At
UN
on Wikileaks, As Downer & Ging Dodge, Candor at UK Event, Kerim
in the Wings?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, News Muse
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 1 -- While Wikileaks
was not discussed in the UN
Security Council on the last day of the UK presidency, the leaks were
a major topic elsewhere in the UN during the day, and at the UK's End
of Presidency reception on
November 30.
During
the day,
Inner City Press asked the Gaza chief of the UNRWA mission John Ging
what he thought of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's directive
to US diplomats to determine if UNRWA is connected to Hamas or
Hezbollah.
Ging
immediately
replied that UNRWA welcomes scrutiny, that such connections to do not
exist. Inner City Press clarified that it was seeking Ging's view of
U.S. intelligence gathering, given his critique of disclosures that
his staff has been allowed four sub-machine guns for his personal
protection.
If
nothing else a
loyal UN system staffer, Ging said that the (deputy) Spokesman had
commented on Wikileaks the day before, and that he would not add to
it.
Likewise,
when
Inner City Press asked UN Cyprus envoy Alexander Downer to comment
not only on the leaks from his own (“good”) office but on the
Wikileaks released cable saying that he is “frustrated” by the
stalling of Cyprus negotiations, Downer portrayed the cables as
second hand.
It
brought to mind South Korea diplomat's spin to the US
that China is ok with a united Korean peninsula under Seoul's
leadership. Dream on.
Things
got more
honest over drinks at the UK's end of presidency reception over Park
Avenue Tuesday night. A
diplomat from a non Permanent Security Council member told Inner City
Press that that US Mission personnel had "definitely" spied on this
country's political coordinator.
The
outing of
Yemen's president came up, in the context of Yemen having refused to
have the meeting of the Group of Friends on Yemen inside the UN in
September.
Downer & UN's Ban: one's immeshed in two leaking
scandals, the other a target?
Reference was made
to Iran's piecing together
and publication of memos in the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and to
memoirs by former UK ambassadors in Washington and Uzbekistan. We
still need to write, we can't stop, a European diplomat said.
Most
intriguingly,
Inner City Press was told by an informed source that former President
of the General Assembly Srgjan Kerim now schemes to replace Asha Rose
Migro as UN Deputy Secretary General, claiming that Ban Ki-moon has
promised him the job. Watch this site.
S
E
C
R E T SECTION 01 OF 24 STATE 080163
NOFORN,
SIPDIS,
E.O.
12958: DECL: 07/31/2034
TAGS:
PINR
KSPR
ECON KPKO KUNR
SUBJECT:
(S)
REPORTING
AND COLLECTION NEEDS: THE UNITED NATIONS REF:
STATE 048489
Classified
By:
MICHAEL
OWENS, ACTING DIR, INR/OPS. REASON: 1.4(C).
¶1.
(S/NF)
This
cable provides the full text of the new National HUMINT
Collection Directive (NHCD) on the United Nations (paragraph 3-end)
as well as a request for continued DOS reporting of biographic
information relating to the United Nations (paragraph 2).
...Reporting
officers
should include as much of the following information as
possible when they have information relating to... credit card
account numbers; frequent flyer account numbers; work schedules, and
other relevant biographical information.
...Information
about
current and future use of communications systems
and technologies by officials or organizations, including cellular
phone networks, mobile satellite phones, very small aperture
terminals (VSAT), trunked and mobile radios, pagers, prepaid calling
cards, firewalls, encryption, international connectivity, use of
electronic data interchange, Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP),
Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (Wi-Max), and cable
and fiber networks.
CLINTON
