Daily Update
posted 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT, December 13
Canada: Hezbollah remarks likely 'invented'
Iraq: Dossier full of holes
Hezbollah story likely 'invented'
The furor over the importance that a media article that allegedly contained "invented" remarks from a Hezbollah leader, and the role it played in Canada's decision to ban the Lebanese group, continued to grow on Thursday.
On Wednesday Canada
outlawed both the military and social wings of Hezbollah. As the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports, "it was an abrupt about-face for the foreign affairs minister, Bill Graham, who has argued the social arm of the organization is a legitimate charity."
Apparently one of the key factors in Mr. Graham's decision to add the group to the list of terrorist organizations banned by Ottawa was
a US media report quoting Hezbollah's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, urging Palestinians to
expand their suicide bombings worldwide. The US story had been widely covered in the Canadian media.
Only one problem. It now seems the Sheik never made the remarks. On its Wednesday night (Dec. 11) national TV news broadcast, the
CBC alleged "pro-Israeli" freelance reporter Paul Martin
"likely invented the remarks."
There is no record of such a speech here, and there would be. It was not broadcast on Hezbollah's television station, as was reported. Hezbollah, which vigorously publicizes Nasrallah's every word, says the remarks were never uttered and the Canadian embassy in Beirut has tried and failed to document the quotes. The story originated not in the Middle East but in London, with this man. Paul Martin freelances for "
The Washington Times," a right wing newspaper owned by the Unification Church. He cannot back up the quotes his story attributes to Nasrallah. And the
CBC says it's not the first time something like this has happened with Martin.
Earlier this year, the paper (
the Times) ran a report by a reporter named Sayed Anwar accusing Palestinian Muslims of raping, executing and extorting Christians in Bethlehem. When the story was questioned, Sayed Anwar turned out to be a fictitious name. A composite for Paul Martin and two of his researchers. Martin refused to discuss that incident on camera. The
Globe and Mail reports Friday that the
Washington Times says the comments did not, in fact,
come from Sheik Nasrallah but from a "US professor and it was investigating whether they were accurate." The
Toronto Star quotes Martin as
admitting the source was a Florida State University associate professor, Walid Phares.
On Thursday, Canadian government officials gave
conflicting accounts of how much Martin's stories played a role in the Canadian decision. Solicitor-General Wayne Easter said the reported comments played no role, while Graham said they had been a factor but not a big one.
Canadian Arab groups say the ban came because of
pressure from the US and the threat of a lawsuit by Canadian Jewish groups. Jewish groups, however, said the ban was long overdue.
For its part, Hezbollah insists
Canada was "duped" into putting its social arm on the list, and says Canada will "regret" its decision.
Iraq dossier: 'Lots of holes'
Giving their first response to Iraq's 12,000 page dossier on its weapons programs, US and UN officials said Thursday that the dossier "fails to account for
chemical and biological agents missing when inspectors left Iraq four years ago," The
New York Times reports. As well, officials say Iraq's declaration on its nuclear program "leaves a lot of questions open." One officials said the ommissions in the report were "
big enough to drive a truck through."
The
Washington Post reports that US officials are also urging chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to
begin interviewing Iraqi scientists outside Iraq. Blix has been reluctant to do this so far, saying he doesn't run a "defection agency." But there may be another reason why the Bush adminsitration is pusing so hard on the issue, the
Post says.
Several senior officials have made clear in recent days that they see the interviews -- with scientists and technicians who have worked in past and present Iraqi weapons and missile programs -- as the quickest way to declare Baghdad in material breach of the new resolution without going through a lengthy inspections process that may ultimately be inconclusive. But defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the US is not "
eager to invade Iraq," the
CBC reports. Rumsfeld also said that the White House is convinced that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but may not make that proof public.
Meanwhile Maj. Gen. Hussam Muhammad Amin, the general named by Iraq to work with UN weapons inspectors,
praised the inspectors "professionalism" on Thursday.
"We appreciate the professionalism with which the inspections are undertaken," General Amin said. He said the United Nations teams had "shown respect for our traditions and values," suspending work for two days last week during the Muslim holiday of Id al-Fitr, and had avoided the "silly questions" posed by earlier teams of weapons inspectors in the 1990s. Writing in the
Guardian, Jonathon Glancey says we had better be sure that what we are fighting for in Iraq is more meaningful than making sure you can find "
fast food in the cradle of civilization."
Is our creed more than a confusion of cheap energy, discriminatory education, junk food, shopping malls, cynical housing, privatized public services, property deals, celebrity culture, the machinations of multinational corporations, leisurewear, chic pornography, the right to bear arms, and a deep-seated fear of the Saracen bogeyman handed down in popular legend, and half-baked government dossiers, from the crusades? Most decent British and American citizens, not loath to protest against unrighteous war nor to fight for a just cause, want and deserve better than this. We need to know what we are fighting for, and to give more than a damn. Michael Ledeen, writing in the
National Review, meanwhile, says the US government's actions over the past few weeks, in regards to the UN weapons inspectors and the way it handled the Yemen Scud missile crisis show a "triumph of lack of will" and have introduced the "W" factor into the current administration -
the "wimp" factor.
And it bespeaks the most-terrifying thing of all: They don't think we're serious. If the Yemenis thought we were serious ��� that is, serious enough to protect them against the jihadist mafia ��� they'd have stuck with the game plan. And if we were serious, we'd have told them to shut up or we'd throw them against the nearest wall and impose our will on the place, and we'd have paraded the Scuds in front of the nearest TV camera, proclaimed a victory in the war against terrorism, and then restated the Axis of Evil theme and reminded the Asians that they're supposed to work with us to shut down the North Korean nuclear program. Instead, inevitably, the North Koreans have told us to ship off and shut up, and are resuming their nuclear activities, and the South Koreans, upon whom we were depending to put pressure on the hermit kingdom to the north, are telling us to get out of their place, to which we respond wimpily by promising to renegotiate the
whole military relationship.
Curiosities...
•
Family says Ottawa not helping Canadian facing Saudi beheading (
CBC)
•
Canada right to ban Hezbollah (
Toronto Globe and Mail)
•
Hollywood's Sean Penn Grapples with Iraq Conflict (
Reuters)
•
Actors say Hollywood's being 'pressured' to make war movies (
Crosswalk.com)
•
Powell unveils plan to reform 'autocratic' Middle East (
Independent)
•
Iraq bought anti-nerve gas drug with US approval (
Reuters)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan at
csmbandwidth@aol.com.
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