You have to appreciate the irony. The Palestinians — who have made photo propaganda and falsification a central part of their anti-Israel efforts — are now caught up in such a gambit by another liberation-style group. The context is the ongoing conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which opposes a Moroccan plan for autonomy for the West Sahara and prefers to fan the flames of conflict and perpetuate the misery of those warehoused in camps in Algeria. The latest incident is detailed in this account:
At a news conference, Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui played a video which he said showed “a man armed with a knife slitting the throat of two members of the security forces, the first in the camp and the second in Laayoune”, the Western Sahara’s main town.
These were “barbarous acts”, said Cherkaoui. The video was shot by Moroccan police.
The raid on the camp near Laayoune housing thousands of Sahrawis, who moved there to protest against their living conditions, was carried out on November 8, a few hours before a new round of talks between the Polisario, the main Western Sahara rebel group, and the Moroccan government started near New York.
Morocco has said that 12 people died in clashes between protesters and the police, including 10 members of the security forces.
But the pro-independence Polisario said dozens of people died and more than 4,500 were wounded in the violence.
Cherkaoui said some Sahrawi protesters, whom he described as criminal gangs, “deliberately killed members of the security forces, used knives, molotov cocktails and gas canisters” to start fires.
The police raid “was deliberately peaceful, no shots were fired and no deaths were reported from among the camp population and from Laayoune”, said Cherkaoui.
Well, the Polisario Front felt compelled to embellish and distort the incident. The group bandied about photos of wounded children — a sure-fire attention getter with the Western media, as the Palestinians have proven time and again. However the children weren’t from the Western Sahara but instead from Gaza (perhaps a few of the human shields used by Hamas?). This report explains:
Spanish news agency EFE said Friday it had sent a photo supposedly of injured infants in Western Sahara which turned out to be a four-year-old image of children hurt in Gaza. The photo, purchased from a web site which made the original error, was published in major daily newspapers including the leading daily El Pais, and the centre-right daily El Mundo.
It showed infants with their heads wrapped in bandages being treated in hospital. In El Pais, the photo carried the caption: “Two injured Saharan children are treated at a hospital in Laayoune,” the capital of the Western Sahara.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat is now incensed by such disinformation.
The lesson here is one for respectable media outlets: be wary of accepting at face value reports or photographic “evidence” from groups whose journalistic bona fides are in question and whose motives are suspect. And that’s a lesson that is equally applicable in the Western Sahara and in Gaza.
There’s no consolation prize for losing to unscrupulous, power-hungry Chavista wannabes.. None.
The Leftist Revolt Against Obama Begins
It’s been there for a long time/The hardcore leftists don’t recognise any distinction between McCain/Obama
Dear Leader to govern as center left? A forlorn hope. No, look back before he adopted the phony southern preacher speaking style and began his run for the White House. And his slips of the tongue when off script. No. He will go as far left as he believes he can get away with. I suspect little items like nationalization of oil companies is sure to be high on the top of the list. But I’m beginning to feel confidant that he will only see the inside of the Executive Mansion as a visitor. On the other hand, I’m still too nervous to consult the only oracle with consistent accuracy. Where are all my various translations of the I Ching, anyway? Maybe I’ll hunt them down Tues. night.
How dare Maddow refer to the Emperor elect as Senator
“Obama seems to realize that a leftist program is hardly a winning program, which suggests that political pragmatism might force him to govern from the center-left if he is elected.”
Huh? What he realizes is that a leftist *campaign* is hardly a winning *campaign*. We have no idea how he will govern since he’s never governed anything. We do know, however, that as a legislator he has voted on the far, far left.
I’m not sure – in fact, I’m not – that this is representative of a new tactic by the left emanating from the fear that Obama may be more of a centrist.
Anyone who has watched Olbermann and Maddow, who was a semi-regular on Olbermann’s pretend news show before getting her own program, would have learned more than a year ago that they were promoting this line. I.e., “The conservatives are so mean to us! Why won’t we fight back?”
Apparently calling Republicans “terrorists”, “fascists” and “racists”, as Olbermann regularly does, is simply not being tough and rough enough.
He will govern left-left or he will be steamrolled by Nancy and Harry, et al. Does anyone really think that he has what it takes to stand up to Democratic super-majorities in both houses of Congress even if he wanted to? If he wins Democrats are going to view the next two years as the chance of a lifetime. Obama pretty much already broke every promise he made in the primaries. When he breaks all his general election promises who’s going to call him on it – the press? Lol.
A bit hopeful, I guess. Though who can imagine how you’ll be able to tell the difference between the up and coming losers and the happy winners who post here?
One thing I have to keep reminding myself about and which I thought of way back before he’d even won the nomination is that he must have some historical imagination, and despite whatever plans he has for the Country must care about the approval of more than his own idealogues?
He just said to Maddow – “Shuddup” – I’ve got an election to win.
I tried reading the whole interview but I fell asleep. I think what you wrote is wishful thinking, though.
Apparently, unlike the rest of you I actually watched the Maddow interview with Obama.
Far from being “frustrated”, she was she impressed by how “cool” he was.
She had appeared on “Hardball” prior to her show and she mentioned this particular segment of her interview was what most impressed her about him.
Obama seems to realize that a leftist program is hardly a winning program, which suggests that political pragmatism might force him to govern from the center-left if he is elected.
I hope that was meant as a joke. Certainly, BHO isn’t and can’t establish communism, but there really isn’t going to be much of an opposition to him being fairly far-left. See #9 and #10 at my name’s link for how he could be pretty far-left if he wanted, and look at his history for, of course, examples of him being fairly far-left.
It’s funny how Rachel says that conservatism is “bad” for America. Well, riddle me this: if conservatism is “bad” for America, why did Obama try to appear as a “center-right” candidate?
Far from being “frustrated”, she was she impressed by how “cool” he was.
Sorry, she’s frustrated. So is Olbermann.
After all, she wasn’t asking a question(s); she was making a request. In another six months, it’ll be a demand.
Both Maddow and Olbermann and most of the left subscribe to the “We’re not mean enough to those nasty conservatives – Let’s get those racist fascist bastards” line of argument.
wishful thinking
There was never a chance that the hard left would get its program in toto advanced by Obama if he became president. And to be fair to him, he has, on a few issues over the years, been out of step with the hard left.
But Eric’s notion that Obama’s pragmatism will make him tack somewhat to the center- governing, as Eric puts it, from the left-center- is no consolation for conservatives. Assuming solid Democratic majorities in both houses, he will be in a position to operate with one big, plodding foot on the left side of things, doing such long term damage as putting activist judges on federal court. That he won’t everything Moveon.com folks want is neither a surprise nor much comfort.
That he won’t everything Moveon.com folks want is neither a surprise nor much
Yes, but there are elements on the left who are less concerned with getting a political/domestic agenda through but are more concerned (or, at least, equally focused) with defeating – destroying, really – the political right.
When they say that Bush and the neocons and Republicans are fascist evil monsters, they mean it.
“Obama’s rock-solid radical resume”
Any real neoconservative has a rock-solid radical resume, for sure.
Any real neoconservative has a rock-solid radical resume, for sure
Like, for example, that of Charles Krauthammer’s?
Oxford, Harvard Medical School, speech writer for Mondale… whew, what an extremist background he has.
“Oxford, Harvard Medical School, speech writer for Mondale…”
Elitist.
I was actually thinking of another Columbia graduate, friendly with ‘dangerous’ radicals like Lionel Trilling and Alan Ginsberg.
I should have said another Columbia graduate who “palled around” with gay poets, druggies, wife beaters, communists etc.
The LA Times seems to think it’s not in the public interest what went on at the Jew bashing party Barack Obama attended at his friend Rashid Khalidi’s house.
I was thinking…if the LA Times doesn’t want Americans to know, maybe Professor Khalidi will let us know.
He does not take calls from journalists…only private citizens…
Call 212.666.5463
Amazing little thing that Google search…
I spoke with him today…check out my blog to find out more…
http://scattershooting.wordpress.com
The LALA Times tape is a non-issue. The election is not over until the voters vote. Obama will not govern from anyplace, McCain will win in a landslide!
Shmuel, I imagine you’re talking about Norman Podhoretz. Actually, if you read Podhoretz’s account of his friendships and acquaintances during the 50s, 60s, and 70s, you’ll see that Podhoretz did not have simple relationships with these people. Tensions grew for a number of reasons.
Anyway, is your point here to suggest that Obama’s relationships with radicals is no different than that of the founder of the magazine whose website is filled with the opinions of Obama opponents? And, therefore, necon types, because of Norman Podhoretz’s colorful and catholic past, of hypocrisy?
Dream on, Mr. P.
No, if there is to be a consolation prize let it not be an Obama less radical than his supporters feel they have a right to expect, but an Obama who will meet their expectations.
The country needs a show down on the question of big govt. Even conservative politicians have shown a disposition, once in power, to accede to ever larger govt and bigger budgets and deeper deficits. The imperial presidency has not been dismantled under them, but augmented.
We know that frogs in water slowly heated to a boil will stay there until they are cooked. The bull ignores the picador’s lance and becomes dead meat for the matador.
For this country to jump free before it is too late, it needs to feel the banderillas of a left radical govt deep in its neck. That may inspire the nation to toss those flimflams in their red trousers out of the ring and return America to a country where the govt is at the periphery not at the center of everything.
you’ll see that Podhoretz did not have simple relationships with these people. Tensions grew for a number of reasons
Indeed, he broke with them and their radicalism. And fought with them when he “palled around” with them. Very complex interaction.
Anyway, the Trilling inclusion doesn’t make sense since he criticized the liberal philistines who defended Stalin.
As did Podhoretz, who was never a Stalinist.
Thanks for amplifying what I said, StevenMG. And the inclusion of Trilling does make no sense.
One doesn’t have to agree with Podhoretz’s take on everything, but when will his haters realize that the shift in his political and social/cultural thinking was the result of honest and deep reflection on his experience and observation of the world around him- and not the embodiment of his mean spiritedness and bigotry.
You can take the boy Trager out of Russia, but you can’t the Soviet paranoia out of the boy
Even before Obama is sworn in, the Nutcases will start blaming every problem on him. Then, once he gets in, they’ll ratchet it up and my side will laugh at them and the Nutcases will feel even crazier. Every now and then, the Nutcases will have a point, and then we’ll steal their critical idea and call it our own. This will enrage them and we will laugh, and then they’ll go back to carping about him. Every now and then …
Ha ha ha ha! Nutcases, do you have any idea how much pure, unmitigated fun this will be at your expense?
When they say that Bush and the neocons and Republicans are fascist evil monsters, they mean it.
Ya sure ya betcha we do. Mean it, that is.
Assuming solid Democratic majorities in both houses, he will be in a position to operate with one big, plodding foot on the left side of things, doing such long term damage as putting activist judges on federal court.
We’ll do it little by little, but in 20 years this country will have moved so far left you won’t even recognize it.
Democrat operative,
does your neck hurt when you fellate yourself?
Of course he’s going to be running from the center. That’s totally obvious if you’re not in the Muravchik/McCarthy fever swamps. It’s sad that you’re only admitting it now that you’re about to get your asses handed to you in a couple of days.
I hope Mc’Cain wins, but on economic policy there’s not much to fear from Obama. His economists are all centrists, not wild eyed leftys. From Volker to Summers to Goolsbee and Furman, they are supporters of capitalism, not socialism. For me, it’s the dangers emanating from Islam that make it imperative that we not elect a Obama, a naive and grandiose utopian.
“One doesn’t have to agree with Podhoretz’s take on everything, but when will his haters realize that the shift in his political and social/cultural thinking was the result of honest and deep reflection on his experience and observation of the world around him- and not the embodiment of his mean spiritedness and bigotry.”
I quite like Norman Podhoretz, and Barack Obama. I don’t think either are bigots or shallow people.
My point in making the initial comparison is that, yes, many commentors here who point merely to Obama’s “associations” or relationships with people he has explicitly repudiated are being hypocritical. People that imply that Obama is mean spiritedness and bigoted in comparison to Podhoretz are weird.
“it imperative that we not elect a Obama, a naive and grandiose utopian.”
Another shallow critique of Obama that has also been made of neoconservatism.
Ya sure ya betcha we do. Mean it, that is.
Yep, the same folks who lecture us that calling the Islamists “evil” is wrong because it is too simplistic and absolutist (lacking nuance and an understanding of history, so the argument goes) are the same people who call Bush/Cheney et al. evil fascist killers.
“Truth Commission” show trials for those “neocons”. Meanwhile, we must give full constitutional rights and protection to alien al-Qaeda agents we capture overseas during war.
Quelle surprise.
Same old same old for more than a quarter of a century.
IF Obama wins, he will govern as he has legislated his entire, brief career. Very carefully, and only when he has to, will he make a real decision. The Dem Congress (Pelosi specifically) will be running the country and they will have the perfect stooge in the White House.
In January, ’11 Obama will hit the trail to do what he enjoys most (and does best) campaign/talk to ensure another 4 years of Left wing nonsense. Then, the Dear Leader and his America-hating spouse will write several autobiographies about his (yawn) “historic” tenure as president (chief lackey to Pelosi and Co.), sit on numerous corporate boards and speechify like Clinton at $500,000 a pop.
Of course, if McCain pulls a Harry Truman and actually upsets Obama…well best laid plans and all that.
The Dem Congress (Pelosi specifically) will be running the country and they will have the perfect stooge in the White House.
Let’s hope so!
Shmuel, I could see your point if Podhoretz had had actual political relationships with some of the more dubious types or had broken off relationships merely out of expediency.
Obama did have political relationships with Ayers- I’m talking about Ayer’s work to promote topolitically indoctrinate aspiring teachers and students, and Obama helped to promote the community projects of and, therefore, indirectly promoted the paranoiac worldview of Wright. And Obama only came to disassociate himself from these people when they became political dead weight for him. At least, Dennis Kucinich, creepy and politically benighted as he may be, has a set of political beliefs that he doesn’t camouflage or dump when they’re a roadblock to his ambition.
“Shmuel, I could see your point if Podhoretz had had actual political relationships with some of the more dubious types”
Podhoretz has the advantage of not being a politician of course!
Podhoretz has the advantage of not being a politician of course!
And the advantage of living during a time when the crimes of Marxism were still being largely debated.
It’s one thing to flirt with the radicalism of the left in the 40s and 50s; another to gaze at it during the eighties. One can plead ignorance; the other not so much.
Anyway, I find it interesting (curious?) that the same people who praise the intellectual curiousity of Obama also believe that he knew nothing (or very little) of the ideological makeup and history of Ayers and Wright.
Apparently, his curiousity has a rather large off button.
Shmuel, if you’re saying that successful politicians inevitably deal with less than admirable types, I’d agree. And we know that McCain sought the support of a number of evangelical bigwigs- I think, Pat Robertson- who made some stupid and vile comments about why American was attacked on 0/11 that he had castigated when they made those remarks.
But McCain, and many other politicians(though fewer than we would like) don’t cultivate close relationships with profoundly twisted people. Wright and Ayers hate American institutions and values and have worked, push the most distorted view of American and world history and culture(read Wright’s take on Western philosophy).
StevenMG, you made a good point. It’s very odd that someone as intellectually curious and well read- and indeed Obama seems to be- would know nothing about the Weathermen and the fact that he had a relationship with two of its leaders.