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On Afghanistan UNSC Has Statement After Pompeo Taps Khalilzad Who Quipped to Inner City Press in Cafe Turned Crime Scene

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, August 27 – Amid multiple reports that Zalmay Khalilzad would emerge from retirement to become US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's Afghanistan envoy, Inner City Press recently banned from the UN after 10 years of coverage, as it reports on Secretary General Antonio Guterres' conflicts of interesting for example on Cameroon, looked back, see below. Guterres Spokesman Stephane Dujarric on August 27 said at his noon briefing that Inner City Press is banned for creating a "hostile environment" for diplomats and UN officials. How is that not censorship? On August 27, the UN Security Council which at least under UK presidency is content to let Guterres pick and chose which media can enter and ask questions, issued a statement beginning: "The members of the Security Council welcomed the announcement by the Government of Afghanistan on 19 August of a second conditional ceasefire with the Taliban from the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
The members of the Security Council urged the Taliban to reciprocate without delay. They also reiterated their call upon the Taliban to accept the offer made by the Afghan Government in February this year to engage in direct peace talks without any preconditions and without the threat of violence, with the aim of an ultimate political settlement that leads to sustainable peace for the people of Afghanistan.
The members of the Security Council reiterated the importance of an inclusive Afghan-led and -owned peace process for the long-term prosperity and stability of Afghanistan, and expressed their full support for the Afghan Government’s efforts to that end.
The members of the Security Council emphasised the importance of holding peaceful, inclusive, credible and transparent parliamentary elections on 20 October 2018 and presidential election on 20 April 2019." Looking back, Khalilzad during as his time as US Ambassador was always accessible. Inner City Press spoke with him many times during the late night budget meetings of example the type Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric had Inner City Press roughed up for covering on 3 July 2018. Here was from 21 December 2007: "Ban's bodyguards loitered by the Vienna cafe, standing at the ready. The vacuum cleaners began in Conference Room 5. There was no turning back.

  Down the hall came the American flotilla: Permanent Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, Ambassadors Alejandro Wolff and Mark Wallace, accompanied by Controller Warren Sach and the Secretary of the Fifth Committee. In the corner of Conference Room 3 they pow-wowed, as other delegates tried to get in.  They discussed the U.S. political ramifications of various ways of voting on the budget. Leave it to the experts, Khalilzad said. But as written, we cannot vote for the budget, he told Inner City Press, as he Googled past midnight." Compare that to today, where for covering the budget meetings from the same (expensively renovated) Vienna Cafe, Guterres has you assaulted - a crime scene - then imposes a lifetime ban. The UN is in decline, even decay.  Four days after UN Security officers led by UN Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins pushed Inner City Press' reporter out of the UN during a speech by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on June 26 Guterres envoy to Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamomoto came to the Security Council stakeout to take questions. But of the entire UN press corps, only Inner City Press was there.  Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq who had run out on Inner City Press' questions about the ouster the day before told Yamamoto leadingly, gesturing at the UNTV microphone, "It's up to you." Inner City Press encouraged Yamamoto and he came over. Periscope video here. On August 17, Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale issued a no due process ruling that Inner City Press is banned from the UN - for life. It is outrageous and we'll have more on it. Now on August 19, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said, "The United States welcomes the announcement by the Afghan government of a ceasefire conditioned on Taliban participation.  This plan responds to the clear and continued call of the Afghan people for peace.

The last ceasefire in Afghanistan revealed the deep desire of the Afghan people to end the conflict, and we hope another ceasefire will move the country closer to sustainable security.  The United States and our international partners support this initiative by the Afghan people and the Afghan government, and we call on the Taliban to participate.  It is our hope, and that of the international community, that the Afghan people may celebrate Eid al-Adha this year in peace, free from fear.

The United States supports President Ghani's offer for comprehensive negotiations on a mutually agreed agenda. ?We remain ready to support, facilitate, and participate in direct negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.  There are no obstacles to talks.  It is time for peace."

On August 15, after Haq's boss Stephane Dujarric and his boss Antonio Gutteres had Inner City Press more violently roughed up July 3 and banned 43 days since, Dujarric back from a vacation personally emailed out this statement: "The Secretary General conveys his condolences to the families who have suffered from the recent Taliban attacks in Ghazni.

The Secretary-General stresses the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of talks between the parties to the conflict to negotiate a sustainable peace. The targeting of civilians and of civilian facilities are clear violations of international humanitarian law.

The warring parties must do everything feasible to ensure that no civilians are further killed or injured by the fighting, and must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance so that it can reach Ghazni

The Secretary-General once again stresses that there can be no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and urgently calls for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the interest of building a more stable and prosperous future for all Afghans. Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, New York, 15 August 2018." Meawhile Dujarric and Haq, despite false assurance by ex-NYT Alison Smale, have refused to answer at least 15 of Inner City Press' laste 17 questions. They are killing the UN. Back in June Inner City Press asked the hapless SRSG if the UN will confirm that up to 10,000 Afghan security forces were killed in 2017. He replied that the UN leaves it up to the military to collect those numbers, but said it might be that high. Inner City Press asked about the peace protesters who marched from Helmand to protest in front of the UN in Kabul. Yamamoto called them grassroots and fiercely independent. Inner City Press asked if he thinks they will be a force in the slated upcoming elections. We'll see. At the UN on June 22 Inner City Press was live-streaming Periscope and preparing to write about Secretary General Antonio Guterres' claims about his visit to Mali, where he didn't even inquire into a recent case child rape by a UN Peacekeeper. With the event still ongoing, Inner City Press was approached by Lieutenant Dobbins and told that since it was just past 7 pm it had to leave the building. Video here.

 That is not the rule, nor the practice. But Inner City Press under Guterres and his head of Global Communications Alison Smale has inexplicable been at the "non-resident correspondent" level lowered from that of no-show state media like Akbhar al Yom's Sanaa Youssef, assigned Inner City Press' long time office despite rarely coming in and not asking a question in ten years.

  While Guterres and Smale have created and encourage the atmosphere for targeting the Press, Dobbins had and has his own reasons. Inner City Press previously exclusively reported on fraudulent promotions in the UN Department of Safety and Security, beginning of series here with a leaked document with Dobbins own name on it, under the heading "Possible Promotions... if Dobbins does not want Canine / ERU." Document here. Since the publication, Dobbins and a number of UN Security officers have openly targeted Inner City Press. This has been raised in writing to Smale (for eight months), for almost 18 months to Guterres and his deputy Amina J. Mohammed, whose response has been to evade questions on Cameroon and now an ambiguous smile while surrounded by UN Security. On June 25 Inner City Press asked Guterres' Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq about it, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press:
on Friday there was the Eid event in which António Guterres gave a speech, and I… I want… I guess I want to put this in a general way because I don't understand it.  During the event, as the event went on, I was required to leave by a Lieutenant Dobbins and the emergency response unit.  And it seemed strange, because there were many other non-resident correspondents at the event.  So, I wanted to know… to know, one, what are the rules?  Number two, is it acceptable for a… a… UN Security to… to single out and target a specific journalist?  And I did… and I ask this because I've previously written a story about promotions in DSS [Department of Safety and Security], including Mr. Dobbins, and whatever that is, what are the provisions in the UN to make sure that security cannot abuse its powers?  So those are… I… I… I'd like you to answer that, and also they didn't give their names.  The other individuals refused to give their names.  Is that UN policy?

Deputy Spokesman:  UN Security has their policies.  Your concerns with them need to be addressed to UN Security.  I'm not going to comment on your own problems with UN Security.  Brenden, come on up.

Inner City Press: I don't understand.  This happened at a speech by the Secretary-General.

Deputy Spokesman:  No, I'm sorry, your security issues are things you're going to have to deal with.

Inner City Press: It's not a security issue.  It was done in the name of the Secretary-General.  Is he speaking tomorrow at 6 p.m. somewhere?  Can you say where the Secretary-General is speaking tomorrow at 6 p.m.?

Deputy Spokesman:  I’m not going to argue with you on this." There was more - video here.

  Even if Lt Dobbins and his team and commanders wanted to interpret and twist the existing rules in a way they are not enforced against any other non-resident correspondent at the UN, the Guterres Eid al -Fitr event listed in the UN Department of Public Information was still ongoing, making it unquestionable that Inner City Press had a right to be in the UN and cover it.

   But even as Inner City Press dialed DPI's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, getting only voice mail, Dobbins made a call and UN “Emergency Response Unit” officers arrived, with barely concealed automatic weapons. One of them repeatedly pushed Inner City Press' reporter in the back, forcing him through the General Assembly lobby toward the exit. Video here.

   UN Under Secretary General Catherine Pollard was told the ouster and did nothing, as was a Moroccan diplomat. The heavily armed UN Security officers refused to give their names when asked. Lieutenant Dobbins, with no name plate on his uniform, refused to spell his name. He said, I have my orders. From who - Guterres? His Deputy SG or chief of staff, both of whom were at the event? DSS chief Drennan? DPI chief Alison Smale?

    Inner City Press repeatedly asked to be able to get its laptop computer, which was upstairs - there was no way to have known it would be ousted during Guterres' event.

  But Dobbins and the others refused, as did the UN Security officers at the gate. Inner City Press remained there, with dwindling cell phone battery, raising the issue online to Smale, under whose watch Inner City Press has remained in the non-resident correspondent status it was reduced to for pursuing the Ng Lp Seng UN bribery case into the UN press briefing room where Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric ordered it out, then had it evicted. A DPI representative, whom Inner City Press asked to call Smale, was unable or unwilling to even let Inner City Press go in escorted to get its laptop.

   Just in the past week, when Inner City Press complained of Dujarric providing only to Al Jazeera the response of Antonio Guterres to the US leaving the UN Human Rights Council, Dujarric and the Al Jazeera trio claimed to MALU that the coverage was “too aggressive.” Journalism is not a crime? Next week, Antonio Guterres is set to give remarks, to which Inner City Press has requested the right to cover response, to the UN Correspondents Association, which not only has not acted on this censorship, but has fueled it.


  Inside the UN the Eid event continued, alongside a liquor fueled barbeque thrown by UN Security. This DSS sold tickets to non resident correspondents, and allowed in people who had nothing to do with the UN, including some seeming underage. When Inner City Press audibly raised the issue to UN Safety and Security Service chief Mick Brown, he did nothing.

   The Moroccan diplomat emerged and chided Inner City Press for even telling him of the ouster, claiming that “25% of what you write is about Morocco.” Some Periscope video here. Pakistan's Permanent Representative, who hosted the Eid event, said she would look into it. Sweden's spokesperson asked whom to call in DPI and when Inner City Press said, Alison Smale, responded, Who is Alison Smale? Indeed.

  Smale has refused to respond in any way, in the eight months she has been Guterres' “Global Communications” chief, to a 5000 signature petition to restore Inner City Press to its unused office S-303 and to adopt content neutral media access rules going forward. That, and appropriate action on Lt. Dobbins and the others, must be among the next steps. Watch this site.

***

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