As Iran Bombing Condemned by UN Council, Jundollah Not Named

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/sc1bombiran071610.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 16, updated -- The bombing in Iran claimed by Jundollah, like that in Uganda claimed by Al Shabab, will be condemned by the UN Security Council on Friday afternoon.

Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State of the U.S. which Iran has accused of supporting Jundollah was quick to condemn the bombing, and to name Jundollah.

Now the Security Council will echo Hillary, using the same boiler plate statement it applied to the carnage in Kampala -- not naming the perpetrator, even after credit has been claimed.

The Council's Uganda statement on Monday did not blame Al Shabab by name. Inner City Press was told that the statement was circulated to Council members before Al Shabab had taken credit. In this case, Jundollah took credit more quickly, and Hillary Clinton named the group in her statement.

But the decision is made, not to name the perpetrator. A Council diplomat who confirmed the absence of Jundollah from the statement as of 3:30 p.m. shrugged when asked no blame was being cast.

Friday, the Council is engaged in a day long debate on “conflict prevention.” As such, the Iran bombing statement could more easily be amended to include the name Jundollah and still be circulated and approved before this month's Council President, Joy Ogwu of Nigeria, reads it out loud at the stake out.

At the stakeout, even though it is now July 16, the placement of the flags has yet to be changed. When May turned into June, with the Council in a marathon meeting about the assault on the flotilla to Gaza, the flag and name plates were changed at the stroke of midnight. This month, it has taken sixteen days and counting.

Update of 5:11 p.m. -- with the “conflict prevention” debate over, there is a lull. The Iran bombing press statement will not be read out until 6:05 pm, Inner City Press is told, “to give time for members if they want to object.” But no one will, we predict. The statement is pure boiler plate and does not mention Jundollah. A pro-Iran reporter mutters, why so late, I want to go home.

Update of 6:18 p.m. -- the Iran bombing statement has been read by Council president Joy Ogwu of Nigeria, echoing the Uganda bombing statement of four days ago. Inner City Press asked, since Jundollah has taken credit, Iran has accepted the claim and blames two Permanent Council members - the US and UK - for supporting Jundollah, why not name or at least discuss it? She answered that due process and investigation are necessary. Investigation by who? The Iranian authorities, she says.

Nigeria is feting its foreign minister tonight, not at Nigeria House on 44th Street but 13 blocks north. We have to get out and about, they say...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/sc1bombiran071610.html

At UN, Bombs In Iraq and Iran Draw Near-Identical Boiler Plate Statements, Orwellian Outrage

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1boilerplate102509.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- Suicide bombings on successive Sundays in Iran and Iraq drew nearly identical press statements from the UN Security Council in New York. Beyond the boiler plate, the difference was speed: the bombing in Baghdad was immediately condemned by the United States, via a statement in the name of Ambassador Susan Rice, following by a press statement emailed out in the name of the Council's 15 members.

The Council's more delayed response to bombing in Iran, which killed Revolutionary Guard officials among others on October 18, was in the form of a four minute press stakeout on October 20 by this month's Council president Le Luong Minh, the Ambassador of Viet Nam.

Inner City Press asked him if the Council had discussed Iran's accusation of involvement by the U.S. and United Kingdom, and request for permission to pursue Jundallah into Pakistan. Video here, from Minute 3:04.

"We did not discuss that particular attack," said Le Luong Minh. But then what attack was the Council discussing? Perhaps that is the problem with the Council's cookie-cutter press statements about bombings. As George Orwell might have said, a failure to consider new words leads to a lack of thinking.

A correspondent asked if the phrase about human rights was added with specific reference to Iran. But the phrase is just part of the boiler plate template, repeated word for word five days later about Iraq.

Inner City Press also asked Le Luong Minh, "Who wrote the statement?" He replied, "The Presidency did." But which Presidency? How far back?

These two bombings are significant, as well as tragic for the victims and their families. The boiler plate only devalues them.

Footnote: After the Iran statement stakeout, a European Council member's staffer handed out copies of the statement. "On behalf of the Vietnamese Presidency," he hastened to point out, smiling.

More seriously, some pundits are so eager to see the government in Tehran under fire that they have portrayed the bombing of the Revolutionary Guards as related to the street protests of the contested election. But sometimes the enemy of one's enemy shouldn't be presented as a friend...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1boilerplate102509.html