Josh's Weblog: Security Council Members Deny Meeting Kerry

Security Council Members Deny Meeting Kerry

This morning's Washington Times has an article claiming that Kerry never met with the members of the UN Security Council as he had claimed in more than one occasion, including the debates.

Kerry's quote:

I went to meet with the members of the Security Council in the week before we voted. I went to New York. I talked to all of them, to find out how serious they were about really holding Saddam Hussein accountable.

The Times' research:

But of the five ambassadors on the Security Council in 2002 who were reached directly for comment, four said they had never met Mr. Kerry. The four also said that no one who worked for their countries' U.N. missions had met with Mr. Kerry either.

The former ambassadors who said on the record they had never met Mr. Kerry included the representatives of Mexico, Colombia and Bulgaria. The ambassador of a fourth country gave a similar account on the condition that his country not be identified.

It could be that Kerry will claim that those other countries didn't count and he only met with the permanent members of the council or some such garbage. This is similar to his discounting of many members of the coalition of the willing. He did meet with some members:

After conversations with ambassadors from five members of the Security Council in 2002 and calls to all the missions of the countries then on the panel, The Times was only able to confirm directly that Mr. Kerry had met with representatives of France, Singapore and Cameroon.