By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 7 -- After a weekend in which the US conducted raids in Somalia and Libya, including what Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has called the "kidnap" of Anas al-Liby, Inner City Press on Monday at noon asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky to comment on the raids, including under international law.Video here from Minute 13:43.
But Nesirky said the UN had no comment, "at this point, I don't have any independent information on that."
It's one thing for the US, as it did at the State Department's briefing an hour later, to deny it violated international law. But, Inner City Press asked (including via Twitter, here and then here), how could the UN have no comment?
Especially but not only because the US has peacekeeping missions in both countries. Would the UN no comment if, for example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo were raided in this way? It seems very doubtful.
Then this came in:
Subject: Your question on the incidents in Libya and Somalia
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 2:09 PM
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 2:09 PM
To: Matthew.Lee[at] innercitypress.com
In response to your question at the noon briefing, the Spokesperson has the following to say:
We have seen the news reports about US counterterrorism actions over the weekend in both Libya and Somalia. We do not have direct information about them.
Where the respective governments may be seeking clarification, it is for the US authorities to provide this, given the sensitivity of such matters for any sovereign state.
When the UN cites the "sensitivity of such matters for any sovereign state" do they mean the US' sensitivity, as raider? Or that of Libya? Because Libya's prime minister is calling it a kidnapping.
In other cases of cross-border moves, the UN does not wait for the permission of the state moved on in order to comment. Nor does the UN say it won't comment due to sensitivities.
In Somalia, now apparently covered up by the UN and its scribes, the UN was viewed as having taken sides when David Bax of its UN Mine Action Service took a role in passing genetic and biometric information to US agencies. As the whitewashing, ever more detailed, continues we have pending questions in on this. Watch this site.
