On
Syria, Araud
Omits Chemical
Weapons, AFP
Makes Much of
Them
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
28 -- Is the
issue of
chemical
weapons use in
Syria
just a
bargaining
chip, flashed
and then
forgotten?
Midday on
Friday
July 26 after
a closed door
meeting with
Syrian
oppositionists,
French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
emerged, made
a statement
and answered
questions. But
he did not
even mention
chemical
weapons.
French
Mission
transcript
here;
Inner City
Press analysis
here.
At
11 pm Friday,
the UN
e-mailed out a
vague "joint
statement"
by the
"Government of
the Syrian
Arab Republic,
the High
Representative
for
Disarmament
Affairs
[Angela Kane]
and the Head
of
the United
Nations
Investigation
Mission," Ake
Sellstrom.
It
was one line:
"The
discussions
were thorough
and productive
and
led to an
agreement on
the way
forward."
Inner City
Press
tweeted
out this
comment, as
vague as US
Secretary of
State John
Kerry's claim
about an
agreement to
talk between
Israel and
Palestine.
But
while French
Ambassador to
the UN Gerard
Araud showed
by his silence
how peripheral
or unhelpful
to the Gulf
and Western
cause the
chemical
weapons issue
has become,
Agence France
Presse for
example
found a way to
turn the one
line into a
whole story:
add a quote
from
one of UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's four
Associate
Spokespeople.
This is how
this UN works.
AFP,
by contrast,
did not cover
the
UN's
culpability
for killing
5000
people in
Haiti by
bringing in
cholera,
which Inner
City Press asked
about at
Friday's UN
noon briefing;
nor the many scandals
swirling
around Herve
Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head UN
peacekeeping.
This
too is how
this UN works:
faux
UN briefing by
non-media
organizations
which
spy for the UN,
to allow Saudi
backed
oppositionists
to try to
lay
the
groundwork, as
Araud did, for
a switch of UN
seat as France
has engineered
elsewhere.
But you won't
read that in
Agence France
Presse. Watch
this site.
Footnote:
while many
were
dismissive of
it, the
footage taken
in real time
by Russian
state
television
reporter Anastasia
Popova at Khan
al Asal
becomes more
pertinent
- or does it?
We'll see.
, 
