At UN,
AFP Is
Pass-Through
for US, No
Mention of
Ban's Travel
Costs
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
18 – When
Agence France
Presse writes
up the US'
critique of UN
business class
air travel, it
does not
mention the
UN's refusal
to disclose
how much
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has
spent on
travel, even
when this was
requested by
the UN Staff
Union
before they
voted “no
confidence” in
Ban.
Then
again, lapdog
AFP never
reformed on
that “no
confidence”
vote
either.
Nor
did they seek
out any
non-Western
source for
their
pass-through
article, which
is little more
than extended
quotations of
US
Ambassador Joe
Torsella.
At the
end, AFP
asserts with a
single blind
quote that
Western
countries
agree with
Torsella's
campaign if
not
the style.
Really?
Until
now, we've
covered the
use of AFP's
Tim Witcher as
a pass-through
for
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head UN
Peacekeeping.
But now
it seems AFP
and Witcher
are branching
out: they will
serve
as
pass-throughs
and lapdogs
for other
Western
countries, at
least in
the Permanent
Five members
of the
Security
Council.
Will
this make more
potent
Witcher's hypocrital
complaint
against Inner
City
Press, for
after Witcher
on March 8 cut
into a
conversation
to hiss
“lies and
distortion”
Inner City
Press having
said “lapdog”?
Or at least
shield Witcher
from the
repercussions
that should
accrue
for filing a pre-textual
complaint?
Witcher
remains
a “leader” of
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
increasingly
known as the UN's
Censorship
Alliance, and
asked UNCA to
act
against Inner
City Press for
a report it
published
about Ladsous.
Later,
documents
obtained from
Voice of
America under
the Freedom of
Information
Act show, AFP
supported
VOA's
push to
get Inner City
Press
thrown
out of the UN.
Now
this complaint
about free
speech, the
refusal to
disclose the
complaint --
and the
slavish
channeling of
Torsella. This
is part of why
the UN does
not, and for
now cannot,
reform itself.
, 
