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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY Post List

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 9 – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres often says he is deeply concerned about Yemen and is following it closely. (By contrast he says almost nothing about Cameroon, after he accepted that country's 36 year president Paul Biya's golden statue and Budget Committee deal. See video here.) Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, banning Inner City Press from the UN briefing room now for 220 days with no end in sight, refused to answer its written question on November 16 but waited to introduce a relative to the head of the World Food Program David Beasley, which a history of finding positions for relatives, see below. Now on February 7 from the US State Department's Deputy Spokesperson, this readout of Secretary of State Pompeo with David Beasley ostenisbly the rep of Antonio Guterres who skipped the UNSC's urgent meeting on Venezuela, here: "Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino:   Secretary Michael R. Pompeo met yesterday with UN World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley.  The Secretary and the Executive Director emphasized the need for a political agreement that ends the conflict and brings peace, prosperity, and security to Yemen, and also discussed ongoing U.S.-World Food Programme cooperation to relieve Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation, especially increased food security needs.  The Secretary and Executive Director also discussed the situation in Venezuela and the difficult humanitarian circumstances forcing millions of Venezuelans to flee their country in search of basic necessities including food and medicine." We'll have more on this. Back on November 21, still not answering Inner City Press written questions on Cameroon and Guterres' use of public funds, Dujarric used his briefing to lavish praise on Beasley for his impassioned briefing. This is today's UN, all among friends with critical Press coverage hindered, roughed up and banned. On November 16 first Beasley sat in the UN Press Briefing Room waving around a credit card and trashing the Houthis. He took softball questions from France 24 and Voice of America, good friend of Dujarric (FOIA response here) with no mention of the Saudi and UAE airstrikes. Inner City Press was banned from the briefing by Antonio Guterres, "moderator" Stephane Dujarric and Alison Smale; despite Smale's promise to UNSR David Kaye its written questions were not being answered. On November 16 Dujarric again refused to answer its questions on Cameroon and on UN (and Guterres) corruption. But before 6 pm, after Beasley's speech to the UN Security Council, Dujarric waited as he further spun the correspondents -- including saying how much he always liked CNN's Candy Crowley whom he educated on the Southern dynamics of religious groups, video here -- Dujarric and Guterres allow in the building then stepped forward to introduce a relative, saying audible on UNTV, this is my son. One wag noted Beasley's history of listing his son as an intern then only volunteer, in Uganda's Karamoja where as it happens Inner City Press caught the UN funding forced disarmament including by seizing pastoralists' children. In fairness to Beasley, Alan Doss was allowd to not only declare his wife a UN Volunteer to take her where mere UN staff couldn't take their families - Doss also declared his cook at ONUCI in Cote d'Ivoire an engineer to take him to cook for him in the Congo. Later Doss got his daughter another person's job in UNDP and got that person charged with a crime. Some history here. (It's worth noting that even with OIOS involved, Doss was not treated like Solheim, so there is more to this.) This is today's UN, where Dujarric and Smale can for Guterres get the Press banned with no hearing, no appeal. It's all among friends. And yet report on it we shall - it is not behavior it is content, coverage, just coverage they do no like. But they do not own the UN, or should not. Inner City Press has as much right to question Beasley as the state media in the room. Guterres' UN is corrupt - and inept. On November 15 the UN News Centre misidentified snowy Ukraine as Yemen (photo here) and even after Inner City Press noted the telling error online, did not immediately take it down. It mis-identified as UN Resident Coordinator in Yemen Osnat Lubrani, who has that post in Ukraine. UN News Centre is run by Guterres' head of Global Communications Alison Smale, who with and for Guterres has banned Inner City Press for 134 days from entering the UN, where long before Guterres was installed as Secretary General Inner City Press has asked about the killing of civilians including children, as in Cameroon. So the UN of Guterres and Smale censors and bans the independent Press and with their own vanity press can't even distinguish between Yemen and Ukraine. Their ban on the Press must end. Guterres on March 27 lavished praised on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman now accused with respect to Jamal Khashoggi, accepting a $930 million check from the Saudis and UAE, with not a word of the Saudi led bombing campaign that has killed civilians and caused cholera in Yemen.  Now on November 14, this from Guterres' (and the UK's Saudi-vetted) envoy Martin Griffiths: "The Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, welcomes reports of a reduction of hostilities in and around Hudaydah city. Griffiths stresses that de-escalation is a crucial step to prevent further humanitarian suffering, and to build a more enabling environment for the political process. 'I call upon all parties to the conflict to show continued restraint.'" It sounds even handed but it is not. Inner City Press, banned from the UN now 133 by corrupt Antonio Guterres, is informed by those who've seen it that Griffiths has a "pathetic" page and a half document, which would have the the Houthis handing over all heavy weapons to... Hadi, in his Saudi hotel. "Fat chance," these sources says, adding "fat Hadi" and others above named. To this has the UN under Guterres sunk. The UN, given its record under Guterres from Cameroon to Haiti will almost certainly hold no one accountable, except perhaps media which reports on what Guerres actually does and doesn't do.  Guterres' Youth Envoy has an ongoing deal with MBS's Misk Foundation, even now. Another pantomime: the UK which continues to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, said it was coming to the Security Council for action to end the war in Yemen. Then it proposed not even a resolution but only a statement, which at least three members of the Council have said it not strong enough. On November 8 Inner City Press at the UN Delegates Entrance Gate asked the UK Mission's Political Coordinator if there will, in fact, be a UNSC resolution. He replied politely that it's too early to tell. But it's getting late. Now, belatedly, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has put out the statement below, while saying nothing about Guterres' UN partnering with MBS' Misk Foundation and also continuing its ban on Inner City Press which asks, now hitting 129 days. Nor, notably, does the statement mention the UAE, where former UN official Bernardino Leon cashed out to the UAE Diplomatic Academy.

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