As
Brahimi
Demands SNC
Apologize,
False Nobel
Report Still
Uncorrected
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 20 --
After Lakhdar
Brahimi was
named Joint
Special
Representative
on Syria he
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, opining
that "it is
too early to
say whether
President
Bashar
al-Assad
should step
down."
Not
surprisingly,
the opposition
Syrian
National
Congress
quickly said
it 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," referring
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."
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? Watch
this site.
, 
