Author Archives: David Vance

I am told that..AHEM… Biased BBC favourite (!) Lyse Doucet was on the BBC today claiming that “Jordan has taken millions of Palestinians in the past”  The actual number I am reliably advised is 800k, max. Could she be making it up as she goes?

Hat-tip to @JeremyJacobs.

I know we’ve all been having problem getting access to the site in recent days but I think it’s all been fixed now so loading should be easier. My thanks to ASE and my apologies to all who have grown frustrated trying to get onto the site! I assure you that your  frustration is as nothing compared to mine!

A Biased BBC reader writes;

“I would like to draw your attention to the Dawood Prison scandal in Kabul.

This week a US Congressional report was released detailing “Auschwitz-like” conditions in this US funded hospital in Afghanistan and a cover up by US military authorities – and one man in particular Lieutenant General William Caldwell In September of last year the Wall Street Journal reported: “There was evidence of horrifying scenes – amputees being left to defecate in their own beds, blood draining from patients into open vats, maggots feeding on infected wounds – and all embedded in deep corruption. According to the report, doctors and nurses routinely demanded bribes for food and basic care.”

“One of the stories the WSJ told was of Afghan policeman Ali Noor Hazrat, who was admitted to the hospital late in 2010 after being injured in a Taliban rocket attack. He then starved to death in the hospital on December 27, while his brother desperately tried to sell off the family’s land to pay the doctors to feed him.

The report also said US officers had recorded evidence of such stories at the hospital as early as 2006, and reported it to the Afghan Defense Ministry, who took no action.

I could link to any of another dozen such reports but I chose this from – yes – the Guardian dateline 24th July 2011. (There’s a reason for this) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/24/us-officers-congress-kabul-hospital

I have not been able to trace a single mention of these horrors on the BBC – one of the news outlets that made Abu Ghraib a household name. Why? They must know about it. THEY READ THE GUARDIAN, don’t they?

Well here’s hint for their oversight: “One active-duty officer testified that the three-star general, Lieutenant General William Caldwell, who headed the training mission in Afghanistan, forced him to retract a request for an inspector general’s investigation into the Dawood national military hospital. Colonel Mark Fassl, said he was shocked when Caldwell brought up the 2010 congressional elections and said: “How could we do this or make this request WITH AN ELECTION COMING” Fassl, who was inspector general for the compound, said he believed it was a reference to President Barack Obama”

If any media reports (BBC?) have been muted because they would do harm to a sitting president then the media is charged with criminal neglect of their duty to inform the public. The standard for Abu Ghraib in Iraq and George W Bush should be the same for Dawood Hospital in Afghanistan and Barack Hussein Obama.”

BBC Today has this touching tribute to vile anti-Semite and left wing fantasist Gore Vidal this morning. Dear Gore, they guy who felt that Bush was behind 9/11 and who declared “that Anti-Semitism got poor Polanski”.

I suspect this may not bother some readers as much as it  bothers me but I was sickened by the way in which the BBC headlines the utterly loathsome PR spin from IRA commander Martin McGuinness re the Claudy atrocity. The fact is that the BBC has been to the fore in promoting a “peace process” which has enabled a man like McGuinness to reach the highest level of Government. For anyone who is interested, here is a view that you will NOT here on the BBC on this terrible terrible atrocity. I wrote it a few years ago.

Another day on the BBC, another opportunity to put the boot into the Coalition using the most spurious “news”.  Oh look, “Homelessness” is soaring. Guess what?  Disposable Incomes are at a nine year low. You know what you have to do? Yes, vote Labour.

I’m sure that you have read David’s post below on the treatment afforded Mitt Romney by the BBC. I see that  the BBC wanted to have the final word on the overseas visit by the GOP candidate by declaring “Romney wraps up overseas tour amid tensions with media..”  Do have a read, I particularly liked the way they keep a sting to the last sentence. Let’s face it – the BBC are in the Obama camp and have been for years now. No matter what he does do (or doesn’t) he’s still their hero so WHOEVER the GOP put up was going to get the cold treatment from the State Broadcaster. Mark Mardell has put bias on a whole new level with his regular drooling over President Hubris. Romney has stood up for Israel and Poland, two Nations that Obama was quick to cold shoulder and in doing so he attracts the predicable opprobrium of the BBC.