UNITED
NATIONS, July
6 -- Here's
how this UN
does business:
its Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
dumps raw
sewage into a
river in Haiti
introducing
cholera.
When
Pressed, it
responded at 6
pm on a Friday
in July,
whispered into
its
intercom
system that a
letter
responding to
19
members of the
US
Congress
is available
downstairs in
an office
about to close
for the
weekend, in
hard copy
only.
Based
on the timing
and lassitude,
only Inner
City Press
which asked
about
the
Congressional
letter back on
June 3,
then on July
2 (to Acting
Permanent
Representative
Rosemary
DiCarlo of the
US Mission to
the UN) and July
5
and one other
media went and
got the letter
and reported
on it, at
least in
English.
The
UN's goal? To
dump and bury
the news or
make
heroes out of
itself and
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, said
to “Vow
to Fight
Cholera” and
“Assure Help
to Haiti.”
Actually,
the
letter said
again that the
legal claims
for those
thousands
killed by
introduction
of cholera
into Haiti
were “not
receivable.”
Copy
of Ban's
letter put
online by
Inner City
Press here.
A
portion - with
the most
troubling
lines not
included --
was sent to
plaintiffs'
counsel by
Ban's outgoing
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien, here.
The
argument when
unpacked is
that the UN's
“policies,”
like its
medical
protocol of
not screening
the
peacekeepers
its sends to
fragile
countries like
Haiti, even if
from cholera
hotspots in
Nepal,
are immune
from review by
courts.
But
the July 5
letter is
essentially
saying that
the dumping of
raw sewage
into rivers is
ALSO the
policy of the
UN, or at
least of its
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
led by its fourth Frenchman in
a row, Herve
Ladsous.
Only policies
are immune: so
was or is this
the
UN's policy?
We'll have
more on this.
The
19 members of
Congress who
wrote to Ban
Ki-moon
include:
Maxine Waters,
Barbara Lee,
Yvette D.
Clarke,
Frederica S.
Wilson, Jan
Schakowsky,
John Conyers,
Jr., Alcee L.
Hastings,
Charles B.
Rangel,
Corrine Brown,
Donald M.
Payne, Jr.,
Bobby L. Rush,
Wm. Lacy Clay,
Raúl M.
Grijalva,
Debbie
Wasserman
Schultz, John
Lewis, Gregory
W. Meeks,
Donna F.
Edwards, Keith
Ellison and
Carolyn B.
Maloney.
Watch
this site.
, 
