As
US Sought UN Frequent Flyer Miles, Misuse of Miles
Alleged in Liberia
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 29 -- In Wikileaks' release of US
Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton's directive to collect computer passwords,
credit card account numbers and “biometric data,” she included a
request for “frequent flyer account numbers.”
Inner
City Press
asked UN acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq on Monday about Secretary
Clinton's memo, and about UN officials' frequent flyer miles: are
they returned to the UN, which paid for the underlying flights, or
are they kept by some UN officials? Video here,
from Minute 8:04.
Haq
said he could
or would not vouch for the authenticity of Secretary Clinton's memo.
On frequent flyer miles, he said these are “essentially the
property of the UN.”
Inner
City Press
asked, can you confirm that all Special Representatives of the
Secretary General give the frequent flyer miles to the UN? Haq spoke
in reply of the “work you do for the Organization” being “part
and parcel of the Organization... held by the Organization.”
The
reason Inner
City Press asked was that sources for example in Liberia tell it
different. Specifically, sources describe the Special Rapporteur of
the Secretary General at the UN Mission in Liberia Ellen Loj
screaming at UNMIL's Travel Unit for mishandling “her” frequent
flyer miles.
This
report came to
Inner City Press in connection with its confirmed reporting on the
conditions for peacekeepers in Liberia and SRSG Loj's UN-managed
living quarters on the UNMIL base.
Since then,
the US has become even
less responsive, refusing for example to confirm public reports that
the US is providing at least back up security to the UN's SRSG in
Iraq, Ad Melkert.
US
Ambassador to
the UN Susan Rice, who Haq said spoke to Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon just before Wikileaks put online the US memo asking that
Ban's passwords and frequent flyer miles accounts be collected, was
asked
Q:
it’s
alleged through the WikiLeaks documents that your diplomats
would ask to take personal information in some cases, like frequent
flyer miles, credit cards, and -- were they asked to do so, and had
they used diplomatic resources at the time to do so?
Ambassador
Rice:
Our diplomats are doing what diplomats do around the world
every day, which is build relationships, negotiate, advance our
interests, and work to find common solutions to complex problems.
That’s what they do. And they do it extremely well, with great
integrity, with hard work. And I want to just underscore that in the
complex world in which we live, the work that U.S. diplomats do here
in the United Nations and around the world is indispensible to our
national security and substantially advances our shared interests in
international peace and security.
But
how does
gathering UN officials' frequent flyer miles account numbers
“substantially advance [anyone's] shared interests in international
peace and security”?
UN's Ban flies Saudi, Loj & frequent flyer miles
and spying not shown
From
the
UN's November 29 noon briefing transcript:
Inner
City
Press: The document says US diplomats should seek to get the
computer passwords, frequent flyer miles, credit card numbers,
etcetera, not only of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, but SRSGs
[Special Representatives] and Force Commanders. Would each of those
things, according to you, violate the agreement with the host
country?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson Haq: Well, on that, again, bearing in mind that
we don’t have any judgement at this stage on the authenticity of
the document, bearing in mind that, I do want to read to you a little
passage from the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of
the United Nations, and this is a direct quote: “The premises of
the United Nations shall be inviolable. The property and assets of
the United Nations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be
immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any
other form of interference, whether by executive, administrative,
judicial, or legislative action.”
Inner
City
Press I had some other ones on Sudan, but one thing that the
memo made me wonder is there is this reference to frequent flyer
miles that seemed strange. What does happen with the frequent flyer
miles of Ban Ki-moon or other SRSGs when they fly around? Are they
donated to the UN, do they keep them personally, what happens?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson: The frequent flyer miles of UN officials are
essentially possessions of the United Nations. I don’t have
anything, I don’t have any details about what we do with them, but
this is all part of the Organization…
Inner
City
Press: But can you state, for example, for SRSGs that travel, it
goes to the UN or do they keep it personally?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson: No, I believe on work that you do for the
Organization, this is part and parcel of the Organization. I need to
get further detail about what happens to them, but this is held by
the Organization.
Five
hours after this statement, no information had yet been provided about
"what happens" to UN frequent flyer miles. The answer should be given
and should be interesting, particularly but not only with regard to
Liberia. Here's from Secretary Clinton's memo:
S
E
C
R E T SECTION 01 OF 24 STATE 080163
NOFORN,
SIPDIS,
E.O.
12958: DECL: 07/31/2034
TAGS:
PINR
KSPR
ECON KPKO KUNR
SUBJECT:
(S)
REPORTING
AND COLLECTION NEEDS: THE UNITED NATIONS REF:
STATE 048489
Classified
By:
MICHAEL
OWENS, ACTING DIR, INR/OPS. REASON: 1.4(C).
¶1.
(S/NF)
This
cable provides the full text of the new National HUMINT
Collection Directive (NHCD) on the United Nations (paragraph 3-end)
as well as a request for continued DOS reporting of biographic
information relating to the United Nations (paragraph 2).
...Reporting
officers
should include as much of the following information as
possible when they have information relating to... credit card
account numbers; frequent flyer account numbers; work schedules, and
other relevant biographical information.
...Information
about
current and future use of communications systems
and technologies by officials or organizations, including cellular
phone networks, mobile satellite phones, very small aperture
terminals (VSAT), trunked and mobile radios, pagers, prepaid calling
cards, firewalls, encryption, international connectivity, use of
electronic data interchange, Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP),
Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (Wi-Max), and cable
and fiber networks.
CLINTON
* * *
As
US
Shown
Spying on UN, In Denial UN in Iraq Under US Protection
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November
29 -- The UN's rather pathetic reaction to evidence
that
the
US State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
has tried to spy on it, from UN officials' computer passwords and
frequently flier codes to the intentions of the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations is indicative of the complex relationship
between the UN and its host country.
On
November 28,
after repeated Press inquiries, Ban's spokesperson's office put out a
statement that “the UN is by its very nature a transparent
organization that makes a great deal of information about its
activities available to the public.”
This is
highly debatable: as
simply one example, after the UN canceled its November 26 noon media
briefing, Inner City Press submitted several questions about ranging
from Haiti and Sudan
through Iran and human rights to Myanmar
and
Iraq, less than half of which were answered.
Tellingly,
even
the
Iraq questions which got a one line response was dodged. Inner City
Press asked the UN's top envoy in Iraq “Ad Melkert receive security
protection from the US forces in Iraq” and “if yes, is this a
change from previous procedure,” citing http://www.nola.com/military/index.ssf/2010/11/louisiana_soldiers_in_iraq_tak.html
“The
soldiers of Alpha Battery, 1/141, started out providing armed troops
and armored vehicles to protect the supply convoys. They now act as
the quick reaction force, which includes providing ground medical
evacuation to area helicopters that cannot reach and secure landing
zones, Fernandez said. They also staff entries to the United Nations
Villa, a compound where UN workers live, and specifically guard the
residence for the special representative for the UN secretary-general
in Iraq. While the UN officials have personal security personnel,
they also are shadowed by Alpha Battery when they travel. 'They’re
not allowed to move without us,' Fernandez said. 'They don’t
want to move without us.'”
To
this question,
UN acting Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq answered “We don't comment
on precise security arrangements, for security reasons.”
If
you have the
UN in Iraq accepting not only security but also orders from the US,
what position is the UN in to complain if Hillary Clinton orders UN
envoy to Iraq Ad Melkert, or even Ban Ki-moon, spied on?
An
interesting
aspect of Clinton's spying memo is its focus on the UN Development
Program's actions on whistleblowers. The highest profile UNDP
whistleblower case has been of the agency's security chief in North
Korea, who exposed among other things that the UN system was allowing
the Kim Jong-il government to choose the UN's staff and take payment
for them.
This
became
associated
with the final days of George W. Bush's Republican
Administration, leading one to wonder if there are not a serious of
such spy memos, portions of which were unchanged, dating back to the
previous administration. This would not let the Obama administration
off the hook -- if anything, it would show how much the Obama
administration's UN policy
is on auto-pilot.
US' Hillary Clinton & Susan Rice with UNSC, spying not shown
The
revelations
come at a particularly inconvenient time with the US, as Ambassador
Susan Rice takes over the Presidency of the UN Security Council on
December 1, and will be required or at least expected to stand before
the Press reading out the decisions of the Council.
In
fact, every
other Council President has scheduled a full press conference at the
beginning of their month, to take a range of questions. The UN's
“Week Ahead” scheduled distributed the day before Thanksgiving
does not include any such press conference by Susan Rice. Watch this
site.
S
E
C
R E T SECTION 01 OF 24 STATE 080163
NOFORN,
SIPDIS,
E.O.
12958: DECL: 07/31/2034
TAGS:
PINR
KSPR
ECON KPKO KUNR
SUBJECT:
(S)
REPORTING
AND COLLECTION NEEDS: THE UNITED NATIONS REF:
STATE 048489
Classified
By:
MICHAEL
OWENS, ACTING DIR, INR/OPS. REASON: 1.4(C).
¶1.
(S/NF)
This
cable provides the full text of the new National HUMINT
Collection Directive (NHCD) on the United Nations (paragraph 3-end)
as well as a request for continued DOS reporting of biographic
information relating to the United Nations (paragraph 2).
UN
Management
1)
UN
Leadership
Dynamics (FPOL-1).
--
SYG's
management
and decision-making style, and his influence on the
Secretariat.
--
Plans,
measures
and efforts undertaken by the SYG and subordinates on
US political and bureaucratic objectives for UN management.
--
Role
and
influence of Secretariat and other key officials with SYG
and other UN system agencies.
--
Views
of
and brokering by key officials on major issues.
--
Changes
in
and appointment and selection process for key officials of
Secretariat, specialized agency, committee, commission, and program
officials in New York, Geneva, Vienna, and other UN system cities, to
include special assistants and chiefs of staff.
--
Personalities,
biographic
and biometric information, roles,
effectiveness, management styles, and influence of key UN officials,
to include under secretaries, heads of specialized agencies and their
chief advisers, top SYG aides, heads of peace operations and
political field missions, including force commanders.
2)
Budget
and
Management Reform (FPOL-1).
--
Plans,
measures
and efforts undertaken by the SYG and subordinates on
US political and bureaucratic objectives for UN management.
--
Plans
and
intentions of UNDP Executive Board members to push for or
block management reform proposals.
--
Plans
and
intentions of UNDP Executive Board members or senior UNDP
managers to address potential or actual cases of corruption or
mismanagement by field missions, including efforts to cover up waste,
fraud, or abuse.
--
Internal
complaints
by UNDP staff about waste, fraud, or abuse and
efforts by UNDP management to respond to them.
--
Plans
and
intentions of Board members, such as Iran, to push for
increased UNDP funding for programs in their own countries or those
of their friends.
--
Degree
of
independence from UN headquarters of UNDP Resident
Coordinators in the field and perceptions of field staff on UN aid
consolidation reforms under the "One UN" Program.
--
Efforts
by
the G-77 Board members to develop common group platforms,
especially on budget and management reform issues...
--
Impact
and
effectiveness of whistle-blowing provisions on the UN
reform process.
--
Attitudes
of
UN staff and member states towards extending a common
whistle-blower protection program to all UN funds and programs.
4)
Telecommunications Infrastructure and Information Systems (INFR-5H).
--
Current
technical
specifications, physical layout, and planned
upgrades to telecommunications infrastructure and information
systems, networks, and technologies used by top officials and their
support staffs.
--
Details
on
commercial and private VIP networks used for official
communications, to include upgrades, security measures, passwords,
personal encryption keys, and types of V P N versions used.
--
Telephone
numbers
and e-mail addresses of key officials, as well as
limited distribution telephone numbers/directories and public
switched networks (PSTN) telephone directories; dialing numbers for
voice, datalink, video teleconferencing, wireless communications
systems, cellular systems, personal communications systems, and
wireless facsimiles.
--
Key
personnel
and functions of UN entity that maintains UN
communications and computer networks....
--
Information
about
current and future use of communications systems
and technologies by officials or organizations, including cellular
phone networks, mobile satellite phones, very small aperture
terminals (VSAT), trunked and mobile radios, pagers, prepaid calling
cards, firewalls, encryption, international connectivity, use of
electronic data interchange, Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP),
Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (Wi-Max), and cable
and fiber networks.
CLINTON
