UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday will brief the UN Security Council, and then the media, on the findings of the UN team that traveled to Syria to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria last month, according to a UN release. Ban received the investigative team’s report on Sept. 15, states the release. The scheduled release of the findings comes just two days after Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced in Geneva that they had reached a framework agreement on the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons. At a press briefing with Lavrov, Kerry said, under the terms, international weapons inspectors must be on the ground no later than November, with the goal of the complete destruction and/or removal of the chemical weapons by mid-2014. “This framework provides the opportunity for the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons in a transparent, expeditious, and verifiable manner, which could end the threat these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but to the region and the world,” said President Obama in a statement. (Kerry-Lavrov transcript) (See also BBC report.)
US Space Command Should Always Be Led by a Guardian
Sept. 12, 2026
General Stephen Whiting took command of U.S. Space Command in January 2024, and if customary three-year tenures hold, his tour would end in January 2027. The question now before the President and Senate is who should follow him? Whoever they choose, it has to be a Guardian—and so should every successor…
