Times, Post Barely Report UN Sex Scandal
You have to dig down deep into the New York Times web site's "other international headlines," but it's there: Congo Peacekeeper Sex Scandal: Investigators Said to be Threatened.
Let's point out at the outset that at Abh Gharaib, which MSM hyped up to a "torture" scandal from an "embarassing interrogation" scandal, none of the US soldiers under investigation threatened their investigators.
The UN report into the child abuse and sex scandal, remains confidential ... The New York Times was apparently leaked a copy, as was the Washington Post (which buried it on Page A26, here.) ... and it appears that the number of cases being investigated has dropped dramatically from what was first reported, from 150 to 68. Further, the UN appears to be dismissing many of the cases as "just prostitution." Says the Times:
The confidential 34-page document details 68 allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers from Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, Tunisia, and Uruguay, and lists incidents where soldiers from Morocco, Pakistan and Nepal worked to obstruct investigators.
The majority of allegations involved peacekeepers soliciting prostitutes, but there are nine cases of rape cited, including one in which a Nepalese soldier is charged with kidnapping and repeatedly assaulting a 14-year-old girl over a three-day period.
The Times says the investigation is being hampered by victims' unwillingness to identify perpetrators, lack of cooperation from UN officers, and rapid rotation of troops. In other words: women are being threatened, officers have no loyalty, and UN logistics are disorganized. There could easily be another investigation into those matters, but the findings are predetermined: The UN is not nearly as nice and altruistic an organization as it would like the world to believe.
The Post quoted from the report,
"Sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly prostitution of minors, is widespread and long-standing," says a draft of the internal July report, which has not previously been made public. "Moreover, all of the major contingents appear to be implicated."
Note that the draft report has been sitting around since July, but has not been made public. Why? What is being done that would justify keeping it under wraps for so long? Given the difficulties in tracking down the guilty, doesn't delay only benefit the perpetrators? What justification is given for the reduction of number of cases being investigated; who says it was "just prostitution?" How old were the prostitutes? How willing? How threatened if they cooperated with investigators?
Clearly, the standards to which the UN holds itself are much lower, and must less transparent and honest, than the standard to which it holds the United States.
Despite its sordid headline, the NY Times article doesn't go into much detail on threats by those being investigated. The Post does:
The report alleges that a Moroccan contingent stationed in Bunia threatened a U.N. informant investigating child prostitution. The Moroccan peacekeepers also "spread the word" that a U.N. child-protection advocate looking into allegations of child prostitution and rape by U.N. peacekeepers "had better be careful when she went out at night," the report said.[emphasis added]
The report cites cases in which peacekeepers from Morocco, Pakistan and possibly Tunisia "were reported to have paid, or attempted to pay witnesses to change their testimony" regarding alleged sexual abuse. It also charges that Moroccan military officials refused "to provide the names of Moroccan soldiers present at the location" of an alleged rape.
It looks like the UN is trying to keep a lid on this scandal. MSM are going to have a lot to say about whether it succeeds in this effort. When Abu Gharaib broke, it was front page news for weeks. When a confidential investigation into multiple rapes and rampant prostitution in UN camps is leaked directly to the New York Times and Washingon Post they burried it deep.
Meanwhile, Maggie Farley reports in the LA Times that one of the three authors of a book critical of UN Peacekeeping efforts has lost his UN job (here):
Andrew Thomson, who has worked for the United Nations for 12 years in New York, Cambodia, Haiti, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda, received a letter three weeks ago declining to renew his contract.
Thomson and two colleagues wrote "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story From Hell on Earth," published in June. The book reads like an illicit peek into the trio's diaries during a decade of adventure and angst, and contains graphic descriptions of romantic escapades.
It also delivers harsh judgments about the U.N., because genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia happened under the world organization's watch.
"If blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run," Thomson wrote. "Or else get weapons. Your lives are worth so much less than theirs."
After quoting a UN lackey saying the whistleblowing had nothing to do with Thompson's termination, Farley adds:
U.N. staff members said that about two months ago, after Miramax TV had optioned the book, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette sent the files of Thomson and one of his coauthors, Heidi Postlewait, to the personnel department with a note demanding action on the cases right away. The third author had already quit the U.N.
Firing whistleblowers within, botching child rape investigations by its employees, mismanagement and self-enrichment at the expense of poor Iraqis with oil-for-food. When will reporters stop their childish fascination with the UN and its false promise of world peace and start reporting some news? (Farley excepted; she seems to have some courage.)
Let's point out at the outset that at Abh Gharaib, which MSM hyped up to a "torture" scandal from an "embarassing interrogation" scandal, none of the US soldiers under investigation threatened their investigators.
The UN report into the child abuse and sex scandal, remains confidential ... The New York Times was apparently leaked a copy, as was the Washington Post (which buried it on Page A26, here.) ... and it appears that the number of cases being investigated has dropped dramatically from what was first reported, from 150 to 68. Further, the UN appears to be dismissing many of the cases as "just prostitution." Says the Times:
The confidential 34-page document details 68 allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers from Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, Tunisia, and Uruguay, and lists incidents where soldiers from Morocco, Pakistan and Nepal worked to obstruct investigators.
The majority of allegations involved peacekeepers soliciting prostitutes, but there are nine cases of rape cited, including one in which a Nepalese soldier is charged with kidnapping and repeatedly assaulting a 14-year-old girl over a three-day period.
The Times says the investigation is being hampered by victims' unwillingness to identify perpetrators, lack of cooperation from UN officers, and rapid rotation of troops. In other words: women are being threatened, officers have no loyalty, and UN logistics are disorganized. There could easily be another investigation into those matters, but the findings are predetermined: The UN is not nearly as nice and altruistic an organization as it would like the world to believe.
The Post quoted from the report,
"Sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly prostitution of minors, is widespread and long-standing," says a draft of the internal July report, which has not previously been made public. "Moreover, all of the major contingents appear to be implicated."
Note that the draft report has been sitting around since July, but has not been made public. Why? What is being done that would justify keeping it under wraps for so long? Given the difficulties in tracking down the guilty, doesn't delay only benefit the perpetrators? What justification is given for the reduction of number of cases being investigated; who says it was "just prostitution?" How old were the prostitutes? How willing? How threatened if they cooperated with investigators?
Clearly, the standards to which the UN holds itself are much lower, and must less transparent and honest, than the standard to which it holds the United States.
Despite its sordid headline, the NY Times article doesn't go into much detail on threats by those being investigated. The Post does:
The report alleges that a Moroccan contingent stationed in Bunia threatened a U.N. informant investigating child prostitution. The Moroccan peacekeepers also "spread the word" that a U.N. child-protection advocate looking into allegations of child prostitution and rape by U.N. peacekeepers "had better be careful when she went out at night," the report said.[emphasis added]
The report cites cases in which peacekeepers from Morocco, Pakistan and possibly Tunisia "were reported to have paid, or attempted to pay witnesses to change their testimony" regarding alleged sexual abuse. It also charges that Moroccan military officials refused "to provide the names of Moroccan soldiers present at the location" of an alleged rape.
It looks like the UN is trying to keep a lid on this scandal. MSM are going to have a lot to say about whether it succeeds in this effort. When Abu Gharaib broke, it was front page news for weeks. When a confidential investigation into multiple rapes and rampant prostitution in UN camps is leaked directly to the New York Times and Washingon Post they burried it deep.
Meanwhile, Maggie Farley reports in the LA Times that one of the three authors of a book critical of UN Peacekeeping efforts has lost his UN job (here):
Andrew Thomson, who has worked for the United Nations for 12 years in New York, Cambodia, Haiti, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda, received a letter three weeks ago declining to renew his contract.
Thomson and two colleagues wrote "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story From Hell on Earth," published in June. The book reads like an illicit peek into the trio's diaries during a decade of adventure and angst, and contains graphic descriptions of romantic escapades.
It also delivers harsh judgments about the U.N., because genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia happened under the world organization's watch.
"If blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run," Thomson wrote. "Or else get weapons. Your lives are worth so much less than theirs."
After quoting a UN lackey saying the whistleblowing had nothing to do with Thompson's termination, Farley adds:
U.N. staff members said that about two months ago, after Miramax TV had optioned the book, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette sent the files of Thomson and one of his coauthors, Heidi Postlewait, to the personnel department with a note demanding action on the cases right away. The third author had already quit the U.N.
Firing whistleblowers within, botching child rape investigations by its employees, mismanagement and self-enrichment at the expense of poor Iraqis with oil-for-food. When will reporters stop their childish fascination with the UN and its false promise of world peace and start reporting some news? (Farley excepted; she seems to have some courage.)
posted by Laer at 9:54 AM
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