As
Power
Cites Syria
& S.
Sudan, UN Has
Photo Ops But
No First
Amendment
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 5, updated
-- There were
four new
Ambassadors
presenting
their
credentials
Monday to UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, but
the
managed
media throng
was for only
one: Samantha
Power of the
United
States.
Earlier
on
Monday, also
at the UN, the
foreign
ministers of Brazil,
Uruguay,
Argentina and
Venezuela
(which Power
called a
"regime" in
her Senate
confirmation
hearing) had
told a
different gaggle of
media
about meeting
Ban about US
spying and
Edward
Snowden.
But
Power in her remarks
in the UN
lobby did
not allude to
any of that.
She cited
"mass
atrocities in
Syria, South
Sudan,"
saying that
the US would
work with the
UN on these.
Inner City
Press
wondered: why
South Sudan
and not
Khartoum, Darfur?
Update:
the US Mission
transcript has
a semi-colon:
"mass
atrocities in
Syria; South
Sudan." Duly
noted.
Why
no mention of
the Eastern
Congo,
including the
UN still
supporting
the Army units
which
committed mass
rape in Minova
in November,
2012?
Power
took no
questions. The
next stop was
up on the 38th
floor, the
ritual
photo op.
First former
US official,
now the UN's
top political
adviser
Jeffrey
Feltman
came in, and
Ban's chief of
staff Susana
Malcorra, from
Argentina.
What might her
views be of l'affaire
Snowden if not
to say,
Malvinas?
Then
came Samantha
Power's
husband Cass
Sunstein.
One wonders
what he
would make of
the UN's
lawlessness,
represented by
its terse
"dismissal
of claims"
about bringing
cholera to
Haiti, or
its lack of a
Freedom of
Information
Act or even of
content
neutral
accreditation
and due
process rules
for
journalists.
(This, the new
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
is raising,
following the
UN's
failure
to respond to
the NYCLU last
year, here.
The slogan?
The First
Amendment
Stops on First
Avenue.)
The
credentials
were
presented; the
media was
swept out with
the option
of waiting an
hour for
Argentine
president
Cristina
Fernandez or
rushing to the
Security
Council
stakeout for
Argentine
Ambassador
Perceval's
read-out of a
Council press
statement
condemning the
attack on the
Indian
consultate in
Jalalabad,
Afghanistan.
One
can imagine a
defense of all
this: there
are complaints
that the UN
is getting too
anonymous, now
there will be
some
complaints
about a
cult of
personality.
But to some
it's the worst
of both
worlds: while
the US is the
superstar at
the UN, other
countries are
ignored, even
as they are
spied on.
The
application of
Samantha
Power's book A
Problem from
Hell to
the UN
would be
interesting.
We'll be here.
Watch this
site.
, 
