Oh Hezbollah again...redux
For those that need a primer on this nonsense...
False Washington Times report convinces Canada to ban Hizbullah On Wednesday 11th December 2002, the social arm of the Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah was one of three organisations to be added to Canada's official list of "terrorist entities".
Hizbullah's military wing has been banned in Canada since 2001, but up until Wednesday, it was still legal to contribute to the social arm of the organisation...
(snipped)
and scrolling down to the superb journalism of
Neil MacDonald (incidentally Neil was removed from being CBC Middle East correspondent shortly after this...the job is now..Arienne Arsenualt (who actually did some good reporting when she was in Vancouver...but now...well she did an 'indepth report on the Israeli barrier and the ONLY victim she found was some rich Palestinian hotel owner's garden-but I digress)However, an excellent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) report by CBC journalist Neil Macdonald, has uncovered the surprising reality that the alleged remarks were not made by Hizbullah leader Nasrallah at all. Here is a transcript from the 11 December 2002 CBC broadcast:
PETER MANSBRIDGE: Well now to that crucial quote, the one that helped kick-start the change in Canadian policy and attributed to Hizbollah's Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. The CBC's Middle East correspondent Neil MacDonald went to Beirut to investigate what was said and what was not. Here's his revealing report.
NEIL MACDONALD (Reporter): This unremarkable cleric enjoys legendary status in the Arab world. The man whose fighters drove Israel out of Lebanon. Israel and its supporters, though, regard Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah as a cold-blooded terrorist and say his own words have now provided the proof. Certainly the quotes attributed to him last week and reported widely in most Canadian media were ominous. "Suicide bombings should be exported outside Palestine", he was reported to have said. "I encourage Palestinians to take suicide bombings worldwide, don't be shy about it." Canadian Jewish groups and their allies immediately pressed their demand that Canada classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Ottawa resisted doing that, given that Hezbollah also runs a social network with projects like this one which retrains and offers work to disabled Lebanese. Hassan Nasrallah's heavily reported new quotes merely had an impact. The only problem is there is simply no evidence Hassan Nasrallah ever made a speech promoting global suicide attacks. There is no record of such a speech here, and there would be. It was not broadcast on Hezbollah's television station, as was reported. Hezbollah, which vigorously publicizes Nasrallah's every word, says the remarks were never uttered and the Canadian embassy in Beirut has tried and failed to document the quotes. The story originated not in the Middle East but in London, with this man. Paul Martin freelances for "The Washington Times," a right wing newspaper owned by the Unification Church. He cannot back up the quotes his story attributes to Nasrallah. Nevertheless, he believes he understands Nasrallah's true agenda.
PAUL MARTIN (The Washington Times): Nasrallah said we look at America as the enemy of this nation. He then adds, we will fight the enemy or them anywhere and everywhere and says that we need to work on the culture of suicide missions.
MACDONALD: There is nothing new in Nasrallah's support for Palestinian tactics in the occupied territories and in Israel. Just recently, Nasrallah praised Palestinians he says are, quote, "willing to sacrifice themselves fighting Israel with whatever weapon", suicide bombs included. But, says Hezbollah legislator Mohammed Raad, Nasrallah has specifically instructed that Hezbollah's fight with Israel is military in nature and not to be taken outside the region. Raad says "The Washington Times" story about exporting attacks as part of a propaganda orchestrated by America's pro-Israel right wing. Indeed, there does seem to be a theme to "Washington Times" stories. Earlier this year, the paper ran a report by a reporter named Sayed Anwar accusing Palestinian Muslims of raping, executing and extorting Christians in Bethlehem. When the story was questioned, Sayed Anwar turned out to be a fictitious name. A composite for Paul Martin and two of his researchers. Martin refused to discuss that incident on camera. Ottawa now knows that the Nasrallah quotes in the "Washington Times" about exporting suicide attacks were almost certainly never uttered. Of course what this all really boils down to is the old question of what constitutes terrorism. Is Hezbollah a national liberation movement or, as Israel and its supporters maintain, a murderous global menace? To a great many people in this part of the world, to label Hezbollah a terrorist organization is to choose sides in the defining conflict of the Middle East, an intensely political decision for any government. Neil MacDonald, CBC News, Beirut.
A Toronto Star report on December 13th offered more detail of CBC reporter Neil Macdonald's findings. Macdonald, the article reported, who traveled to Lebanon to investigate:
"...could not make the facts fit with Martin's account of them. Not only did Nasrallah not make the speeches when and where Martin had reported, there was no evidence the Hezbollah leader had ever incited suicide bombers to go global.
"I watched the videos. I watched the speeches. I have done more research than maybe the Canadian government has done, certainly more than Paul Martin has done," Macdonald told me on the phone from Jordan last night. "He came up with three quotes, one of which, to be charitable, was a gross mistranslation, and the other two were never even uttered."
When CBC confronted Martin for Wednesday's edition of The National, he "got very upset and jumped up and said this interview is over." Eventually, he fingered Walid Phares, a Florida Atlantic University associate professor, as his source."
Source: Curious silence greets discredited Hezbollah tale, Antoinia Zerbisias, Toronto Star, 13 December 2002.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article971.shtmlAnyone want the 'other side of the story' can google a whole ton of Canada infested with Hez terrorist stuff from stockwell day to townhall.com to the Washinton Institute to Frank Diament and the CJC...etc etc...
Also this whole Tri-Border thing was first 'floated' by the mostly discredit New Yorker Jeffery Goldberg article "In the Party of God"...must be a busy 'lawless' area because at various times the IRA, red brigades, Fidel and FARC have been linked there as well over the decades...good that a New Yorker writer got the skinny on it
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
