Congress probes U.N. tech transfers to tyrants
Deal sent dual-use computers to North Korea
Published: 10 hours ago
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The head of a United Nations agency illegally and deliberately shipped sensitive American technology with potential military uses to the dictatorships ruling North Korea and Iran in exchange for votes, and then retaliated against the UN officials who exposed it, the U.S. Congress heard in testimony from whistleblowers.
Lawmakers at a recent hearing before the House Foreign Affairs joint subcommittee sounded incredulous as two former senior officials with the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, described the transfer of U.S. technology by a top UN official to two of the planet’s most notorious regimes.
Some of the technology was what is known as “dual use,” meaning it could have military applications. At least one piece of equipment was useful in helping the regime block Internet access, one of the whistleblowers said.
The transfers were also unlawful under U.S. law and likely under UN Security Council resolutions as well.
And the entire ordeal represented a serious threat to U.S. national security, according to lawmakers and other sources.
The system is, in many ways, the problem, it was revealed. But the specific perpetrator in this case, according to the whistleblowers, was Francis Gurry, an Australian national who was re-elected to another term as director-general of WIPO in 2014, despite mushrooming scandals surrounding his tenure including the technology transfers.
Separately, the UN agency chief was caught secretly plotting to open WIPO offices in Moscow and Beijing without approval from member states. An office of the UN agency was also considered for Iran.
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The Australian government also came under fire from outraged U.S. lawmakers, who fumed about why the longtime U.S. ally would back Gurry despite his lack of concern for American and international security exhibited by the illegal technology shipments.
Hearing Chairman Chris Smith, R-N.J., was among those expressing outrage about the developments.
Among other concerns, he blasted the claim that UN Security Council sanctions imposed on North Korea and Iran applied to UN members states but not UN agencies such as WIPO.
Smith said he was “bewildered” and “shocked” by the revelations. “We are going to do a great deal of follow up on this,” he added.
After the hearing, Smith told WND that Congress was planning to do much more to address the scandals surrounding the UN, including the technology transfers, the persecution of whistleblowers, the lack of accountability, and the lack of transparency.
“Funding will be used as leverage,” he pledged in response to a question by WND. “A lot of times it’s the only thing that gets their attention.”
Smith also said lawmakers were working on various resolutions about the scandals and would not be letting up until the issues were dealt with.
Tech for tyrants
Miranda Brown, who served as strategic advisor to WIPO chief Gurry until being forced to resign by the retaliation, first stumbled across the technology transfers to North Korea March 14 of 2012, she told lawmakers at the hearing.
“I received a phone call from a WIPO staff member working in the procurement area who informed me that ‘there was a problem with a payment for a shipment of computers to North Korea’,” Brown explained.
“At first I thought this was a joke,” she said. “But I soon realized that the staff member was serious, as he explained that the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had blocked the WIPO/UNDP [UN Development Program] payment by the Bank of America, for the computers.”
At that stage, Brown continued, it was not yet clear whether the computers had already been shipped to the North Korean authorities, but she decided to “immediately” try to stop the transfer.
“I called Mr. Gurry and counseled him against WIPO engaging in any project with North Korea without the prior approval of the member states of WIPO, specifically including the U.S., and without clearance by the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee,” she said, adding that she felt it would violate U.S. law and UN Security Council sanctions.
“Mr. Gurry’s response was profoundly disturbing: he said that ‘North Korea is a WIPO member state like any other and it deserves technical cooperation’,” Brown recalled. “He also said that ‘WIPO is not bound by U.S. domestic or UN Security Council sanctions’.”
Instead of halting the scheme, Gurry ordered her to sort out the payment problem, she explained.
Later, she discovered that Gurry, who personally approved the shipments, had been promised support from the two regimes in his re-election bid in exchange for the technology. He won by one vote.
Eventually, Brown decided to inform U.S. authorities of what was happening, and for that, she was severely retaliated against by Gurry.
“I felt I had a responsibility, as a UN staff member, to blow the whistle and report a UN agency that was supplying high-end American IT equipment to North Korea, in violation of U.S. domestic sanctions and without consulting the UN Security Council sanctions committees,” she said.
Congress got involved at that point.
Lawless UN agency
One of the claims purporting to justify the transfers was that WIPO was not a member state, and therefore not bound by UN Security Council resolutions.
See what happens in the circles of the international elite, from one who’s been there, in “Davos, Aspen & Yale: My Life Behind the Elite Curtain as a Global Sherpa.”
Brown emphasized that she was not a legal expert, but noted that the intent of the resolutions were for the measures barring technology transfers to rogue regimes to be binding on everyone.
Matthew Parish, the founder and managing director of Gentium Law Group, which represents the WIPO staff council, went further in his own responses to the committee on the issue.
The legal explanation purporting to excuse WIPO’s tech transfers to rogue regimes despite the sanctions was “completely absurd,” Parish told lawmakers.
“The idea that an agency of the United Nations can lawfully act as an agent for the evasion of UN sanctions endorsed by the Security Council is ridiculous,” he added. “Nobody could defend that for even 30 seconds, it’s crazy.”
Attorney James Pooley, former WIPO deputy director for innovation and technology, gave additional insight into the technology that was transferred, its purpose, and the dangers posed.
“I should point out that none of this equipment was necessary for the operation of the North Korean patent office,” Pooley said, debunking the official justification for the transfers. “Over the entire 33 year span of its membership in WIPO, North Korea submitted a grand total of 25 international patent applications.”
“And I knew that the computers were ‘dual-use’ technology that could easily have been applied to telemetry calculations or other military use,” he added. “But I was also alarmed by the firewall, which had only one purpose: to keep North Korean citizens from gaining access to the Internet.”
If somebody bought that technology in the United States and sent it to the Iranian and North Korean regimes, “they’d go to prison for a long time,” he said.
Pooley also revealed that in 2012, WIPO leadership had hired a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., for close to $200,000. The purpose was apparently to shut down U.S. investigations.
Geneva-based international attorney Edward Flaherty, who served as counsel to the UN whistleblowers, said WIPO and its senior management had gone “rogue.”
“It should be a movie it is so beyond the pale,” he told WND after the hearing, calling WIPO leadership “arrogant.”
The entire saga illustrates that the UN “clearly” has no concern for U.S. national security, he added. “Nor apparently did the U.S. State Department judging by its failure to act against WIPO.”
Flaherty said the State Department could have stopped Gurry’s re-election but refused to do so, “which can only be seen as a gross dereliction of its duty.”
Lawmakers weigh in
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http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/congress-probes-u-n-tech-transfers-to-tyrants/#DMkZPqMGbpBhWqJS.99
