As
Brahimi
Demands His
Own Apology,
False Nobel
Report Still
Uncorrected
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 20 --
After Lakhdar
Brahimi was
named Joint
Special
Representative
on Syria and
quickly began
a flurry of
interviews
including with
a wire
service which
inaccurately
deemed him "a
Nobel Peace
Laureate,"
as noted
by Inner City
Press, saying
"it is too
early to say
whether
President
Bashar
al-Assad
should step
down."
Not
surprisingly,
the opposition
Syrian
National
Congress
quickly said
ti was
"shocked and
dismayed" and
called on
Brahimi" to
apologize to
our people for
taking this
unacceptable
position."
Instead of
just letting
this go or
ignoring it,
Brahimi "went
playground,"
retorting that
"I ask that
(he)
apologizes to
me," taken as
a reference to
SNC spokesman
George Sabra.
Ah, mediation.
Brahimi
wrote his sins
and secrets of
mediation,
along with
Salman Ahmed
who is now
adviser to US
Ambassador
Susan Rice.
Were these
moves among
their secrets?
In belated
spin, Brahimi
insisted,
"What I have
said is that
it's early for
me to say
anything
related to the
content of
this issue."
But, the
obvious
question is,
then why do
the flurry of
interviews?
And why not
correct
factual errors
that appeared
in the
write-ups?
Two days after
Brahimi was
deemed "a
Nobel Peace
Laureate,"
and a
day after
Inner City
Press
twice
questioned
this
designation,
the Nobel
Foundation told
Inner City
Press that Brahimi
"has not been
awarded a
Nobel Prize
and
should
therefore not
be referred to
as a Nobel
Laureate."
The
Nobel
Foundation's
public
releations
manager Annika
Pontikis also
said that,
until Inner
City Press'
question, no
one had asked
her
this question.
It
seems clear:
the initial
wire story
wasn't fact
checked -- in
fact, that
Brahimi
is not a Nobel
laureate is
clear from a simple
search of the
Nobel
web site
-- and those
who ran it did
not check
either.
The
"Brahimi as
Nobel Peace
laureate"
phrase
continued to proliferate,
from Reuters
to SABC,
Malta
Today, Euronews,
Ghana
Broadcasting
Corporation,
Eyewitness
News, Channel
4 and more
since.
As
Inner City
Press has
previously
asked without
answer, how
are
these things
supposed to
work?
There is the
media, then
there is
the source or
subject.
Should
Brahimi,
personally
involved in
his
public
relations
machine, have
reached out to
correct the
inaccurate
description of
himself
receiving a
prize he never
received?
Inner City
Press before
and just after
Brahimi
took the job
wrote that it
would be a
form of "Nobel
Prize lottery"
for him - if
anything good
happens, he
might be in
line for the
Nobel Peace
Prize; if not,
expectations
are low.
Further
lowering
expectations,
Brahimi
as noted above
did phone
interviews:
first with
French
state media
France 24,
telling them
that the UN
only cares
about
helping the
Syrian people.
On
August 18
Brahimi called
Reuters, which
then wrote
for yet
another
time that
Brahami is "a
Nobel
Peace laureate."
Finally, Inner
City Press
asked the
Nobel
Foundation
"whether
former UN
official (and
incoming Syria
envoy) Lakhdar
Brahimi was or
is a Nobel
Peace
laureate" and
"if others
have asked you
this." The
reply:
From:
Annika
Pontikis [at]
nobel.se
Date: Sun, Aug
19, 2012 at
1:26
PM
Subject: SV:
Is Lakhdar
Brahimi a
Nobel Peace
laureate?
To: Matthew R.
Lee [at]
InnerCityPress.com
Dear
Matthew Lee,
As
you probably
know the
United
Nations, as an
organization,
has been
awarded the
Nobel Prize.
This, however,
does not mean
that persons
affiliated to
the UN can
call
themselves
Nobel
Laureates.
The
person
referred to
below has not
been awarded a
Nobel Prize
and
should
therefore not
be referred to
as a Nobel
Laureate.
I
have not
received this
question from
others.
Kind
regards,
Annika
Pontikis
As Inner City
Press wrote
before this
answer, a
"Nobel was
given in 1988
to UN
Peacekeeping,
but if that
makes Brahimi
a Nobel
laureate many
others can
claim that
same prize.
So why the
designation? We'll
wait and
see." And we
continue to
see. What
next? Watch
this site.
, 
