UNITED NATIONS, December 13 -- The day after Åke Sellström handed his second and final report on Syria chemical weapons to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, he appeared to take press questions.
Inner City Press asked him and fellow panelists Scott Cairns of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and Dr. Maurizio Barbeschi of the World Health Organization three questions:
1) to estimate the range of the rockets fired on Zamalka, 2) to respond to allegations that the rocket they examined in Moadamiya was filmed elsewhere, and 3) if the video they reviewed about Khan al Asal was that of Russian journalist Anastasia Popova.
Sellstrom confirmed it was Popova's -- click here for Inner City Press' previous coverage -- and said he wasn't aware of allegations that the rocket they examined in Moadamiya was filmed elsewhere (see sample YouTube here).
On Zamalka, he offered a range of two kilometers, but said it is unclear as to how much it weighed and what it was filled with.
Later, Maurizio Barbeschi of WHO said that the UN Human Rights Council could be a venue to rule on WHO used chemical weapons. Angela Kane cites as other precedents the inquiry into the killing of Benazir Bhutto and the Hariri Tribunal.
UNITED NATIONS, August 29 -- The UN chemical weapons team negotiated and got into Syria to investigate three incidents, including Khan al Asal as requested by the Syrian government.
On August 29, after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that he spoke with US President Barack Obama and the team would now leave Syria on August 31, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Farhan Haq if Khan al Asal was looked at.
In due course, Haq answered.
Inner City Press asked if that means the UN thinks its team will get back in, even after the type of missile strike that is being publicly discussed. Haq did not answer that.
Of the 1000 other UN staff, nationals and internationals, still in Syria Inner City Press asked if any of them would be leaving on Saturday with Angela Kane, Ake Sellstrom on the team. This question was not answered.
Inner City Press asked, who decided to jettison the investigation of Khan al Asal, and how was it decided? The answer appears to be that the team needs to be present as its Ghouta samples are tested. But wouldn't this have been true of the Khan al Asal samples the UN asked to be let in to take?
The feeling of a rush-job was inescapable. The idea of a second visit by a UN chemical weapons team seems unrealistic. Ban wants to make the UN relevant, or useful.
When Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Farhan Haq about the team earlier this week, Haq said they would produce an "evidence based narrative." Initially their mandate was to determine only if chemical weapons had been used, not who used them.
But every narrative has a plot, and this plot appears already written, at least on the American side.
The UK plot thickened on August 28, with David Cameron modifying his proposal after Labor's proposed amendments to provide for a second, later parliamentary vote. In France there will be a September 4 "emergency debate," but no vote.
From the transcript of what Ban said in Vienna:
"I have spoken to President Obama yesterday. We discussed how the UN and the world can work together particularly with the United States, how we can expedite the process of the investigation. I have also expressed my wish that this investigation team.. will continue their investigation activities until tomorrow, Friday, and will come out of Syria by Saturday morning and will report to me as soon as they come out of Syria."
Inner City Press had asked UN spokesperson Farhan Haq at Tuesday's noon briefing when it was that the UN formally requested access to al Ghouta -- on Saturday, August 24 or before? Video here, from Minute 12. Video with captions, on Inner City Press YouTube channel, here and embedded below, with transcript.
Haq read out a press statement from August 22, in which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said a request is being sent. Then, Haq said, Ban's High Representative on Disarmament Angela Kane "stepped forward with the request" -- on August 24, Saturday.
It was granted the next day.
Inner City Press asked again, was there any formal request by the UN other than Ban's press statement, before August 24? Haq called this "semantics." But when Inner City Press asked Ban's spokespeople to respond to widely circulated press releases about a request being made to Ban, the UN says the actual formal request had not been received yet, and so: no comment. Why should the UN say it must be different for Syria?
How could the UN be so sloppy? Or was it sloppy?
While the delay to Sunday (or Monday, when the team got out and said, if this YouTube video on which Haq declined comment when Inner City Press asked is not false, that they are not even looking at what type of munition was used in part because they didn't want to put it in their white UN 4 by 4) is now an element in the case for missile strikes, the UN didn't formally ASK until Saturday, in the person of Angela Kane
So the fact that Germany has expressed a willingness to join a coalition to strike Syria, without UN Security Council approval, and the Germany's Angela Kane's role in the "UN's" chemical weapons inspection team should be noted.
But by most media covering the UN, it is not. When Inner City Press even mentions Ladsous' and UN Peacekeeping's French connection, Ladsous refuses to answer questions, and some media, including the French wire service Agence France Presse on one of whose management boards Ladsous served, have even filed complaints with the UNagainst Inner City Press.
Another major wire service, Reuters, joined in the second of AFP's complaints. On August 26 Reuters based a piece essentially selling or planning for the legality of military strikes on Syria without Security Council or even General Assembly approval around, as lead, a comment by the Council on Foreign Relations' Richard Haass.
And now on July 10, in a statement issued three hours after a meeting of which no independent photographing much less coverage was allowed, the UN says Kane and Sellstrom have agreed to go to Syria, to get on the road to Damascus. All in three days.
On Tuesday after Churkin's lengthy stakeout -- Inner City Press asked him about the evidence of Russian state television reporter Anastasia Popova -- at the day's noon briefing Inner City Press asked:
Inner City Press: I wanted to know about this 80-page presentation that Russia says it made to, to the Secretary-General. Do you have any comment on it? How does it affect he invitation from Syria? Is it the biggest submission that he has received to date and when will it be given to Mr. Sellström?
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, I don’t think that Ambassador [Vitaly] Churkin made an 80-page presentation. What he did was to hand over a document of that length. And needless to say, given that it is a weighty and quite technical document, that is being studied. And of course, it is then for my colleagues in the Office for Disarmament Affairs to analyse and to then provide guidance and advice to the Secretary-General. That document, that information was only handed over just very, very recently. Ambassador Churkin came to the stakeout directly from the meeting with the Secretary-General; therefore, I think you would not expect us to have an immediate detailed comment. The Secretary-General has stated repeatedly that he takes seriously all credible allegations. And of course, there is a technical mission headed by Dr. Aka Sellström. And that mission has the job to look into all credible allegations. And so therefore, when material is provided by Member States, then it is looked at extremely carefully.
Inner City Press: this among the most detailed presentations so far that had been turned in to either the Secretariat or the team? Can you characterize that?
Spokesperson: No, I can’t, really, no.
Similarly on July 8 when asked by Inner City Press, Nesirky declined to provide specifics on how much of Popova's presentation had been given to Sellstrom by Angela Kane's team. But at 7 pm on Wednesday, the UN announced in pertinent part:
“Professor Sellström provided an oral update on the Mission’s off-site activities, which included the analysis of information received from Member States and fact-finding activities in a neighboring country. The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Ms. Angela Kane, and Professor Sellström, have agreed to accept the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic’s invitation to visit Damascus with a view to completing the consultations on the modalities of cooperation required for the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.”
That would be the UNMIAUCWSAR -- quite an acronym. And what will it accomplish? Watch this site.
