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Somalia
Scam, Weeks
After ICP
Asked, UN
Admits DNA
Sharing to
Scribe
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 7 -- On
June
22, Inner
City Press published
an exclusive
story about UN
Mine Action
chief in
Mogadishu
David Bax
sharing
information
with US
intelligence,
here.
On June
24, Inner
City Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Office of the
Spokesperson
for an answer
from UN
Peacekeeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous,
Dmitry Titov
and the head
of UNMAS about
"a
detailed
complaint from
an UNMAS
whistleblower
in Somalia
that the head
of UNMAS in
Somalia
provided
genetic
information
from bombings
to [United
States]
intelligence
agencies and
also moves
around
Mogadishu with
armed guards
from that
group, Denel,
that we were
talking
about.I also
e-mailed
several of
them and asked
for a comment;
I haven’t
received
anything."
Answer:
Well,
we’ll have to
check on that
for you,
Matthew, we’ll
check with
DPKO
[Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations].
In the
weeks that
followed,
Inner City
Press put
the question
to UN envoy to
Somalia
Nicholas Kay
-- who
referred the
question back
"to New York"
and to Ban's
spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky.
Inner City
Press got more
information
and published
it. But no
response from
Ladsous or his
lead
spokesperson
Kieran Dwyer,
nor from Ban's
spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky.
After the Free UN Coalition for Access raised the
question, the
UN
on June 26
told Inner
City Press:
Subject:
Your questions
on Somalia.
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jun
26, 2013 at
9:43 AM
To: Matthew
Russell Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
The
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
does not
discuss
internal
communications
or emails
received with
media
correspondents.
Now
Dwyer has
provided an
answer -- to
Colum Lynch of
"Turtle Bay,"
Foreign Policy
and the
for-now Jeff
Bezos / Amazon
owned
Washington
Post. (Is he
not a "media
correspondent?)
This without
any notice to
Inner City
Press, either
by DPKO or
Ban's
Spokesperson's
office.
Dwyer
claimed,
on camera,
that he and
his office do
answer
Inner City
Press
questions. Video here. Dwyer acknowledged
that Ladsous
refuses to
answer Inner
City Press
questions
(apparently in
response to
Inner City
Press asking
him about his
public and leaked
statements as
France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
at the UN
during the
Rwanda
genocide,
arguing for
the escape of
genocidaires
into Eastern
Congo, or
Inner City
Press'
coverage of
Ladsous'
drones).
But
this is false.
Inner City
Press asked
this question
on June 24, in
public,
transcript
here. And
Ban's
Spokesperson's
office said
they would ask
DPKO. Then,
weeks later,
DPKO gave a
canned answer
to Colum
Lynch.
This
has happened
before. As
simply one
example, Inner
City Press
pursued the
murder of a UN
Security
officer in
Afghanistan,
Louis Maxwell,
in a series of
either
stories,
quoting his
relatives that
the UN was
engaged in a
cover up
Then
the UN decided
to respond to
the scandal,
not by
answering
Inner City
Press'
question, but
by calling up
their go-to
Turtle.
Later,
Lynch
commiserated
with Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters, how
unfair Inner
City Press
was.
Charbonneau
would go on,
at least three
times now, to
try to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN
-- including
by leaking
internal
anti-Press
UNCA document
to the UN's
top
accreditation
official three
minutes after
promising not
to do so.
Story here,
audio
here, document
here.
Inner
City Press
exposed this,
with documents
obtained under
FOIA from Voice of
America.
It was covered
by, among
others, the Guardian
UK -- but
not by Lynch.
He explains:
"Why
haven’t I
written about
your disputes
with UNCA and
the UN
administration,
of which there
have been
many. I have
thought about
weighing in on
it. But given
the
complexities
of your
relationship
with UNCA and
the
administration
I’ve resisted
the temptation
of writing a
hasty story. I
simply have
not been able
to justify the
commitment in
labor – which
in my view
would require
a major
investment of
reporting
time,
including
reviews of
thousands of
your blog
posts—to
writing a
lengthier
piece. There
are a lot of
more impactful
stories I
don’t write
because I
can’t devote
the time to
it."
So Lynch never
reported for
example that
the head of UN
Peacekeeping
openly refuses
to answer
Inner City
Press
questions. He
benefits from
this.
We
have more to
say about all
this --
including a
rebuttal of
the attempt to
rehabilitate
Bax. For
example:
It's reported
that "Bax
established a
relationship
with the FBI
to provide the
Somalis with
expertise on
maintaining
the integrity
of the chain
of evidence
when handling
bomb material"
and then that
"a senior
official at
U.N.
headquarters
insisted that
the United
Nations does
not directly
share evidence
with the
United States
or other
governments."
This must be
explained - in
public.
The
rehabilitation
of Bax's
corrupt
running of the
camp is
laughable.
Source: "he
put everyone
lives at
direct risk
for that."
On all
levels, this
is
unacceptable.
Watch this
site - and
this video
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-303,
UN, NY 10017 USA
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest service,
and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2013 Inner City Press,
Inc. To request reprint or other permission,
e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
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