Reply #2: What do you think?

[Geoff R. Casavant]

These are the first two sentences of Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (the remainder of Art. 29 does not change the context):

"The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention."

And from Art. 31:

"1. A diplomatic agent shall enjoy immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the receiving State. . . ."

"2. A diplomatic agent is not obliged to give evidence as a witness."

But, also from Art. 31:

"4. The immunity of a diplomatic agent from the jurisdiction of the receiving State does not exempt him from the jurisdiction of the sending State."

Now, UN ambassadors from other nations have diplomatic immunity from US laws, although they are not technically ambassadors to the US, so the fact that the UN is located in the US may be an ambiguous factor. There is enough wiggle room in the language to enable an argument using the usual twisted RW logic and hair-splitting.