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"I am delighted to call Jim Zogby my friend. We share values and passions ranging from social justice to baseball... He is also far more willing to meet and work (publicly!) with the Jewish community than many of our leaders are with the Arab American community... There are no good reasons to attack his person nor to demean his name as an epithet." Rabbi Jack Moline - Washington Jewish Week, 12/19/96
MER - Always in the public eye, Jim Zogby, President of the self-created Arab American Institute (AAI) is one of those who has sold out his community more than any other self-annointed Arab American "spokesman". Admittedly articulate with words, Zogby has gained notoriety and wealth cooperating with the Zionist community and the U.S. government throughout the years of the Intifada. [Update: Rabbi Moline is one of the more prominent "liberal" Jewish rabbis in the Washington area, most recently known for pounding the podium with a rock at Zionist rallies endorsing Israeli tanks and gunships crushing the Palestinian people into submission as part of the apartheid-style "peace process".]
S A U D I P R O P A G A N D A I N A M E R I C A
This week's LIE OF THE WEEK goes to an entire feature section in the publication WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS. Published with considerable encouragement and support from the Arab establishment, especially the Saudis, this publication is in actuality a sophisticated propaganda vehicle with the primary purpose of distorting coverage of Middle East affairs in ways to the benefit and liking of the kings, royal families and "client-regimes" who rule, oppress, and squander the resources of the region. These headlines from the Sept 1995 issue of WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS -- with pictures of past and present Saudi Kings adorning the top page of the extensive cover feature about Saudi Arabia: . "THE YEAR 1995 WILL GO DOWN IN MIDDLE EAST HISTORY AS THE YEAR THAT SAUDI ARABIA GOT ITS SECOND WIND..."
"...SAUDI ARABIA'S REMARKABLE NEW CABINET."
"...THE SAUDI ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS VERY GOOD NEWS FOR THE UNITED STATES." PLUS A GUSHING BOOK REVIEW BY FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AND WASHINGTON REPORT EDITOR RICHARD CURTISS OF "DESSERT WARRIOR" BY HRH (that's "His Royal Highness" -- if anyone is wondering -- GENERAL KHALED BIN SULTAN.
In the old colonial bastion, England, the wealthy Arab establishment has its exclusive, lavish dining clubs; its extensive lists of readily available women; a variety of political and journalistic hacks to do its bidding; and the publication MIDDLE EAST INTERNATIONAL to twist things their way among academics and intellectuals.
In the new superpower, America, the same fat-cat Arab establishment -- increasingly self-centered, increasingly parasitic, and increasingly despicable -- led by a group of Saudi businessmen along with members of the Royal family, and working in tandem with old-line State Department Arabists at the American Educational Trust (AET), also has their publication, this one seductively known as WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS.
Many publications accept features of paid advertising from governments, and sometimes corporations -- identifying them as such. But there's no need for the Saudis to purchase a paid advertising section, and to so label it, when it comes to the WASHINGTON REPORT -- for what appears in its pages is practically the very same thing masquerading as journalism and information.
If we had a "Lie Of The Year", for the current cover feature WASHINGTON REPORT would definitely be nominated...and would be likely to win! No doubt former Ambassador Andy Killgore (now Publisher of WASHINGTON REPORT) and Dick Curtiss (Executive Editor) have rushed copies to the Gulf to show off to their patrons and benefactors.
Michael Rothschild 5 November 1996 Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs Princeton University Princeton, N.J.
Dear Dean Rothschild,
I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet and speak with you last week here in Washington. However, the apprehensions I mentioned to you about the event that brought us together were very much validated (from my perspective obviously) when the evening's program took place.
At a time in history when more than a million people have been killed and one of the most advanced countries in the Middle East practically destroyed -- this on top of what has happened in recent years to Lebanon, the Sudan, Algeria, Iran, and the Palestinians -- to have three like-minded Princeton professors simply repeating politically-correct ideas in a rather incestuous manner seemed to me intellectually undignified. It's one thing for the politicians to act this way, as deplorable as that it itself has become. But for educators and intellectuals to act in this way is truly depressing, though not quite up to a P.R.I. (painful rectal itch).*
Seriously, everyone from Amnesty International to the Vatican has deplored what has been done to Iraq, a former White House Press Secretary has called the Gulf War itself a "plot", a former Attorney General of the U.S. has called American policies "war crimes", the U.N. has issued a report that over a half-million children have been killed because of the sanctions, and the resultant "peace process" has been roundly condemned as duplicitous and fraudulent by major personalities in this country and abroad. And yet we who studied international affairs at Princeton are offered not one word of any of these perspectives but instead are subjected to a cacophony of platitudes and misleading (certainly extremely incomplete) analysis. Furthermore, such events do not seem to me at all consistent with your recent comment about the WWS being a "dynamic forward-looking institution" - not when it comes to matters relating to the Middle East anyway.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Bruzonsky * Note to MER readers: The main refrain and joke of the evening was the repeated expression from the Princeton Professors -- led by Richard Ullman, formerly a member of the National Security Council -- that Saddam Hussein was only now a P.R.I. (painful rectal itch) because the war had at least greatly weakened Iraq militarily and financially. Mark Bruzonsky graduated with a Masters In International Affairs for Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School in 1975. PLUS A GUSHING BOOK REVIEW BY FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AND WASHINGTON REPORT EDITOR RICHARD CURTISS OF "DESSERT WARRIOR" BY HRH (that's "His Royal Highness" -- if anyone is wondering -- GENERAL KHALED BIN SULTAN.
In the old colonial bastion, England, the wealthy Arab establishment has its exclusive, lavish dining clubs; its extensive lists of readily available women; a variety of political and journalistic hacks to do its bidding; and the publication MIDDLE EAST INTERNATIONAL to twist things their way among academics and intellectuals.
In the new superpower, America, the same fat-cat Arab establishment -- increasingly self-centered, increasingly parasitic, and increasingly despicable -- led by a group of Saudi businessmen along with members of the Royal family, and working in tandem with old-line State Department Arabists at the American Educational Trust (AET), also has their publication, this one seductively known as WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS.
Many publications accept features of paid advertising from governments, and sometimes corporations -- identifying them as such. But there's no need for the Saudis to purchase a paid advertising section, and to so label it, when it comes to the WASHINGTON REPORT -- for what appears in its pages is practically the very same thing masquerading as journalism and information.
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| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/12/492.htm |