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Jordanian Journalist Who Fabricated Syrian Rebel Chemical Weapons Story, Wrote Recent Jerusalem Post Column Lauding Israel Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם
▻http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2013/09/23/jordanian-journalist-who-fabricated-syrian-rebel-chemical-weapon

Jordanian Journalist Who Fabricated Syrian Rebel Chemical Weapons Story, Wrote Recent Jerusalem Post Column Lauding Israel

by Richard Silverstein on September 23, 2013 · 0 comments

in Mideast Peace

I’ve been following the story of a few weeks ago, claiming that Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia was shipping chemical weapons to the Syria rebels, which they were using on the battlefield. As so much of the reporting on this subject, this story really stank. But I didn’t give it much thought until I learned more about the professional histories of both Dale Gavlak, the AP reporter who helped birth the story; and Yahyah Ababneh (aka Yan Barakat) who allegedly “reported” it from Syria.

The quick background on this is that Gavlak, who works for a number of news organizations including AP, recommended that the Mint Press publish a story she’d received written in Arabic, purporting to describe a Syrian rebel chemical weapons attack. After the story had circulated for a week or so journalists began questioning various elements of it. Eventually, Gavlak dissociated herself from the story even though she played a critical role in getting it published. Mint Press was hung out to dry because it hadn’t done due diligence itself and couldn’t say whether the story was true or false. It had relied on Gavlak and trusted her judgment.

Antiwar.com also republished the story on its website. But it apologized to its readers within a few days of the controversy beginning. That was more than its editors offered me when they yanked my published profile of Meir Javedanfar, under the censorious direction of Justin Raimondo.