After
Trump Speech, PBS Asks Nikki Haley About NATO, Not The Need for UN Reform
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 28 – After Donald
Trump's speech to a joint
session of the U.S. Congress,
PBS asked US Ambassador to the
UN Nikki Haley a few questions
- mostly about NATO, as it
happened. Haley gamely
answered about the need for
countries to carry their own weight.
But PBS should have asked her
about the need for, and status
of, reform at the UN, where abusive
peacekeepers are still
paid despite charges of rape,
where the corruption
that grew in the past decade
continues along with censorship
to protect it. Maybe
next time. Haley issued this:
"President Trump spoke for a
strong America that is engaged
internationally. That's the
kind of new American
leadership our friends around
the world have been waiting
for."
Haley also
said she met with Trump on
February 27 and is given
freedom to form her team, and
go and see him anytime.
But why
didn't PBS ask Ambassador
Haley about the blocking of
Salam Fayyad - had they not
heard of it? Is the UN such a
backwater? We'll have more on
this.
The Obama administration has
been out of power more than a
month, but in the backwater
that is UN world, his Deputy
Permanent Representative for
"Reform" Isobel Coleman still
says that is her position.
Even Samantha Power's former
spokesman Kurtis Cooper, as of
February 27 after he was
replaced, still says online he
is spokesperson for the US
Mission, like a wan Lenny
Bruce. It's time to #MoveOn.
Madeline Albright, who did so
much for Rwandan Tutsi when US
Ambassador - not - is now
denouncing budget cuts to the
State Department. At the UN,
there are Departments which
could be usefully disbanded,
and some UN activities which
do more harm than good (not
all, of course.)
Back on US
inauguration day on January 20
at the US Mission to the UN
the photos of Obama, Biden,
Kerry and Samantha Power came
down. As of February 27 they
have not been replaced.
But as elsewhere an
"Alt USUN" Twitter account
continues in a parallel online
universe the views of Power,
most recently promoting an AFP
spoon-fed story about the UN
Security Council's Syria
chemical weapons draft
resolution and calling
it the "first test of US
influence over Russia."
Apparently in this view, if
Russia casts a veto, it's a
win for US Power. Call it a
revived red line. The vote is
set for February 28.
Meanwhile,
here
is the video Inner City Press
put on Twitter
of Nikki Haley saying the
draft will be put to vote to
see “which countries have an
excuse for chemical weapons.”
The
account previously
called out new Ambassador
Nikki Haley for only attending
three of 13 UN Security
Council meetings, on Ukraine,
ISIS and Israel - Palestine.
Fair
enough. But how many meetings
did Samantha Power attend? And
after the Israel - Palestine
meeting Nikki Haley took questions
at the Security Council
stakeout, not pre-screened by
Power's spokesman Kurtis
Cooper - who remains at the US
Mission, tweeting, along with
many others.
In fact,
Isobel Coleman who did nothing
when the DC-based
whistleblower protection group
Government Accountability
Project wrote to her about the
UN's eviction of the
investigative Press, here,
still as of February 17 lists
herself as the US
representative on UN reform.
Is it true?
In
the UN itself, Obama and
Hillary Clinton nominee
Jeffrey Feltman has gotten his
UN contract extended. Inner
City Press first
reported, from multiple
sources, that Feltman sought
this so that his UN pension
would hit the five year
vesting dateline. The UN's
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric called Inner City
Press' question, and by
implication Inner City Press,
"despicable."
Or is that, deplorable?
Meanwhile
Voice of America, which was
shown under the US Freedom of
Information Act to have asked
the UN to throw out the
investigative Press, has now
asked about Jared Kushner
(video via
here) and asked the UK
about Nikki Haley's
inexperience. Like we said, an
alternative universe.
Other
former State Department
officials like Bathsheba
Crocker wring their hands
about changes in foreign
policy. But what did they do,
when the UN killed 10,000 plus
people in Haiti with cholera?
They had their time to try to
improve the UN, and largely
failed. It's time to #MoveOn.
***
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