By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 8 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon goes to Washington later this week, he is meeting with military men: Chuck Hagel and Martin Dempsey. Inner City Press on April 8 asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq to explain this, an ostensibly man of peace meeting not with diplomats but soldiers. Haq said it is normal.
But is it?
Unless citation is made, for example, to the Lord's Resistance Army or air-lifting African troops to the Central African Republic, it seems clear that Syria would be on the agenda, as well as Ukraine.
On the latter, Ban in 2008 signed a UN Memorandum of Understanding with NATO, leading to push back from a number of member states. NATO now brags on its website about restricting Russian access to its building -- there will be no annexation! At least not of the conference rooms or vending machine areas.
On April 9, two days before the UN's Hagel and Dempsey meeting,s Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson is listed on the schedules of acting Assistant Secretary of State Dean Pittman at 2 pm and of Bill Burns at 2:30 pm.
These meetings seem more UN-like, but Ban is not at them. Too low on the totem pole? And will the US raise the issue of Iran's ambassador-nominee to the UN, and the UN Host Country agreement? What about JP Morgan Chase cutting off so many missions' accounts? Watch this site.
