer, this
is a
reiterated
request past
deadline that
you (1) state
when SG
Guterres left
his position
on the
Gulbenkian
Foundation,
(2) state why
Gulbenkian was
not listed on
SG Guterres'
public
financial
disclosure
which covered
2016; (3)
explain how it
is not a
conflict of
interest for
SG Guterres to
have refused
to start an
audit of CEFC
in the UN, as
requested by
Inner City
Press in
January 2018,
given CEFC's
bid for the
oil business
of Gulbenkian.
Also, again,
state why
under SG
Guterres there
have been no
updates to the
UN public
financial
disclosures
since those
filed for
2016. Also,
again, explain
your refusal
to answer any
of Inner City
Press'
questions this
week despite
USG Smale's
statements to
GAP, me and UNSR
David Kaye."
No response at
all, even as
spokesman
Dujarric for
example tweets
at actor Seth
Rogin.
Dujarric, as
simply
one example, on 1 March
2018 evaded
Inner City
Press'
in-person
questions
about CEFC and
Guterres, less
than a month
after Gulbenkian said
Guterres was
off the board,
amid oil negotiations
with CEFC. Video
here.
Then
Guterres and
Dujarric had
Inner City
Press roughed
up and banned
from the UN. Guterres'
wife Catarina
Vaz Pinto also
worked for Gulbenkian. This
is today's
corrupt UN.
For years Guterres
received money as a
board member of the
Calouste Galbenkian
Foundation, which
despite its name is
the 100% owner of
Partex Oil and Gas.
Partex
has operations in
Angola, Abu Dhabi,
Brazil, Kazakhstan,
the Netherlands,
Oman and Portugal.
It was to a
Portuguese court
that Guterres, while
justifying
no listing some of
his income,
disclosed in 2016
that he was paid at
least € 2735 per
month for his
position with the
Gulbenkian
Foundation.
But while a now
deleted Foundation
web page (archived here)
stated that Guterres
continued with
Gulbenkian into
2018, Guterres did
not list it on his most
recent, and so
far lone, UN Public
Financial
Disclosure, which
covered 2016
("Disclosing
financial and other
interests for the
2016 reporting
year").
So why did Guterres
disclose his
position with the
Club of Madrid, but
not
with the Gulbenkian
Foundation / Partex
Oil and Gas? It is
worth noting that
Guterres' wife
Catarina Vaz Pinto
has also been connected
to Gulbenkian.
Following the
roughing up and
banning from the UN
of Inner City Press
which has covered
the CEFC scandal
throughout,
Guterres' head of
Global
Communications
Alison Smale promised
UN Special
Rapporteur for
Freedom of
Expression David
Kaye, who asked,
that the UN would
still answer Inner
City Press' written
questions.
But as 2018 came to
a close Guterres'
spokesmen Stephane
Dujarric and Farhan
Haq left unanswered
36 questions in a
row from Inner City
Press, including
this: “Beyond the 35
questions from Inner
City Press you
refused to answer
this week, this is a
request on deadline
that you (1) state
when SG Guterres
left his position on
the Gulbenkian
Foundation,
(2)
state why Gulbenkian
was not listed on SG
Guterres' public
financial disclosure
which covered 2016;
(3)
explain how it is
not a conflict of
interest for SG
Guterres to have
refused to start an
audit of CEFC in the
UN, as requested by
Inner City Press in
January 2018, given
CEFC's bid for the
oil business of
Gulbenkian.
Also,
again, state why
under SG Guterres
there have been no
updates to the UN
public financial
disclosures since
those filed for
2016. Also, again,
explain your refusal
to answer any of
Inner City Press'
questions this week
despite USG Smale's
statements to GAP,
me and UNSR David
Kaye. On deadline.”
The question was
also sent to the
e-mail addresses of
Guterres, his chief
of staff Maria Luiza
Ribeiro Viotti, his
Deputy Amina J.
Mohammed, and Smale,
who earlier in the
week told Inner City
Press she would take
“under advisement”
her 17 August 2018
pretextual
withdrawal of Inner
City Press decade
long UN media
accreditation.
It seems
clear that Guterres
and his team have
engaged in
censorship for
corruption, to
conceal a blatant
conflict of interest
by Guterres. And
now, JAM v. IFC...
***
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