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By Matthew Russell Lee, Audio, Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, October 24 – The UN maintains a secret list of people banned from entering its premises. On October 24 while barring Inner City Press from events on Burundi, Syria and Cameroon, UN Security Inspector Matthew Sullivan said the list would not be provided to Inner City Press as it is an "internal document." He returned to brag that the UN spoke with and even affirmatively called NYPD - the NY Police Department to which Inner City Press directed a Freedom of Information Law request about their knowledge of and collusion with the UN's barred list -- presumably to hinder the release of any information, or to retalate. Video here. But here's the thing - this Matthew Sullivan, good friend of NYPD and of Bibi Netanyahu, is openly tweeting to his friends like Guterres' Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the lack of Indian blood of "Jokeahontas" - that would be Senator Elizabeth Warren. Sullivan openly violated UN rules by participating in for profit events in UN conference rooms, including with Jack Brewer for GPS sneakers - with no accountability from the DSS of no-show Peter Drennan. Inner City Press exclusive: The UN was set to play host on August 2 to a for-profit event led by agroup on which UN Security official Matthew Sullivan is on the board of directors... The event involves COPsync, Inc, a for-profit company which sells equipment to police departments and whose CEO has previously been sued for securities law violations. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, having retured from two weeks away, flat out refused to say whether, as UN rules require, Ban Ki-moon approved UN Security Inspector Matthew Sullivan's presence on an outside board of directors. Video here.
   Then, even before bragging about Inner City Press' exclusion and his censorship through NYPD, he and another DSS officer threw Inner City Press out of the UN photo booth covering an event about the UN's introduction of cholera in Haiti. This, is what Guterres has brought the UN to - hypocrisy, duplicity, censorship for corruption on all levels. Things are getting worse and worse at Antonio Guterres' UN. Inner City Press has appealed to both the Mayor's Office including International Affairs' Penny Abeywardena and to NYPD, through the OpenRecords portal it like all New Yorkers is directed to, thusly: "As a journalist banned even today from the UN - told that I am on the no due process "barred" list that is one of the subjects of this FOIL request I requested and am requesting expedited processing of -
Today UN Security Inspector Matthew Sullivan in barring me from events on Burundi and Syria said that the UN was called by and called the New York City government, presumably about this request and to impede or delay any response. He called the UN barred list an "internal document." This is contrary to US Constitutional (and international human) rights - but the purpose of this interim appeal is in this new light to demand expedited response of all records in your possession about this list, to avoid or mitigate collusion in the violation of an American (and New York) journalist's First Amendment rights. For your information, and in support of this appeal, UN Inspector Sullivan bragging about impeding this FOIL request is now online here. Please confirm receipt, respond to this appeal and provide the responsive documents asap. -Matthew Lee, Inner City Press." In further Kafka-esque response, while the NYPD response said to that portal "to view additional information and take any necessary action," now NYPD's Records Access Officer Richard Mantellino says "Please be advised that this email cannot accept FOIL requests and/or respond to inquiries or matters related to such." So who should we ask - the UN's Matthew Sullivan? Antonio Guterres? Watch this site? Even the Security officers who enforce the ban are not told the reason why a person is on the list: whether it was for actual violence, or writing articles questioning the Secretary General Antonio Guterres' misuse of public funds, for example. One told Inner City Press the secret list includes "demonstrators" and "political activists," audio here. Since the City of New York works with the UN including this banned list which includes New York City journalists, Inner City Press in mid October 2018 submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Law - but the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio and his Mayor's Office of International Affairs under Penny Abeywardena are trying to delay response for SIX MONTHS until April 2019. Here is the request: "On behalf of Inner City Press and in my personal capacity this is a request under FOIL for all records in the possession of the NYC Office of the Mayor including the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs (MOIA; collectively OOM) regarding the exclusion of persons in the last three years from premises of the United Nations, in and around First Avenue and 42-48th Streets in Manhattan, including of NYC residents including journalists. This is also a request for all records in the same time period of the review, suspension or revocation of pistol permits for any UN personnel including but not limited to UN Department of Safety and Security personnel and the grounds therefore. To assist you in identifying and producing the responsive records on an expedited basis, I personally was physically ousted from the UN by UN DSS Lieutenant Ronald Dobbins and another unnamed on 3 July 2018 as I staked out and covered, as a journalist, the UN Budget Committee meetings. On 4 July 2018 I filed a report at the NYPD's 17th Precinct, despite being told - erroneously I now believe, including based on how my First Amendment rights have been impacted - that all UN personnel have total immunity. The report number is #2018-017-2848. See also, The UK Independent, here. On 5 July 2018 when I went to the UN to continue my work as a journalist I was told I am “banned.” I have since been told that the UN has a “current and active barred notice” against me, that there is a banned list that includes “demonstrators” and “political activists.” I am still banned today, after 104 days. See also, https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-matt-lee-forcibly-removed-un-stripped-press-credentials/ and https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/reporter-expelled-un.php I find this deeply troubling and worth of urgent Press coverage. This request includes but is not limited to all records related to the above, related to any knowledge by OOM including MOIA of any UN “banned” list and how it is compiled, and what due process protections if any are in place, etc. Also any knowledge by OOM including MOIA of any disciplinary measures taken against UN Security officers or other personnel, at least for the past three years. I am also requesting any record in your possession referring to "Inner City Press" for the past ten years, with the past three years to be provided on an expedited basis. I am requesting expedited process and a waiver of fees - Inner City Press is a non profit news organization that educated the public about the operations of government(s) and routinely receives fee waivers from agencies at the Federal, state and local level." And here is the response, to which we are preparing an appeal: "The Mayor's Office (OOM) has acknowledged your FOIL request... You can expect a response on or about Friday, April 26, 2019.

Additional Information:
Due to the volume of requests that we have received, we now estimate that we will be able to provide you with a response on or before the above date." Disgusting. We will have more on this.

  Guterres or apparently his head of Global Communications Alison Smale, if only as a proxy, can put a journalist on the list without any review, any notice, any appeal. It is a dictator's dream come true.

   Inner City Press was physically ousted twice by Guterres' UN Security this summer as it reported on his now-15 flights to his home in Lisbon with public funds, his trading away of Cameroon human rights abuses for favors in the Budget Committee, and now his son Pedro's undisclosed business links in Africa. Smale on August 17, without once speaking to me covering the UN for Inner City Press for 11 years, withdrew my media accreditation.

  But it's gone further than that. For example, on October 11 I showed up for a film screening about sex trafficking, “Love Sonia,” to which I had been invited by the UN Office of Drugs and Crimes. UNODC's New York director personally put me on the list for a post screening reception and came and met me and took me to the UN gate to sign me in, since my ticket - which she said she'd seen - mysteriously disappeared.

  UN Security refused to allow the NY director of UNODC to sign me in. “Even if he had a ticket we'd have to check,” one officer said. I was told that a supervisor would come out, and that UNODC would speak to them. But after one hour it never happened. Guterres' chief of staff Maria Luiza Viotti left the building and I audibly told her, I'm invited but I'm being blocked. She did not even break stride.

  The UN has given me nothing in writing that I am banned. Guterres' spokesman has stated it as a fact, without explanation or rationale, on October 9 and 11, while refusing to answer my e-mailed questions despite Smale's promise they would be answered to supposedly respect my "journalistic endeavours."

   Another UN Security officer told me, No one is going to help you. You are on the list. I asked him, who else is on the list? He mentioned “demonstrators” and "political activists" and others. Audio here.

  Tellingly, NOT on Guterres' banned list are those who pleaded guilty to UN bribery for example in the Ng Lap Seng - John Ashe case. They are not banned by Guterres, UNlike the journalist who most closely covered those convictions, and the current UN bribery case of Patrick Ho and the China Energy Fund Committee. Guterres is fine with bribery, but bans those who investigate and expose it.

UNSG Guterres thinks he can ban people without no notice, no due process, no review? And that it won't be noticed or reviewed? Watch this site.

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