By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, September 11 -- With the UN General Assembly debate two
weeks ago, and already being branded around a September 24 Security
Council session on “foreign fighters” as if that would constitute
approval of air strikes, the UN Secretariat of Ban Ki-moon has begun
to spin.
Ban
has said, mostly through spokespeople since he rarely takes
questions, that he hopes military moves in the Middle East comply
with international law. He has not said that Security Council
approval should at least be sought, or whether a country can do
strikes thousands of miles away and call it self-defense.
The
pay-off for this seems to be lip services to meetings that Ban will
brand as his own: climate change (without the high level
participation of several important countries) and Ebola, where his UN
criticizes such moves as quarantines even while supporting those who
impose them, and refusing still to answer Inner City Press' September
8 question about its Darfur mission implementing screening of a type
that UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous has not even after
introducing cholera to Haiti.
Despite
spending over $2 billion ostensibly renovating if not reforming the
UN, even the sidewalks and security check-points in front of the
General Assembly are not ready. To try to spin this, the UN on
September 10 said it will give a tour to in-house scribes on
September 11, with spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying to assembly in
front of the large usually unused room the UN gives to its UN Censorship
Alliance, UNCA, whose Executive Committee has tried to get the
investigative Press thrown out of the UN.
Additionally, on September
11 many journalists will be covering a certain anniversary,
especially after Obama's September 10 speech. Similarly on one day's
notice the UN's media unit declared September 11 to be their day to
interact with in-house scribes about arrangements for the General
Assembly week. The new Free UN Coalition for Access objects; watch
this site.
Follow @innercitypress Follow @FUNCA_info
