By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 6 --
Selling US
military
action on
Syria,
Secretary of
State John
Kerry told
MSNBC's Chris
Hayes that
Saudi Arabia
and Qatar are
involved in
training armed
groups in
Syria to be
more moderate.
Kerry said:
"there’s
a
very careful
vetting
process that’s
taking place
where people
have to come
out of Syria
and they spend
a period of
time. They are
trained
appropriately
after being
vetted, and
then they go
back in. And
the Turks, the
Jordanians,
the Qataris,
the Saudis,
the Emiratis,
a lot of
people are
involved in
that process."
This
description of
Saudi and
Qatari
involvement in
Syria seems
partial, to
say the least.
Kerry went on
to name, as
supporters of
military
action on
Syria, this
same grouping
along with
France and one
other country:
Poland.
Observers
of
how the US
works in the
United Nations
now expect the
US to strong
arm
micro-states
to come out in
support.
Meanwhile
at
the G20 in St.
Petersburg, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon met
with and
issued
read-outs
about Turkey's
Ergogan,
Germany's
Merkel and
France's
Francois
Hollande (and
foreign
minister
Laurent
Fabius).
Two
attendees were
listed for
France, as Ban
brought along
envoy Lakhdar
Brahimi to the
meeting with
the French
(but not
Germany or
Turkey). With
Erdogan Ban
discussed not
only Syria but
also Cyprus.
But with
France, there
was no mention
of Mali, or
the Central
African
Republic, or
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo.
In
terms of the
training that
Kerry claimed
for Syrian
rebels, it's
worth noting as
Inner City
Press did
months ago
that the DRC's
391st
Battalion,
implicated in
135 rapes in
Minova in
November 2012
and in corpse
desecration
more recently,
was trained by
the US.
Click
here to view
the US Mission
to the UN's
response
to Inner City
Press about
the DRC 391st
Battalion. We
publish
responses --
when we get
them. While
not answered
or allowed at
the UN on
September 5,
will US
Ambassador
Samantha Power
address, in DC
at the Center
for American
Progress later
today, why not
wait for the
UN report?
Watch this
site.
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