Nidal

“You know what I did? I left troops to take the oil. I took the oil. The only troops I have are taking the oil, they’re protecting the oil. I took over the oil.”

  • U.S. journalist attacks Lebanon-based news site for pro-Assad slant
    http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/22/221982.html

    Max Blumenthal publicly announced that he would no longer contribute to Al Akhbar English, accusing the news site of “defending the Syrian regime behind the cover of leftist ideology,” in a blog entry he wrote on his own website on Wednesday.

    The journalist referred to “pro-regime op-eds” recently published on the site and writers who have “thrown their weight behind [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad’s campaign of brutality.”

    Blumenthal wrote that Al Akhbar English had recently featured “an attack on Arab Third Wayers (supporters of the anti-imperialist, anti-authoritarian political tendency)” in a recent opinion piece, which he deemed to be in line with the “Syrian regime’s long record of exploiting the Palestinian struggle to advance its narrow self-interests.”

    • The right to resist is universal: A farewell to Al Akhbar and Assad’s apologists
      http://maxblumenthal.com/2012/06/the-right-to-resist-is-universal-a-farewell-to-al-akhbar-and-assads-a

      Following her vehement defense of the Syrian dictator’s use of surgery metaphors to refer to his security forces’ brutal crackdowns, Al Akhbar English featured Ghorayeb’s daftest work to date: an attack on Arab Third Wayers (supporters of the anti-imperialist, anti-authoritarian political tendency) in which she asserted that “the real litmus of Arab intellectuals’ and activists’ commitment to the Palestinian cause is no longer their support for Palestinian rights, but rather, their support for the Assad leadership’s struggle against the imperialist-Zionist-Arab moderate axis’ onslaught against it.”

      Ghorayeb’s rant, rightly condemned by As’ad Abu Khalil as an “outrage,” was of a piece with the Syrian regime’s long record of exploiting the Palestinian struggle to advance its narrow self-interests. For me, it was the final straw. Had Al Akhbar’s editorial leadership provided a platform to Ghorayeb and other apologists because of the quality of their writing or because of their willingness to defend the regime behind the cover of leftist ideology? This had become a salient question.

      I was forced to conclude that unless I was prepared to spend endless stores of energy jousting with Assad apologists, I was merely providing them cover by keeping my name and reputation associated with Al Akhbar. More importantly, I decided that if I kept quiet any longer, I would be betraying my principles and those of the people who have encouraged and inspired me over the years. There is simply no excuse for me to remain involved for another day with such a morally compromised outlet. And so, instead of preparing to throw up in my own mouth each time I click on one of the pro-regime op-eds appearing with regularity on Al Akhbar English’s home page, I am washing my hands of the whole operation.

    • The Angry Arab News Service: Enough grandstanding on the Syrian question: Al-Akhbar English versus Aljazeera.net
      http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2012/06/enough-grandstanding-on-syrian-question.html

      PS In other words, AlAkhbar (accused of a pro-Asad slant) publishes articles calling for Asad’s downfall. When the Arab oil and gas media call for the downfall of the Saudi or Qatari royal regimes, we can talk, or when the Western liberal media, like the Nation, dare publish an article calling for the demise of Israel.

    • Al-Akhbar and Syria: No Room for Silence
      http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/al-akhbar-and-syria-no-room-silence

      Media organizations, including Al-Akhbar, failed to deliver proper journalistic coverage of Syria. Unreliable sources, inaccessibility of troubled areas and many other factors may be used to rationalize this shortcoming. While the debate regarding a clear editorial line was ongoing, the publication that prides itself on doing things differently found itself partner in a collective media failure in dealing with Syria.
      Fifteen months into the events, Al-Akhbar’s editorial policy is that it stands for the basic rights of the Syrian people, for a united and free Syria, and against violence, hatred, destruction and civil unrest. The Syrians must have full sovereignty in deciding their political path without any foreign interference. All crimes should be investigated and all perpetrators, irrespective of their positions, should be held accountable by an independent judicial authority. This applies to all without exception.

      However, the collective media failure has laid the groundwork for a situation that is dire in Syria, where only absolutes are tolerated – an absolute crushing of an uprising, or a complete destruction of a regime. Clarity is sought in the most murky of environments. But absolute answers do not exist. Just like there is no black and white in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, and other places, the political landscape in Syria is also painted with shades of gray.

      Bashar al-Assad shouldn’t go today. Bashar al-Assad should have never been president. After all, countries are not personal assets that are passed on as inheritance.

      Theory is simple and beautiful and can even be principled – reality, not so much

    • Media restrictions and Al-Akhbar
      http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2012/06/media-restrictions-and-al-akhbar.html

      Max, I noticed, did not complain at all about censorship because I believe he has the freedom to write what he wanted: I believe that this is the strength of Al-Akhbar in relative terms: editorial control is most lax compared to all Arab media and even to Western media. There are articles in Al-Akhbar Arabic and English that are very critical of the Syrian regime and that call for its overthrow. […] But if Max is unhappy to write alongside people who support the Syrian regime (with whom I disagree of course), how will he feel about writing for, say, Huffington Post where there are apologists for Israeli war crimes? Or for Aljazeera.net? In the Huffington Post Max is writing alongside Abe Foxman, for potato’s sake. Does that bother him? […] Al-Akhbar is a work in progress and our efforts can strengthen the project. It is a least centralized media that I know of and departments are quite independent (sometimes that is good and sometimes that is not but it is not tightly controlled like most Arab media). […] There are yet things in the paper that I don’t like: on Syria or on Lebanon but what is important (and here is something that Max may not see because he does not read Arabic) is that the paper is pioneering on secularism and on challenging religious authorities (Sunnis and Shi`ite and Christian and even published an article about corruption of Hizbullah clerics). The culture section is promoting sexual liberties and homosexual rights: no other Arab media—NONE—dare do that. If there is a freer and better alternative to Al-Akhbar, I don’t know it because there is none.