This is not the first time. I have mentioned that only weeks ago, Nicholas Blanford interviewed "a Hizbullah fighter" who bragged to him about weapons' smuggling operation in South Lebanon. I commented on this at the time and said that it is so obviously a fabrication: worse than when Christopher Hitchens had claimed that he ran into Abu Nidal in a cafe--CAFE FOR POTATO's SAKE--in Baghdad. But Nicholas Blanford's services to the Hariri cause is not new: he wrote a whole book on Hariri, nothing but a vulgar and crude hagiographic account of his life based entirely on Hariri sources. But to Blanford's eternal embarrassment, he wrote that book when the Hariri family was convinced that the Syrian regime alone was behind the assassination of Hariri. So I am expecting a second volume in which a whole new narrative would be dictated to Blanford. (By the way, Hariri family commissioned translations of that book by Blanford and gave it out for free in bulk--that is how professional the book was). Now, Blanford outdoes himself, big time. In an act of journalistic self-destruction, he bizarrely claims that he interviewed one of the four members of Hizbullah who were accused of the Hariri murder. I mocked this story on my Facebook yesterday as soon as I saw it in the press. It is not believable on any level. I did not have to wait for today's official Hizbullah denial that any of this ever took place. But the denial went even further: apparently, Blanford has claimed that he "stumbled" upon one of the four (as if the pictures of the four released by the court are consistent with their images today--Al-Akhbar's chief security correspondent, Hasan `Ullayq asserted that Mustafa Badr Ad-Din looked nothing like his picture. Just remember that `Imad Mugniyyah, we now know, looked nothing like the international pictures released by US and Israel of him) while on his way to interview a Hizbullah official. But Hizbullah denied that the guy ever interview any of its officials. It has become a specialty of Blanford to rely on unnamed Hizbullah members who love to rush information and secrets to him, although he has a reputation for being a Hariri court reporter and for vomiting the same Israeli propaganda talking points that one reads in Israeli military communiques. As is known, Blanford specialized in giving specific estimates of Hizbullah missile capabilities, which match Israeli estimates. But forget about all this: any of my students who ever wrote a research paper on Hizbullah would dismiss this story in Time magazine as a fabrication. I mean, say what you want about Hizbullah, call its all the bad names in the book, but it is a most secretive and highly disciplined party. There has never ever been cases of people in the intelligence-military apparatus of the party talking or leaking to the press. That is just not their style and they would be dismissed for such infraction. This is why this story can be dismissed by any expert on Hizbullah. And if they want to talk and confess, why do they choose to do that to Blanford, of all people. Of course, there is a possibility that Blanford is so naive and knows little of his subject that he is often duped by people posing as Hizbullah members of fighters. But a real Middle East correspondent would be skeptical if someone approached him and talked to him as one of the four wanted men, whose pictures (dated) were released by Interpol. When I was a consultant for NBC News back in the 1980s, there were various crooks in Beirut who would approach US and British Middle East correspondent with tapes and videos of hostages held in Beirut. And those Middle East correspondents would shell out a thousand, and often more, in return for those "documents". The crooks would insist that tapes won't be delivered until money is delivered first. Tomorrow, I won't be surprised if a man without a beard approaches Blanford and claims that he is Hasan Nasrallah himself and offers to confess the murder of Hariri to him. I mean, how crazy is that? (thanks Laure)
PS This "report" in Time is now being mocked on Lebanese websites and FB and Twitter. But one Lebanese did come to the rescue of Blanford to support him: none other than Sa`d Hariri--kid you not.
PS This "report" in Time is now being mocked on Lebanese websites and FB and Twitter. But one Lebanese did come to the rescue of Blanford to support him: none other than Sa`d Hariri--kid you not.
