By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 4, updated
-- As the UN
Security
Council met
Friday on
terrorism,
under the
surface there
was a fight
between three
Council
members for
two experts
posts on
Weapons of
Mass
Destruction or
1540
committee:
Germany, the
UK and
Pakistan.
During
the
session,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
announced,
what else, a
new
high UN post,
Counter
Terrorism
Coordinator.
Immediately
sources
began to tell
Inner City
Press who is
in the running
to get this
new
job: Mike
Smith, who
already
essentially
does it, and
long time
American UN
official
Robert Orr.
In
surface
compliance
with Ban's
Five Year
Mobility Rule,
Orr was recent
shunted
to a new job
in Public
Private
Partnerships.
There's only
one
problem,
Budget
Committee
sources tell
Inner City
Press: this is
not
a funded post,
and Ban can't
just make up
jobs and hand
them out. Ah,
Change
Management.
And
so, cynics
say, Bob Orr
could get the
new Counter
Terrorism
Coordinator
post.
A
non-Western
Security
Council member
asked Inner
City Press,
rhetorically
it seems,
"What, they
can't find
anyone new in
the world?"
When Ban
Ki-moon and
his entourage
came out of
the Council,
Inner City
Press posed
the name of
Mike Smith and
Bob Orr, a
close ally of
Ban. There was
an expression,
but we don't
interpret
facial
expressions
here.
Meanwhile,
between
Germany, the
UK and
Pakistan one
prospective
WMD expert
will be left
without a
seat. Many
say, let one
of the two
Europeans
stand down,
probably
Germany.
But
a German
diplomat,
speaking as
such, told
Inner City
Press that
expertise
should be the
first and
primary
criterion.
Pakistan
counters
that its
candidate is
an expert,
that "not only
Europeans have
expertise," in
this case in
export
controls.
Germany
questions
why this is
not viewed as
nine
candidates for
the eight
seats. But
the six who
have already
informally
"won" a
position don't
want to
re-open the
race, or the
criteria. We
hope to have
more on
this - watch
this site.
