Syria
Deal
Leaves Open
Who Protects
Inspectors,
Ban's
Wan Report,
Qatar Falls
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 15
-- On Syria
the UN sped up
its chemical
weapons
report but now
it's largely
moot as the US
and Russia cut
their deal
in Geneva.
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon sped
up his race
for
relevance,
even calling
the report
"overwhelming"
on Friday
morning before
he had even
seen it.
But that
"news" was
overtaken. Now
what?
Saturday
US
President
Barack Obama
played 27
holes of golf
with the hosts
of
ESPN's "Pardon
the
Interruption,"
a phrase one
wag applied
to the last
ten day's
Syria news
cycles in
Washington.
(Monday Obama
will speak
from the Rose
Garden but not
on Syria --
rather the
fifth
anniversary of
the day Lehman
Brothers
bombed.)
Even
with the
abrupt change
of course on
Syria, some
still stuck to
and
inflated the
previous
script. George
Stephanopoulos,
promoting his
pre-recorded
interview with
Obama, said
that Bashar al
Assad has
killed
"hundredS of
thousands"
of Syrians,
and no one
corrected him.
Call it
inflation.
From
DC on Sunday
one question
was who will
accompany and
protect the
inspectors in
Syria? On Fox
News Sunday
Republican
Congressman
Michael McCaul
of Texas said
he hoped it
would be
Russian
soldiers.
But what about
the UN
Peacekeepers
under
Frenchman Herve Ladsous'
command? (Click
here for
Inner City
Press story
on Ladsous'
past, here for
his last press
conference.)
The
question
points out a
crossroads
that will be
hit: could
such a
protection
force included
countries who
are openly
arming the
rebels
in Syria?
Monday
in Paris, US
Secretary of
State John
Kerry had a
lunch
scheduled with
Laurent Fabius
of France and
William Hague
of the UK. Now
it's said
he'll also
meet there
with the
foreign
ministers of
Turkey and Saudi
Arabia, which
dominates much
of the
opposition
through Ahmad
al Jarba
and others.
So
where is
Qatar? Have
they really
fallen this
far? Ban
Ki-moon did an
already
outdated
interview with
France 24 in
the so-called
Qatari
Lounge, which
says it all.
In terms of
what Ban
said, he
refused to
take
responsibility
for UN
Peacekeeping
bringing
cholera to
Haiti,
since a UN
report said
otherwise.
But
the authors of
that report
have since
changed their
conclusion.
Ban
pointed out,
but not
formally, not
legally. This
makes it even
more
difficult to
take seriously
his pre-spun
report on
Syria. But
many
will. Watch
this site.
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