From ‘Syria’ With Love

BAB's A List, Democracy, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Journalism, Media, Middle East, Nationhood, Propaganda, Psychology & Pop-Psychology

Like the PLO (Jenin) and the KLA (Kosovo), Americans are lying for their cause—fame and a seat on Oprah’s (concave) couch.

BY NEBOJSA MALIC

The most curious thing about the case of Amina Arraf is that it was exposed as a fraud.

For those unfamiliar with the story, a blogger purporting to be a young Syrian woman (“Gay Girl in Damascus”) has been posting for the last several months – by the strangest of coincidences, just as the anti-government protests in Syria got going. Then, on June 6, a post purportedly from the blogger’s cousin claimed she had been detained by the Syrian police, whereabouts and fate unknown. This caused an uproar on the blogs, Facebook, Twitter and whatnot, as the entire conflict in Syria came to be seen through the prism of “Amina Arraf,” a Damascene lesbian.

Except she was a fraud. “Amina Arraf” was actually an American man, (aptly) named Tom McMaster. All the photos featured on the blog were from his Syrian trip. The photo purporting to be Amina was of Jelena Lecic, a London-dwelling Serb. The speed with which the hoax unraveled was simply amazing.

McMaster’s “apology” on the blog rang hollow: “While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground.”

Well, all right then. It doesn’t matter that Tom just lied to the entire world for months. Or that he hasn’t given anyone any reason to believe he actually knows what is actually going on in Syria. It doesn’t matter – he FEELS strongly about it, so he’ll just make up some stuff and serve it with a side of gay rights. The audience will love it.
Both the mainstream media and the internet, suckered by McMaster’s sock-puppetry, are now making excuses. Well, Assad’s Syria is a repressive dictatorship, so there was no way to verify the story, and uh…

Horse-hockey! People didn’t bother challenging the Araf fiction because it was a fiction they wanted to believe. The story had it all – a plucky young woman, gay no less, going up against an “oppressive” regime Washington has hated for a long time. Even now, when the whole thing has been exposed as a massive fraud, most people take the underlying assumptions behind it in stride: that the government in Damascus is evil and needs to be overthrown. Why, they are sending tanks against its own people! (Psst: so did Clinton at Waco.)

It isn’t the first time something like this is happening. Back in 1998, a CBC reporter named Nancy Durham visited the Serbian province of Kosovo, covering a terrorist outfit known as the “Kosovo Liberation Army.” She was told a heart-rending story by a girl, Rajmonda, who claimed to have lost her sister to “Serbian aggressors.” The story aired in January 1999, just as the Western public opinion was mobilizing for a war on Serbia (then still called Yugoslavia). The war began in March and lasted till June, when NATO occupied Kosovo and let the KLA run wild. Returning to look in on Rajmonda, Durham found her family very much alive and well. She had been conned. The whole thing was a KLA trick. Anything for the cause. Yet even as Nancy Durham apologized for being duped and, in turn, duping her audience (the only reporter covering the Balkans that has done so), she still called Rajmonda’s town by its Albanian name, Skenderaj (instead of Srbica). It was a reflection of the “reality” the KLA was creating with the help of NATO troops and the mosaic of lies such as Rajmonda’s story, which they’d fed to all the Western reporters.

Jack Kelley, a USA Today reporter, was busted in 2004 for making up many of his stories. He also covered the conflict in Yugoslavia, and his story of a war diary “proving” Serb atrocities fell firmly into the fake category. Interestingly enough, the source Kelley quoted, “humanitarian activist” Natasa Kandic, weaseled out of the entire affair claiming that, while she personally hadn’t seen the diary in question, surely the claim of atrocities contained therein was true. You see, Kandic makes a pretty penny spinning tall tales of Serbian atrocities, and even gets access to the New York Times editorial pages. The fact that she’d fed Kelley a line of bull never hurt her reputation – because the publishers of her drivel wanted and needed her atrocity porn to be true.

Last, but not least, I vividly remember this sort of behavior during the Bosnian War (1992-1995). During the last year of the war, I worked with a host of Western journalists covering the war from Sarajevo, where I used to live. As their interpreter, I accompanied them to interviews and also translated the local media coverage. Imagine my surprise a year later, when I came across some of their archived articles while I was studying in the US (thanks to the wonders of computerized university libraries, then in infancy) and discovered a substantially different account of what had taken place.

We saw the same things, heard the same words, yet they reported something quite unlike what I had seen and heard. They reported what the audiences back home wanted to hear: vicious villains and virtuous victims, black hats and white hats, and in the end a noble West riding to the rescue, too late for many but better late than never. Some went on to become celebrities, others got into positions of power from which to start more “humanitarian” crusades. And their myth about the Bosnian War still stands, despite the steady trickle of revelations about its fictional character.

In 2004, an unnamed Bush administration official (later said to have been Karl Rove), contemptuously dismissed NY Times reporter Ron Suskind as someone belonging to the “reality-based community“:

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

While it sounds like unbelievable hubris, I don’t doubt for a moment that Rove (if that was indeed him) fully believed this then, or that he still does. It helps explain the entire Bush presidency, but also that of his successor. It doesn’t matter what actually goes on, only what people believe is going on. Everything becomes contingent on perception management. It’s Orwellian. It’s Hollywood. It’s the world our rules live in, and most of us go along.

To borrow a famous line from an Aaron Sorkin play, we can’t handle the truth. We want the lies, because the lies are what we’ve been conditioned to expect and digest. And our rulers believe they can will the world to conform to their desires. They were proven wrong over a thousand years ago, by a Viking named Knud who shamed his fawning courtiers by pretending to believe their platitudes and trying to command the tide.

Knud went on to conquer England. Modern-day emperor wannabes can’t even conquer Afghanistan, and not for the lack of trying. But in the minds of their subjects and their own, they are all-powerful, invincible and unquestionable, even as the tide is coming.

****
Nebojsa Malic has been the Balkans columnist for Antiwar.com since 2000, and blogs at grayfalcon.blogspot.com. This editorial is exclusive to Barely A Blog.

The Israel-Kinect Connection

Business, Economy, Education, Family, Free Markets, Human Accomplishment, Israel, Media, Regulation, Science, Socialism, Technology

Who do you think invented Microsoft’s “Kinect,” which is in the Guinness Book of Records as the “Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device” ever? Microsoft would like to claim the credit, but it belongs to an Israeli outfit called PrimeSense.

It’s my guess—and CNN’s Zombie Zakaria might wish to investigate this—that, overall, those who invent these silly contraptions are not necessarily the same sort of people who use them obsessively. (I recently watched a boy bob up-and-down and sideways like an automaton for over an hour in front of the Kinect. Back in the day, my own, now-grown girl would have been building Lego, painting, reading, or “inventing” creative games in the yard.)

Yes, the fogies of “60 Minutes” are obsessed with kids; errant American adults cater to, and worship, but never guide, their kids. The outcome of deification without direction is that the current crop of fattened little Buddhas is not that great.

Truth be told, the hybrid, hi-tech workforce—comprised as it is of local and outsourced talent—is manned, generally, by terribly smart, much older people with advanced engineering degrees. (That’s too much like hard work which is hardly “fun.”) The truth is that the people designing gadgets for America’s (face it, dumb) kids are older and highly educated. Some are Americans; others are Asians (South more than East, but both) and Israelis. The hi-tech endeavor is thus all about the older generation—veteran techies—uniting to supply their young, twittering twits with the playthings that keep their brainwaves from flatlining.

Back to the point: Some of my readers refer to Israel’s economy as a socialistic one, a fact that could reflect a general media bias (against Israel, not socialism). Although Israel’s economy is by no means unfettered, it is not much different from Western Europe’s Third-Way, mixed economies, with a respectable per capita GDP. Warren Buffett has invested billions in Israel’s private sector, with good returns. The country’s high-tech industry has certainly been on the cutting edge for sometime.

Significant is the trend. And it is unmistakable: “Emerging markets,” as Israel is, are becoming freer, whereas America is becoming less free. The devil is in this detail.

I am affiliated with the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies. Those who’re interested in tracking the effort to liberalize Israel’s economy will get a good idea by following JIMS’ remarkable work out of Jerusalem.

**********************************************

For a third day in a row, my book, Into The Cannibal’s Pot, is Amazon’s #1 in the category on Social Policy. The Publisher (link here) is not charging for shipping. This is valuable for our South African readers. Kindle will be up by, I am told by the best man possible, early this week, probably tomorrow.

UPDATED: Weiner Worm Poster Boy for Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism, Democrats, Economy, Islam, Israel, Judaism & Jews, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Politics, Technology

Someone has to say it. Everyone is thinking it. Better that a Jew do the job gentiles fear doing, and thus defuse the issue. Hypersexual. Hyperbolic. Obnoxious. Pushy. Left-liberal. Bright: These are some of the stereotypes that attach to Jews, at least to Jews of East-European origins. (Herein more information about ethnic dynamics in Israel, ignored by most American pundits.) And these are some of the subsurface traits people have in mind—but won’t mouth—about Rep. Anthony Weiner’s antics. Despite this “engorged organism’s” delusions to the contrary, his appearance doesn’t help matters.

But there’s more. Here’s what makes the Weiner worm more toxic. The Democratic congressman from New York is married to Huma Mahmood Abedin, a gorgeous, modest-looking, evidently devout Muslim woman.

Weiner, a libertine liberal, has demonstrated enormous ignorance of Islam, in general, and of Islam vis-a-vis the Jews, in particular. I can already see placards hoisted high, by angry mobs in the Middle-East, bearing Weiner’s ugly mug. This idiotic Jew has dissed and disrespected a Muslim woman.

Before you brand me a self-hating Jew (and I know that the “Age of the Idiot” dictates that my accuser will so do without searching my writings on Jews/Israel in support of his accusation), listen: In conspiratorial anti-Semitic “thinking”, Jews qua Jews are said to possess certain inherent, immutable, saboteur traits. I disagree. My opinion is this: What makes Jewish misguidedness more pronounced than gentile misconception is that Jews are more likely to rise to the top in many fields and professions, politics included. (See the “THE JEWISH CONNECTION.”)

As to Israel’s very different demographic dynamics: Most Israelis are descended from the Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1497. From their exile in the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East, they fled to Israel as refugees after 1948. Fierce Zionists, Sephardis are as indigenous to the region as the sand dunes and the Sabra cacti. Their loyalty to the Likud Party derives, in part, from a loathing of what the Labor Party stands for, not least, a racist condescension for dark-skinned Jews. Sephardi Israelis often voice hostility to the leftist rank-and-file European Ashkenazis that populate Labor, as they are fed-up with being looked down upon and mistreated by them.

In other words, Weiner would likely be regarded as a foreign organism in Israel.

UPDATE (June 12): ISRAELI ECONOMY. The assertions about the Israeli economy in the comment below probably reflect the lack of coverage of the Israeli private sector achievements by the media. As well as this mummified media’s bias. They are wrong. We just don’t hear much about Israel’s economy. The information can be Googled. I’ve covered it in recent columns, so … search the Mercer archives.

Although Israel’s economy is by no means ideal, it is not much different from Western Europe’s Third-Way, mixed economies, with a respectable per capita GDP. Warren Buffet has invested billions in the private sector there, with good returns.

Israel’s high-tech industry has been on the cutting edge for ages. We Americans (including CNN’s Zomby Zakaria, who knows nothing about “innovation”) like to pretend we’ve invent everything we successfully market. Some of us do. But many times, small companies in Israel (and Asia) do the work, and sell off to big, lazy American companies.

For example, who does our reader think invented Microsoft’s “Kinect,” which is in the Guinness Book of Records as the “Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device” ever? A tiny Israeli outfit called Primesense. (I once watched in horror as one American tot, clearly retarded, pranced in front of this TV-operated invention like an epileptic having a petit mal seizure. This, when my (now-grown) girl would have been building Lego, painting, reading, or playing outside. But the American Idicoracy rising is another issue entirely.)

I am affiliated with the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies. Those who’re interested in tracking the liberalization of Israel’s economy will get a good idea by following JIMS’ remarkable work in Jerusalem.

This is an old column, but still relevant:

True, Israel’s founding fathers were socialists (although there’s something to be said for voluntary forms of socialism like the kibbutz, in contrast to politically imposed socialism). Born of a collectivist political philosophy, Israel has been progressing, albeit slowly, toward greater economic freedom (as America regresses). Trade liberalization, financial market reforms, increased privatization and decreased regulation have been part of this historical retreat from socialism. But the steady abolition of state subsidies and the enhancement of competition supported by Sharon’s Thatcherite Finance Minister (Bibi Netanyahu) cannot easily offset the effects of endemic violence. Coupled with the slowdown in the U.S. economy, terrorism is one of the main reasons for slumps in the Israeli economy.

UPDATE II: Preface To New Mercer Book (Still #1 In Gov. Social Policy)

Ilana Mercer, Media, Political Correctness, Propaganda, South-Africa

The Preface to “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa” can be read exclusively on VDARE.COM. Here’s a teaser:

“It is no surprise that a manifesto against majoritarianism would not find favor with the mission of most American publishers. Opposition to mass society was once an accepted (indeed, unremarkable) theme in the richly layered works of iconic conservatives such as Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, and James Burnham. Today, by contrast, such opposition is considered as damning as it is impolitic.

And don’t even think of writing a less-than hagiographical account of Nelson Mandela. Time Magazine’s Richard Stengel has serialized his tributes to Saint Mandela. (Stengel has completed two. Perhaps a third is planned?) But an opposing voice to the media paean for the democratic South Africa and its deity, written by a dissenting South African exile—this cannot be countenanced.” …

Read the complete Preface at VDARE.COM

UPDATE (June 10): I have no idea if The Cannibal’s rank on Amazon measures anything other than an uptick in sales—from none to some. Yes, you know that I’m a rational skeptic. Let’s see. But it would be fabulous if readers kept this rank low (or high, however you prefer to look at it). I encourage you all to write reviews on Amazon—pan or praise the book, so long as you are polite and refrain from personal insults.

Here is the rank right now:

Product Details

* Hardcover: 338 pages
* Publisher: Bytech Services (May 10, 2011)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0982773439
* ISBN-13: 978-0982773437
* Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
* Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
* Average Customer Review: Be the first to review this item
* Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#1 in Books > Nonfiction > Government > Social Policy
#34 in Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy

****

UPDATE II: For today, at least, The Cannibal is #1 in the “Government Social Policy” on Amazon:

UPDATE III (June 12): For a third day in a row, The Cannibal is Amazon’s #1 in the category on Social Policy. I hope you’ve purchased your copy. I’ve said numerous times: Publisher is not charging for shipping. This is valuable to my South African readers. Kindle will be up by, I am told (by the best man possible), early next week, probably tomorrow.