In
Drone
Wars, Reuters
Spies for UN,
Ladsous
Withholds a
Day, Typing Up
Selex
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 1 --
With the UN
allowing its
Herve Ladsous
to
conceal which
units of the
Congolese Army
he is aiding,
on
July 31
Inner City
Press
asked the UN
who won its
contract for
drones:
Inner
City Press:
Ladsous
announced
during the
Bastille Day
in France that
the drone
contract had
been signed.
I’ve checked
various
databases
that are
publicly
available.
What’s the
company that
won? And if
it’s not yet
public, how
could the UN
be signing a
contract
declaring a
winner and not
have it be
public? Is it
public and
what
is the name of
the company?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: I
will check. I
don’t believe
it is
public...Yes,
Evelyn?
Question:
Just to be
certain the
drones that
are being used
are for
observation
This
last, by a
retired
Reuters
reporter, is a
point Ladsous
drone-like
makes: he, his
mission and
the drones are
not offensive.
To not
parrot that,
according to
Ladsous, is
"innuendo," a
basis
to explicitly
refuse to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions. Video
compilation
here.
The
Office of the
Spokesperson
for Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, run
by
former Reuters
reporter
Martin
Nesirky,
provides
answers
between noon
briefing to
some media,
notably
Reuters as
well as
Ladsous'
favorite,
Agence France
Presse (Ladsous
served on one
of AFP's
management
boards.)
But
on this who
won the drone
contract
question,
neither
Nesirky nor
his
office got
back to Inner
City Press.
Twenty four
hours later at
the
August 1 noon
briefing, Nesirky
read out this
answer:
I
was asked
[and] the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations can
confirm that
it has reached
the final
stage of the
procurement
process in
relation to
the trial use
of unmanned
aerial
vehicles,
UAVs, by its
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
(MONUSCO). The
selected
vendor is the
Italian
company SELEX
ES. The
UAV is known
as the “FALCO”
and is
designed to be
a
medium-altitude,
medium-endurance
surveillance
platform
capable of
carrying a
range of
payloads,
including
several types
of
high-resolution
sensors. Of
course, its
payload does
not include
weapons.
When
Nesirky was
further
spinning that
final point of
Ladsous', and
Inner
City Press
asked to
follow up,
Nesirky
refused. He
had given
others
two rounds of
questions, but
refused to
Inner City
Press.
Upstairs
at
Reuters,
Michelle
Nichols typed
up Nesirky's
answer to
Inner City
Press'
question the
day before and
put it out,
noting that
Ladsous "did
not initially
name the
company."
Right. (She
has done this
before,
and filed a
specious complaint
when
this was
complained about.)
In Africa,
Reuters
re-tweeted it:
another credit
to The Baron.
(Much of
Reuters'
tweeting is
simply the
robotic
repetition of
the
corporation's
products.) Others
sua sponte
noticed,
it was noted
that Nesirky
used to work
at Reuters.
Worse,
Reuters UN
bureau chief
Louis
Charbonneau
has been shown
to have
leaked to the
UN's top
accreditation
official an
internal
anti-Press
document of
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
three minutes
after
promising he
would not.
This is, in
essence,
spying for the
UN. Or
would that be
innuendo?
Story
here, Charbonneau
audio here,
document
here. None
of this has
been explained
or acted on,
by UNCA or the
UN -- or
Reuters.
Ladsous
made
it clear, only
if Press
coverage of
him was
positive would
he
answer
questions. Now
in what we
call the
Ladsousification
of the UN,
this has
spread to
Ban's
communications.
The conflicts
of interest
are rife. It's
on video --
but the
UN can cut the
sound on
questions,
can
edit out video
it doesn't
like.
As we've
coined, the
First
Amendment
stops at First
Avenue. Maybe
that can be
stolen too.
But
there will be
more
questions.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
We
also note,
actually
looking into
rather than
just typing up
what
Nesirky
withholds and
then
spoon-feeds,
that Ladsous'
Selex ES Falco
is
about "target
acquisition,"
video here.
More on this
to
come.
, 
