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At UN, Spain's Zapatero Sends McCain His Regards,
Mulls U.S. Bail Out and Benefits
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
September 25 -- With Spanish
president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in the U.S. for the UN's General
Debate,
John McCain was asked if he would meet with Zapatero in the White House
if he
wins. McCain essentially said
no, leading many to believe he equated Zapatero
with Zapatistas, or even thought Spain was in Latin America. Thursday
at the
UN, Inner City Press asked Zapatero for his response, whether he
thought McCain
had misspoke or misunderstood, and if not, what it means for Spain.
Zapatero
dodged the question, saying that he will work with the President of the
U.S.,
whoever wins, that Spain and the U.S have relations of democracy and
"important agreements." At the end of the press conference, Zapatero
came over to Inner City Press, shook hands and said, "Give my regards
to
John McCain."
Knowledgeable Spanish journalists tell Inner City
Press that while the
incident may be written off to an error by McCain, there have been
tension
between Zapatero and the U.S. beyond his withdrawal of troops from
Iraq. Last
October at a Spanish national day celebration, they say, Zapatero stood
in
honor of all flags which passed his balcony, except that of the U.S.. Does this explain McCain's snub? Or has it
been a post-snub rationalization?
Zapatero at UN Sept. 25, regards to John
McCain not shown
Zapatero's
opening statement progressed from bragging of Spain's contributions to
the UN,
not least of which was $700 million to the UN Development Program, to
proscriptions for transparency without intervention in to capital
markets.
Zapatero did not say which if any Spanish banks stand to benefit from
the
pending $700 billion bail out bill. That
might only be further fuel to the Zapatero fire.
Footnote: The
Spanish mission to the UN apparently
told the Spanish New York press corps to stay away from Bambi's
presser, that
they could watch it on the UN webcast archives. But as of 10:33 p.m. on
Thursday,
the clip was still not online.
Watch this site, and this Sept. 18 (UN) debate.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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