Jabatan Negara Amerika Syarikat Timbalan Jurucakap Marie Harf (US State
Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)
bOLLy ENn - Jurucakap Jabatan Negara Marie Harf menyatakan
kegusaran beliau atas "nada" soalan wartawan AP Matthew Lee mengenai
penciptaan daya tindak balas yang pesat NATO di Eropah Timur dan menuduhnya
"membeli ke dalam propaganda Rusia".
Kembali-dan-sebagainya antara wartawan veteran
Associated Press dan Harf mencipta percikan api semasa taklimat akhbar Jumaat.
Lee bertanya jurucakap Jabatan Negara jika
keputusan terkini NATO untuk menu-buhkan pasukan tindak balas pantas di Eropah
Timur adalah berkaitan dengan peristiwa-peristiwa di Ukraine.
"Dan anda tidak melihat bahawa dalam apa-apa
cara provokatif?" Katanya.
"Tidak, tidak," adalah jawapan Harf ini.
Jurucakap itu berkata, penggunaan tenaga yang
menerajui - diluluskan oleh ahli-ahli NATO semasa sidang kemuncak di Wales -
datang sebagai tindak balas kepada "tindakan escalatory" Rusia di
Ukraine dan "langkah pertahanan."
Sekurang-kurangnya 4,000 tentera: NATO meluluskan
kuasa tombak yang berpangkalan baru di Eropah timur.
"Ia satu kesediaan tinggi pasukan petugas
bersama dapat menggunakan dalam tempoh beberapa hari kepada cabaran-cabaran
yang timbul. Ia akan menyumbang kepada memastikan NATO responsif kepada
perikatan, yang mampu menghadapi cabaran semasa. Sekali lagi, ini adalah
sebagai tindak balas kepada tindakan escalatory Rusia telah diambil.
Ia sedikit tdk jujur untuk mengatakan sesuatu
yang NATO lakukan sebagai tindak balas kepada tindakan Rusia entah bagaimana
escalatory, bahawa NATO hanya perlu duduk manakala Rusia menghantar senjata,
menghantar lelaki, menghantar tentera ke Ukraine & berkata, "Oh, kita tdk akan memberi maklum balas, "katanya.
State Dept spokeswoman accuses AP’s Lee of ‘buying
into Russian propaganda’ . . .
State Department spokesperson Marie Harf expressed
her annoyance over the “tone” of AP reporter Matthew Lee’s question about the
creation of the NATO rapid reaction force in Eastern Europe and accused him of
“buying into the Russian propaganda”.
The back-and-forth between the Associated Press’s
veteran journalist and Harf created sparks during Friday’s press briefing.
Lee asked the State Department’s spokeswoman if
NATO’s latest decision to set up a rapid reaction force in Eastern Europe was
related to events in Ukraine.
“And you don’t see that as in any way
provocative?” he said.
“No, we don’t,” was Harf’s response.
The spokeswoman said the deployment of the
spearhead force – approved by NATO members during a summit in Wales – comes in
response to Russia’s “escalatory actions” in Ukraine and is “a defensive
measure.”
“It’s a high readiness joint task force able to
deploy within a few days to challenges that arise. It will contribute to
ensuring that NATO remains responsive to its alliance, capable of meeting its
current challenges. Again, this is in response to escalatory action the
Russians have taken.
Lee berkata Ukraine tidak adalah ahli blok tentera
Utara Atlantik dan bertanya jika Rusia telah mengambil apa-apa
"langkah-langkah escalatory" terhadap ahli-ahli NATO.
"Jadi anda menubuhkan daya tindak balas yang
pesat sebagai tindak balas kepada sesuatu yang anda katakan adalah berlaku di
negara . . . yang bukan ahli NATO?" Wartawan bertanya.
Harf berhujah bahawa Ukraine "adalah sangat
dekat dengan NATO".
"NATO komited untuk Eropah keamanan, seluruh,
dan aman, dan jelas terdapat ancaman ke kanan yang kini dengan tindakan
Rusia," dia menyatakan, sambil menambah bahawa dia tidak pasti apa yang
wartawan yang tidak faham tentang itu.
Lee cuba menerangkan sebabnya, tetapi Harf
mengganggu beliau menegaskan bahawa segala perikatan lakukan "kerana
campur tangan Rusia ke Ukraine" meru-pakan langkah pertahanan "dapat
melindungi NATO dan ahli-ahli kami, dan juga bekerja bersama-sama untuk
membantu negara-negara seperti Ukraine." beliau menambah bahawa ia tdk
direka utk berhadapan dengan sesiapa sahaja.
"Saya tidak faham secara logik bagaimana anda
boleh melihat sesuatu NATO lakukan untuk melindungi negara kita dan
membandingkannya dengan apa cara ke Rusia menghantar sistem peluru berpandu
permukaan-ke-udara di seluruh sem-padan ke Ukraine, yang mengikut definisi
senjata menyakitkan hati, "kata beliau.
Jurucakap Jabatan Negara kemudian berkata,
"nada soalan" mencadangkan ba-hawa wartawan itu "membeli ke dalam
propaganda Rusia" untuk menyamakan mereka "perkara-perkara yang
berbeza secara mutlak."
"Dan saya tidak membeli apa-apa - propaganda
sesiapa pun, dan saya fikir itulah titik keseluruhan," Lee bangkit.
"Kamu membantah kepada bantahan negara2 lain mengenai tentera anda
menjalankan tiap masa, & anda berfikir bahawa mereka yang sah
sempurna."
Ia bukan kali pertama bahawa Lee telah mendapat ke
dalam pertukaran dipa-naskan, menimbulkan soalan yg tidak menyenangkan pada
taklimat akhbar den-gan wakil-wakil Jabatan Negeri terhadap krisis Ukraine.
Terdahulu pd bln Julai, Harf ‘stated’
menyatakan bahawa Rusia tlh menembak meriam di seberang sempadan ke dalam
wilayah Ukraine. Walau bagaimanapun, apabila Lee meminta bukti di sebalik
dakwaan itu selain daripada "hanya 'kerana saya berkata begitu,"
jurucakap itu ditolak, hanya mengatakan bahawa mereka berdasarkan
"maklumat risikan."
Lee noted that Ukraine is not a member of the
North-Atlantic military bloc and asked if Russia had taken any “escalatory
measures” against NATO members.
“So you’re setting up a rapid reaction force in
response to something that you say is happening in a country…that isn’t a NATO
member?” the journalist asked.
Harf argued that Ukraine “is very close to NATO.”
“NATO is committed to a Europe free, whole, and at
peace, and obviously there are threats to that right now with Russia’s
actions,” she stated, adding that she was not sure what the journalist could
not understand about that.
Lee tried to explain his point, but Harf
interrupting him insisting that everything the alliance did “since Russia’s
intervention into Ukraine” was a defensive measure “to be able to protect NATO
and our members, and also working together to help countries like Ukraine.” She
added that it was not designed to confront anyone.
“I just don’t understand logically how you can
look at something NATO is doing to protect our countries and compare it in any
way to Russia sending surface-to-air missile systems across the border into
Ukraine, which are by definition an offensive weapon,” she said.
The State Department’s spokeswoman then said that
“the tone of the question” suggested that the journalist was “buying into the
Russian propaganda” for equating those “categorically different things.”
“And I’m not buying into any – anyone’s
propaganda, and I think that’s the whole point,” Lee hit back. “You guys object
to other countries’ objections about your military exercises all the time, and
you think that they're perfectly legitimate.”
It was not the first time that Lee has got into a
heated exchange, posing unpleasant questions at press briefings with State
Department representatives over the Ukraine crisis.
Earlier in July, Harf stated that Russia was firing artillery across the border
into Ukrainian territory. However, when Lee asked for the evidence behind the
allegations other than “just ‘because I said so’,” the spokesperson refused,
saying only that they were based on “some intelligence information.”
