UN
Security's Drennan “Buried”
Report of Threats
on Bokova, UN
Condemns Leak to ICP
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
May 18 – The UN Department of
Safety and Security's top
officer Peter Drennan ordered
that a security report on
UNESCO chief Irina Bokova be
“buried” last year due to the
personal political
implications for Drennan if
Bokova instead of Antonio
Guterres became UN Secretary
General, internal UN document
obtained and exclusively
published by Inner City Press
show. Click here;
embedded below. Inner City
Press asked UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about it, and hours later he
emailed all correspondents an
attack on "leaks" - "In
response to a question asked
at the noon briefing about a
DSS assessment concerning
Irina Bokova, the Spokesman
has the following to say: The
allegation that security
information was 'buried' is
strongly denied. The relevant
information has been provided
to Ms Bokova, the Director
General of UNESCO, in the
appropriate manner. In
addition the substance of the
report was prepared in
conjunction with the UNESCO
security staff and as a result
UNESCO security staff, who are
responsible for the safety and
security of Ms Bokova and
UNESCO, were fully aware of
the report's contents. The
Department is deeply concerned
about the leaking to the media
of confidential information
concerning matters of
security. The leaking of
confidential security
information is irresponsible
and may well create additional
security risks to the UN."
Whistleblowers - different
whistleblowers - within the
Department of Safety and
Security say that the claimed
concern about Bokova is a
pretext. What has roiled feathers
in DSS is the assertion that
Under Secretary General
Drennan moved to bury the
report for his personal
political reasons in case Bokova
became Secretary General.
We'll have more on this.
Fearing
retaliation, the UN's Kenneth
Rosario two months ago wrote
to Drennan to formally notify
him of the charge of burying
the security report, citing
the deadly consequence of such
UN burying in the cases of the
Canal Hotel in Baghdad and
later in Algiers. Rosario
noted that even in those
cases, no one alleged that the
reports were suppressed by a
head of Department like
Drennan.
The documents
cited specific and credible
death threats against Bokova,
the UN system's top ranking
official in France, and the
letter bomb attack on the
International Monetary Fund /
World Bank office, ascribing
it to the Greek anarchist
group Conspiracy of Fire Cells
or SPF.
Exclusive:
UN Security's Drennan “Buried”
Report on Threats Against Bokova,
Documents Indicate by Matthew
Russell Lee on Scribd
Rosario's fear of
retaliation was and is
well-founded: for example, the
UN fired Swedish official
Anders Kompass after he blew
the whistle on peacekeepers'
sexual abuse of children in
the Central African Republic.
More recently Francis Gurry of
the UN's World Intellectual
Property Organization has been
accused of retaliation; here
is Inner City Press' story on
WIPO's North Korea business,
including a response from US
Ambassador Nikki Haley to
Inner City Press' May 16
question on the matter. UN DSS
itself was involved in the no
due process eviction of
Inner City Press and targeting
of it since to hinder
its investigative reporting in
the UN. Audio
here. But the reporting
will continue: watch this
site.
***
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