On
Syria, UK
Joins France
in
Pre-Spinning
Report, Is Ban
Selective
Leaker?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 13
-- Now the UK
has joined
France in
pre-spinning
the UN report
on chemical
weapons in
Syria. UK
"officials"
appear in the
Times
of London
saying the
report will
name two forms
of rockets the
rebels are not
thought to
have.
The
question or
problem is,
how did they
get the
information?
UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
through his
spokespeople,
insists he
doesn't yet
have the
report. And
report author
Ake Sellstrom
is not
supposed to be
leaking.
On
September 11,
French foreign
minister Laurent
Fabius said
the UN
report will be
released
Monday and
will implicate
Bashar al
Assad.
At
the UN
Thursday
morning, Inner
City Press asked French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
how Fabius
knew. We
were told last
night, Araud
responded.
Inner City
Press followed
up, By whom?
By
the Secretary
General, Araud
said.
But
Ban's
associate
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
refused to
confirm this
when
Inner City
Press asked
at noon:
Inner
City Press:
not just Mr.
Araud, but
Laurent Fabius
said openly
that
the report
should come
out Monday and
that it will
implicate Mr.
[Bashar
al]-Assad. And
then Mr. Araud
said that
France, I
don’t
know if it was
him, was told
this by the
Secretary-General
last
night. So I am
asking, what I
e-mailed you,
he is a
Permanent
Representative
for France;
what does that
mean? Are you
saying it’s
not true?
Associate
Spokesperson
Haq: I don’t
know what
precisely he
has said. What
I
can say is
that the
Secretary-General
has not
received the
report
thus far. We
will let you
know once the
report has
been received.
But I cannot
confirm what
day that will
be.
Inner
City Press:
Did he speak
to France last
night, as Mr.
Araud said?
Associate
Spokesperson:
He has been in
touch with a
wide number of
Member
States…
Inner
City Press:
Did he speak
to Russia?
Associate
Spokesperson:
He has been in
touch with a
wide number of
Member
States over
the previous
days about the
crisis in
Syria, a wide
number of
Member States,
but in any
case, the
report has not
been
received.
Later
in the
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
more formally,
in the spirit
of the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info,
for
disclosure:
Inner
City Press:
Because France
has said that
it heard from
the
Secretary-General
on the topic
of the report,
I would like
to make a
request that
you at least
disclose
whether Ban
Ki-moon talked
to all
five members
of the
permanent
five. So I
just, that’s a
request.
Associate
Spokesperson:
He has been
speaking
sporadically
in recent days
with
all of the
five members,
of the five
permanent
members.
Inner
City Press:
But it’s
pretty
important.
Given what Mr.
Fabius
said, it’s
pretty
important, I’m
just making
that request.
Now
with UK
officials
claiming even
more detailed
knowledge of
the
report, it
becomes even
more
important. The
UK and France,
ostensibly
such fans of
the UN (if
only because
their Security
Council veto
rights magnify
their power)
are in fact
shredding its
credibility or
its claimed
impartiality.
The
UN Secretariat
has done this
itself, too --
given that
this UN issued
a report
exonerating
itself for
bringing
cholera to
Haiti, and
clings
to that even
after the
scientists who
delivered the
false report
now
disclaim it,
why should the
UN's report on
chemical
weapons be
treated as a
sacred cow?
A
Nordic
Ambassador on
Thursday night
argued to
Inner City
Press that
Sellstrom is a
good man.
Fine. But if
it's not him
leaking, is it
Ban? Araud
said the
Secretary
General told
France. Watch
this site.
, 
