They Only Regret It When They're Caught

Planted operatives, media intimidation, mealy-mouthed double-talk and vows that it will never happen again.

My, this all sounds so familiar.

These UN hacks and Communist thugs could learn a few tricks from Team Pantsuit.

UN regrets undercover Cubans at event

GENEVA - The United Nations has expressed regret that undercover Cuban officials attended a U.N. news conference on human rights, where they sought information on a French journalist asking critical questions about Fidel Castro's regime.

Now why would officials from the island paradise need information on a journalist merely doing his job?

Elena Ponomareva, spokeswoman for the global body's European headquarters, said she was unable to prevent two Cuban diplomats from entering the Oct. 11 news event with Jean Ziegler, a U.N. rights expert who was preparing for a mission to the communist-run island.

The U.N. strictly prohibits government officials from attending news conferences unless they are explicitly invited and included among those presenting. Previous run-ins have occurred with Sudanese diplomats seeking to monitor rights officials speaking about Darfur.

So how were they allowed in there? Nobody seems to know.

Or care.

The Cuban officials were present for a testy exchange between the French journalist and Ziegler, who said Havana should be praised for cooperating with the global body and agreeing to allow him to report on the country's respect for the "right to food" — Ziegler's area of expertise.

Havana refused for years to allow U.N. envoys to visit and investigate alleged rights abuses in the country, claiming that such missions would violate Cuban sovereignty.

The Cuban officials asked journalists in the room to identify the name and agency of the journalist who debated Ziegler.

Sure sounds like intimidation to me. Surely the media elite who pretend to respect the First Amendment will condemn this gross intrusion into journalistic integrity.

When the news conference ended and Ponomareva confronted the officials, they said they were diplomats at a U.N. mission, but declined to say which country they represented.

"I can only regret this incident," she wrote in a letter to the U.N. correspondents' association in Geneva. She said she would share her thoughts with Ziegler "concerning the presence of members of the mission of Cuba at the press conference."

Ziegler is--get this--the UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food, and sounds like he doesn't like being questioned.

Seems like he's also in Castro's back pocket.

Ziegler — who hailed Cuba during his 11-day mission as a world model for how it provides its people with food — could not be reached for comment.

How convenient.