After
ICP
Exclusive, UN
Admits
Suspicious
Bags Found,
Leaves Courier
Qs Unanswered
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 26,
updated --
After Inner
City Press this morning
published,
and at noon
asked, about cocaine found
inside the UN,
two hours
later
the UN has
issued a "Note
to
Correspondents"
seeking to
minimize the
UN's role
while not
answer the
questions that
were
actually
raised and
asked.
Inner
City Press
asked,
"what is
ID/OIOS" --
the
Investigations
division of
the Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services, from
which Ban
removed his
critic Inga
Britt Ahlenius
- "doing about
drug
trafficking in
the UN?"
From
a
whistleblowering
source,
Inner City
Press also
posed this
question from
a
whistleblowing
source: "why
didn't they
let the pouch
be picked
up and see
where it would
lead?"
Rare for the
Office of the
Spokesperson
for Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
this
follow up
answer was
provided:
Subject:
Note
to
Correspondents
on suspicious
bags
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Thu, Jan
26, 2012 at
2:14 PM
NOTE
TO
CORRESPONDENTS
FROM THE
SPOKESPERSON
FOR THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
Last
week,
two suspicious
mail bags were
intercepted by
the Security
and
Safety Service
at United
Nations
Headquarters
in New York.
The United
Nations nor
anyone located
in the United
Nations was
the intended
recipient of
this delivery
and the bags
were not UN
bags,
diplomatic
or other.
The
relevant
Host Country
authorities -
the Drug
Enforcement
Administration
and the New
York Police
Department -
were notified
about the
discovery of
the suspicious
bags and the
material
handed
over to their
custody. The
U.S. Mission
to the United
Nations was
also kept
informed.
As
the
Host Country
authorities
are
investigating,
we would refer
you to
the DEA or
NYPD for any
further
details.
At
least at the
top
level, Inner
City Press can
report first
hand that the
US Mission to
the UN was not
informed or
aware. Further
reporting by
Inner City
Press
including with
the "Host
Country
authorities"
to
which Ban's
spokesperson's
office now
refers the
Press, reveals
a
story that
continues to
raise
questions
about the UN.
Federal
sources
confirm they
have "launched
an
investigation."
Some
"private
couriers" make
deliveries to
the UN, using
a loading dock
in the
UN's third sub
basement. The
cocaine at
issue, Inner
City Press has
learned, came
in this way.
(c) UN Photo
Ban Ki-moon
and his
spokesman,
suspicious
bags in UN not
shown
The argument
is that there
were two
packages not
addressed to
the UN which
got added to
the delivery
to
the UN, and
were found
during the
screening
process inside
the UN.
That
$750,000 to $
million of
cocaine showed
up in the UN,
with its
unique legal
character, by
mistake is not
immediately
credible to
some. But even
accepting it,
it raises the
question of
what are the
practices,
screening and
otherwise, of
the couriers
the UN allows
in?
Update
-- in the
aftermath of
Inner City
Press'
exclusive
report
Thursday
morning and
subsequent
public
question to
the UN at its
noon briefing,
the NYPD has
provided a
statement that
"because there
was no
addressee, the
DHL just
thought well
that's the UN
symbol so we
should ship it
on to UN
headquarters
and let them
figure out who
it was
supposed to go
to." A
unattributed
windfall?
We'll see.
, 
