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At
UN, Retaliation On Press and Nurse for Expose of Illegal Drugs, Coverage
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, May 16, updated May 26 & 29 & June 12 – Three weeks
after an expose
by
this publication
that at the United Nations “a group of
largely unlicensed doctors and nurses are dispensing and in some
cases taking and self-medicating with Valium, Diazepam, Demerol,
Ambien and other controlled narcotics,” the UN has responded, and
retaliated, demanding the removal of evidence from the public record.
A UN
Medical Service staff member, a licensed nurse whom UN Management
apparently believe to have been the whistleblower for the expose,
has
been told to “surrender your grounds pass” and has been barred from
entering the UN by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a May 15 letter
from the head of the UN's Office
of Human Resource Management, Catherine Pollard. [Two weeks subsequent to, and according to
the addressee because of, the publication of this article, the letter
was amended.]
As
the retaliated-against nurse points out, where narcotics are being
dispensed illegally and without license, there is no confidentiality.
In fact, issues might now arise whether the UN's Office of Internal
Oversight Services, or even Ethics Office, have lived up to their
applicable pledges of confidentiality.
The
UN purports to have a policy of protecting whistleblowers against
retaliation, but the policy seems to have been ignored in this case,
by the very head of OHRM. The policy, about which UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon has been questioned including by Inner City
Press, is ostensibly enforced by the UN Ethics Office. Inner City
Press asked Ethics Office director Robert Benson about the
irregularities and retaliation in the UN Medical Services, which had
been raised to Susan John of his office, but without yet receiving a
response.
This
extreme case of retaliation will be a test for the UN
Ethics Office, which was discredited earlier by having its
recommendations that back-pay be awarded for violating a
whistleblower's due process rights ignored by the UN Development
Program. Mr. Benson has told Inner City Press he is spending more of
his time in Africa, giving trainings in such locations as Nairobi.
Meanwhile, retaliation and the threat of retaliation have become
routine at UN Headquarters in New York.
UN's Ban greeted staff member he now
bars from premises for blowing whistle on UN Medical [even this photo
removed, "for security reasons."]
Relatedly,
there is retaliation or attempted retaliation against the press at
the UN. At 11 am on Saturday, May 16, the head of the UN's Media
Accreditation and Liaison Unit Gary Fowlie wrote to this reporter,
three weeks after the article at issue
Subj:
Medical record photograph
From:
[Chief, Media Liaison and Accreditation at] un.org
To:
Inner City Press
Sent:
5/16/2009 11:10:42 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
Dear
Matthew
I
see that you have republished a photograph containing confidential
medical records of UN staff on your website. See the link below to
the story and photo of a 'sample sign-out sheet'. I
ask that you please remove this photograph out of respect for the
confidentiality of all staff concerned.
Gary
Fowlie
Chief,
Media Liaison and Accreditation,
United
Nations, S-250, New York, NY 10017
As
the retaliated-against nurse points out, where narcotics are being
dispensed illegally and without license, there is no confidentiality.
In fact, issues might arise whether the UN's Office of Internal
Oversight Services, or even Ethics Office, have lived up to their
applicable pledges of confidentiality. Nevertheless, Inner City Press
responded the same (weekend) morning, less that one hour later, that
it had
“received
your email about an article Inner City Press published on April 23,
three weeks ago, which gave rise to coverage in other media and, we
understand, an inquiry by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
"While
troubled by your request that evidence in this matter be removed from
the public record – and troubled by the timing of your request and
its possible relation to other coverage by Inner City Press of the
UN's performance, including in Asia and Africa – nevertheless in an
abundance of caution, the photograph you refer to has been taken down
less than an hour after your request.
"You are reminded that
covering-up by the UN not only violates the Organization's stated
principles, but has other repercussions. I would like to know who
raised this matter to your office and when, and for a description of
all communications.”
The
background and reason for this counter-request is that Ms. Pollard's
superior, the director of the Department of Management Angela Kane,
is known to have send her staff to the Office of Media Accreditation
and Liaison to inquire into the accreditation (or, Ms. Kane
apparently hoped, dis-accreditation) of Inner City Press. Click here for May
7, 2009 article, "The Wrath of Kane."
Inner
City Press was asked to “write nicely about Angela Kane.” It
was not at the time spelled out what would be attempted if the
coverage ended up not being positive.
The inquiry
came in the context of a series of stories about matters under Ms.
Kane's control, from procurement and hiring irregularities through
asbestos and failure to do
required Security Risk Assessments in connection with the UN's planned
billion dollar renovations to
allegations, widespread among UN staff, that Ms. Kane acts for the
benefit of her country, Germany, in the cancellation (now,
postponement) of the UN's National Competitive Exam, in the demotion
of Tanzanian Anna Tibaijuka as head of the UN in Nairobi in favor of
the German Aichim Steiner, etc..
Ms. Kane
previously responded to questions Inner City Press had been directed to
pose to her by saying she had no time to answer questions, that
everything should be asked at the UN's noon briefing. From the transcript
of Friday May 15, the day before the demand to remove evidence from
the public record
Inner
City Press: I had asked before about the contract with VSG that runs
UNTV. Can you confirm that now the UN is actually paying their
salary rather than VSG, but that neither pension nor health benefits
are being paid by the UN? That the people that work in the UN and UN
Television are now without pension payments and without health
insurance, and what the UN’s plan is to deal with this now nearly
bankrupt UN contractor.
Spokesperson
Michele Montas: You can address your question directly to the people
involved…
Inner
City Press: Who are those? I had written to Ms. Kane in the past and
she said ask at the noon briefing, so that’s why I am asking here.
Spokesperson
Montas: Oh, she said ask at the noon briefing?
Inner
City Press: She did.
Spokesperson:
Okay. As soon as I get the answer for you, I’ll find out what the
new situation is at this point.
Inner City
Press is told by sources
inside Ms. Kane's office that a desire to “set up” Inner City
Press arose, and that the UN Medical Services story was belatedly
viewed as providing such an opportunity. It appears shameful,
certainly. But this is how the UN, or at least some at the top of the
UN, work. [Click here for
another continuing strand of retaliation for reporting on the UN's
failure to discipline those involved, on UN time, in pornography,
including an implicated staff member's crack down on and now stalking
of the Press.]
Troublingly,
these belated retaliation attempts take places in the context of
persistent reporting by Inner City Press about the UN Secretariat's
inaction as civilians have been killed in Northern Sri Lanka. A week
ago, Inner City Press wrote an article
noting that while Ban Ki-moon
said he would accept the invitation to go to Sri Lanka if he thought
it would have a single life, he stayed in New York to meet
with
China's deputy foreign minister and to celebrate the stealth wedding
of his son.
Inner
City Press has received numerous complaints about
this article from senior Ban Administration advisers. Perhaps they
will ask their Office of Media Accreditation and Liaison to take
action, to demand the removal of any criticism of the UN from the
public record. Watch this site.
Update:
On May 26, Inner City Press received the following
From:
unspokesperson-donotreply@un.org
To:
matthew.lee@innercitypress.com
Sent:
5/26/2009 1:45:29 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
In
response to your recent news story on the Medical Service, we are
transmitting the following information provided by OIOS:
In
response to media reports claiming that ga group of largely
unlicensed doctors and nurses are dispensing and in some cases taking
and self-medicating with Valium, Diazepam, Demerol, Ambien and other
controlled narcoticsh at the UN, the Office for Internal Oversight
Services (OIOS) informed us that the facts need to be correctly
stated.
The
Office informed us that a complainant had reported to OIOS about
possible abuse in the management and dispensation of controlled
substances in the Medical Services Division (MSD) of the United
Nations. OIOS immediately assigned two investigators to conduct
preliminary inquiries into this report.
Based
upon the information obtained, OIOS confirmed that the Medical
Services Division does have a process in place to ensure safe custody
and dispensation of controlled substances.
OIOS
concluded its preliminary inquiries and determined that the
complainant's claims about the abuse of the dispensation of
controlled substances in the MSD could not be verified. It adds that
a fully conclusive verification can only be obtained upon a full
investigation. This would require review of confidential medical
records, to which OIOS does not have access.
Is
this what the UN means by exonerated -- that it creates "rules"
that preclude its supposedly independent investigative unit from
verifying a whistleblower's allegations which are backed up by
photographic and other evidence?
Update of May 29 -- as
noted above, two weeks subsequent to, and
according to the addressee because of, the publication of this article,
the retalitation letter was amended. Watch this site.
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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