On
Syria,
UN No-Comments
Grab of Red
Cross Workers,
No Kaag &
Shell
Oil, Corporate
Games
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 14 --
Since six Red
Cross and one
Syrian Red
Crescent
workers were
kidnapped in
Syria over the
weekend, the
UN
Secretariat
has had
nothing to
say. Inner
City Press
went to
Monday's
UN noon
briefing and
asked why not.
Video
here, from
Minute 11:18.
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
twice said to
"Speak to the
ICRC." He did
not respond to
the Press
question of
why the UN
speaks out
against the
kidnapping of
aid workers
elsewhere,
even this
weekend
against a
warning shot
fired near,
but not at, a
UN
helicopter in
Eastern Congo.
Some
surmise that
because it
seems the
rebels did it,
the UN
Secretariat
is slower to
comment. It is
in the face of
this that some
UN
explanation
would be
helpful.
But
as on
questions
about the UN's
credibility
for example on
bringing
cholera to
Haiti, raised
even by the
New York
Times, the UN
Monday
refused to
comment. And
after Inner
City Press'
Haiti cholera
questions, the
noon briefing
abruptly ended
after only
sixteen
minutes.
And
so on Syria
we're left to
wonder: when
envoy Lakhdar
Brahimi said
that anyone
who can help
the Syrian
people should
come to Geneva
Two,
did
he mean Iran
and Saudi
Arabia?
Does the UN
deny the
accuracy of comments
on the Saudis
attributed to
ex-US, now-UN
official Jeff
Feltman,
who along with
Brahimi met John
Kerry?
Update:
Per a US State
Department run
media "the UN"
denies
Feltman's
quotes. OK -
but note that
the UN
did not get
any correction
of a false
report they
created that
UN
Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous now
screens for
cholera, click
here.
What
about Sigrid
Kaag, Ban's
pick to head
the Syria
chemical
weapons
mission -- what
of her work
for the UN in
Khartoum, and
before that
for Shell Oil?
On the
corporate
front, once
the quickly
ended UN noon
briefing came
off UN TV, a
show appeared
promoting the
corporate
takeover of
diplomacy,
promoting a US
graduate
school to that
effect.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info
has asked the
UN why
this show is
UNTV
-- it
unquestioningly
promoted a
softball
interview with
Pamela Falk
of CBS,
2013 president
of the UN
Correspondents
Association
which as
shown and not
explained
spies for the
UN -- and
what
the rules are,
without
substantive
answer.
This is how
the UN is
going.
Footnote:
Before
Monday's noon
briefing so
abruptly
ended, the
Agence France
Presse scribe
who once
complained of
how Herve
Ladsous got
asked a
question asked
the UN if
Brahimi would
go to
Damascus, meet
with a main
component of
the
Syrian
National
Coalition.
But the SNC
and its president
are based in
Turkey -- and
he
should know,
on the board
of UNCA
which hosted a
faux
UN briefing by
Saudi
sponsored SNC
"president"
Ahmad al
Jarba.
This too is
how the UN is
going. Watch
this site.
, 
