By Matthew Russell Lee
UNdisclosed Location, March 20 -- The dysfunction and division in the UN are for all to see, even on TV.
Wednesday morning at the Security Council stakeout, Syrian Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari announcedhis county had requested “a few minutes ago” that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon send a specialized, independent and neutral technical mission to look into the use of chemical weapons, he said by the opposition.
In his twelve minute stakeout, the only questioner -- in Arabic -- is one viewed as pro-Assad. No one else came, or asked.
At the day's noon briefing, Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky said he had just briefed Ban on what Ja'afari said at the stakeout. Then when and how did Syria make the request “a few minutes ago” to which Ja'afari referred?
The questions Nesirky got, or took, were all slanted the other way, to the extent of asking if ANY use of chemical weapons in Syria, even by the opposition, would be the government's fault.
The questioners came from Al-Arabiya, An-Nahar and Turkish media, all three on the Executive Committee of the UN Correspondents Association, increasingly known at the UN's Censorship Alliance.
On March 18 UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS was present at the non-consensual search of Inner City Press' office, taking pictures. She has not responded to questions, including from a UK journalist who is also skeptical of Syrian armed groups, who asked her about it.
As fate would have it, Cuba this week filed a complaint with Ban Ki-moon against not only UNCA but Falk personally. Asnoted, those on UNCA's Executive Committee -- perhaps with the silence disagreement of Mr Gu of Xinhua -- will try to take the criticism by Cuba as a badge of honor.
UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau has festooned the door to Reuters UN office -- decidedly NOT raided by this UN -- with documents showing how angry Reuters has made Iran. Scalps not scoops: this is Reuters at the UN.
This is dysfunction, this is the UN's Censorship Alliance -- and circus of decay. Watch this site.
Footnote: It was also notable -- literally, footnoteable -- that at Wednesday's post-raid noon briefing, there were no questions about Africa, where 70% of the UN's work is.
And UN Peacekeeping, which under Herve Ladsous covers up rapes by his partners, uses peacekeepers to pursue French goals in Cote d'Ivoire and prospectively Mali, and has highly selective vision in the two Sudans, likes it that way -- no questions about this African empire...
