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At UN, Press
Table Relocated by Implicated Security Official, Under Picasso Pretext,
of Porno and Preferential Treatment
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Security Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 27, updated -- A senior
UN security officer, part of promotion
irregularities exposed by a memo
leaked to this publication by
Department of Safety and Security whistle blowers, on Monday
morning
ordered the relocation of the press table that for three years has
been to the side of Security Council entrance.
Captain Mark Hoffman, named
for one of the now-questioned promotions in the leaked memo,
pointed at the table and Inner
City Press and told an officer under his command, that has to move.
Asked for an explanation, he said, it is “blocking the Picasso.”
There is a tapestry replica of “Femme
Sur l”Echelle,” Woman on
the Ladder, along the wall.
Inner City
Press moved the table away from the front of the replica. Captain
Hoffman persisted, no I am going to
move it away from the Security
Council. Inner City Press suggested that he ask the UN's Media
Accreditation and Liaison Unit, which is charged with ensuring the
media access to newsmakers at the Security Council and elsewhere.
Hoffman announced his intent to MALU's chief, and had the officer
under his command move the table to a back area where diplomats and
others are allowed to smoke.
While Inner
City Press assisted the officer in moving the table, it appears that
Captain Hoffman's reasoning to order the relocation of a table
that has been in the same spot for at least three years was
retaliatory.
At UN stakeout, Picasso reproduction in
background, table-gate not shown
Beyond the promotion irregularity leak, which has given rise
to a formal demand by the UN Staff
Union for an independent outside
investigation including of Captain Hoffman's superior Bruno Henn,
last week following the arrest of
UN employee for child pornography, Inner City Press asked the
Office of the
Spokesperson to confirm or deny that several senior DSS officers have
been informed that they are under investigation for similar -- but
non-child -- issues.
Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson
(5a) The child
porn guilty plea, on which I am asking for updates on what the UN does,
was by
"Jose Antonio Ortega Osona, 40, a Spanish citizen who lives in New
York,
pleaded guilty Friday in Dartmouth provincial court to a Criminal Code
charge
of possessing child pornography and a Customs Act charge of smuggling
prohibited goods."
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9011475.html
(5b)
Finally, for
now, a simple factual question best answered in this format / medium:
please
confirm or
deny that there are several senior DSS / SSS officers at UNHQ in NY who
have
received letters of reprimand for pornography, and explain any
difference
of treatment from that accorded on the same charges to a
lower
level staff member. To ensure your answer, I suggest you ask OHRM,
OIOS
and DSS.
While the Spokesperson's Office has yet to answer the question, DSS
sources tell Inner City Press that Hoffman is among the officials now
belatedly being considered not for promotion but demotion. We continue
to await the Spokesperson's Office's answers to the questions asked
last week.
A lower level
UN official lost his job for viewing and forwarding pornography, as
Inner City Press reported. Many now complain that higher ups engaged
in the same behavior are being given preferential treatment. To
cover the Security Council from a table that has for at least three
years been open to all reporters is not preferential treatment. But
its arbitrary removal is viewed as retaliation, as yet another sign
of lawlessness in the UN, in this case by a purported representative
of the law. We will have more on this.
Update of 11:30 a.m. -- after the
above report, the table's relocation was partial revoked, and the table
moved back to the side of the Security Council entrance. "I got calls
from the highest levels," Captain Hoffman came to Inner City Press to
say, quite affably. Let's hope it stays that way.
Click here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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