Nada Bakri and March 14 press releases

New York Times, as bad as it is, was not as bad on covering Lebanon.  Its reporters on Lebanon, even Robert Worth who I sometimes criticize, kept their distance from the two sides.  Here, Nada Barkri basically rehashes the talking points of the Hariri family press releases, word for word.  She talks about Lebanese police as if there is such an independent entity: in fact, all her "information" is based on an anonymous source cited by Ashraf Rifi.  Worse, she mentions Ashraf Rifi and never once mentions that he is a tool of the Hariri family, and serves as their eyes and ears.  In fact, Rifi provided the scenario for Syria's involvement in the Hariri assassination before the Hariri family switched to accusing Hizbullah after 2006.  Rifi was instrumental in the arrest of the four generals, who were later released after four years in jail. Just yesterday, Rifi's boss, Minister of Interior, testified before the same parliamentary committee and said that there is no clear evidence about what really happened in both cases.  Bakri made no mention of that.  It must have been inconsistent with the propaganda message of the article.  Personally, I think it is very likely that Syrian regime goons were involved, but my comment is about the unprofessionalism of this piece.  Israel regularly abducts Lebanese citizens from South Lebanon (and a fisherman from Tyre, Muhammad Farran, is still missing after being abducted from Tyre, but Barki did not receive a Hariri press release on the matter, I guess).   Also, she does not mention that the Hariri factions in Lebanon which was installed by Syrian intelligence used to allow the Syrian regime to help itself all over Lebanon, and now are trying to make political points of the matter.  And regarding Shibli `Aysami: I wrote about him before, and I accused (without evidence) the Syrian regime of responsibility, but please don't also go along with the propaganda of March 14 and make the man to be a democratic crusader.  He was a key official in Saddam's inner circle in Iraq and was instrumental in key decisions in Iraq that resulted in the deaths of thousands.