From the pathetic (see below post) to the poignant. Joseph Loconte notes the frenzied way in which the BBC is campaigning for the release of its journalist Alan Johnston.
Naturally one feels a little of their desperation; we’ve seen far too many atrocities and needless deaths over recent years in the name of Islam and the Palestinians.
Quite whether almost daily Johnston-centred updates, pleas and reports from the BBC is a good use of telly-taxpayers money is a question almost indecent to mention, yet inevitable because the BBC is a state-sponsored organisation. One wouldn’t wish to be brought into it, but where one’s wallet is compelled, one is drawn afterwards.
There is also the question of the BBC’s closeness to Government, as HMG seeks to draw near and reason with Abu Qatada, a radical (terror enabler) believed to have close links to Al Qaeda, believed to have influence in the group holding Johnston. To what extent the BBC is using its influence to manoeuvre the Foreign Office- which funds the BBC world service – is as unclear as ever.
Loconte zeroes in on the words of Mark Thompson, BBC DG:
“Alan…is a brave, dedicated and humane journalist who was deeply committed to reporting events in Gaza to the wider world,”…“The people of Gaza are ill-served by kidnappings of this nature.” (highlight mine)
Loconte points out the strangeness of saying “kidnappings of this nature”, which implies that some kidnappings might be justified. Certainly such a distinction is in keeping with BBC moral equivocations over terrorism. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t, just as any of your nuanced imams might say.
Related:
http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110010108
And according to this AJ will be released soon.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070527/tuk-uk-britain-johnston-fa6b408_1.html
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Palestinian cabinet, told Sky News he could confirm Johnston was alive and being held captive.
The Palestinian government had made great efforts to get him released, Hamad said at a book festival in the British town of Hay-on-Wye. “We have different channels, different contacts to reach these people and I am sure that he is well and he is healthy,” he said.
“We are still continuing our effort to release him and I hope in a very, very close time we can do it.”
Hamad said the people holding Johnston had some “political demands” which he did not specify. “I think sooner or later Alan Johnston will be released,” he added.
PS
The book festival mentioned above is sponsored by a certain newspaper.
http://www.hayfestival.com/wales/
“To disrupt international terrorist networks in the United Kingdom by maintaining the increased effort and capacity of the Intelligence Agencies to locate and identify terrorists and their supporters; by continued close liaison and exchange of information with foreign governments and intelligence agencies, by reviewing and adding to the current list of proscribed terrorist organisations, if necessary; and by prosecuting criminal activity linked to individuals of groups of interest”
http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1085326225387
“Hamas is subject to a European Union ban as it is considered a terrorist organisation.
However, the Foreign Office said the meeting had been “requested and granted on humanitarian grounds” and did not change its policy on political contacts with members of the Islamic group.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/05/wtalks105.xml
So is allowing a known terrorist supporter and financer into the UK to attend a book fair for “humanitarian” grounds?
Especially when the Grauniad has him on record for stating that Isreal should cease to exist:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1942128,00.html
What a humane kind of guy!
anonymous writes:
“PS The book festival mentioned above is sponsored by a certain newspaper.”
It shows. Yesterday’s Any Questions audience had a slightly lower IQ than that of the nearby pigpens.
On the plus side, Jeanette Winterson revealed herself to be a front runner for this year’s Barking Moonbat Handicap, gaily likening George Bush to terrorists, to the baying delight of her fellow Guardian readers.
It was, all told, the perfect BBC audience. They must have felt so comfortable there.
BTW, good work outing Hillhunt. As the owners had seemed reluctant to curb his trolling, I’d almost given up on this place.
Pity Israeli P.M. Olmert is so unimaginative.
“Israel refuses to negotiate on a cease-fire until Alan Johnston is released. Oh, and that Shalit fellow, as well”. 😉
Useful Idiots: An Endangered Species
The Wall Street Journal‘s Bret Stephens wonders why the BBC allowed Alan Johnston to stay in Gaza long after it was no longer safe for foreign journalists. He suggests Johnston’s usefulness to the Palestinians came to an end as chaos laid bare uglier truths that don’t fit into the Beeb’s world view:
[read on…]
Note how the word ‘kidnapped’ has mysteriously re-entered the BBC vocabulary. Using this word sounds VERY judgemental by BBC standards. When it’s the Marines, they are ‘captured’. When it’s Israelis, they are ‘captured’. But when it is BBC journalists, suddenly it’s a “kidnapping”. How dare the BBC take a posturing moral stand and make a judgement like this. Why, it might encourage Muslims all over the world to spontaneously massacre their neighbours, or something.
BTW is there a chart on the wall at the BBC which shows which groups qualify for which term?
Anyone who trusts a British Government is a fool. In the 1950s Britiain ran an MI6 radio station on Cyprus broadcasting anti-Israel messages to attract an Arab audience……..today they are haing backchannels to Muslim Brotherhood….and on 19th June Westminster Cathedral will have a performance of Tavener’s music with singing in Arabic of 99 names for Allah…….this piece commissioned by The Prince of Wales to be performed courtesy of the British Council in Turkey subsequently…….
Saudi Arabia gets value for money from British ruling classes
BTW is there a chart on the wall at the BBC which shows which groups qualify for which term?
Rob | 27.05.07 – 7:27 pm
I believe it’s in their guidelines.
I posted this on the last open thread but it’s more appropriate here:
The Have Your Say forum on the Alan Johnston kidnapping has illustrated the profound difference between Western liberal thinking and the Eastern terrorist mentality:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/…1816& #paginator
There are a few consistent threads running through the thousands of comments that have been posted in the two months that the topic has been aired:
*Alan Johnston was only doing his job
*He is a fair and unbiased journalist
*He broadcast the plight of the Palestinians to the world and by kidnapping him, the Palestinians are harming their own cause.
People have cajoled and pleaded with the kidnappers. They have tried to use pop psychology on them. They have even become angry with them. But mostly there is a sense of bewilderment. How could the Palestinians, the pure, noble and long-suffering victims of the Israelis, have turned on someone who lived among them and did so much to help them?
The questions that are seldom being asked are whether in fact the kidnappers give a damn and what their demands are in return for Johnston’s release. It is assumed by many on the forum that the kidnappers are open to persuasive appeals to their conscience to release Johnston. It is assumed that they have a conscience when it comes to the treatment of infidels.
While the contributors to the forum struggle with the vast gulf between Western liberalism and Eastern terrorism, the BBC, for its part, has been particularly inept in its handling of the crisis. If the terrorists doubted the value of their captive, they are certainly in no doubt of it now that the BBC has publicised appeals for Johnston’s release so widely. This can only raise their demands and expectations. The BBC should have paid more attention to the cruel and inhuman handling by Arab terrorists of relatives of Israeli soldiers held captive when they ask for information on the fate of their loved ones. It should have noted that the usual demand is for the release of hundreds of their fellow terrorists in exchange for just a shred of evidence that the captive has been held by them • let alone his release, or any proof that he is still alive. Then the BBC would have noticed that the revelation by the terrorists that they had Johnston’s BBC card followed the same cruel theme. And then the BBC would have had a better idea of how negotiations should be handled.
since the capture/kidnapping of Johnston I have noticed an increase in the number of BBC arrticles appeasing the hardline/Hamas position on Israel. Typical is this piece here on “Israel’s Unstable borders”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6669545.stm
effectively deconstructed as a biased article here
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/05/the_bbc_blames_israel_for_unst.html
its worth looking through this website for a clear analysis on the true natuer of the RoP
The Editors blog’s reaction to the WSJ article
“But the article goes on to propose that our reasons for this complacency were as a result of our institutional pro-Palestinian views which meant we felt able to operate in the Palestinian authority with “political impunity”. He would appear to be suggesting that Alan was a Palestinian sympathiser and therefore we felt he would be protected by that. The author throws in the few other BBC correspondent names to stack up his case • saying Barbara Plett and Orla Guerin had also made their views known to the public.”
read the whole post here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/05/alan.html
comments are not allowed at the moment. I thought the whole editors project was set up to have a closer relationship w licence payers…
Is Johnson An Innocent or Willing Pawn in the British FO’s long standing goal of cosying up to Radical Islam?
After Hamas’ intercession in this affair, one can smell a distinct British FO Rat.
Palestinians believe Johnson is one of their own, and the BBC itself admits as much (see article below).
Its increasingly clear that his “kidnapping” is part of a ploy to get Abu Qatada (Al Qaeda’s European terror leader – who is a Palestinian) released from a UK prision.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1804169.ece
I suspect that the British FO are in on this “exchange” to be brokered by the good offices of Hamas as part of their long standing desired to build bridges with and then realigned in support of the Islamic Brotherhood (Hamas)and Islamic extreamists throughout the Middle East (Iran & Al Qaeda) as part of “beating the retreat” from Iraq …. something which the FO and the BBC have long pushed for.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6653195.stm
‘He works for us’
The solidarity event was held at a Palestinian restaurant in west London.
Organisers said they wanted to “send a clear message to his kidnappers that the Palestinian community… are appalled by this act”.
.
… “Because Alan, at the end of the day, he’s one of the people who cares about us and he works for us, and that’s why we have a responsibility to protect him, and we have to ask for his immediate release.”
See below for Islamic Republic’s condemantion to Johnson’s “kidnapping”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6650923.stm
which is rich given their track record as hostage takers, starting with the US Hostages in 1979 and enduring to this day:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6638657.stm
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bakhash25may25,0,5892576.story?coll=la-opinion-center
There’s an incident from American history which may be instructive. You can read how Teddy Roosevelt handled a kidnapping in Morocco here. And I am sure there are many similar incidents in British history.
In case anyone believes that I am spinning a conspiracy theory read below what the recent UK Hamas visitor has to say about Johnson
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1267648,00.html
my money is on an exchange of Johnson with Abu Qatada or some similar quid pro quo which will cement the growing ties between the British FO and radical Islam.
The fact that a senior Hamas reprentative has been invited to the UK is already a serious watering down of the Government’s position in banning this terror organisation. It looks like Gordon’s boys at the FO are busy.
Wonder why the BBC dont report on this development.
Alan Johnston & Hamas: A Friend In Need ….
Some more details on the concerted effort to re-habilitate Hamas using the “kidnapping” of BBC journalist Alan Johnson.
Its worth considering BBC’s role in manipulating UK relationship with Hamas & PA
1. UK & US Democrats Reaching Out to Hamas April May 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6528875.stm
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/27/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-US-Muslim-Brotherhood.php
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/05/the_us_and_the_muslim_brotherh.html
2. the longstanding connections between the British FO, the BBC and the Muslim Brotherhood (which operates in Palestine Under the Banner of Hamas).
History of Covert US/UK Support For the Muslim Brotherhood & Hamas
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/oneill.php?articleid=9615
3. Alistair Crooke, MI6 & Hamas
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2545
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/html/final/eng/sib/4_05/tran_eu.htm
4. Hamas & Alan Johnston = “Old Friends”
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2588947.ece
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=11178§ionid=351020202
bijan daneshman | 28.05.07 – 1:20 am,
Yes, some of us picked up on Asser’s little propaganda piece here:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/2631215756320160181/#350259
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/2631215756320160181/#350230
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/2631215756320160181/#350229
I think he’s trying to develop his resume so he can apply for a job writing textbooks for Palestinian schools.
Good take on Asser in American Thinker, but someone should point out to them that there was no war in Israel in 1974 – it was 1973.
Hettie, that editorsblog is priceless! Note that the BBC mouthpiece fails to address a single accusation of the institutional pro-Palestinian bias raised by the WSJ…
Hettie 28.05.07 – 1:51 am,
The BBC has closed ranks, possibly like never before, over the Johnston kidnapping. The Have Your Say on the issue, having in the beginning allowed comments critical of Johnston, has now crystallised into an exclusive well-wishing forum. Interestingly, the early critical comments have received a lot of support on the Comments Recommended pages:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=5911&edition=2&ttl=20070528085522&#paginator
No doubt many people whose critical comments have been rejected (I’m one of them) are using those pages to express their opinion. The forum has published 4770 comments and 1667 have been rejected.
Though there are a few Johnston posts on The Editors blog that allow comments, Fran Unsworth’s post is one of several on Johnston that has no comments facility. This, since it’s within the context of a debating forum, is the BBC talking down to us. It’s probably fair to point out that if the BBC doesn’t want a debate on Johnston, it therefore should not be publicising his plight on debating forums.
Brett Stephens is a fine journalist and he points out some unpleasant truths to the BBC. Unsworth’s response is myopic and emotional. So much so, that she accuses Stephens of a “lack of sympathy” when he made his feelings clear by stating, “One can only pray for Mr. Johnston’s safe release.” The following point made by Unsworth goes to the heart of the BBC’s bias because it’s so typical of the hypocritical, apparently offended stance it takes when rightly accused of bias: “He would appear to be suggesting that Alan was a Palestinian sympathiser.”
Unsworth also defended the BBC over accusations that it gave far greater coverage to black victims of racist murderers than white victims:
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2006/11/racist-murder-bbc-responses-via-dfh-in.html
I cringed while watching her defending the indefensible. And my opinion of her hasn’t improved with this latest episode.
She’s head of Newsgathering at the BBC? Part of the reason, no doubt, for the BBC’s decline.
The BBC have stopped even referring to Hamas as “militants” since this kidnapping, instead referring to them as “members of the armed wing of the Hamas movement”. Coincidence?
Bryan
Hat Tip Sir!!
Here is as bio of Unworthy’s “working history”….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/fran_unsworth/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/news/francescaunsworth.shtml
Expect a BBC “Gift” From Hamas Soon
The more I search online … the more its clear that the “kidnapping” of Alan Johnston is a sham.
So far no one has seems to have been willing to report this … with the WSJ … coming closest to calling a spade a spade.
Taking a leaf from the Islamic Republic’s Hostage taking play book …
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/04/04/iran-iraq.html
Hamas is preparing a “Gift” to the British …
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/864144.html
that is already paying big dividends … allowing Hamas to disseminate its propaganda in the UK … to a naive public … as part of its attempt to sideline moderates.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/katharine_viner/2007/05/its_only_when_you_hear.html
its working a treat … at Hay on Wye for instance we have …
“William Sieghart concluded by saying that he believed that you have to get the “extremes to the table”. If you want a peace process that will work. Olmert and Abu Mazen chatting, he suggested, gets you nowhere. In light of Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley’s moment, “who remembers David Trimble and John Hume?”
…. the real UNREPORTED scandal is that Arabist elements in the British FO and MI6 are possibly in cahoots with Hamas on Johnstons “kidnapping” … which may well be nothing more than a media stunt … devised by the FO & BBC for Hamas as a means of increasing Hamas leverage within the UK ….
this is part of a longstanding effort to cosy up to radical Islam
http://uniset.ca/terr/news/g_fco_muslimbrother.html
the unsavory character behind part of this effort is the suitably named MI6 operative Alaistair Crooke … a longstanding advocate of the Islamic Republic, and its sponsored terror arms … Hamas, and Hezbollah
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1370861,00.html
more of this agent’s repugnant views here
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/list.php?author=2456
i predict that Johnston will be released amid much back slapping and hugging between Hamas, BBC, and Foreign Office officials.
The losers in this charade will be the “moderate” Palestinians, the Egyptian Government, Israel, and the British public who as usual will be well and truely duped again … thanks to the BBC …
Subverting the interests of the United Kingdom in favour of Radical Islam … its what we do
bijan daneshmand:
the real UNREPORTED scandal is that Arabist elements in the British FO and MI6 are possibly in cahoots with Hamas on Johnston’s “kidnapping” … which may well be nothing more than a media stunt … devised by the FO & BBC for Hamas as a means of increasing Hamas leverage within the UK ….this is part of a longstanding effort to cosy up to radical Islam
Bijan, There are so few people of good sense in the world.
They laughed when Mohammed Fayed said MI6 had had Diana and Dodi murdered on the orders on Buck House.
They sniggered when Lyndon LaRouche said HMQ ruled over a sinister international empire.
Be prepared for the worst a deceitful world can throw at you as you try to tell the unvarnished truth.
Be strong, mon brave, and don’t worry about the men in the green coats. They wish you well.
Hillhunt
Its worth noting that William Sieghart “Hamas Sponsor to the Guardian Hay on Wye Festival” writes for “Prospect Magazine” the same publication that carries the pro-radical islam mesage of MI6 agent Alistair Crooke.
I wonder whether Prospect is nothing more than an MI6 front operation or perhaps its Alistair using his old boy network to open doors in the UK for his Hamas pals.
BTW the radical islam “think tank” that Seighart Chairs is here
http://www.forwardthinking.org/howwework.html
and not the innocent bunch
http://www.forwardthinkinginc.com/
Katharine Viner of the sponsoring Guardian would have one believe.
a sloppy journalist as well as a naive blonde … perfect fodder for the Guardian reader
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/katharine_viner/2007/05/its_only_when_you_hear.html
bijan daneshmand:
Hillhunt
Its worth noting that William Sieghart “Hamas Sponsor to the Guardian Hay on Wye Festival” writes for “Prospect Magazine” the same publication that carries the pro-radical islam mesage of MI6 agent Alistair Crooke.
William Sieghart is brother of Mary Ann Sieghart of The Times of London. Their father was a lawyer who built up a “human rights law” practice
They laughed when Mohammed Fayed said MI6 had had Diana and Dodi murdered on the orders on Buck House.
I still do laugh…if they had been involved it would have happened on the ski slopes not in the middle of Paris. Only Al-Fayed could arrange a spectacular like that in Paris by failing to breathalyse his drivers…..especially one off-duty and forced to drive at the last minute by Al-Fayed’s self-absorbed progeny
IiD | 28.05.07 – 12:48 pm,
If I got the lead from you, then I apologise and I tip my hat to you.
(I used to think a hat tip was what you throw to the busker in the subway.)
BBC News 24 was caught out in a blatant lie the other day. There was a lengthy report about how the surprisingly large numbers of Muslims in Switzerland are the victims of blatant discrimination and Islamophobia by not being allowed to build any traditional-style mosques. The claim was made repeatedly by various Muslims and BBC parrots that there were NO proper mosques in Switzerland. None whatever.
A friend watching the report did an internet search and in about a minute found details of at least two large Arab-style mosques, one in Geneva and one in Zurich.
Doesn’t anyone at the BBC grasp the concept of ‘taqiyya’?
BBC IS MANIPULATING US WORLD OPINION ON BEHALF OF HAMAS
Well surprise surprise!
After the “Hamas at the Hay on Wye Guardian Festival”
now we we get the first full transcript of his video … which WAIT A MINUTE … is a departure from most other hostage videos which are either not broadcast or are broadcast when its been made clear that their content is related to the hostage’s situation and not a propaganda release for the terrorist … err “militant” hostage takers.
as happened here
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,211298,00.html
now compare their broadcast to the propaganda that Alan Johnston has broadcast … distributed courtesy of the BBC … which censored the personal message that Alan had for his family but broadcast the terrorist propaganda IN FULL.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6711047.stm
Alan reassures us that he is “treated very well … [goes on about] the huge suffering of the Palestinian people … unacceptable … iraq ia worse … British government endlessly working to occupy Muslim lands … From history, the British worked to bring about the state of Israel, …. the British, are completely to blame, along with the Americans, for the situation in Iraq,”
blah … blah … blah …
frankly we have already heard much of this from Alan’s previous BBC broadcasts and those of his BBC chums …
whats New is that soon we will have to thank the Hamas leaders for being good enough to allow the broadcast in prime time of their propaganda via their “hostage”.
If the BBC had one shred of integrity they should have refused to broadcast the video’s political message and instead broadcast the personal message to the family or withheld the video altogether.
Alan Johnston may or may not be a real hostage in danger … what is clear is that the BBC has allowed “Army of Islam” which is a Hamas front organisation to manipulate the British public much in the same way that they were when the 15 British servicemen were taken hostage by Iran.
Some will see through this .. many will not and instead will swallow this manipulation hook, line and sinker.
Did you notice the sidebar describing the Army of Islam – the kidnappers – in polite terms and mischaracterizing the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier Shalit:’
ARMY OF ISLAM FACTS
Small, Islamist armed group operating in Gaza
Splinter group of the Popular Resistance Committees
Seeks liberation of Palestine and an Islamic state
Influenced by, but not affiliated with, al-Qaeda
Led by Mumtaz Dugmush, also known as Abu Muhammad, a member of a powerful clan
One of three groups allegedly holding captured Israeli soldier Cpl Gilad Shalit