Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 15 -- After the US said it would be speaking with Iraq's neighbors, on June 15 Secretary of State John Kerry did -- except Iran. According to a senior State Department official

"Secretary Kerry this afternoon made calls to Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, and Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Al-Attiyah, to discuss the threat posed by ISIL terrorists in Iraq and Syria.  With each of his counterparts, Secretary Kerry addressed the need to support the Iraqi and Syrian people in confronting terrorists who also pose a threat to nations throughout the region and beyond, including to the United States.  They also discussed the need for the Iraqi leaders to put aside differences and implement a coordinated and effective approach to forge the national unity necessary to move the country forward.  The Secretary pledged to keep in close contact with each of the ministers in the coming days, during which he will continue reach out to other regional counterparts."

   What about Iran? Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will meet with Iran's Foreign Minister Zarif in Geneva as part of a US delegation led by Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman - but only on the nuclear file, they say.

After the UN on June 13 told Inner City Press it assesses Baghad to be safe from the advance of ISIL, on June 15 US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki announced:

"As a result of ongoing instability and violence in certain areas of Iraq, Embassy Baghdad is reviewing its staffing requirements in consultation with the State Department.  Some additional U.S. government security personnel will be added to the staff in Baghdad; other staff will be temporarily relocated – both to our Consulate Generals in Basra and Erbil and to the Iraq Support Unit in Amman.

  Iraq's neighbor Iran was spoken to, through its Vice President, by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who alluded to the role Iran could play, and also the P5+1 nuclear talks with their July 20 deadline. Meanwhile Ban was entirely silent on the attack on Russia's embassy in Kyiv, long after he condemned the downing of Ukraine's military plane.

 As ISIL advanced through Iraq on June 13, at the UN Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq if it's true that UN assesses Baghdad to be safe - and is so, why? Video here.
 
  The UN's Haq said while different parts of Iraq are under threat, the UN's assessment is indeed that Baghdad is safe. If you say so.

  Inner City Press also asked for any UN comment on calls to arm the population in Baghdad to confront ISIL. Haq said he'd seen the comment made by "Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, we don't have any comments to make about that." Video here.

  
   Was Twitter's suspension of @Nnewsi at governmental request -- and to confirm, which government?

   Both censorship moves have echoes in the United Nations, which as part of its renovation accepted money and named an area by the Security Council previously open to all accredited journalists the "Turkish Lounge."

   As set forth below, an anti-Press complaint to the UN's Stephane Dujarric, now Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson, has been banned from Google's Search by an invocation of copyright similar to Erdogan's.

   Google has accepted and acted on DMCA complaints about leaked e-mails, for example from Reuters to the United Nations seeking to get the investigative Press thrown out, and has then blocked access to the leaked documents from its search.

  Here is the communication to the UN's top Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit official Stephane Dujarric and MALU's manager, to which the Reuters bureau chief claimed "copyright" and for now has banned from Google's Search:

Hi Isabelle and Stephane,

I just wanted to pass on for the record that I was just confronted by Matt Lee in the DHL auditorium in very hostile fashion a short while ago (there were several witnesses, including Giampaolo). He's obviously gotten wind that there's a movement afoot to expel him from the UNCA executive committee, though he doesn't know the details yet. But he was going out of his way to be as intimidating and aggressive as possible towards me, told me I "disgust" him, etc.

In all my 20+ years of reporting I've never been approached like that by a follow journalist in any press corps, no matter how stressful things got. He's become someone who's making it very hard for me and others in the UN press to do our jobs. His harassment of fellow reporters is reaching a new fever pitch.

I just thought you should know this.

Cheers,

Lou
Louis Charbonneau
Bureau Chief. United Nations
Reuters News Thomson Reuters reuters. com

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