Saturday, December 08, 2012

That anonymously-written article on Lebanon in the Washington Post: They think that Gen. Michel `Awn is a leader of Hizbullah--I am not making this up

This article clearly has the footprints of the Hariri press office all over it.   Just look at this: "Perhaps not surprisingly, the loudest complaints have come from the leaders of Hezbollah, even though the powerful militant group has already acknowledged supporting the Syrian regime, by sending fighters across the border to advise Assad’s government forces."  Now, of course, Hizbullah has not even reacted to the scandal of arms smuggling by Hariri MP, `Uqab Saqr.  But the link (in the "loudest complaints" above) takes you to NowHariri website and to a statement by Michel `Awn.  Knowing the level of ignorance of the scores of correspondents that are being sent to Lebanon by the New York Times and the Washington Post, they really sincerely think that Michel `Awn is a leader of Hizbullah.  The second lie (which is contained in the Hariri parliamentary bloc statement for this week) is that Nasrallah has acknowledged that he was sending fighters to Syria.  You would think that the link would take you to statement by Nasrallah but it takes you instead to a story that had appeared in the Washington Post which cited NOT NASRALLAH OR HIZBULLAH SOURCES but none other than US officials and Wisam Al-Hasan in the Hariri-Saudi run Intelligence Branch of Lebanon.  This kind of journalism can't be taught in schools of journalism.  I mean, I can't believe that those shoddy practices are taught there.

PS Yes, I know there are two names of contributors to the article but there is no byline.