At
UN,
Trip by Ban to
Palestine
& Lebanon
Confirmed,
Saleh Speaker,
Who Pays
Planes?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 6 --
Palestine will
get a visit
within the
month from UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
Palestinian
Observer to
the UN Riyad
Mansour
confirmed to
Inner City
Press on
Friday.
Mansour
said, on
camera, that
initially Ban
was going to
visit after
Lebanon,
Jordan and the
[United Arab]
Emirates, but
now it would
be delayed
under late
January or
early
February, in
connection
with Ban's
trip to the
African Union
summit in
Ethiopia.
Earlier
this week,
when Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
was asked to
merely confirm
Ban's trip to
Lebanon,
Nesirky
refused. Inner
City Press
asked him in
the
alternative to
confirm the UN
conference in
Beirut,
ostensibly on
democracy,
which Ban and
others would
attend, and to
provide the
speakers'
list.
You
can look for
it yourself,
Nesirky said.
The list is
still not on
the UN's ESCWA
web site, but
Inner City
Press is told
that the
speakers
include,
paradoxically,
an adviser to
Yemen
strongman Ali
Saleh. We'll
have more on
this, once the
UN system is
able to
provide the
speakers'
list.
Inner
City Press
asked Nesirky
last month to
disclose going
forward --
therefore on
this trip --
which
countries or
persons pay
for the travel
and planes of
Ban and his
entourage.
This came
after Inner
City Press
asked the
President of
the General
Assembly about
his travel
with Ban, and
he
acknowledged
that Qatar
provided a
plane in
connection
with their
trip to
Somalia.
Who
will be paying
on these
forthcoming
trips? It
seems like
basic
transparency
that a public
figure should
disclose who
is paying for
his travel.
We'll see.
Footnotes:
After
Mansour's
stakeout,
Inner City
Press asked
him about its
exclusive
reporting
earlier this
week from
sources inside
the Department
of Political
Affairs and
beyond that
nominated to
replace Lynn
Pascoe as head
of DPA is
another
American,
higher
profile:
Alejandro
Wolff. Click here
for that
exclusive
must-credit
story by
Inner City
Press.
(c) UN Photo
Mansour,
confirmer of
Ban trips,
2007 with Alex Wolff:
to be
confirmed, for
DPA?
Wolff's
role as US
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
was recalled
during the all
day Security
Council fight
about the
assault on the
flotilla to
Gaza. Watch
this site.
Mansour's
press
availability,
which lasted
three quarters
of an hour,
was initially
scheduled for
4:30 pm on
Friday. But
that
conflicted
with Ban
Ki-moon coming
to the press
floor at the
UN to offer
his Happy New
Years wishes.
So Mansour
changed his
time to speak;
when he did,
he said Ban
changed
his
visit to
later, in
connection
with the
African Union
summit. As it
happens,
Friday at 4:30
pm there are
African Union
consultations...
, 
