By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 5 -- After US Ambassador Samantha Power on Thursday said that the UN Security Council is blocked and not necessary for the US to take military action on Syria, the issue of why not at least wait for the UN report on chemical weapons was not answered or allowed.
Inner City Press asked a range of Security Council members, beyond the one who earlier told Inner City Press he was not convinced, about what had been shown. A Security Council member who went to the show at the mission told Inner City Press it was the same shown "back in the capital."
So why NOT wait for the UN report? The US must be paying for 25% of that report, right?
But more fundamentally, if the Obama Administration has no use for the Security Council, and now not for the UN Secretariat either, what does it say about its claimed multi-lateralism?
Why even was Samantha Power's staged stakeout held inside the UN? Or is the UN just a stage at this point? One wag, particularly in light of the questions, mused why not move it to Hollywood?
The staged stakeout preempted the Council president Gary Quinlan's question and answer session on Sudan and South Sudan. Inner City Press returned to the Council at 2:45 seeking information. Quinlan graciously indicated that he would like to say something on Abyei - but, it seems, not today. That's just a footnote now.
As Samantha Power came into the Council at 3:08 pm for the meeting on Iran, Inner City Press asked about the UN report. She gestured she was in a rush to get into the Council. And, she was among the first speakers. And left at 3:26 pm. She'll spend longer on Friday at the Center for American Progress in Washington.
Maybe there she'll answer, Why not wait for the UN report? We will keep asking, on the record, on this: why NOT wait for the UN report? Watch this site.
