On
Nuland,
Reuters Omits
Feltman,
Gawker Calls
Him
Felton
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 7 --
The leaked
audio of the
US State
Department's
Victoria
Nuland about
Ukraine, best
known for her
"f*ck the
EU"
comment, is
revealing more
and more
regarding
relations
between the US
Administration
and the United
Nations, at
least former
US official
Jeffrey
Feltman -- and
how it is
covered,
here by
Reuters
and (better)
by Gawker.
Reuters
manages to not
even MENTION
Feltman in
its long story
about the
leaked audio.
Gawker to its
credit runs a
transcript,
but calls the
apparently
little known
Feltman
"Felton."
Inner City
Press first
reported in
March 2012
that Feltman
would switch
from being a US
Assistant
Secretary of
State to
UN Under
Secretary
General for
Political
Affairs. The
US essentially
owns this UN
position (US
Lynn Pascoe
was Feltman's
predecessor),
just as France
owns UN Peacekeeping
through Herve
Ladsous
and three
other
Frenchmen in a
row before
him. The UK
for now has
Humanitarian
Affairs, twice
in a row.)
As
Inner City
Press first
highlighted
yesterday
evening, at
Minute 2:40 of
the leaked
audio Nuland
says she
spoke to
Feltman and
"he's now
gotten both
Serry and Ban
Ki-moon
to agree that
Serry could
come in Monday
or Tuesday"
and "have
the UN glue
this thing,
f*ck the EU."
Listen
here.
Significant
here,
particularly
given
Feltman's
previous position
with the US
government, is
that Ban,
ostensibly
Feltman's
boss,
apparently
didn't tell
Feltman what
to do. Rather,
Feltman "got"
Ban Ki-moon to
agree to
something that
was pleasing
to the US, to
help the US "f*ck
the
EU."
The Reuters
piece is
typical of its
UN coverage,
just as for
example it
delayed six
days in
reporting on a
UN finding that
the US (and UK
and French)
favored Free
Syrian Army
recruits and
uses child
soldiers, until
the last Geneva
Two talks were
over. (Click
here for
that.)
Reuters UN
bureau chief
has even essentially
spied for the
UN, giving a
UN media
accreditation
official
an internal UN
Correspondents
Association
anti Press
document three
minutes after
promising not
to.
Another
Reuters filing
to this same
official has
been banned
from Google's
Search after a
cynical use of
the Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
by the Reuters
bureau chief.
Click here
for that, from
the Electronic
Frontier
Foundation's
ChillingEffects.org.
Gawker
runs this
transcript:
Nuland:
I
can't remember
if I told you
this or if I
only told
Washington
this, but when
I talked to
Jeff Felton
[the United
Nations
Under-Secretary-General
for Political
Affairs] this
morning, he
had a
new name for
the UN guy,
Robert Serry.
Did I write
you that this
morning?
Pyatt:
Yeah, I saw
that.
Nuland:
Okay.
He's now
gotten both
Serry and Ban
Ki-moon to
agree that
Serry
could come in
Monday or
Tuesday. So
that would be
great, I
think, to
help glue this
thing and have
the UN help
glue it, and,
you know,
fuck the EU.
Transcripts
are the way to
go - but by
calling
Feltman
"Felton," the
point about
his previous
position with
the US State
Department, in
Syria then
Lebanon then
covering the
whole Middle
East may be
lost.
There is
another Middle
East
connection,
through Serry.
On
January 29,
Inner
City Press had
asked Ban's
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq to
confirm
that the
Ukraine trip
of Robert
Serry, who
would seem to
have a full
time job as
the UN's
Middle East
process
coordinator:
Inner
City Press: In
the Ukraine,
I’m not sure
if I missed
some
announcement
on your part
that Robert
Serry met with
President
[Yevgeny]
Yanukovich and
I wanted to
know: is that
the case?
What’s
the UN’s… why
was it him,
given his
title? And
what’s the UN
seeking to
accomplish?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq: The
Secretary-General
asked Mr.
Robert
Serry to
travel to Kiev
on his behalf
to convey the
United
Nations’
solidarity
with Ukraine
and to
encourage
dialogue. He
will be in
Ukraine from
yesterday
until
Thursday,
tomorrow. As
for his past
experience, he
has worked in
the Ukraine
before. He
continues to
be
the Special
Coordinator
for the Middle
East Peace
Process. That
hasn’t
changed.
Haq
confirmed the
assignment --
now we know by
whom -- and later Ban
explained that
Serry had been
his native
Netherlands'
ambassador to
Ukraine.
Since
Nuland says
she'd spoken
to Feltman
that morning
and he had a
"new
name" for
Ukraine, one
is left
wondering who
the first
choice,
perhaps by Ban
or some other
operative, had
been.
The
US State
Department and
Mission,
despite Inner
City Press' written
questions to
the latter
since January
30 for an
explanation of
how
the US can
support the
Free Syrian
Army now
that it is
named in the
UN
report
Inner City
Press first
quoted on
January 29 as
a recruiter
and user of
child soldiers,
has not
answered,
despite the
terms of the US Child
Soldiers
Prevention Act
of 2008.
When
Ambassador
Samantha
Power spoke
about Syria at
the UN on
February 6,
only two
questions were
taken: Al
Jazeera and Al
Hurra, on
whose
Broadcasting
Board of
Governors John
Kerry serves.
Nor
has a simple
question been
answered about
why
the proposed
replacement
for UN Reform
Ambassador Joe
Torsella,
Leslie Berger
Kiernam, had
her name
"withdrawn."
So we are less
than
confident that
the US will
explain the
dynamic
between the
State
Department and
Feltman as
reflect in
Nuland's
leaked audio.
Perhaps
the UN or
Feltman -- or
even Serry --
will explain.
Watch this
site.
, 
