By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 13
-- The UN had
few
explanations
Friday
afternoon on
why Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon in the
late morning
passed
judgment on
the Syria
chemical
weapons report
he said he had
not seen.
As
Inner City
Press first
reported, in
the question
and answer
session of an
abruptly
closed lecture
to the Women's
International
Forum on
Friday morning,
Ban said the
UN's
forthcoming
report on
Syria will be
"overwhelming"
and will show
that chemical
weapons were
used, that
Assad has
committed many
crimes against
humanity and
will face
accountability.
Video
here, from
Minute 34:35.
"I
can't say this
publicly," Ban
said, until I
get the
report.
But he
DID say it,
putting the
bragging about
the report by
French foreign
minister
Laurent Fabius
and UK
officials in a
new light.
At the
noon briefing
that followed,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
associate
spokesperson
three times
about what Ban
said. Haq said
it won't be
transcribed,
Ban made some
off the cuff
remarks but
he'll still
look at the
report with
fresh eyes
WHEN HE GETS
IT.
But
how could call
it
overwhelming
and says what
it will
conclude if he
hasn't seen
it?
Inner
City Press
asked if Ban
had passed
these same
conclusions to
France's
Laurent Fabius
and to the UK,
whose
officials were
quoted in the
Times of
London
speaking on
what the
report shows.
Haq
again refused
what the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has requested,
that the UN at
least list
which
countries Ban
has spoken
with about
Syria and the
report, for
example in the
past week.
Haq
would not even
say if the UN
would put the
video of Ban's
Q&A
answers on its
website,
calling that a
technical
question.
(Later, after
this
questioning,
it did go
online.)
Inner
City Press
asked, since
it now
strongly looks
like Ban was
willing to
pre-judge the
report and
pass his
conclusion not
only to the
Women's
International
Forum but
before that to
France and the
UK, how does
the UN respond
to this
showing of
Ban's
gun-jumping?
Haq
declined to
list Ban's
calls, saying
his diplomatic
work
continues.
Clearly. Watch
this site.
, 
