UN Confirms and Defends Deletion of Ban Statements from Transcripts, What Else Gets Erased?

UNITED NATIONS, April 21 -- At the UN statements, like web sites, can be made to disappear. While the range of web sites blocked inside the UN, which Inner City Pres first reported on earlier this month, includes watchdog sites like GlobalCompactCritics.net, on Monday UN Spokesperson Michele Montas defended the omission from the UN's online transcript of Ban Ki-moon's April 16 Q&A session with the press of an answer he gave about Iran.

According to, yes, the UN's transcript, at Monday's noon briefing Inner City Press asked
I noticed last week when there was a stakeout by the Secretary-General, he made a statement about Iran, and when I read the transcript, it wasn't in the transcript. There was a whole paragraph where he said that he welcomed cooperation by Iranian authorities with the IAEA.
Spokesperson Montas: It was simply that the question was about Iraq and he answered on Iran so on the transcript, we put his answer on Iraq.

Inner City Press: Okay, I guess I am saying, the thing on Iran stands. That is his position on Iran.

Spokesperson Montas: Yes.

Inner City Press: I guess I am wondering, has there been a thought on whether the transcript should be changed in that way?

Spokesperson Montas: No, because he was not asked that question. The transcript is supposed to reflect really the questions asked and the answers that occur at a stakeout or a briefing.

But the answer that actually occurred was excised from the transcript. On April 15, Ban was asked a question about the situation in Iraq and an upcoming meeting in Kuwait. Video here, at Minute 13:25. Ban responded about Iraq's neighbor, Iran, that "Iranian authorities should fully comply with the most relevant Security Council resolutions," adding that he is "satisfied with the progress" of Iranian authorities in complying with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Video here, from Minute 13:35. Then his spokesperson Michele Montas whispered that the question had concerned not Iran but Iraq.

Ban gave a brief answer, which is the only part of the answer that the UN's transcript includes:

Question: What are your comments on the situation in Iraq, and what would be your message to Iraq's neighbors who are meeting next week in Kuwait?

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: This is going to be a very important meeting. Unfortunately for me, I will not be able to participate in person, because of a scheduling problem. As I said, I am going to visit African countries exactly on that day, therefore I am going to dispatch Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. B. Lynn Pascoe. But I am going to convene, and myself preside over an International Compact with Iraq [meeting] in late May, May 29th , in Stockholm.

Ban's responses about Iran, clearly visible on the video, are simply excised from the UN's written transcript. If "the transcript is supposed to reflect really the questions asked and the answers that occur at a stakeout," why erase the answer that actually occurred? Anyone can make a mistake. But since this got deleted, what else is being concealed?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1transcripts042108.html

Inner City Press

http://innercitypress.blogspot.com/2008/04/un-confirms-and-defends-deletion-of-ban.html

04.27.08 -- Oops!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Click here for LARGE PRINT.

Puzzle by Oliver Hill, edited by Will Shortz

Perhaps in anticipation that this crossword puzzle would not be dreary or tedious enough, there are ten across entries deliberately misspelled, which along with the central across entry IMPROPERLYSPELLED (65A. Like the answers to the 10 asterisked clues, more often than any other English words, according to a 1999 study) are today’s little spelling bee lesson of inter-related entries.

MILLENIUM (26. *Long, long time) = millennium; INNOCULATE (32. *Stick with a needle, maybe) = inoculate; EMBARASSMENT (34. *Absence at a nudist colony?) = embarrassment; HARRASSES (44. *Bugs) = harasses; MINISCULE (51. Wee) = minuscule (however, Webster‘s has miniscule as an alternate spelling); NOTICABLE (82. *Conspicuous) = noticeable; SUPERCEDE (87. *Supplant) = supersede; PERSEVERENCE (94. *Doggedness) = perseverance; ACCOMODATE (97. *Oblige) = accommodate; OCCURENCE (107. *Event) = occurrence.

I just had a war with my spell-check function while typing the above.

Saturday’s puzzle offered us CURATESEGG (18A. Something damned with faint praise, in British lingo); today’s gives us CURES (99D. Parish priests) and VICARS (96D. Parish priests) -- very Shortzesque -- Heavens (114D. SKY) and then “Heavens!” (109D. EGAD) -- well it is Sunday!

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Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

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Across: Program executors, for short; 5. Miracle- ___; 8. Tribal council makeup, often; 14. Casual attire; 19. Like the carol “Away in a Manger,” originally; 21. Wine sometimes blended with Cabernet Sauvignon; 22. Be; 23. Turn away; 24. Foot, slangily; 25. 2% alternative; 28. Loot; 30. Yank or Tiger; 31. Half-baked; 41. What a Tennessee cheerleader asks for a lot?; 42. Stuck; 43. Neighbor of Ga.; 50. Jazzy Jones; 54. Below par; 55. X-ray ___; 56. “What a moron I am!”; 57. Gawk at; 58. Whatchamacallit; 60. Monterrey mister; 62. Suffix not seen much in London; 63. Least bold; 69. Narrative; 71. ___ choy (Chinese vegetable)(; 72. Contract specifics; 73. Luster; 74. Tip of the Arabian Peninsula; 76. Massage target?; 77. Spicy cuisine; 81. Debt acknowledgment; 86. Trying period for a doctoral student; 91. Clean air org.; 91. Baseball’s ___ league; 93. Gen ___; 103. Commotion; 104. Series of rounds; 105. Is undecided; 113. Root used in perfumery; 115. Farmer’s ___; 117. Attempts; 118. T-shirt style; 119. Follows; 120. Like some pens; 121. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” e.g.; 122. Plain; 123. Alternative to dial-up; 124. French noblemen.
Down: 1. Symbol of happiness; 2. Long-haired sheepdog; 3. Regulated bus.; 4. Writer/illustrator Silverstein; 5. Mustang competitor; 6. Photoshop options; 7. Tops; 8. Ambulance figure: Abbr.; 9. Many August babies; 10. Disarming words?; 11. Rocker John; 12. Violinist’s need; 13. Pen, to Pierre; 14. 1950’s Braves All-Star pitcher Burdette; 15. Relaxes, in a way; 16. It’s bowed; 17 Archipelago part; 18. Cubic meter; 20. Laredo-to-Galveston dir.; 27. “Bro!”; 29. Cliff; 33. Spanish “a”; 34. Karl Max’s one; 35. Alphabet quartet; 36. Expose; 37. Product with TV’s first advertising jingle, 1948; 38. Word of encouragement; 39. QB Manning; 40. “Illmatic” rapper; 44. Most massive; 45. The whole wide world; 46. Show up again; 47. Judged, with “up”; 48. They’re seen in many John Constable paintings; 49. ___ machine; 51. Orator’s no-no; 52. Restaurant chain since 1958; 53. Close, as a relationship; 56 Laura of “Jurassic Park”; 58. Some shampoos; 59. Running mate with Dick; 60. Like cotton candy; 61. Commercial come-on; 62. Type; 64. Ticklish one?; 65. Freeze; 66. Target of many a Bart Simpson prank call; 67. Rice-A-___; 68. Marmalade component; 69. Without adjustments; 70. Dynasty of Confucius and Lao-Tzu; 75. Trendy; 77. Olive or apple; 78. Goldie of “Cactus Flower”; 79. Actor Baldwin; 80. “Ah, yes”; 83. O.K. mark; 84. When Earth Day is celebrated: Abbr.; 85. ___ profundo; 86. Anthem contraction; 88. Rare imports, maybe; 89. Crucial sleep stage; 90. Cock-a-doodle-doo; 92. Examination; 94. Opposite of “nod off”; 95. Marked permanently; 96. Parish priests; 97. Previously mentioned; 98 Toes’ woes; 99. Parish priests; 100. Matriarchs; 101. ___ -garde; 102. Brusque; 106. Ooze; 108. Dorm heads, for short; 109. “Heavens!”; 110. International chain of fusion cuisine restaurants; 111. Course after trig; 112. Somme times; 114. Heavens; 116. Literary inits.