Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 30 -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba on September 28 at his (UN-provided) residence. It was not on the UN Media Alert, but afterward his Office of the Spokesperson issued a 106 word read-out of the meeting.

  All this despite and without responding to an urgent September 24 protest from Syria's government. Inner City Press asked about Syria's letter; Ban's Office of the Spokesperson replied that it was not aware of the letter.

   Inner City Press immediately provided a copy and asked, "what is the Secretariat's response to the argument? Separately, as now applies to SG's September 28" meeting with al-Jarba?

More than a day has elapsed, and there has been no response. Rather, the questions have mounted. If it was an unofficial or personal meeting, why was there a read-out more than 100 words long?

We must therefore compare this Jarba read-out to some of Ban's other read-outs, for now just between September 22 and September 24 with a focus on Latin America.

  For the President of Paraguay on September 22, Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesperson issues a read-out of 71 words -- compared to 106 words for the Saudi sponsored Syria rebel boss Jarba.

  For the President of Panama on September 22, Ban's Office issued a read-out of 41 words, less than half of its Jarba read-out.

  On September 23 for the President Santos of Colombia, a country with major UN operations, Ban's Office of the Spokesperson issued a read out of 70 words. With Uruguay's President Mujica the read-out was 59 words, including noting that Uruguay is a major per-capita peacekeeping contributor.

  Even for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Ban's read out was shorter than for Jarba, despite Rousseff raising the US's widespread spying through the NSA. (Ban, it should be remembered, said that whistleblower Edward Snowden "misused" information and his position, in a closed door meet with Iceland parliamentarians which he later claimed was "closed").

So Ban was more detailed with Saudi-sponsored rebel Jarba than with the president of Brazil?

While we'll have more on this, Ban's "going light" (particularly when compared to his still not fully explained or justified meeting with Jarba) is not confirmed to Latin America.

   As simple one Africa example, for Ban's September 20 meeting with Amama Mbabazi, Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda, the read out was only 54 words, despite the upcoming UN Security Council trip to Uganda as well as the DRC, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

   For that, Ban's Office solicited journalists' request to go, after first limiting the invitation only to those paying money to the UN Correspondents Association, which held a faux UN briefing by Jarba in July.

(They tried again this week; the new Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info asked Ban's spokesperson's office how this was legitimate and was told to "ask UNCA." Friday the briefing was held outside the UN in a hotel; Jarba left early.)
 Then Ban's Office allowed colonial powerhouse France to handpick which correspondents could go.

And so, some wonder, particularly after his Saturday night meeting with Jarba, for whom does Ban Ki-moon work? Watch this site.