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

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- When the Syrian National Coalition's Hadi al Bahra belatedly held an open press conference at the UN on September 24, Inner City Press asked him about the place of the Kurds of Rojava in the SNC, and about the deadly measles vaccination campaign undertaken in territory ostensibly controlled by the opposition.

  Hadi al Bahra said that Kurds “in the KNC” are in the Coalition, and claimed that they don't want their own territory, only federalism. “Kurds are in the coalition itself. Our vice president represents Kurdish National Council, they do not look for separate government or piece of land.” That might be some Kurds -- but not all. We'll have more on this.

  On the deadly “vaccination” campaign, Hadi al Bahra precisely like Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric called it only human error, “not correct labeling, having two types of medicine in the same cabinet.” That would be, muscle relaxes injected into children. What does this portend? This is a test case.

  Hadi al Bahra said that the US is in consultation with the SNC as it conducts airstrikes. Inner City Press understands that the US only told Syria's government once, the first time -- and did not tell Russia at all.

Footnote: The first two questions to Hadi al Bahra were from US state owned media, and France 24. Then later came RFI. This is part of why the Free UN Coalition for Access complained about Hadi al Bahra initially, and Ahmad Jarba throughout his tenure, only taking questions in these media's clubhouse of UNCA, the UN's Censorship Alliance. They only publicize the events to those who paid them money; the UNCA Executive Committee tried to get the investigative Press thrown out fo the UN. It is good that Hadi al Bahra, hosted by the UK, held an open briefing. But what about the answers? We'll have more on these.