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UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- Why is the UN so defensive about its probe(s) into chemical weapons in Syria? Video here from Minute 15:12.

  On Tuesday, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky did not answer Inner City Press' questions on whether Ban's prober Ake Sellstrom had received the information cited by Geneva-based rights prober Carla Del Ponte.

  Instead, Nesirky pulled out of a file a print out, and criticized Inner City Press' blog of the night before, which ran in full a response from his office, minutes after it was received, and noted

"it sure doesn't say that Sellstrom will consider the evidence his fellow UN system prober Del Ponte has and cited to. Last week, Nesirky told Inner City Press that Sellstrom would be willing to look at video footage collected by Russian state TV reporter Anastasia Popova. Why consider that, and not information from another UN system body? SHOULD these two inquiries be UNrelated?"

  These might seem like fair questions: should two UN system inquiries be consider "unrelated"? Getting more concrete, should Sellstrom simply wait and see what information is submitted to him? Or, at least in the case of information publicly cited by another UN system official, should he reach out and request the information?

  Nesirky after reading from Inner City Press' blog not only would not answer if Sellstrom has received the information to which Del Ponte cited -- he would not answer if Sellstrom or Ban Ki-moon will EVER say if this information was received and considered. Video here from Minute 15:12.

  That goes or will go directly to the credibility of Sellstrom's report to Ban, and Ban's report to member states. So why get so angry that the question is asked? Nesirky ended the briefing and left, not allowing other questions Inner City Press (and others, we assume) had prepared to ask.

  These included questions refused by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, whose spokesman Kieran Dwyer on "World Press Freedom Day" cited Inner City Press' "blog posts" as the reason Ladsous won't answer. Video here. What next? Watch this site.t

Footnote: Regarding the information or video footage of Russian state media reporter Anastasia Popova, after Inner City Press reported on her offer of proof, anonymous social media accounts associated by the UN Correspondents Association and Reuters immediately falsely accused Inner City Press of being in the pay of the Assad government of Syria, just as they've made false allegation about the defunct Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, which led to death threats.

   This is the context. We'll have more on this.

For now, video here, and here is the UN's transcription of the Q&A:

Question: Okay, I’ll ask you another one. I wanted to ask you, I… I… I did receive and I… and thank you for a response yesterday evening about Mr. [Åke] Sellström and Ms.… and Carla [Del Ponte]…

Spokesperson: I am not sure you actually read the response, Matthew.

Correspondent: I did read it.

Spokesperson: No, you didn’t, and let me explain why. Because your blog, if I may quote from it?

Correspondent: I am looking at it right now.

Spokesperson: Yeah, well good. Good. You say that “but it sure doesn’t say that Sellström will consider the evidence his fellow UN system prober Del Ponte has and cited to, and that last week I told you that Sellström would be willing to look at video footage collected by Russian state TV reporter Anastasia Popova. Why consider that and not information from another UN system body?” You didn’t read what I sent, Matthew…

Correspondent: I am looking at it.

Spokesperson: …because, it says very clearly that Mr. Sellström is making an analysis of all information which is made available to him. So quite simply, quite simply, Matthew, if there is information from the Commission of Inquiry… let me finish…

Correspondent: Okay.

Spokesperson: …if there is information from the Commission of Inquiry that they wish to make available to Mr. Sellström, they can do so, and any, all information which is made available to him will be analysed. So I don’t quite understand…

Question: Have… have they made any… and how… they’ve been… Ms.… Ms. Del Ponte went public with her statement that there was enough evidence for her to go public and say that chemical weapons had been used by the rebels. So just factually…

Spokesperson: Well, again, you obviously haven’t read… Well, just factually, you obviously also know that the press release was issued by the Commission of Inquiry…

Correspondent: I understand that.

Spokesperson: …after that, by Mr. [Paulo Sérgio] Pinheiro, who made clear that there is no conclusive evidence and that they continue to work on their findings.

Question: So just the factual question, Martin, did… has that panel ha… in… in Geneva provided any information to Mr. Sellström’s team?

Spokesperson: As I have said, all information which is made available…

Correspondent: That’s not…

Spokesperson: No. All information which is made available will be analysed. Mr. Sellström is in the process of collecting information. If he receives information from the Commission of Inquiry, I am sure that that would be looked at.

Question: But I am just asking, has it been provided? That’s all. Yes or no?

Spokesperson: Well, Mr. Sellström is in the middle of an investigation, and he is not going to provide information to you or anyone else on where he has received it. He is happy to receive it, but he is not going to divulge what he has received and how he is dealing with it, except to say that we are analysing it. I think that’s fairly straightforward.

Question: But that’s the last… at some point will he say, we got the information from Geneva or not?

Spokesperson: Once the Secretary-General receives a report from Mr. Sellström, he will report to all Member States, and I mentioned that to you in the e-mail that was sent yesterday.

Question: Sure, but will he say that he got the information from Geneva? That’s all, I’m just trying to understand how it works between two bodies.

Spokesperson: Listen, it’s quite straightforward. We’ve said that all information that is made available to him will be analysed; there will be a report subsequently. It’s the nature of an investigation that you don’t divulge the contents in the middle of an investigation. Thanks very much. Have a good afternoon.