Tripoli government wants explanation of UN hiring of special envoy who had conflict of interest

The General National Congress(GNC) Libyan government based in Tripoli has demanded an explanation from UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon for hiring Bernardino Leon, claiming he was biased against the GNC government.

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The UAE announced last Wednesday that Leon had been hired as the head of a diplomatic college that would train UAE diplomats and help advance UAE policies. The UAE is a strong backer of the of the internationally-recognized House of Representatives(HoR) government. The UAE, with the help of Egypt,is even thought to have bombed Tripoli in support of the HoR government and as part of the Operation Dignity, meant to defeat the Libya Dawn militia that supports the GNC government. The GNC said the revelations "threaten to destroy the political track during this sensitive time." Given that the parliaments of the two rival governments have not voted on the Leon's last draft of the Libya Political Dialogue, and both sides have issued statements rejecting the draft, the political track has been stalled for some time in any event.

A recent Guardian article cited many emails from Leon to the UAE indicating he was clearly trying to de-legitimize the GNC and promote the HoR government. As long ago as June, Leon had been offered the post at the UAE academy with a salary of over $1,500 U.S. a day, plus a huge living allowance. He was busy over the summer trying to obtain a larger housing alliance. When the Guardian contacted Leon last Monday Leon denied he had taken the job. He asked the paper to hold off publishing the story and offered an interview to explain the situation. On Wednesday, the UAE announced Leon had been appointed to the position. This is interesting timing.

The UAE must have known that this would force the UN to remove Leon from his position earlier than was planned. His term had just been extended and the UN had just expressed its full confidence in his work. I can only conclude the UAE wanted to throw a wrench into the dialogue. The agreement was a threat to Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the HoR armed forces. It would likely remove him from his position. With the dialogue process failed, the UAE, Egypt, and the Arab league can get on with their support for Haftar and the campaign against Islamists and the Tripoli government. In his recent meeting with UK prime minister David Cameron, Egyptian President el-SIsi appears not to have even mentioned the dialogue or the Government of National Accord that is supposed to be created.

Leon claims he was not in any conflict of interest and pointed out that many on both sides support his draft. This neglects that he has never been successful in his parallel military dialogue that was supposed to forge an agreement between the rival military forces of the GNC and the HoR. Haftar calls the forces of the GNC terrorists, and refuses to negotiate or agree to a ceasefire with them. He has contempt for the dialogue and even bombed the one functioning airport in Tripoli prior to peace talks. On one occasion this caused the GNC delegates to be a day late for talks. So blatant were Haftar's snubs against the UN and the peace process that the EU named Haftar and his air force chief as subject to sanctions. He dismissed the threat as ridiculous. He then went to Jordan and signed a military agreement with that country. Egypt, the UAE, and the Arab League all supported Haftar and the HoR government, whose Operation Dignity fights against "terrorism," which means any Islamists opposed to them. The sanctions appear never to have come into effect but the press seem not to have noticed. I have seen no account of what happened.

There are guidelines for UN mediators:The UN guidance on effective mediation says mediators should “not accept conditions for support from external actors that would affect the impartiality of the process” and that they should “hand over to another mediator, or mediating entity, if they feel unable to maintain a balanced and impartial approach”.

How can Leon deny a conflict of interest when he accepted a well-paying job from the UAE, a country that clearly supports one side in the dialogue Leon was heading? Surely this is accepting conditions for support from external actors that would affect the impartiality of the process. However, Leon claims it didn't damage his impartiality and obviously he did not feel he was "unable to maintain a balanced and impartial approach." Yet in his emails Leon makes remarks such as that he was attempting to de-legitimize the GNC government and promote the HoR. Leon admits "the optics are bad". The optics are not bad. The problem is that Leon was in a conflict of interest and the facts make this perfectly clear for everyone to see. The optics are fine.

Ali Tekbali, a member of the HoR, said that UN talks with the GNC would resume under the leadership of the new UN Special Envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, before the end of this month. Saad Abusharrada a member of the GNC who supports talks said that the Leon situation is not likely to affect negotiations. The GNC might not be in favor of using the latest Leon draft as the basis for new negotiations given it had been developed by Leon. Any negotiation will be more or less fruitless unless Haftar is sidelined and removed from his post.

The UN should realize that the HoR government probably can survive only as long as it has the support of Haftar. The prime minister Abdullah al Thinni has twice been prevented from leaving the country by Haftar, and has been forced to allow Haftar to approve his cabinet appointments..The rival parties and many others will not accept any agreement which does not sideline Haftar. The UN has continued negotiations for over a year while studiously ignoring the actual military situation and the influence of that on the two parliaments. Haftar has been untouchable.

UN Special Envoy to Libya Bernadino Leon had blatant conflict of interest

In a bizarre, almost incredible development, the UN Special Envoy to Libya who has spent a year arranging dialogue talks between the two rival Libya governments is suddenly quitting to take a well-paying job with the UAE.

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The UAE is a strong supporter of the internationally-recognized House of Representatives( HoR) government and its military chief Khalifa Haftar. The UAE is even suspected with the support of Egypt of bombing Tripoli targeting Libya Dawn forces, the militia which is one of the main military groups supporting the rival General National Congress(GNC) government. The conflict of interest involved is obvious.

Leon has accepted a job with the UAE training diplomats and promoting UAE foreign policy. He will be paid 1,000 pounds( $1,540 US) a day. While still the UN Special Envoy working on the dialogue talks, Leon was busy in the summer negotiating a position as director general of a UAE "diplomatic academy." The UAE announced just today, November 4, that Leon had taken the job. Leon will leave his UN job this Friday.

Leon denies any conflict of interest and indicated that he made it clear he wanted to leave his UN role by September. Ban ki-Moon just recently extended his contract so that he could complete negotiations and hopefully have the rival governments accept the final draft of the Libya Political Agreement which would result in a unity Government of National Accord. However, neither parliament has approved the draft, indeed they have both made statements that in effect reject it. Neither parliament voted on the draft.

Leon said: “The only defence I have against these attacks is my work. As I said before, read my proposals, the agreement and the government proposal. It has been considered by the Libyans from both camps as a fair proposal.”There are some on both sides who accept the agreement but neither parliament has approved it and unless that happens, the fact that some on each side approve the agreement is hardly relevant. It is not clear what methods Leon may have used to get support. He and external parties threatened GNC members with sanctions if they did not sign on to an early draft that gave the GNC virtually no power or input into the unity government at all. I wrote at the time that the agreement appeared formulated in such a way that the GNC could not accept the agreement. They did not. They did not participate in the initialing of that draft as the HoR representatives did. Leon continued with the farce of promoting a non-agreement approved by just one side. Some in the international community must have urged him to make some motions toward meeting demands of the GNC. Leon did, making amendments to a draft he insisted could not be amended. This outraged the HoR, which rejected the document. Leon must have pleaded with the HoR. Who knows what threats or promises he made. The HoR representatives then rejoined the talks and finally the LPA was supposed to be agreed to at the level of the representatives at least. However, after refusing to entertain any further amendment as demanded by the GNC, Leon went on to add amendments himself. He has also added further amendments he claims after talking to the parties. The two rival governments are agreed on one thing. They do not trust Leon. Leon praises his work but here is what a group from the GNC had to say:

The Political Committee of GNC held on Monday the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon responsible for the failure of Libyan political dialogue.The Committee said in statement that Bernardino Leon’s persistence to sign the flawed draft would lead to a total collapse of the dialogue."We are surprised at UNSG's support to Bernardino Leon to continue with his post despite his failure to reach a compromise between Libyan parties."

As recently as October 31 a UN Support MIssion in Libya(UNSMIL) issued this press release: In response to questions concerning the leadership of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), the Secretary-General reaffirms that his Special Representative for Libya, Bernardino Leon, remains fully engaged on his behalf in facilitating the Libyan Political Dialogue. The Secretary-General takes this opportunity to reiterate his full confidence in Mr. Leon's efforts, aimed at supporting the Libyans to conclude the political dialogue process and form a Government of National Accord as soon as possible.

The Guardian saw emails showing Leon was offered the role of director general of the UAE academy back in June. The offer was followed by negotiations regarding increasing his housing allowance. In August he said he would be travelling with his family to settle down in Abu Dhabi. For months Leon knew he would be working for the UAE. On December 31 last year, Leon sent an email to the UAE foreign minister in which he said that because of the slow pace of peace talks that the EU and the US wanted a plan B that would include a classical peace conference.Leon said:.. This is, in my opinion, a worse option than a political dialogue … because it will treat both sides as equal actors”. In other words, Leon does not want to give the GNC government the same status as the internationally-recognized HoR. Sounds very much as if he clearly favors the HoR as does the UAE.

He went on to describe what he consequently did "break a very dangerous alliance" between wealthy merchants of Misrata and Islamists that he claims keep the GNC afloat. He said specifically that he wanted to reinforce the HoR the party backed by the UAE and Egypt. He even speaks of having a plan to completely delegitimise the GNC. He goes on to say that he is not working on a political plan that included everybody. Leon says: “all my movements and proposals have been consulted with [and in many cases designed by] the HOR and [Libya’s ambassador to the UAE] Aref Nayed and [the UAE-based former Libyan prime minister] Mahmud Jibril”.

The UN has now appointed the German diplomat Martin Kobler to take over Leon's job. No doubt he will be taking over as early as Friday when Leon leaves. Kobler will no doubt attempt to restart the dialogue process as soon as he can.

I.R.S. lets tax lawyers draft rules

You would think that this is a conflict of interest. However if you assume that the interest of the Bush administration is to promote the interest of its corporate suppoprters there is no conflict! The whole article is here.
I.R.S. Letting Tax Lawyers Write Rules


By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
Published: March 9, 2007
The Internal Revenue Service is asking tax lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes to take the lead in writing some of its new tax rules.

The pilot project represents a further expansion of the increasingly common federal government practice of asking outsiders to do more of its work, prompting academics and other critics to complain that the government is going too far.

They worry that having private lawyers and accountants draft tax rules could allow them to subtly skew them in favor of their clients.

“It’s not the fox guarding the hen house; it’s the fox designing the hen house,” said Paul C. Light, a professor of political science at New York University, who studies the federal work force.

Donald L. Korb, the I.R.S. general counsel, defended the plan, saying in an interview that he believed that the pilot project was “not changing this process one iota.”

“We are still getting comments; we are still having hearings,” he said, and I.R.S. lawyers will still review any new rules before they are final.

But John D. Graham, the official appointed by President Bush to streamline the federal rule-making process and give private interests a greater voice, said even he was surprised by the I.R.S. plan.

“Whoever’s pen the first draft comes out of has a big advantage,” said Dr. Graham, who ran the Office of Regulatory and Information Affairs for the White House before becoming dean last week of the graduate school at RAND, the nonprofit research organization.

The I.R.S. staff has been cut by a fifth in the last decade, even as Congress has made the tax code vastly more complex. The agency, in a formal notice, said it lacked the resources to issue as much guidance as taxpayers are seeking.