Video: Syrian National Coalition's Khaled Khoja Admits to Inner City Press a Free Syrian Alliance "Tactical Alliance" with Jabhat al Nusra

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 30 -- When Khaled Khoja, as new president of the Syrian National Coalition, held a UN press conference on April 29, Inner City Press asked him about the Free Syrian Army working with Jabhat al Nusra, and the UN reports that the FSA has recruited and used child soldiers.

 Here is the video; below is Inner City Press' transcription:

Inner City Press: There’s a lot of talk about how some of the military advances have been because of either a link-up with, or due to fighting by al Nusra and other listed terrorist groups. What are the relations, if any, between the Free Syrian Army and al Nusra? And also, earlier the UN special advisor on children and armed conflict said that in the Free Syrian Army there were issues of child soldier recruiting. Are you aware of any steps taken to address that?

Khoja: The role of al Nusra in Idlib is being exaggerated. Maybe 10 percent of the forces were from al Nusra forces in Idlib. But they have good propaganda. Some of the media, including the media of regime, are exaggerating the role of al Nusra. Not only in Idlib. Everywhere.

But sometimes, the Free Syrian Army has no chance, when the Free Syrian Army is battling against the regime. Fighting against the regime, has no chance to fight on different fronts. Sometimes they are fighting on different fronts, against ISIL, against the regime, and sometimes against Jabhat al Nusra, as it happened in the southern area. Sometimes in war time Damascus.

So, Free Syrian Army sometimes made tactical alliance with some different forces, including al Nusra in Idlib. But we have seen now that al Nusra is not that big force in Idlib.. Sham,  the first division, and Sham division in Idlib, created a civil governance, there, and al Nusra could not oppose this governance.

Now we have a lot of challenges, because more than 400,000 people were living in Idlib, and I don’t think that even the civil governance could handle this situation. As a coalition we have our interim government helping the forces to provide services, in cluding health care and education and other infrastructure, but it’s a big challenge to continue managing the situation under the barrel bombs.

  So, the question on FSA child soldiers was not answered. Khoja said that the US train and equip program for now does not benefit the FSA. 

Back on April 24 when the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura came to the UN Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked him if the Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen changed any of the dynamics on Syria. 

  In reply, de Mistura told Inner City Press that "everything in the region these days is connected." He added that he is focused on Syria.

 Inner City Press also asked de Mistura about criticism made by his former adviser Mouin Rabbani on Qatar's Al Jazeera TV, that Mistura is out of his depth and not up for the task.

 De Mistura replied, I will not respond, you would do the same, if one of your ex-colleagues...

  Inner City Press asked the question because it hadn't been asked, tellingly.  Now Inner City Press has heard more; watch this site 
   

Syrian Coalition's Khoja Admits to Inner City Press FSA's "Tactical Alliance" with Al Nusra Front, No Child Soldiers Answer

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 -- When Khaled Khoja, as new president of the Syrian National Coalition, held a UN press conference on April 29, Inner City Press asked him about the Free Syrian Army working with Jabhat al Nusra, and the UN reports that the FSA has recruited and used child soldiers.

  Khoja acknowledged that the FSA has had "tactical alliances" with al Nusra, for example in Idlib. He said the ties are exaggerated, including by "media of the regime." But given that Nusra is a UN-designated terrorist group, what to make of these alliances?

  The question on FSA child soldiers was not answered. Khoja said that the US train and equip program for now does not benefit the FSA. 

Back on April 24 when the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura came to the UN Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked him if the Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen changed any of the dynamics on Syria. 

  In reply, de Mistura told Inner City Press that "everything in the region these days is connected." He added that he is focused on Syria.

 Inner City Press also asked de Mistura about criticism made by his former adviser Mouin Rabbani on Qatar's Al Jazeera TV, that Mistura is out of his depth and not up for the task.

 De Mistura replied, I will not respond, you would do the same, if one of your ex-colleagues...

  Inner City Press asked the question because it hadn't been asked, tellingly.  Now Inner City Press has heard more; watch this site.

 Dina Kawar said Mistura “mentioned what he will do next month in Geneva, holding separate meetings with the Syrian parties, representatives of the civil society and regional and international actors. He will provide his assessment to the Secretary General and keep the Security Council informed,” Kawar said, taking no questions.

  Staffan de Mistura emerged, saying he would take two or three questions. He said, “the only way is to test, a stress test,” a phrase like his previous “freeze.” He said, “by end of June we should be in the position to reassess whether any convergence on substance and report to the Secretary General.”

  De Mistura said, “This is not Geneva Three, this is a series of consultation, one to one. We can convene and ask everyone to come and not exclude anyone.. Iran is a member country of the UN, it is a major play in the region, it has influence in Syria. The UN has the right, and will be inviting everyone.”

  Unlike Montreux, it was observed by... one wag.

  Back on April 16, that the Syrian chemical weapons victim and doctor who briefed the UN Security Council did so behind closed doors, with no UN Television coverage, was a product of the Council's rules.

  It was an “Arria formula” meeting, which was not be listed in the UN Journal or even on the blue electronic signs outside it. (The sign said the meeting was about "nutrition.")

  Afterward chemical weapons victim Qusai Zakarya took some questions in the hall, before again going behind closed doors of the UN Censorship Alliance, see below.

  Inner City Press in this public space asked Qusai Zakarya what he thought of UN envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura.

Qusai Zakarya said replied to Inner City Press, "I think Staffan de Mistura is a hypocrite. I think his very disgusting attempt to shine up the image of the regime is exposed to the Syrian poeple and to a nlot of members of the international community. His offer on freezes was a joke. If he really cared about saving lives he would have convinced the regime to stop using its fire power. We have a lot of outrage against his attempts, the deal he was trying to offer, it's just another false attempt to shine up the image of the regime."

   Inner City Press asked him if he would meet with any UN official. “I can't answer that questio right now,” he said. Then the convoy went to the clubhouse of the UN Censorship Alliance, which had sent notice only to those who pay it money: "They will have just presented their accounts in front of the UN Security Council at an Arria-formula meeting on Syria Chemical Weapons."

     But why would the doctors, in holding a supposed press conference afterward, not do so in the UN Press Briefing Room on UNTV, as can be done by any NGO or individual as long as sponsored by a member state? 

On South Sudan Sanctions, Deng Tells ICP UN Security Should Have Waited for Its March 12 Visit to African Union

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 3 -- After the UN Security Council voted unanimously to create a South Sudan sanctions committee and Panel of Experts on March 3, Inner City Press asked the country's Permanent Representative Francis Deng about the vote, and about children abducted to become soldiers, allegedly by a government-aligned militia.

    Deng replied that sanctions rarely help and that the reasons the US had waited still applied.

   Inner City Press asked if Deng thought the Security Council should have waited until its meets with the African Union Peace and Security Council on March 12. Deng replied that the Council talks about coordinating with and even deferring to regional bodies and Africa, but then doesn't.

  On child soldiers, Deng said that their abduction violates the country's cultural traditions. We'll have more on this.

 On February 27 after UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric read out a vague summary of the UN's investigation into the deadly downing of one of its helicopters in South Sudan last August, Inner City Press asked for specifics:

Inner City Press: you said that they were unable to determine who did it, that it came from an area between In Opposition and the Government.  But there was this audiotape of Peter Gadet threatening the UN to shoot down helicopters that was… you know, days before it was shot down.  So, can you say or find out whether these Board of Inquiry people listened to the audio and whether they found it not credible or… why it's not part of the report?

Spokesman Dujarric:  They had all the information that was available to them.  As a general point, a threat is a threat.  I think what they were looking at is for hard evidence to figure out who had shot the helicopter, they were not able to come in with any conclusive information.

Inner City Press: Do they use a different standard of proof than even a court because usually like it seems like --

Spokesman:  A Board of Inquiry tries to establish what happened.  Obviously, they looked at the helicopter and all the information they had.  That's the conclusion they came up with. 

  But why? Beyond Gadet, the International Crisis Group, for example, implies that the government itself shot the copter down: 

"an UNMISS helicopter was shot down on 26 August, killing three. Although the results of its investigation have not been released, initial reports suggest this was done from territory controlled by the government and by a weapons system know to be in the hands of the government [n. 100:  Crisis Group interviews, UN officials, Nairobi, November 2014; defence and security adviser, Nairobi, December 2014.]"

  For UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous to remain silent is consistent with its approach to the Tabit rapes in Darfur, the Minova rapes in November 2012 by the DR Congo Army, and the shooting at unarmed protesters in Haiti (to say nothing of the killing by cholera there.)

  Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: In UN Security Council, French March Has DR Congo, Haiti and Other Colonies, Herve Ladsous' DPKO, For Now

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 25 -- With the UN Security Council presidency set to be taken over in March by France, Inner City Press is today exclusively publishing the draft “Program of Work” for the month, here. 

  As Inner City Press also exclusively reported late last year, Council member Chad's program was circulated in advance by Australia; this shouldn't only happen to Elected Ten, much less only to African, members of the Security Council.

  As reflected by the Program of Work Inner City Press isputting online today, France plans to hold debates on March 9 on the European Union, and on March 25 on Children and Armed Conflict. 

  Will they inquire into why their Herve Ladsous' mission in South Sudan conceal for a full week the February 15 seizing of child soldiers, which Inner City Press asked the UN about on February 24 and 25?

  On March 4, Libya is on the agenda; on March 5 it's Yemen, where according to well-placed UN sources France long opposed sanctions on Ali Saleh because of his willingness to give contracts to French company TOTAL. There's Syria too, that day.

  There's scheduled a trip to the Central African Republic, Burundi and Addis Ababa -- reported after Inner City Pressdid by Al Jazeera, obviating selective retaliation -- from March 10 to 13. Inner City Press had the draft “Terms of Reference” for the trip; watch this site.

 (We don't lightly note retaliation, after Cote d'Ivoire exclusives being called a "hostile act" and for example today this.)

  On March 17 it's Darfur, where Ladsous' UNAMID mission covered up mass rape in Tabit in a November 9, 2014 press release which has yet to be retracted. 

  There's also Lebanon that day, and a Troop Contributing Countries meeting about the DR Congo, where Ladsous has declined to attack the Hutu FDLR as he did the largely Tutsi M23 - history here, and refusals to answere here,here and here (Vine). If the current French government cared about the UN, it would at least take action on this.

   On March 18, what else but Haiti, and a briefing on the Council's visit to other former French colonies?

  On March 19, a briefing on MONUSCO in the DR Congo -- will envoy Martin Kobler have by then been named to replace Valerie Amos atop OCHA, as Inner City Press has reported on in exclusives credited by, among others, UK Channel 4, here?

  The rest of the months is blur or to be boycotted. All 14 other Security Council members have the Press at their reviews; France has until now - or since Inner City Press' reporting on Cote d'Ivoire -- refuses; watch this site.

    

At UN, Forest Whitaker Answers Inner City Press on South Sudan, Cites Mexico and Myanmar -- But Not Scotland, Independence Vote

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 8, more here -- With Children and Armed Conflict the subject of a UN Security Council's debate on September 8, Forest Whitaker spoke in the Council and then took questions at the media stakeout outside.

  Inner City Press asked Whitaker about South Sudan, where his foundation runs a program. Whitaker said while agreements have been signed, the conflict has "not ended in any way." Video here and embedded below.

  Since he played "The Last King of Scotland" Idi Amin, Whitaker was asked about the vote on independence on Scotland. He said he didn't have the expertise and turned the question over to the UN's Leila Zerrougui, who also declined to answer.

   Whitaker's foundation also runs programs in Uganda, Mexico and, he said, in the United States on gangs. It is considering Myanmar, and talking at an early stage about Lebanon. Whitaker said he needs more data.

  Here's something on which no more data is needed, only a commitment for UN Peacekeeping to end its hypocrisy: why will UN Peacekeepinginclude the child recruiting DR Congo Army in its upcoming mission in Central African Republic?

   When UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous spoke inside the Council, he did not directly address this hypocrisy. Obliquely he said that individual soldiers from this child soldier recruiting army will be screened.

  But even that is less than meaningful. For the 130 rapes in Minova by the DRC Army in November 2012, only two soldiers were convicted. So the other rapists could serve in CAR with Ladsous' screening seal of approval.

   What of UN Peacekeeping's hypocrisy under Ladsous, who refuses to answer questions on it (video here, UK coverage here), and the lack of oversight?

    

DR Congo Army, On UN's Child Soldier Recruiters List, To "Initially" Stay in Central African Republic Mission of Herve Ladsous: Human Rights Due Diligence?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Follow up on Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 19, more here -- What would it take for an army to be deemed to fail the supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy of UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous?

  The question is raised by the impending inclusion of units from the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country with a large UN Peacekeeping mission, in the UN Peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, MINUSCA. On its face, it strikes some as absurd.

  But the DRC army is also on the UN's list of child soldier recruiters. Shouldn't that by itself -- leaving aside the near total impunity for that army's 130 rapes in Minova in November 2012 - disqualify them from MINUSMA?

    UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous refused Press questions for months about the Minova rapes, video here. On the issue of the DRC Army being on the child soldier recruitment list, Inner City Press has been informed of concern in the Security Council, including from the chair of the Children and Armed Conflict Committee.

  But when Inner City Press asked Deputy Permanent Representative Peter Wilson of the UK, the Council's president for August, about the issue, he said that UN envoy -- and former UN force commander in the DRC -- Babacar Gaye had spoken about training for all troops joining MINUSMA.

   To Gaye himself, Inner City Press asked about the child soldier recruitment list. Gaye added the issue, also raised in the Council, of DRC hosting publicly-funded peacekeepers while sending its own soldiers to CAR. But, Gaye said, it is an "opportunity," they will "initially" be included.

  Gaye, ever genial, also answered a Press question about the territorial integrity of CAR. Tellingly, he concluded by saying that "our boss, Mr. Ladsous" wants helicopters flying on September 15. Beyond the obvious joke about drones, it reflects that Ladsous, as boss, is responsible once again for failing to implement or explain the supposed UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy.

  What will NGOs which have also raised this issue say? About Ladsous's tenure at UN Peacekeeping, about those who put him there? We'll have more on this. 

  Ladsous' extraordinary refusal to answer Inner City Press questions, noted as far away as the UK's New Statesman, here, and evidenced on CAR as well, here, is intended to make more difficult Press reporting on UN Peacekeeping - and it does. Not impossible, however. This reporting will continue.

Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the human rights due diligence policy again on August 19 - and he said that MINUSCA chief Babacar Gaye will be expecting the question from the Press at 5 pm.  Video here.

  Inner City Press asked Dujarric if in Human Rights Watch's Ken Roth's meeting with Ban Ki-moon on August 18, this issue arose. Dujarric wouldn't say, not even what countries were discussed. Haiti cholera? No answer -- including from HRW's top two spokespeople. We will continue to have more on this as well. Watch this site.

   

DR Congo Troops To Leave MINUSCA Mission in CAR, ICP Reported, Asks Of It and What Ban Discussed with HRW's Ken Roth, No Answer

By Matthew Russell Lee, Follow up on Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 19, more here -- Will the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo be leaving the Central African Republic on September 15, when the UN takes over the peacekeeping mission there, or at the end of the year?

 This army, the FARDC, committed at least 130 rapes in Minova in November 2012, the UN has been making excuses for it. UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous refused Press questions for months, video here. There is also the issue of the FARDC being listed as a recruiter of child soldiers.

   On August 15 Inner City Press exclusively reported that the  FARDC will leave the UN Peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic, MINUSCA, at latest in January. They currently are part of the MISCA force but will not be included in its successor, MINUSCA - at least not after three and a half months.

   Multiple peacekeeping sources told Inner City Press this is has to do with the DRC Army's "abuses." That is to say, while Ladsous refused to implement the UN's stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy and suspend UN support to the 391st and 41st Battalions involved in the Minova rapes, now problems in the DRC Army are excluding it from the mission in CAR.

  Ladsous' extraordinary refusal to answer Inner City Press questions, noted as far away as the UK's New Statesman, here, and evidenced on CAR as well, here, is intended to make more difficult Press reporting on UN Peacekeeping - and it does. Not impossible, however.

  While Inner City Press had known this for some time, it waited to give senior peacekeeping personnel a change to deny, or put some gloss on it. It was not denied; hence Inner City Press' exclusive August 15 report.

  On August 18, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

Inner City Press: I heard from a number of sources that FARDC, the Congolese army, DRC army, which is currently part of MISCA [African-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic], will no longer be, remain with MINUSCA [United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic], the UN mission beginning in September, after 1 January. I was told it has to do in some way with human rights due diligence policy. And I like you to, if you can find out from [the Department of Peacekeeping Operations]…

Spokesman Dujarric: I can find out.

    Video here. A day later, not answer. So Inner City Press asked Dujarric again on August 19 - and he said that MINUSCA chief Babacar Gaye will be expecting the question from the Press at 5 pm.  Video here.

  Inner City Press asked Dujarric if in Human Rights Watch's Ken Roth's meeting with Ban Ki-moon on August 18, this issue arose. Dujarric wouldn't say, not even what countries were discussed. Haiti cholera? No answer -- including from HRW's top two spokespeople. We will continue to have more on this.

   

On Free Syrian Army Child Soldiers, ICP Asks UN's Zerroughui Who Says She Raised It in DC: US Child Soldier Prevention Act Waiver?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 1 -- The UN's envoy on Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerroughui on July 1 took questions about her most recent report, on which Inner City Press reported on May 14, including the ten paragraphs over three pages about Syria.

 

  Since then, the US Obama Administration has announced a plan for $500 million to the "vetted" Syrian opposition: presumably, the "Free Syrian Army."

  As to this Free Syrian Army the UN report states that "most children associated with the FSA-affiliated group, as young as 14 years, indicated that they had received weapons training and 4,000 to 8,000 Syrian pounds pay per month. 

   Examples are given: "a 17 year-old boy who joined the al-Murabiteen battalion of the Falloujat Houran FSA brigade in Bosra al-Sham, Dara'a Governate, reportedly received a fifteen-day weapons training in al-Lajat valley close to Bosra al-Sham."

  Also, "In June 2013, two brothers, aged 16 and 17, joined the FSA-affiliated Majd al-Islam brigade in Dara'a, where they cleaned weapons and performed security duties."

 So on July 1, Inner City Press asked Zerroughui about the FSA. She said “we put 'FSA and affilaited groups,' because some groups at not entirely under the control of the FSA, but they are not distancing themselves from the FSA.”

 Inner City Press asked Zerroughui is she'd raised this to the US. “Yes, I did with the US, I visiting Washington and raised the issue, the Child Act was discussed.” 

That's the US 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which provides for example:

It is the sense of Congress that— 

 (1) the United States Government should condemn the conscription, forced recruitment, or use of children by governments, paramilitaries, or other organizations; 

 (2) the United States Government should support and, to the extent practicable, lead efforts to establish and uphold international standards designed to end the abuse of human rights described in paragraph (1); 

  There are prohibitions on funding which can only be overridden for formal, public findings in a waiver by the President. Would or will that be used in this case? Watch this site.

   

UN's New Syria Report Cites US Bomber Then US Spin, ISIS, Again UNtransparently Released

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 20 -- The UN released its Syria aid access report in the same murky, pre-spun way on June 20 as it did on April 23, and then on May 22, with no reforms instituted.

  The report is consonant with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's speech earlier on June 20 at the Asia Society, click here for that. It nevertheless recites for example that "on 25 May, a citizen of the United States was involved in a suicide bombing in Syria."

  But, unlike for other foreign fighters, Ban's report quickly gives the US position: "Following the incident, the US underscored its concern about the flow of foreign fighters into and out of Syria."

 Similarly, while ostensibly calling for an arms embargo in hisAsia Society speech, Ban did not directly address calls in Washington to support the Free Syrian Army -- which is still listed by another part of the UN as recruiting and using child soldiers.

 
  Ban's report says “recent advancement of ISIS in Iraq... may strengthen the presence of extremist groups in Syria.” Yeah - just maybe.

  Just before 6 pm on June 20, the UN Spokesperson's Office announced over its "squawk" system to correspondents still in the building that the report had been circulated. This meant it had been placed in piece of furniture in the Spokesperson's Office which has sat empty for many days now.

  Apparently only these Syria reports are now pre-released, pre-announced and pre-spun. 

  In terms of the Spokesperson's duty to answer questions, there was by closure on June 20 no answer to Inner City Press' request to confirm or deny Ban Ki-moon was handed legal papers about the introduction of cholera into Haiti as he entered the Asia Society, Inner City Press coverage here.

  Back on May 22 the UN's go-to wire service, which has also tried to get other media thrown out, gushed that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's "toughly worded report... said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government bore the greater responsibility."

   This wire's report didn't mention the Free Syrian Army displacing people (in the report) or the FSA recruiting child soldiers (in another recent UN report, which Inner City Press noted here.)

  Nor did it mention, for example, "45,000 in areas besieged by opposition forces in Nubul and Zahra." The number remains the same in the June 20 report.

   As we diplomatically sketched on April 23 hoping for some reform, the UN Spokesperson's Office makes "advance copies" of reports available. That is fine - but there is no consistency in who they tell of the availability of reports or how they make the announcement.

  Showing bias, they only "squawk" over the internal intercom system some but not all reports. 

  Now this inconsistency applies to pre-releasing some but not all reports. Who decides? How?

   Using the squawk system rather than e-mailing all resident correspondents favors media, like the UN friendly wire, which have a person sitting in their office -- for example a person who filed a "for the record" complaint against another media, than scammed Google into banning the leaked complaint from Search, misusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, click here for that.

  Other international organizations handle this with less bias. The IMF gives accredited media like Inner City Press embargoed copies of documents, and hold embargoed briefings to which accredited journalists anywhere in the world can pose questions, then wait and report at the embargo time. The UN must improve: and the Free UN Coalition for Access is working on this.

  Other have complained about this murky UN practices; others still a month ago asked FUNCA to wait a week before proposing reforms, which it did. But where are any reforms? We will continue to Press.

   If the Gulf & Western insiders on the board of the UN Correspondents Association, which tried to get other media thrown out of the UN, have a problem with disclosure, they too should push the UN to reform. But they won't even reform themselves, and for example commit not to seek the expulsion of other media from the UN. 

  The current spokesperson has taken sides on this and other things; it is time for reform. If Ban Ki-moon is so tough and principled, why was he praising the president of Sri Lanka just after a report showed him seeking to "go all the way" and kill all his opponents? This all circles back. We'll have more on this.

Further back-ground: On April 30 when UN Humanitarian chief Valerie Amos took media questions, Inner City Press asked her about two paragraphs of her report on Syria, the advance copy of which was released on April 23 as analyzed below.

   Paragraph 47 disclosed 25 UN staff members detained. Inner City Press asked, by whom? Amos said by both the government and the armed groups. 

 The June 20 report, in Paragraph 44, says "29 UN staff (27 UNRWA and 2 UNDP) are currently detained of which four are missing."

   The Free UN Coalition for Access has repeatedly asked, including at UN noon briefings, why these reports don't just go online for all to see. The response, off-camera, has been to allow translation into the UN's official six languages. Really?

  The result is that stories are written, for example here by Reuters, that focus on the Syrian government while the report has whole sections about Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, ISIS, et al. Is this retyping really "reporting" by the Reuters bureau chief, who himself is engaged in censorship, here?

 Despite the lack of any stated rule in this regard,  FUNCA and Inner City Press have been criticized for even questioning or reporting on this anti-public process. A previous UN spokesperson told Inner City Press the reason for stealth is that "the member states" would like pre-release before translation. But doesn't the Secretariat WORK for member states? Or is this how they buy the fealty of the scribes?

   But if Gulf media immediately scans and puts the advance copy online, where is the mystery? Where is the double standard? Wouldn't it be better for the UN itself to put the report online when available?

 And then not, as it did on Western Sahara, change the report after getting pushed around? FUNCA is and will remain for UN transparency and fair treatment. And FUNCA maintainsthere should be answers -- including from UN Under Secretaries General -- and written rules. The UN has outright refused to explain why for example the Turkish Cypriot leader Eroglu was allowed to speak on UNTV but Polisario is not. The lack of rules only benefits the powerful: media, countries, corporations.

  Back in April when Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'fari came to speak, Inner City Press asked him about US-made BGM-71 TOW missiles now in Syria, of the group Harakat Hazm. They are with Al Nusra, Ja'afari said.

  Inner City Press asked on what basis Ja'afari said the US approved their transfer to Syria, if they could have come through Turkey. Ja'afari said there is no way they could come in without approval from Washington. Video here -- this is Inner City Press YouTube video.

  Unlike other stakeouts, the UN did not put on its UN Webcast archive Ja'afari's long April 17 stakeout including on TOW missiles. Inner City Press asked about it on April 22 at the noon briefing, and later another UN individual acknowledged it had not gone up. But why?  Now, only after asking, it is up. Click here (TOW question and answer from Minute 15:17.) This is how the UN works, or doesn't.

  This has happened again in June  - click here.

  Ja'afari was asked by Voice of America, why Syria doesn't use Russia or China to get a meeting about Kassab. Ja'afari responded to the question; he did not say as France Ambassador Gerard Araud did on April 15 to Al Mayadeen, "You are not a journalist, you are an agent."
 
  By Araud's logic, is not Voice of America an agent? Is not France 24, also called on by Ja'afari? Ah, freedom of the press. Here is what the Free UN Coalition for Access has done so far.

   When outgoing French Ambassador Araud scheduled a press conference on human rights for April 15, he began to receive many questions, here, about blocking human rights monitoring in Western Sahara. 

  It is a policy Araud is particularly associated with, since Javier Barden quoted him calling Morocco France's "mistress." Araud spoke of suing, but hasn't.

   But when during the April 15 press conference, in which Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access were not called on, Araud was asked about France having killed people in Algeria, Araud told the questioner, You are not a journalist, you are an agent. Video here.

  The French run press conference gave the first question to Al Arabiya, for UNCA (now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance), then France 24.  By Araud's spokesperson Frederic Jung, a Voice of America affiliate was given a question. 

  Syria "Caesar" report panelist David Crane was asked who funded it and answered on camera merely that he was paid. (The photographs, Inner City Press noted and notes, are extremely troubling - all the more reason that taking Qatar's funding and denouncing the only critical question were unwise.)

  Afterward, Inner City Press asked Crane to confirm the payment was from Qatar. He confirmed it. Inner City Press asked, did you seek any other, less compromised funding? The answer was no. In fact, Crane said he gave his recommendations to the Syrian National Council. Afterward Inner City Press asked him if he meant the Turkey based group headed by Ahmed Al Jarba, and Crane said yes, than added, "The resistance" writ large.

     When Qatar sponsored an event at the UN in New York on March 21 featuring the Syrian Coalition headed by Ahmad al Jarba, a group calling its the Syrian Grassroots Movement held protests seeking to oust Jarba.

   By March 22, the group stated that some 40,000 people in 58 cities inside Syria had participated in demonstrations to get Jarba out of his post, saying "it is time to put an end to political corruption."

  Back in September 2013, France sponsored an event in the UN and called Jarba the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. French Ambassador Gerard Araud was the first questioning at Qatar's March 21 Syrian Coalition event. What is France's position now? Who chooses the leaders?

  Likewise, back in July 2013 and earlier this month, the Jarba-led Syrian Coalition held faux "UN" events in the clubhouse Ban Ki-moon's Secretariat gives to the largely Gulf and Western UN Correspondents Association. How does that now appear, in light of the anti-Jarba protests?

   Qatar's March 21 event was not listed in the UN Journal nor in the UN Media Alert. It was not on the UN's publicly available webcast.

  Select media outlets were there, when Inner City Press came in at the end to ask a question: Al Jazeera on the podium in Qatar's event, Al Arabiya like a Saudi diplomat -- not the Permanent Representative -- in the audience along with Al Hayat, even Al Hurra, on whose Broadcasting Board of Governors US Secretary of State John Kerry serves.

   The new Free UN Coalition for Access is against faux UN events, in the clubhouse the Secretariat gives to what's become its UN Censorship Alliance or elsewhere.

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