By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 6,
updated -- A
UN day full
of criticism
of the US
global
spying program
and, from
Latin
countries, of
the UK's
claims on the
Malvinas or
Falkland
Islands
ended at 8 pm
Tuesday with a
whimper
rather than a
bang.
The
United States,
through its
Number Three
Ambassador to
the UN Jeffrey
DeLaurentis,
said "All
governments do
things that
are secret."
And then, at
least Tuesday,
defend them
only at the
end of a
debate
when nearly
everyone is
gone.
Later
the US Mission
e-mailed
out DeLaurentis'
reply, but
online it was
only Permanent
Representative
Samantha
Power's
prepared
statement, here.
Diplomats
from
three Latin
American
countries,
exiting the
Council,
panned
DeLaurentis'
right of
reply. It's up
to you, one of
them said,
apparently
meaning the
press.
Covering
the
meeting to the
end, Inner
City Press
noted Sudan
saying that it
liked a
segment of the
Presidential
Statement
about helping
national
judicial
systems. This,
it seems, was
a code word
for a local
trial
of the
country's ICC
indictees,
including
President Omar al
Bashir
with whom the
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous met in
July.
UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant came
back to say
that there
would be no
bilateral
talks with
Argentina with
"the
Islanders"
involved; he
disputed
Uruguay's
minister's
statement
about UK
illegal
hydrocarbon
searching near
The Islands.
(Argentina's
Permanent
Representative
Perceval
replied briefly,
that her
government's
position on
Malvinas is
well known,
which she gracefully
repeated to
Inner City
Press while
leaving.)
Lyall
Grant also
chatted
amiably with
Inner City
Press, about Puntland
in Somalia,
but
had nothing to
add, past 8
pm, to his
right of reply
on Falklands /
Malvinas. It
was e-mailed
out, and this
was put
online. It had
the
feeling of a
ritual, even
on the only
recently
revealed
spying
programs.
Five
Latin foreign
minister came
and met with
Ban Ki-moon.
In a question
and answer
Inner City
Press put
a portion of
online here,
Brazil's
minister
Patriota said
that with this
meeting, they
had achieved
their
objective for
the moment.
He
did not say,
but Inner City
Press does,
that
governments
come to New
York to say
they raised an
issue to the
UN. Ban
Ki-moon's lack
of
action on the
issue, or as in the
case of Edward
Snowden, his
seeming
antipathy,
don't really
matter to the
governments
that visit.
They
raised the
issue.
Yesterday
Inner
City Press critiqued
the UN
Department of
Public
Information
for issuing
quite
different
"stories" of
Ban's meetings
with the
ministers
through its
English and
Spanish
language UN
News
Center
stories, here.
Several
Permanent
Representatives
commented on
that on
Tuesday. But
will they
raise it to
the UN?
Countries just
use
the UN
Secretariat --
and vice
versa.
As
was said on
the NSA
spying,
somehow it's
up to the
press.
Footnotes:
The
Free UN
Coalition for
Access
posed a number
of questions
Tuesday to
the Department
of Public
Information,
from its UN
Television and
Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Units up to
their
supervisor,
Stephane
Dujarric.
Why
were
reporters for
the first time
banned from
using the
south stairs
by the
Security
Council
stakeout? The
UN and
Dujarric never
answered;
the rope
remained up
but it was
said that one
might be able
to work around
it, as is now
said of the
Turkish
Lounge. This
DPI and
UN like to
leave things
gray -- that
way their
favorites can
use it,
and others
not. FUNCA
objects.
Favoritism
with
DPI runs two
ways. The
first vice
president of
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters, gave
UN official
Dujarric an
internal
anti-Press
UNCA document
three minutes
after
promising not
to do so.
Story here,
audio
here, document
here. Now,
Dujarric has
additional
incentive for
DPI to respond
only to UNCA.
But respond on
what? Nothing
is being
fixed.
Why
was
the video of
the UN noon
briefing not
online even as
of 3 pm? An
answer
on the giving
of a UN post
to a Ugandan
figure
questioned as
recently as
July 31 about
financial
irregularities
was on the
video
and Inner City
Press was
asked by some
in Uganda to
send to link.
Without the
video archive
going up on a
timely basis,
this was
impossible.
But why is it
getting later?
This
question
was never
answered.
DPI
big shots left
the UN while
the Security
Council
meeting
continued,
without
apparently
caring how it
could or would
to covered.
This is
today's UN --
and FUNCA
objects. Watch
this site.