Nasrallah and CounterPunch's Hoax

Just got this update from a friend in Turkey:

Here is a summary of a report just made by the Anatolian News Agency:

Hussain Rahhal, Hezbullah's responsible for press has issued a written statement saying that no such interview was made. He said: "Our secretary general Nasrallah has not made any interviews with any Turkish or other non-Lebanese journalist during the month of August. In front of this imaginary interview that is untruthful, and hence does damage to journalism, credibality and objectivity, Hezbollah reserves its right to take legal action against those who have published it."

As'ad AbuKhalil of Angry Arab News Service had said it from the beginning:

This 'interview' with Nasrallah that is posted on Counterpunch is fake. I declare it to be a hoax, OK? I mean, it is so obvious. The guy does not sound like Nasrallah form the first sentence. Wait. It is possible that this is Hasan Dib Nasrallah, the Lebanese grocer kidnapped by Israel in a "daring commando raid?"

Instead of checking the facts, CounterPunch and Alexander Cockburn accused of "orientalism" As'ad AbuKhalil:

Editors' Note: The authenticity of this interview has been challenged, maybe because Nasrallah doesn't speak entirely according to Orientalist expectations of what a Shi'a leader should be saying. CounterPunch has confirmed that the interview did appear in the Turkish socialist daily Evrensel on August 12 and 13, provoking comment in the Turkish corporate press because Nasrallah expressed his admiration for the 1960's generation of revolutionaries like Deniz Gezmis.

On August 19 World War 4 Report published an email by Lebanese scholar Gilbert Achcar:

"Many of you have certainly seen an interview allegedly done with [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah by a Turkish radical left newpsaper... I have enquired about it, and a source in Beirut in close touch with Hezbollah has confirmed to me that it is a forgery."

But Alexander Cockburn published a couple of days ago the following delirium to defend the publication of the interview on Counterpunch:

Snap Judgments
About That Nasrallah Interview
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

As'ad AbuKhalil replied with much elegance

Alexander Cockburn and the Humorless Left

Why has the "official left" become so arrogant? We all make mistakes of course, so this is not the point. The point is the arrogance and stupidity to insist without checking the facts as if for some kind of natural law some people feel they are above fallibility and criticism. Finally the accusation of "orientalism" by Cockburn against As'ad AbuKhalil was frankly pathetic.

There is enough to think and meditate...

UPDATE: In his last article on this story, Alexander Cockburn writes:

Hezbollah's denunciation is categorical, and should be taken as the last word, though if there are any significant or interesting updates we'll let CounterPunchers know. I do find Hezbollah's threat of legal action somewhat comical. Will they also try to drag Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner and other barons of the First World press into the World Court for misrepresentation? Wasn't that the hope of the proposed New World Information Order, twenty-five or so years ago?

The parallel is completely irrational and once again confirms the arrogance of Alexander Cockburn. The despicable Murdoch's press and the other mainstream media didn't publish any fake interview with Nasrallah. This is really a very bad page for the alternative media. As the Evrensel Daily of ISTANBUL wrote:

With this forgery, "Mutlu Sahin" and "Roza Cigdem Erdogan", the forgers, who are members of the "Sheikh Bedreddin Film Collective" (Turkish initials, SBFK) have attempted to tarnish the reliability of Evrensel, a 12-years old socialist newspaper. But this is not all. They have attempted to erode the reliability of all progressive, antiwar, antiimperialist sources and people all over the world; as the "interview" had far reaching consequences than they probably have imagined in their pathetic minds.

The same must be said for the absurd behaviour of Alexander Cockburn and CounterPunch in this farce. Very sad indeed!

Johann Hari. "Who Is This Guy?"

Johann Hari. "Who Is This Guy?"
Stalin’s nephews in our democracy fiction
By Gabriele Zamparini

“…it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect…” – George Orwell

Johann Hari, the “award-winning journalist”, the “twice-weekly columnist for The Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers” and “the youngest person to ever be nominated for the prestigious Orwell Prize for political writing” wrote on 25 August 2006 “An intriguing example of blatant anti-Semitism and blindness to it by some on the left” where he accused me of anti-Semitism not for something I did, said or wrote but for a comment someone else left on my blog.

Accusations of “anti-Semitism” have become in these days like patriotism: usually used as the refuge of the scoundrel. In spite of the ludicrous writing of Johann Hari, this topic is quite important and it’s the subject of two interesting books by Norman G. Finkelstein: The Holocaust Industry and Beyond Chutzpah, On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.

But behind this specific topic, it’s interesting to examine the techniques used by Johann Hari, the “award-winning journalist”. While totalitarian regimes have death squads and gangs of thugs to silent dissent, more sophisticated societies like ours have the well-respected cast of intellectuals writing on the liberal media, the Stalin’s nephews.

On March 20, 2006 I published on my blog an email exchange I had with Johann Hari about an article Mr. Hari had published on the Independent, “I was wrong, terribly wrong - and the evidence should have been clear all along” (Johann Hari, The Independent, 20 March 2006)

Five months later Johann Hari, one of the most important columnists of the “pro-Israeli” Independent [note that the oxymoron comes directly from the newspaper’s Editor, 16 July 2006 and synthesizes perfectly well our Orwellian times] takes as pretext a comment left by someone on that March 20, 2006 email exchange post on my blog and writes:

This is just a small coda to my story about the rise in anti-Semitism – and the wilful blindness of some on the left to it – the other day. A friend of mine just e-mailed with a priceless example. On the website of a writer called Gabriele Zamparini – praised by John Pilger as a “brilliant site” – a commenter called “J. Robinson” posted this, in response to a critical post about me:

“Johann Hari, an intellectual? Not in my name! Do get ALL your facts straight, Zamparini. He's a jumped-up little prat - we have many of them in England, always have. It they are jews they tend to get a column before they leave high school. Not because of precocious talent, but because Uncle Isaac is on the board.” (...)

J. Robinson’s comment could hardly be more obviously anti-Semitic, expressing plain hatred of (purported) Jews. They are “jumped up prats” who get ahead because of nepotism. If this isn’t anti-Semitism, what is? Of course, I don’t blame Gabrielle for this post – every website with open comments gets the odd nutcase. But what is fascinating is what happened next. An anonymous poster asked, “Uh, you don't feel at all uncomfortable with the blatantly anti-Semitic comments here, do you Gabrielle?”

This seems to me, at first glance, to be a bit unfair. Why should we assume she isn’t uncomfortable with blaant racism? But Gabrielle’s response is remarkable. She says: “I am responsible only for what I write and say and do. I can't be responsible for the comments by other people. You can take some time and read my blog. You will see that there are many comments on here I don't agree with.”

Fair enough. If she had left it at that, I would agree wholeheartedly with her. But then she adds:

”But I feel quite unconfortable in front of your comment. Using accusations of "anti-semitism" in an indirect way to shadow doubts of racism against someone you desagree with is quite common nowdays. In good English, it's called denigration. I am really sorry you felt you needed to resort to this method. I won't follow you on this road though.”

At this point Johann Hari, as it’s in his notorious habit, starts to manipulate, twist and misrepresent what I had written:

Note the putting of “anti-Semitism” into quote marks, as if this comment is not an example of it. Indeed, instead of condemning a blatant, open anti-Semite, she accuses the person who points out the raw racism of “denigration” and acts as if they have committed a terrible faux pas deserving of shunning.

But replying to that anonymous’ comment, I had already written:

I am responsible only for what I write and say and do. I can't be responsible for the comments by other people. You can take some time and read my blog. You will see that there are many comments on here I don't agree with.

That anonymous comment read:

Uh, you don't feel at all uncomfortable with the blatantly anti-Semitic comments here, do you Gabrielle?

The implication of that comment being ‘Gabriele Zamparini is anti-Semitic’. Therefore my reply:

Using accusations of "anti-semitism" in an indirect way to shadow doubts of racism against someone you desagree with is quite common nowdays. In good English, it's called denigration.

But Hari, twisting facts and logic, writes:

Note the putting of “anti-Semitism” into quote marks, as if this comment is not an example of it.

As one can easily understand, “the putting of ‘anti-Semitism’ into quote marks” had nothing to do with what Hari writes and all to do instead with the vulgar accusation the anonymous comment vomited against me for a comment someone else left on my blog.

Hari, his many colleagues in the “liberal media” and the many disciples of these Stalinist hooligans have made of twisting and manipulating facts and logic an art, so to better denigrate those who dissent to this mockery of democracy and its servants.

Do you remember how Johann Hari started his piece?

This is just a small coda to my story about the rise in anti-Semitism – and the wilful blindness of some on the left to it – the other day. A friend of mine just e-mailed with a priceless example. On the website of a writer called Gabriele Zamparini – praised by John Pilger as a “brilliant site” – a commenter called “J. Robinson” posted this, in response to a critical post about me…

I dared to point out Hari’s hypocrisy, lies and propaganda in his position on the war of aggression against Iraq, a position that has provoked genocide in Iraq. The Independent’s columnist in response has twisted and manipulated facts and logic and used a comment someone left on my blog to denigrate me. This was not enough for this Stalin’s nephew. Hari had to mention John Pilger too, so to denigrate the brave dissident as well.

Finally, through all his delirium, Johann Hari refers to me as “she”. It wasn’t too difficult to learn that Gabriele Zamparini is a “he” and not a “she”. The facts were just a click away since on my site there is a short bio with a photo; too difficult a task for the “award-winning journalist”? If Hari couldn’t get that simple fact straight, I guess it would be too much asking him to take a simple tour on my blog and read some of my posts and replies to comments there regarding racism and anti-Semitism. I don’t need the vulgar insinuations made by Stalin’s nephews and their friends and disciples.

Johann Hari is the archetype of the modern ‘liberal intellectuals’ and Orwell teaches us “it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect”.

Think about it the next time you read the Independent.

The Cat's Blog

Dear friends,

The Cat's Blog stops temporarily its publications and it will return at the beginning of September.

I would like to bring to your attention this moving letter

An Open Letter to America
by Ibrahim Ebeid

and to recommend two excellent websites:

1) Media Lens and its Message Board

2) Uruknet

Thank you for stopping by.

Peace, justice and solidarity,
Gabriele Zamparini

Racist Jewish Fundamentalism

Two articles on the Racist Jewish Fundamentalism

1) Israel's Latest Massacre in Qana: Racist Jewish Fundamentalism a Factor by Omar Barghouti, Electronic Lebanon, 30 July 2006

2) Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocents, YNET NEWS.COM, 30 July 2006