Who Sent Bin Laden?

[HagiaSophia]

Speaking at a meeting of Saudi leaders in preparation for the kingdom’s international conference on counterterrorism, Defense Minister Prince Sultan referred to Osama bin Laden as being “sent by the Jews.”

The prince was quoting a poet who said, “Long live security - may its men hold their heads high on every corner. [Bin Laden], whose ideology is sick, who was sent by the Jews, who is the architect of theft, was treacherous and sent us the criminals. This traitor of the nation tried to harm us, but his efforts boomeranged back upon him.”

The prince’s remarks can by viewed, with translation, at the Middle East Media Institute’s special website of television clips [Clip No. 518].

The first-of-its-kind conference, beginning today through Tuesday, will be attended by leading counterterrorism experts from more than 50 countries, including the U.S.

But Israel is not invited, despite its extensive experience combating terrorism at home.

“We have invited all countries that have suffered from terrorism to the conference, and all have agreed to take part,” said Prince Turki ibn Muhammad, assistant undersecretary for political affairs at the Saudi Foreign Ministry.

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42729

 

[Matt25]

HagiaSophia:

The prince’s remarks can by viewed, with translation, at the Middle East Media Institute’s special website of television clips [Clip No. 518].

guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,773258,00.html

Selective Memri For some time now, I have been receiving small gifts from a generous institute in the United States. The gifts are high-quality translations of articles from Arabic newspapers which the institute sends to me by email every few days, entirely free-of-charge.

 The organisation that makes these translations and sends them out is the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), based in Washington

The thing that makes me uneasy is that the stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel. I am not alone in this unease.

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Washington Times: “Memri’s intent is to find the worst possible quotes from the Muslim world and disseminate them as widely as possible.”

Memri might, of course, argue that it is seeking to encourage moderation by highlighting the blatant examples of intolerance and extremism. But if so, one would expect it to publicise extremist articles in the Hebrew media too.

Although Memri claims that it does provide translations from Hebrew media, I can’t recall receiving any.

The reason for Memri’s air of secrecy becomes clearer when we look at the people behind it. The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon.

Colonel Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.

Retrieving a now-deleted page from the archives of Memri’s website also throws up a list of its staff. Of the six people named, three are described as having worked for Israeli intelligence.

Among the other three, one served in the Israeli army’s Northern Command Ordnance Corps, one has an academic background, and the sixth is a former stand-up comedian.

 Earlier  Memri scored two significant propaganda successes against Saudi Arabia. The first was its translation of an article from al-Riyadh newspaper in which a columnist wrote that Jews use the blood of Christian or Muslim children in pastries for the Purim religious festival.The writer, a university teacher, was apparently relying on an anti-semitic myth that dates back to the middle ages.

But Memri claimed al-Riyadh was a Saudi “government newspaper” - in fact it’s privately owned - implying that the article had some form of official approval.

Al-Riyadh’s editor said he had not seen the article before publication because he had been abroad. He apologised without hesitation and sacked his columnist, but by then the damage had been done.

Memri’s next success came a month later when Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to London wrote a poem entitled The Martyrs - about a young woman suicide bomber - which was published in al-Hayat newspaper.

Memri sent out translated extracts from the poem, which it described as “praising suicide bombers”. Whether that was the poem’s real message is a matter of interpretation. It could, perhaps more plausibly, be read as condemning the political ineffectiveness of Arab leaders, but Memri’s interpretation was reported, almost without question, by the western media.

These incidents involving Saudi Arabia should not be viewed in isolation. They are part of building a case against the kingdom and persuading the United States to treat it as an enemy, rather than an ally.

To anyone who reads Arabic newspapers regularly, it should be obvious that the items highlighted by Memri are those that suit its agenda and are not representative of the newspapers’ content as a whole.

 

[Matt25]

Actually if you check out the transcript on the MEMRI website memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=518, dubious as its translations are, you see that it is not Prince Sultan making the apparent reference to the Jews but a poet Mash’al Al-Harithi.

Furthermore the poet says of bin Laden "
Tell the brainwashed who violates sanctities (i.e. bin Laden)

that he must thank Allah for His grace and must curse Satan.

In our homeland, there was never any civil strife, division, or factions.

Our pure Muslim homeland has nothing to do with the traitors.

The bats of darkness ignite and fuel civil strife -

May Allah’s curse be upon them.

Oh corrupters, your deeds will not be met with silence.

We will not sell our homeland cheap, as you have done.

We will catch you like sheep,

Long live security - may its men hold their heads high on every corner.

(Bin Laden), whose ideology is sick...

This traitor of the nation tried to harm us,

but his efforts boomeranged back upon him.

He’s been destroyed, and can no longer give out orders. He is “finished.”

He's sick. He thinks we are in deep slumber.

He’s seriously sick in the head. Tell him all the people are vigilant.

 

[gilliam]

Yep the rulers of Saudi don’t like Bin Laden.

 

[HagiaSophia]

Matt25:

Actually if you check out the transcript on the MEMRI website .

The intial post you made claims that the translations and work of Memri are excellent so your comment about their dubious work is as usual, off the mark.

It is no secret that Memri has Israeli citizens working for it - so do two of the better blogs online but everyone in the intelligence community checks and quotes from them because of their quality. The stories they run, are reported elsewhere so it is always pretty easy to check out other versions of whatever the situation is.

I am not quite sure of the purpose of these two posts: is it that you feel that Memri’s information should not be used because they are hiring Israelis’? Is the only good information you get coming from Al Jazeera or the usual cluster of “odd” internet sources?

If you felt the source was biased and not true you should have simpy said so, it isn’t really required to belabor the point.

Regardless of who works there they are a respected and widely read organization of news reporting - that after all is the criteria for the news.

At least they don’t haul out their religion and attempt to use it to hide under to support their political views which is more than I say for some posters here.

 

[Matt25]

HagiaSophia:

I am not quite sure of the purpose of these two posts: is it that you feel that Memri’s information should not be used because they are hiring Israelis’? Is the only good information you get coming from Al Jazeera or the usual cluster of “odd” internet sources?

At least they don’t haul out their religion and attempt to use it to hide under to support their political views which is more than I say for some posters here.

Two postings, two different meanings.

1. MEMRI has an anti Arab agenda
2. The Worldnetdaily.com story you posted is false if MEMRI is accurate since one claimed that the Saudi Defence Minister said something which the other attributed to another person.

Do you think that a persons religious belief’s should be separate from their political ones? An unusual position for a Catholic to hold.

 

[gilliam]

Matt25:

Do you think that a persons religious belief’s should be separate from their political ones? An unusual position for a Catholic to hold.

People need to realize that for someone who strictly adheres to Islam there is no such thing as separation of Church and State. In fact, there are not two entities, just one, a religious one.