Fisk on some of the latest popular lies:
<<< ... As Bush's regional enemies grew in number to include not just al-Qa'ida but Iraq and Iran and their allies, a fabric of stories began to be woven. Last June, for example, we had Donald Rumsfeld spinning tales about Iran. At a press conference in Qatar – these lies can be spun, please note, just as well in the Arab world as in the West – Rumsfeld told us that Iranians "are engaging in terrorist activities and transporting people down through Damascus and into the Bekaa Valley. They have harboured al-Qa'ida and served as a facilitator for the movement of al-Qa'ida out of Afghanistan down through Iran."
Now the implication of all this is that al-Qa'ida men were being funnelled into Lebanon with the help of Iran and Syria. Yet we know that Iran, far from "transporting" al-Qa'ida men to Syria, has been packing them off to Saudi Arabia for imprisonment and possible death. We know that the Syrians have locked up an important al Qa'ida official. The Americans have since acknowledged all this. And, save for 10 Lebanese men hiding in a Palestinian camp – who may have no contact with al-Qa'ida – there isn't a single Osama bin Laden follower in Lebanon.
So Hezbollah had to be lined up for attack. The Washington Post did the trick with the following last month: "The Lebanon-based Hezbollah organisation, one of the world's most formidable terrorist groups, is increasingly teaming up with al-Qa'ida on logistics and training for terrorist operations, according to US and European intelligence officials and terrorism experts." This tomfoolery was abetted by Steven Simon, who once worked for the US National Security Council and who announced that "there's a convergence of objectives. There's something in the 'zeitgeist' that is pretty well established now." Except, of course – zeitgeist notwithstanding – it is simply untrue ... >>> |