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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; journalist</title>
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		<title>Twitter Seeks to Silence Journalist’s Ferguson Coverage</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/twitter-seeks-to-silence-journalists-ferguson-coverage-2/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=twitter-seeks-to-silence-journalists-ferguson-coverage-2</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Dec 2014 05:49:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Tapson]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charles C. Johnson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ferguson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Brown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=246422</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When journalism doesn’t fit the leftist narrative.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/cjrr.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246399" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/cjrr-450x251.jpg" alt="cjrr" width="283" height="158" /></a>Charles C. Johnson is an investigative journalist with a knack for enraging progressives. His recent coverage of issues in Ferguson has made him such a gadfly that trolls in social media convinced Twitter to shut down his account – because, as Johnson put it, “Twitter apparently has a journalism problem.”</p>
<p>Johnson, who has worked with both the late, great Andrew Breitbart and Alan Dershowitz, is the founder and editor-in-chief of Gotnews.com, which seeks “to transform journalism by empowering everyday people, experts, and sources to break news” – very much a Breitbartian aim. A contributor to the Daily Caller and The Blaze, Johnson is also the author of <em>Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President</em> and <em>The Truth About the IRS Scandal</em>. He has written for <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, <em>New York Post</em>, <em>Los Angeles Times</em>, <em>American Spectator</em>, and others.</p>
<p>“It’s no secret that I’ve been targeted by the Ferguson mob for publishing material that they don’t like,” Johnson wrote at Gotnews. For example, he reported that Michael Brown’s stepdad Louis Head, who <a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/11/video-compilation-mikebrown-s-parents-incite-a-riot-burn-this-btch-down/">incited a riot</a> by telling protesters, “Let’s burn this b*tch down!” <a href="http://gotnews.com/breaking-cops-michaelbrown-stepfather-inciting-ferguson-race-riot-blood-gangbanger/">was a former Blood gangbanger</a>. Johnson is also delving into information provided by Ferguson police that Brown himself had been charged with 2<sup>nd</sup> degree murder – but that was as a juvenile, so the records have been sealed. Now that Brown is dead, Johnson has sued for the release of those records. That investigation is still ongoing, Johnson told me.</p>
<p>Then, after the grand jury came back without an indictment for Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, <em>The New York Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/news/ferguson/2014/11/24/quiet-wedding-for-darren-wilson-police-officer-in-ferguson-shooting/?_r=0">published</a> the home address of Wilson and his wife. It was an unconscionable and reckless act, considering the target it put on the Wilsons’ backs, but not an unexpected one from the leftist news media, which have been known to willfully endanger people on the wrong side of the leftist narrative before (e.g., the gun owners whose addresses were <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/25/us/new-york-gun-permit-map/">mapped out</a> in <em>Journal News</em>).</p>
<p>In response, Charles Johnson called the homes of the writers responsible for the article, Julie Bosman and Campbell Robertson, to ask them about it. Bosman later tweeted that she revised the piece by removing a photo that contained specific information which should not have been made public. But it <em>had been</em> made public and the potential damage was done. Charles Johnson felt that turnabout is fair play, so he posted Bosman’s and Robertson’s home addresses online as well. <a href="http://gotnews.com/breaking-cops-nyt-reporter-published-darrenwilson-address-calling-cops-nonstop/">According to Johnson</a>, Bosman has been phoning the police incessantly complaining of harassment and requesting protection.</p>
<p>Afterward, Johnson was <a href="http://gotnews.com/journalist-chuckcjohnson-censored-twitter-support-ferguson-mob/">notified</a> by Twitter that his account had been “permanently suspended” without any warning. “I didn’t violate Twitter’s terms of service,” he said. “Twitter just decided that I had. They’ve decided to make up the rules as they go and work with the mob to target journalists.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t the first time his Twitter account had been suspended – he had been shut down twice before: once after he published the name of the Ebola nurse Nina Pham twelve hours before the major networks did, and again after he published the address of Youngor Jallah, the daughter of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan’s fiancée and the <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/10/06/Dallas-County-Judge-Abandons-Ebola-Exposed-Family">last person to have contact</a> with Duncan. “I have liberal trolls that follow me around and try to get me suspended,” Johnson told me in a phone conversation Friday.</p>
<p>Johnson urged his thousands of followers to contact Twitter and complain about the shutdown of his account – it must have worked, because that “permanent suspension” was lifted after only fifteen hours. During that time, the controversy brought him over a thousand new Twitter followers. Johnson complained that “I’ve been threatened with death threats and had my site hacked but I’ve pressed on. Twitter hasn’t suspended any of these accounts… If my account is suspended, the <em>New York Times</em> journalists’ accounts @campbellnyt &amp; @juliebosman should also be suspended.”</p>
<p>Johnson strongly suspects there was a political motivation to the censorship. He noted that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey “wants to run for mayor of New York City. He’s a well-known liberal Democrat. Imagine if he got power if this is how Twitter treats journalists.”</p>
<p>Johnson’s Twitter account is back to going strong, and he and Gotnews.com continue to investigate Ferguson-related stories, such as “<a href="http://gotnews.com/breaking-meet-rich-white-guy-running-black-boycott-capitalism-ferguson/">Meet The Rich White Guy Who Is Running the Black Boycott of Capitalism #Ferguson</a>” and “<a href="http://gotnews.com/breaking-overwhelmed-ferguson-police-welcome-libertarian-oath-keepers-militia-protect-order/">Overwhelmed #Ferguson Police Welcome Libertarian ‘Oath Keepers’ Militia To Protect Order</a>.” Johnson is also pursuing his goal of taking down the biased mainstream media one journalist at a time. “I will soon be running a professional team of oppo research committed to nothing more than exposing the media frauds. We will go one by one,” he wrote in a recent <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckCJohnson/status/538876028119027712">tweet</a>.</p>
<p>None of this is likely to win Charles C. Johnson any friends within traditional news or political circles. But as Johnson has <a href="http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2014/07/02/chuck-c-johnson/12052915/">said</a> in a different context, “I don&#8217;t really care what the political consequences of doing the right thing is.”</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
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		<title>James O’Keefe’s Breakthrough</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/james-okeefes-breakthrough/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=james-okeefes-breakthrough</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/james-okeefes-breakthrough/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jul 2013 04:26:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Tapson]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[citizen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guerrilla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James O'Keefe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=196625</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The guerrilla war of a citizen journalist.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ky.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-196629" alt="ky" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ky-223x350.jpg" width="223" height="350" /></a>Ever since the late great Andrew Breitbart spearheaded a revolt against the monolithic, leftist mainstream media, the “citizen journalist” outside the mainstream has become a serious threat to the activist media’s complicity in political fraud and coverups. No one better exemplifies the spirit of citizen journalism than Breitbart’s young protégé James O’Keefe, who tells his story in the new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Guerilla-Expose-Fraud-Democracy/dp/1476706174/"><i>Breakthrough: Our Guerilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy</i></a>.</p>
<p>O’Keefe was only 25 when he shot to national prominence in 2009 as one-half (with Hannah Giles) of the undercover team that presented themselves as a pimp and his prostitute seeking advice from the helpful employees at <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6968">ACORN</a> on how to safely run a house full of underage El Salvadoran sex slaves. The undercover videos he shot at various ACORN offices exposed those employees encouraging the illicit business and offering tips on defrauding the government. The subsequent controversy marked the beginning of the end for ACORN, and the beginning of a new era in journalistic integrity.</p>
<p>O’Keefe, like his progressive opponents, recognized early on that law school is not the way to change the world – journalism is. And journalism in the Obama era has been all about protecting the progressive Messiah and furthering his agenda. “The nation’s progressives have been controlling the media narrative for a century,” he says, and “[m]any of these journalists [see] everything through a lens of ‘racial justice.” The way to break their stranglehold on that narrative, O’Keefe realized, is with the powerful evidence of hard-hitting, strategic video – like that taken in the ACORN sting by guerrillas outside the mainstream news media.</p>
<p>Regarding that sting, O’Keefe writes, “What our videos were doing was ripping a hole through [the media] narrative and allowing the people inside to expose that narrative for the fraud it was”:</p>
<blockquote><p>In another era, or with a different target, every major newsroom in America would have unleashed its own Woodward and Bernstein to follow up on our work and track this corruption to its source, but that’s not the way the media roll if you’re investigating and exposing big government.</p></blockquote>
<p>Realizing he was a threat, critics rushed to decry his unofficial status and <i>modus operandi</i>. He wasn’t a “real” journalist, they said. He was just a young “prankster” pulling a “stunt” – as if journalists suddenly decided that undercover video stings were immoral and beneath them. In fact, he was exposing not just ACORN but the big media who conspired to suppress the truth. “The beauty of video, especially as amplified by the internet,” O’Keefe explains, “is to allow a handful of citizen journalists working on a shoestring to end-run the biggest news organizations in the world.”</p>
<p>But he had no illusions about what this meant for himself and others like him. As a thorn in the mainstream media’s side,</p>
<blockquote><p>[t]here would be no Pulitzers waiting for us at the end of the day, no speaking engagements at prestigious J-schools. Instead we would face a continuing blizzard of legal challenges, a swarm of snippy media crickets, and a tsunami of insider outrage at the slightest accusation of impropriety.</p></blockquote>
<p>Ironically, the book that primarily inspired O’Keefe’s work is <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2314">Saul Alinsky</a>’s <i>Rules for Radicals</i>, the Bible of the radical left. As other influences, he lists <i>Radical Chic &amp; Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers</i> by Tom Wolfe, the last half of which is about hustlers fleecing the corrupt, hapless bureaucrats of San Francisco anti-poverty programs, and everything by British conservative G.K. Chesterton.</p>
<p>O’Keefe went on to become the founder of <a href="http://theprojectveritas.com/">Project Veritas</a>, which investigates and exposes “corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society.” The group pursues that aim by launching specific journalistic investigations and widely publicizing the results; conducting training workshops to teach others how to become modern-day muckrakers; and creating a method for the public to alert journalists of issues and institutions that need to be investigated.</p>
<p>His book also takes us along for the ride on other video stings: posing as a donor offering a race-based donation to a willing Planned Parenthood; his partners posing as representatives of a Muslim group offering a substantial donation to a conservative-hating National Public Radio exec; Medicaid fraud in offices in six states; New Jersey Teachers Union voter fraud; New Hampshire voter fraud; and a plan to commit voter fraud by the son and campaign director of Congressman Jim Moran.</p>
<p><i>Breakthrough</i>’s chapters are essentially elaborations on O’Keefe’s guidelines for citizen journalism, what he calls the Veritas Rules, clearly inspired by Alinsky and learned sometimes through hard experience. Rule #3, for example, is “Use their own flawed construct to put them into a position where either way they can’t win.” Rule #19: “When the content is strong enough, the publicity will take care of itself.” Rule #22: “Expect to be held to a higher standard than Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists.” These rules, he writes, “are shaped by my larger vision to make the world a more virtuous place.”</p>
<p>O’Keefe is quick to clarify exactly how the little guys of citizen journalism upend traditional news media. “We [at Project Veritas] don’t have the wherewithal to discredit the media,” he says:</p>
<blockquote><p>We merely scoop them. They discredit themselves by refusing to cover stories with national implications that much of America already knows to be news. Once discredited, however, the media do not apologize or reform. They dig in, knowing that their “competitors” have as much interest as they do in protecting the myth that the major media “really, really try to be unbiased.”</p></blockquote>
<p><i>Breakthrough</i> is a quick, easy, and compelling read – even an inspirational one for conservatives who are frustrated by the untrustworthy big media – about this empowering frontier of citizen journalism. “By showing what is true and what is not,” James O’Keefe concludes, “journalists can help forge a more ethical and transparent society.”</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>Journalists, Ulterior Motives and War-Torn Syria</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/kerry-patton/journalists-ulterior-motives-and-war-torn-syria/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=journalists-ulterior-motives-and-war-torn-syria</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Dec 2012 04:31:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kerry Patton]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ankhar Kotchneva]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Assad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kidnap]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=171236</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The troubling story of what goes unreported and why.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/kerry-patton/journalists-ulterior-motives-and-war-torn-syria/syrian-president-bashar-al-assad-addressing-the-parliament-june-3-2012/" rel="attachment wp-att-171278"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-171278" title="Syrian-President-Bashar-al-Assad-addressing-the-parliament-June-3-2012" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Syrian-President-Bashar-al-Assad-addressing-the-parliament-June-3-2012.jpg" alt="" width="219" height="152" /></a>Syria’s ongoing atrocities have led to multiple discoveries revealing unprecedented amounts of covert activities. An array of international players exist in Syria, however, most observers solely focus on the Assad regime or his opposition comprising of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). There is so much more to the situation in Syria going unreported and it constitutes internationally led covert activities and the illegal incorporation of journalists possibly serving as spies.</p>
<p>After several days of deductive reasoning then a quick follow up with an undisclosed source that is incredibly active with the Syrian conflict, some points of covert activities have been confirmed. At least one US media network, and possibly more, has been involved in covering up some of the activities.</p>
<p>More interesting is the fact that some of these media networks have a history of chastising such intelligence practices especially when it comes to the incorporation of intelligence contractors.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/50276016#50276016" target="_blank">Richard Engel</a>, NBC News chief foreign correspondent, and his crew recently escaped from pro-Assad militants after being held for five days. Mixed reporting initially aired claiming he and his crew were abducted by the Free Syrian Army. NBC requested a temporary media blackout on this situation.</p>
<p>Engel and his crew miraculously freed themselves yet the escape was not as miraculous as he or NBC would like people to believe. There was an orchestrated attempt to see Engel and his team freed by international players many of whom have no government affiliation—i.e. independent contractors.</p>
<p>These international players worked closely with the Free Syrian Army formulating a plan of action, and that plan came to fruition.</p>
<p>With sound intelligence, an ambush was orchestrated on Engel’s capturers. The pro-Assad capturers were caught in a “dead zone” forced to return fire and engage the FSA opposition.</p>
<p>During this action, some of Engel’s captors were severely injured prompting Engel and his team to flee. Everything Engel revealed came to light, but a lot of missing points are still left unanswered.</p>
<p>Temporarily freed, Engel was still in a hostile region deep inside Syria. Who assisted him and his team to physically move out of that hostile region? Who assisted in his transportation needs to reach the border of Turkey?</p>
<p>The same people who engaged Engel’s captors were the same people who assisted in his travels to Turkey—the Free Syrian Army. This information has been confirmed by undisclosed Western sources intimately familiar with Engel’s escape as these sources were part of the planning process.</p>
<p>The same sources revealed a botched rescue mission conducted by the Free Syrian Army, which unfolded in September. It was a rescue mission to free US journalist Austin Tice. The former Marine Corp veteran was abducted in mid-August by pro-Assad militants.</p>
<p>The former Marine’s family recently begged for information pertaining to their son’s whereabouts. While no one can confirm his current whereabouts, it is known that in September, Mr. Tice was being held on an undisclosed airfield in Syria.</p>
<p>The airfield, which shall not be named due to intelligence security, was attacked by the FSA. The attack was a multi-pronged operation intended to destroy vital infrastructure, which included gas storage facilities, air traffic control, and even aircraft. The attack was also intended to free at least one Western journalist.</p>
<p>Operational security is vital in these types of missions. Leaks of information can get people killed. Unfortunately, the Free Syrian Army had a leak in their operation’s planning, which placed ground forces in a grueling situation, leaving some killed.</p>
<p>During this time in September, at least <a href="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8c7_1346716183" target="_blank">three air fields were attacked</a> by the Free Syrian Army. Some of the attacks could be deemed successful while others were a complete nightmare. Needless to say, Austin Tice remains in pro-Assad militants&#8217; captivity.</p>
<p>Another international journalist has been abducted, however most reporting claims the abduction was enacted by the Free Syrian Army. Ankhar Kotchneva, a Ukrainian journalist with Russian citizenship, has been missing since October.</p>
<p>The case of Ankhar Kotchneva is interesting. A few questions must be asked to determine her actual status. Some <a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/syrian-rebels-maintain-threat-to-kill-ukrainian-journalist-317838.html" target="_blank">reports claim</a> when Kotchneva was abducted, she was actually carrying a weapon.</p>
<p>Anti-Assad elements have stated that Kotchneva “was carrying a gun and was an interpreter for Russian officers.” Real journalists do not make it a habit to carry weapons while on assignment. Why was she carrying a weapon? Was she using journalism as a cover story for intelligence activities?</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://kyivpost.com" target="_blank">kyivpost.com</a>, “Her coverage of the Syrian conflict for several Russian media, including NTV, RenTV and RT channels favored Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. She voiced support for the Syrian president in interviews she gave to other news outlets as an expert on the region. When she was abducted, Kotchneva was employed as an interpreter.”</p>
<p>At least one Eastern European media outlet acknowledges Kotchneva was not in Syria working as a journalist. Instead, she was serving as an interpreter. But who was she interpreting for? That question remains unknown. But what is known is this—no one is coming to her rescue any time soon.</p>
<p><a href="http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_12_13/Reporters-Without-Borders-ask-US-EU-for-help-to-free-Ukrainian-reporter/" target="_blank">Journalists have been rightly outraged</a> over the ongoing crisis dealing with Ankhar Kotchneva. For many journalists, she is one of them. But emotions need to be taken out of the cognitive process to understand the life Ankhar Kotchneva could possibly have been living.</p>
<p>Remember Anna Chapman? How many American’s who were close to her refused to accept the fact that she was an actual spy for Russia? If Ankhar Kotchneva is actually found to be a spy for Russia, many journalists will likely go into denial as well.</p>
<p>Russia is playing a very dangerous game in Syria, and they have recently acknowledged that it appears Bashar Assad will likely lose the war. Russia backed the wrong team in Syria. Now they have one of their own citizens held against her will potentially facing execution for crimes of espionage.</p>
<p>When it comes to Syria, there is a difference between Russia’s activities and the West. Russia is physically placing its citizens in harm’s way on the ground in Syria. Some of those citizens may or may not be acting as journalists while they serve as spies.</p>
<p><a href="http://archive.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/5/14/143832" target="_blank">Col. Stanislav Lunev</a> has once revealed that many journalists from Russia and other countries are, in reality, intelligence gatherers. He also stated that many Russian journalists have recruited leading American reporters to engage in espionage as well.  Col. Lunev should know exactly how Russian covert operatives execute their missions. He was the highest-ranking spy ever to defect from the Russia’s top spy organization, the GRU.</p>
<p>The United States has strict laws against using journalists as spies. This does not mean it never happens, however. More often than not, journalists serve as sources for the US intelligence community. OSINT, Open Source Intelligence, is the lead in utilizing media for its intelligence activities.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/403-7" target="_blank">50 USC § 403–7</a> titled, <em>Prohibition on using journalists as agents or assets</em>, specifically states that “the Intelligence Community may not use as an agent or asset for the purposes of collecting intelligence any individual who is authorized by contract or by the issuance of press credentials to represent himself or herself, either in the United States or abroad, as a correspondent of a United States news media organization.”</p>
<p>With more than <a href="https://www.cpj.org/reports/2012/12/journalist-deaths-spike-in-2012-due-to-syria-somal.php" target="_blank">28 journalists killed</a> in Syria just in 2012 alone, the war torn nation has become uniquely complex. Many of these journalists have been killed by pro-Assad forces while some have been killed by anti-Assad opposition.</p>
<p>Both sides have enacted the practice of targeting journalists and both sides may have good reason. Today, we learn that while most journalists are serving in ethical roles, some are not. Some, like Ankhar Kotchneva, may be serving in unique covert activities working as spies.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>A Terrorist Carrying a Press Pass Is Still a Terrorist</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ronn-torossian/a-terrorist-carrying-a-press-pass-is-still-a-terrorist/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-terrorist-carrying-a-press-pass-is-still-a-terrorist</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 04:37:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ronn Torossian]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=167678</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hamas's latest weapon against Israel. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ronn-torossian/a-terrorist-carrying-a-press-pass-is-still-a-terrorist/showimage-ashx-5/" rel="attachment wp-att-167681"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-167681" title="ShowImage.ashx" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ShowImage.ashx_.jpg" alt="" width="247" height="175" /></a>The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday which condemned Israel – the media attacking Israel, what else is new? The letter condemns Israel for “targeting journalists in Gaza.” As the old saying goes, you can “put lipstick on a pig,&#8221; but it would still be a pig.</p>
<p>Indeed, the two cameramen for Hamas&#8217;s Al-Aqsa television station and the director of Al-Quds Educational Radio who were killed by Israel are in fact terrorists. A terrorist can carry a television camera and pretend to be a journalist – he is still a terrorist. As a spokesperson for the Israeli Army rightly said, &#8220;Such terrorists, who hold cameras and notebooks in their hands, are no different from their colleagues who fire rockets aimed at Israeli cities and cannot enjoy the rights and protection afforded to legitimate journalists.&#8221;</p>
<p>To take it a step further, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have repeatedly adopted &#8220;a deliberate policy of using journalists as human shields.&#8221; As an Israeli spokesperson said, &#8220;There were a number of situations where terrorist operatives used journalists as human shields, in those cases we acted as surgically as humanly possible.” <em>Israel simply cannot win a war where their opponents claim to be journalists – and hide amongst actual journalists.</em></p>
<p>CPJ’s letter goes on to state that while Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said on November 19 that Al-Aqsa TV is a &#8220;Hamas command and control facility&#8221; and that &#8220;Hamas used communication facilities on top of the buildings,&#8221; <em>Regev did not state whether or how Hamas used the station militarily</em>.  In the United States, Canada, Japan, the entire European Union and elsewhere Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization.  A terrorist wearing a blue shirt is still a terrorist, and a terrorist driving a car with “TV” written on the side is indeed still a terrorist.</p>
<p>Owning <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/5wpr-fully-integrated-marketing-success/52780/">5WPR</a>, an international <a href="http://www.5wpr.com/">PR Agency</a>, I know that there is freedom of the press in Israel unlike anywhere else in the Middle East &#8211; journalists aren’t followed by the police, tortured, or intimidated.  However, terrorists do not have the right to exist and for that Israel will never apologize. Israel exists in a tough neighborhood and their primary objective as with any other nation is to protect her citizens.  And rightly that’s what they have done.</p>
<p>The CPJ states that Israel has “disclosed no substantiation for these very serious allegations.”</p>
<p>They need not share sensitive information with the public or CPJ – and one may wonder if Israel should turn over this substantiation to “Al-Aqsa TV, the official Hamas-run television channel” so that people who kill innocent civilians know more about Israeli intelligence. In a sane world can that make any sense?  Should Israel also clear their operations with CPJ in advance?</p>
<p>A man can pretend to be a horse – he’s still a man. And a terrorist carrying a camera is still a terrorist. There is something more holy than journalism and free speech – it’s called life. And if Hamas wants their people to stop getting killed then they should stop attacking Israel.</p>
<p>As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once said, “If Israel were to put down its arms there would be no more Israel. If the Arabs were to put down their arms there would be no more war.”</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Fighting for a Free Iran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jamie-glazov/fighting-for-a-free-iran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=fighting-for-a-free-iran</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jamie Glazov]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=61895</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An American daughter of Iranian immigrants speaks of her dream and battle to liberate her homeland. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/lisa.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61897" title="lisa" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/lisa.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="444" /></a></p>
<p>Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Lisa Daftari, a journalist specializing in Iranian affairs.  She is a guest contributor on Fox News and has been published in Frontpage Magazine, Washington Post, CBS.com, NBC, Voice of America, and PBS.  She communicates with individuals living in Iran and tells their stories.  In 2006, she was invited to show her documentary on bringing regime change to Iran to a subcommittee of Congress.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Lisa Daftari, welcome to Frontpage Interview.</p>
<p>Tell us about your work in regards to Iran and what inspires you to engage in it.</p>
<p><strong>Daftari: </strong>As a journalist, I am drawn to human stories, particularly ones that demonstrate the effects that society and politics have on ordinary peoples’ lives. In the case of Iran, these stories are quite numerous and revealing. Whether it is a story about a young girl who was arrested for her voicing her political views or a father of two who is forced to work four jobs just to put food on the table, I think these stories are the best ways to understand the struggles of the Iran people right now.  It is a well-known fact that the Islamic Republic is a radical, fundamentalist and unjust government, but through talking to the Iranian people and understanding their lives can we better grasp how this regime plays a role in daily routine of the people.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>FP: </strong>What has drawn you to Iran?</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Daftari: </strong>Obviously my background, as an Iranian-American, has played a significant role in fostering my passion and interest in the area. Every time I had a research assignment or paper in school, I would find some way to do my project on Iran.  Growing up, I was incredibly cognizant of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, or the <em>Enghelab</em>, the word for revolution in Farsi. I knew that it had changed the fate of my family significantly and that is how we found ourselves living in this country.  My family, like many other Iranian families, shared these conversations and anecdotes at the dinner table. My siblings and I felt a deep nostalgia for a time period we did not live through and yearned to understand and experience that time for ourselves. Later when I became a journalist, I wanted to tell human stories in the backdrop of larger social, political and cultural issues. Clearly, starting with my own people felt most natural, particularly when the Iranian people experienced their most crucial historic moment only 30 years ago.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>FP: </strong>Tell us a bit about the<strong> </strong>radical, fundamentalist and unjust government that rules over Iranians.</p>
<p><strong>Daftari: </strong>The Iranian people see their government as an imported entity; a group of fundamentalists whose beliefs in radical Islam are stronger than their nationalistic ties to the country.  This clashes strongly against a large population of Iranians who consider themselves extremely patriotic. We also have to remember that Iran is made up of a rich cross section of various religions, cultures and dialects. Obviously there is no government that can represent them all, yet they share and celebrate the Iranian culture and old heritage they have in common.</p>
<p>Above all, this regime, cloaked in religious fundamentalism, angers the people with its hypocritical actions. They deny the people so many of their basic rights, yet we have extensive evidence of their own indulgent lifestyles. We know of their lavish vacations around the world, their lucrative real estate portfolios, their international bank accounts storing millions of dollars, and their access to some of the world’s best universities for their children.  The people of Iran are savvy and resent the double standards.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> You have researched the Iranian American community and its evolvement over the last 30 years. Can you enlighten us a bit on your findings and observations?</p>
<p><strong>Daftari: </strong>The Iranian American community has developed an extremely unique dual identity. Over the last thirty years, many of these Iranians had lost hope in ever going back to their homeland, and likewise in ever seeing this government change. The result has been an Iranian American community that has emerged quite successfully. They are represented in all types of occupations and areas of business.  They have excelled in politics, music, film, fashion, real estate and technology.  They have raised their American born children to share an unwavering allegiance to the United States. In June however, it was remarkable to see how invested even American born Iranians were in the fate of their inherited homeland.  In large cities across the U.S., Iranians and Iranian Americans gathered by the thousands to stand in solidarity with the protestors in Iran.  They felt a real glimmer of hope with this political impetus that really moved the community.  They had been waiting for such a moment for a long time.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> We know of course that Iranians are still bravely protesting and being tortured every day. The fascists who rule the country are cracked down on the protests and continue to crack down viciously and sadistically. Your thoughts? What’s coming up?</p>
<p><strong>Daftari: </strong>Many describe the Iranian people at the time of the protests as a pot that boiled over. The impetus, or better yet, the excuse, was frustration over a fraudulent election, but the reality was that the Iranian people, both in Iran and abroad, had been waiting three decades for such a moment. With every breach of justice, with every hanging, with every whip that slashed down on an innocent woman’s arm, for every stone that was violently hurled at a young Iranian’s head, the grievances had amassed.</p>
<p>Since last June, Iranians came out in protest during holidays and other commemorative days, particularly those momentous to the regime. They came out on these days to show that their grievances are directly against the regime.  By protesting on Islamic holidays and on days special to the Islamic Republic, they made a stand against the government and what it stands for. The people of Iran are incredibly nationalistic. They are patriotic and their Iranian heritage runs deeper and stronger than anything else.</p>
<p>We are coming up on the one-year anniversary of those protests, and Iranians are organizing for smaller demonstrations.  We are seeing an evolving Iranian force, partly as a result of the threats that the regime has made against those who come out and partly because the Iranians realize that to be shot at, beaten and rounded up and taken to prison is not going to be the avenue to freedom. The main issue for the protestors is and has been a lack of leadership and strategy.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Why is it, in your perspective, important to talk about Iran in the context of its people and their experiences and disenchantment?</p>
<p><strong>Daftari: </strong>In the case of Iran, it is imperative to get to know the people, their struggles, their experiences and what they really want going forward. The Iranian people are multi-faceted. Iran is such a vast country that has varying religions, dialects and sub-cultures that create a rich cross-section of Iranian culture. In the past, many would erroneously group together the Iranian people together with their regime, but since the elections, I think it has become quite clear that that is not the case.  The people of Iran have a 30-year-old story to tell. Everyone in Iran is and has been dramatically affected by the political landscape in the country; just as the lives of Iranian Americans and Iranians living anywhere else in the world have been remarkably shaped by the political on-goings of the last three decades.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> What are the chances that the Iranian people can overthrow the despots who have them imprisoned? How can we best help the Iranian people to do so?</p>
<p><strong>Daftari: </strong>If we were to look at the Iranian dilemma as a social one in addition to a political one, it has become obvious that the people of Iran have and will continue to further out-grow their government. Although this regime has only been around for 30 years, as a result of the Ayatollah Khomeini-backed baby boom following the Iran Iraq War, almost 70% of Iran’s population was born under this regime. That is a very significant statistic. It means that an overwhelming majority of the country is young, modern, and under the age of 30. Even though living under the confines of a theocracy is the only life they know, many of these young people are overtly disenchanted with their government.  Overthrowing, or maybe better stated, shaking this government is inevitable. Their grievances are specific and prevent them from living a normal life on a daily basis.  They just want to live normal lives and be free to blog, to sign onto Yahoo or Google, to walk down the street with their boyfriends and girlfriends, to go to college despite not having any connections to the clergy, etc.</p>
<p>There is a lot of pressure on the youth of Iran, and that is what is propelling them to go out to the streets in demonstration. They want better, and they know it is out there. The Iranian people are smart, savvy, intellectual people who refuse to be represented by fundamentalist, tyrannical leaders who are holding them back. Whether it is through demonstrations or any other way they can voice their frustrations, they will continue to do so until change is brought about.  There’s a lot of hopelessness, and that’s what this struggle is about. <strong> </strong></p>
<p>The question that is frequently asked of the Iranian people is: What can the rest of the world do to support them in this struggle? I think the answer has always been to unconditionally support them. It would mean to educate oneself about what is going on in the region, to ask for Iran stories when the subject suddenly escapes the media, to ask questions of elected government officials, and as taxpayers, to interrogate the United Nations on not taking a serious stance on Iran and its nuclear agenda.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Lisa Daftari, thank you for joining us.</p>
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		<title>Cuba’s Healthcare Horror</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/humberto-fontova/cuba%e2%80%99s-healthcare-horror/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=cuba%25e2%2580%2599s-healthcare-horror</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/humberto-fontova/cuba%e2%80%99s-healthcare-horror/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:01:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Humberto Fontova]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=53853</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The mainstream media can no longer cover up Castro’s atrocious record.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/cuba-hospital.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53856" title="cuba-hospital" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/cuba-hospital.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="459" /></a></p>
<p><em>“My nation is hardly perfect in human rights. A very large number of our citizens are incarcerated in prison, and there is little doubt that the death penalty is imposed most harshly on those who are poor, black, or mentally ill. For more than a quarter century, we have struggled unsuccessfully to guarantee the basic right of universal health care for our people. …but Cuba<em> </em>has superb systems of health care and universal education.”</em></p>
<p>Thus did Jimmy Carter, in a May 2002 speech at the University of Havana that was broadcast throughout Cuba, prostrate himself before a regime that has jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin and murdered (in absolute numbers) more political prisoners in its first three years in power (out of a population of 6.4 million) than Hitler murdered in its first six years (out of a population of 70 million.) Not to mention that President Carter’s host, Fidel Castro, insulted his nation as “a vulture preying on humanity” and came within a hair of nuking it.</p>
<p>Carter is not the only one to trumpet the supposed glories of Cuban health care. Let’s consider the following quotes:</p>
<p>“Health care (in Cuba) was once for the privileged few. Today it is available to every Cuban and it is free&#8230;.Health and education are the revolution’s great success stories.” &#8212; Peter Jennings, World News Tonight, April 3, 1989</p>
<p>“Castro has brought great health care to his country” &#8212; ABC’s Barbara Walters, Oct. 11, 2002</p>
<p>“Even today, Cuba has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.” &#8212; Katie Couric reporting on NBC’s <em>Today</em>, February 13, 1992</p>
<p>“Frankly, to be a poor child in Cuba may in many instances be better than being a poor child in Miami, and I’m not going to condemn their lifestyle so gratuitously.”&#8211; <em>Newsweek</em>’s Eleanor Clift on <em>The McLaughlin Group</em>, April 8, 2000</p>
<p>Contrary to the above “news analysts” and Human Rights spokespersons, Cubans have a drastically different story to tell. And even more unluckily for Castro and his MSM auxiliaries, the internet has pulled a stunning and (to them) infuriating end run around his traditional MSM defenses. Word is getting out about the disastrous state of Cuban health care.</p>
<p>During that cold snap in mid-January, Cuban dissidents snuck out, via internet, a report claiming that over forty patients had somehow frozen to death in Cuba’s Mazorra mental hospital  &#8212; not far from the one featured in Michael Moore&#8217;s paean to Cuban health care, <em>Sicko</em>.  Cuba’s Stalinist regime, along with the media courtesans to whom it grants press bureaus and &#8220;journalist visas,&#8221; were utterly mum on the matter, however. It took three days &#8212; as the word spread through the <a href="http://www.penultimosdias.com/2010/03/02/los-muertos-de-mazorra/">mostly Spanish-language web</a> &#8211;but finally the Stalinist regime issued a terse and exculpatory press-release on the matter.</p>
<p>But the story did not go away. Just last week, pictures of some of the dead were snuck out of Cuba. They proved that hypothermia alone was not the cause of death, any more than it was the cause of the death for the prisoners at Dachau or Buchenwald. Horrific malnutrition and savage beatings were plain to see for anyone genuinely interested in the causes.</p>
<p>Needless to add, such interested parties <em>do not</em> include Castro&#8217;s favored members of the press. True to form, they dutifully connived with the regime, as they have for half a century, to hide the catalog of Castroite horrors.</p>
<p>But don’t take my word for it. Apparently tormented by their consciences, two Spanish journalists have just released mea-culpa- books (sadly available only in Spanish) about this collusion. “Self-censorship is a very common practice,” one writes. “No journalist on the island can write the truth of what happens there.”  Whatever their faults, at least these Spanish journalists finally <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/28/1503249/coverage-comes-with-price-of-self.html">came clean</a>. When will Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, Andrea Mitchell, Ted Turner, Herbert Matthews and the rest of the bunch come clean? Don’t hold your breath.</p>
<p>The Cuban health stories ignored or buried by the MSM would require an entire 24-hour network broadcasting for five decades to disclose. Senor Marzo Fernandez, an economist who, until defecting in 1996, served as Secretary General of Castro’s Ministry of Nutrition gets us started. “The average height of Cubans has decreased by 8 centimeters in the past 25 years,&#8221; he reported on Miami television. “For the first time in Cuban history, thousands of Macrocepahlic children (abnormally large heads in proportion to their bodies) due to protein (primarily milk) deficiencies have been found in the eastern provinces.” This in a country that prior to the glorious revolution enjoyed a lower infant-mortality rate and more doctors and dentists <a href="http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&amp;q=cache:1pM8J7MNY5YJ:lanic.utexas.edu/la/ca/cuba/asce/cuba8/30smith.pdf+doctors+dentists+http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/ca/cuba/asce/cuba8/30smith.pdf.&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=us&amp;pid=bl&amp;srcid=ADGEESj16u_s8pxou_8ZCmc0GbMi5F1LU6BAdhzPnusDQCfKm">per-capita than half of European countries</a>, plus a larger middle class than Switzerland.</p>
<p>Not everyone welcomes the exposure of Cuba&#8217;s human rights record. Not so long ago, Alan Colmes on Fox berated me saying: “Oh! Ok, so now 40 years after his death <em>all of a sudden</em> YOU discover all this horrible stuff about Cuba Che Guevara!”</p>
<p>“No, no, no,” <a href="http://www.hfontova.com/images/hc.gif">I patiently explained to Mr. Colmes</a>, “many have been documenting and broadcasting accounts of Castro and Che Guevara’s butcheries, imbecilities and cowardice for decades&#8211;but the mainstream media was too busy eating out of Castro’s hand to pay attention. So these horrors could never make it past the mainstream media filter. Well Alan, I hate to break the news to you, but your side’s media monopoly is over.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Netanyahu&#8217;s One-Year Report Card</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/davidhornik/netanyahus-one-year-report-card/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=netanyahus-one-year-report-card</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/davidhornik/netanyahus-one-year-report-card/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:06:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=51646</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Prime Minister buffers Israel’s strength -- while great danger looms. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
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<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Benyamin-Netanyahu-ll.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-51661" title="Benyamin-Netanyahu-ll" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Benyamin-Netanyahu-ll.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="282" /></a></p>
<p>“Benjamin Netanyahu, a year into your term, observers seem to agree: You’re an impressive survivor, but just a survivor. The government you lead has no vision, no destination. It’s not going anywhere.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151429.html">Thus</a> Ari Shavit, journalist for Israel’s left-wing daily <em>Haaretz</em>, to Prime Minister Netanyahu early this week. Netanyahu (who took office, actually, last March 31 and has been prime minister less than a year) naturally responded by denying the charge, saying “My vision is of an Israel that is a world technological superpower, anchored in values, reaching peace from strength…. we are working to jump-start the economy, to augment our security and to strengthen Israel through inculcating basic national values.”</p>
<p>Realizing that the charge of “lack of vision” from the Left means mainly “lack of negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria to hand them major Israeli strategic assets,” Netanyahu said the Palestinians and Syria were “present[ing] us with extremist preconditions that they did not present to earlier Israeli governments…. The critics expect us to accept the Palestinian and Syrian dictates; they describe the acceptance of those dictates as a vision. I don’t see it as a vision.”</p>
<p>Tentatively, after almost a year in office, Netanyahu can be described as handling the Palestinian situation artfully: positioning himself as a perceived moderate by expressing openness to the idea of a Palestinian state, while hedging such a hypothetical state with requirements (genuine acceptance of Israel, effective demilitarization, Israeli retention of considerable areas) that no Palestinian leader would accept; helping to position Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas as the intransigent party who—reportedly to American, if not European, annoyance—stonewalls talks.</p>
<p>As for the “Syrian track,” those with an awareness of the Golan Heights’ importance for Israel and of the radical nature of Bashar Assad’s regime can only welcome the fact that Netanyahu’s government has not resumed the previous Olmert government’s Turkish-mediated talks with Damascus.</p>
<p>What of Netanyahu’s other claims? Has Israel been “augmenting its security” this past year or just marking time while Hamas and Hezbollah continue their arms buildups on its borders? Israeli analyst Guy Bechor <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851015,00.html">claims</a> it’s the former, and notes that</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;our borders are quieter than they have been in many years…. The IDF is training today as it has not done in dozens of years. Every day, from morning till night: Tanks, airplanes, helicopters, live-fire drills…. [The IDF] is now the first military in the world equipping its tanks with anti-missile systems, which are changing the rules of war. The IDF is also equipping itself with new APCs, advanced airplanes, and amazing technological systems, while Hezbollah and Syria are still stuck in the ’80s and ’90s…. Moreover, a series of daring assassinations attributed to Israel is prompting personal fears among axis-of-evil leaders.”</p></blockquote>
<p>For Bechor, the upshot is that:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Our enemies realize that the days where Israel conducted itself as a state without honor willing to give in to the advances of those who deceive it are over. They realize that Israel has matured, learned the art of creating deterrence, and that it is here to stay.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Bechor’s analysis doesn’t say why enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and their patron Iran keep building ever-more-dangerous capacities if they’re simply cowed. But it is true that under the Netanyahu government, a trajectory of renewed deterrence has been well sustained up to such recent successes as the presumed <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7034933.ece">Dubai exploit</a> and the air force’s unveiling of a <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=169313">“super-drone”</a> that can reach Iran.</p>
<p>As for “inculcating basic national values,” Netanyahu had in mind a new, 600-million-shekel program launched by his government to restore historical sites and reconnect young Israelis with both the ancient Israelite and modern Zionist past. But whether or not such a massive effort is necessary—and most of the country’s leadership agrees that it is—there are already signs of a revived self-confidence and assertiveness.</p>
<p>The Foreign Ministry’s <a href="http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150918.html">reported snubbing</a> of a congressional delegation sent by the faux “pro-Israel” group J   Street was one such sign. Another is a brand-new, entirely novel initiative by the Foreign Ministry to encourage ordinary Israelis to present Israel’s case abroad with the help of a <a href="http://www.masbirim.gov.il/">new website</a> (in Hebrew) that had already been visited by 130,000 in its first five days.</p>
<p>There are also signs of a mounting, well-deserved intolerance toward the traitorous element from within: Tel Aviv University has <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=168972">come under fierce pressure</a> to fire radical-Left academics who campaign abroad for a boycott of Israel; and the left-wing NGO known as the New Israel Fund is likewise under fire and <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135849">Knesset investigation</a> for funding anti-Israeli groups including some on which the Goldstone commission relied for its <a href="http://www.alandershowitz.com/goldstone.pdf">libelous report</a>.</p>
<p>Netanyahu was right, then, to reject the allegation that his only real goal is now his own political survival as he leads a government that is “not going anywhere.” In less than a year his government has been rebuilding Israel’s strength on many fronts. But great danger still looms.</p>
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		<title>Al Franken</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/john-perazzo/al-franken/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=al-franken</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/john-perazzo/al-franken/#respond</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:52:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Perazzo]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=48971</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Al Franken is a U.S. Senator representing Minnesota. His 2008 Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman was hotly contested and extremely close. It was also marred by what journalist Matthew Vadum called &#8220;appalling irregularities that characterized both the initial and subsequent vote-counting.&#8221; The morning after the election, Coleman led Franken by 725 votes. But Franken refused to concede, [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Franken.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-48973" title="Franken" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Franken.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="270" /></a></p>
<p>Al Franken is a U.S. Senator representing Minnesota. His 2008 Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman was hotly contested and extremely close. It was also marred by what journalist Matthew Vadum called &#8220;<a href="http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/14/fighting-frankenstein/print">appalling irregularities</a> that characterized both the initial and subsequent vote-counting.&#8221; The morning after the election, Coleman led Franken by 725 votes. But Franken refused to concede, and the thin margin triggered an automatic recount. As <a href="http://discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6968">ACORN</a>-aligned Secretary of State Mark Ritchie presided over the recount process, Coleman&#8217;s lead gradually vanished due to a host of mysterious, newly discovered votes that almost invariably benefited Franken. A detailed account of these developments can found <a href="http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/14/fighting-frankenstein/print">here</a>. By the time the recount (and a court challenge by Coleman) had ended in April 2009, Franken held <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090630/ap_on_el_se/us_minnesota_senate">a 312-vote lead</a>. On June 30, 2009, after the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously rejected his lawsuit, Coleman officially conceded and Franken was declared the victor.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2361">To view Al Franken&#8217;s full profile, click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Muslim Child Brides in Britain</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/hege-storhaug/muslim-child-brides-in-britain-by-hege-storhaug/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=muslim-child-brides-in-britain-by-hege-storhaug</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:08:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Hege Storhaug]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=46028</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How does a civilization based on humanism tolerate such conditions?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-46063" title="marriage" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/marriage.jpg" alt="marriage" width="450" height="299" /></p>
<p>It is heartbreaking, even as it is unsurprising.  In Britain, the authorities are now reporting the forced marriage of girls as young as nine years old on British soil.  We are not talking about one case, but several, which take place under official protection.  We are not speaking, then, about parents or “husbands” who are being charged with a criminal offense.  The situation, in other words, is completely unacceptable and makes clear that we have a crying need for a new approach to these matters.  Government must put its foot down – and powerfully so – so that there will be no doubt as to the way in which such grotesque crimes will be addressed.</p>
<p>First, when I say that the marriage of nine-year-old girls in today’s Britain (and the rest of the EU, for that matter) is unsurprising, my statement is based on my own 17 years of experience in the field of immigration: forms of assault based on tradition and religion – including child marriage, forced marriage, genital mutilation, so-called honor-related offenses such as rape and murder – have become established here as a result of immigration, mostly from Muslim countries.  Instances of these offenses have been documented in countries such as Norway (where, to be sure, there have been no recorded cases of marriage to girls as young as nine, but where the marriage of an 11-year-old came to light in a TV documentary that I worked on as journalist; such cases have also been known in Sweden). The only phenomenon that has not been documented in Norway thus far is forced eating by girls before they are to be married off.  I was told about this practice by feminists in Paris in 2003, and the phenomenon had been imported into France by immigrants, mostly from Mali.  Girls are locked up and fed like geese before being married, because in their culture being fat is considered beautiful.</p>
<p>This being said, the news from Britain, which has been reported in the <em>Times, </em>deserves widespread attention.  Because the authorities are obviously aware of very serious information about actual children who are supposedly under the protection of those very same authorities.  In other words, Britain’s Ministry of Justice, if the <em>Times </em>is to be believed, knows who these children’s parents are, parents who have attempted to arrange for the rape of their own children.  For this is what we are talking about here: the deprival of children’s freedom, plus countless years of repeated rape.  Such phenomena must force authorities to sit down with a cool head and a warm heart and ask themselves: who are we, and where are we going?  What are we doing to ourselves as a nation, to our heritage, to our culture, to our future?  According to the <em>Times, </em>however, British authorities are not doing anything of the kind.  Here comes the proposed initiative, and before you read this sentence you had better take a deep breath.  The Ministry of Justice says that the children’s parents are receiving help from the authorities “to solve the problem.”</p>
<p>I must admit that the principal methods being used in such cases in Norway and in Europe generally – namely, information and dialogue – no longer hold a particularly cherished place in my heart.  In my view, the methods must be appropriate to the crime.  By far the majority of parents in Europe understand that marriage to children is not “good”; it is precisely for this reason that such weddings do not take place in display windows. The same goes for the husbands with which these children are compelled to tie the knot – and by whom they are raped.  As a consequence of the very high levels of immigration from majority-Muslim countries to Europe, we have seen the establishment in European cities of more or less closed enclaves which live according to the norms and values of the residents’ countries of origin. These enclaves, as a rule, have turned their backs on the countries of which their residents are citizens; you might say that they close their blinds.  My view is that the current situation calls for stronger measures.  Because we are entirely behind the times.</p>
<p>The political establishment has allowed things to go too far.  What is happening within extended families and within these immigrant communities is out of control, and the victims of this state of affairs are the most vulnerable people of all.  If one is to have any hope whatsoever of regaining control of the problem, it must be answered back with firm and uncompromising demands and measures: in cases of child marriage, first with a long prison term and then, most important, after the prison term has been served, with expulsion from the country.</p>
<p>I mean this very seriously: if we do not begin to make use of such methods immediately in serious cases such as child marriage, genital mutilation, the dumping of children, so-called honor killing and honor rapes, then we will simply continue to be tilting at windmills for the rest of this century.  These grotesque practices will not peter out over time – as our leading politicians quite seriously believed was the case, in the last decade, with both genital mutilation and forced marriage.  (I could provide the names of actual politicians with whom I have discussed this, but these have been conversations in closed rooms which one does not write about if one hopes to maintain their trust.  I can, however, say this: that they believed that the problem would disappear in the generation of immigrants’ children, their reasoning being that this ”second generation” was born here and would therefore behave like other Norwegians.)</p>
<p>Allow me to give a specific example from a criminal case in Norway that is currently under litigation.  In August 2005, Human Rights Service reported to the police a couple whom we suspected, with good reason, that four of their then six daughters had been genitally mutilated.  All of the children had been born in Norway (meaning that they had not been genitally mutilated as children before immigrating to Norway, which is not a crime), and the four oldest, who were then aged 5 to 11, were sent to one of the parents’ three exquisite properties in Gambia “to learn about their parents’ culture and religion,” as they so nicely put it.  When I visited the girls at their parents’ residence, they had already been there for two years, under the “care” of their father’s second wife (he now has three wives).  The girls were not only emotionally mistreated by  this woman; an adult individual told me that they had also been genitally mutilated in the jungle in the Gambian interior shortly after their arrival in 2003. They were to be “disciplined,” as this source put it, and the girls were “totally disciplined,” according to the source, when they were returned to wife #2 a week after their mutilation.</p>
<p>After we filed our report in 2005, the police in Norway worked intensely – and the case went entirely up to the top prosecutorial levels in both Norway and Gambia – to get the four little Norwegian citizens back to Norway.  Now we are writing in 2010, and the girls are still ”imprisoned” in Gambia, while their parents live freely – and supported by the government &#8211; in Norway.  In short, the police have made several unsuccessful efforts to persuade the courts to allow them to hold on to the parents’ passports while their case is being investigated, so that they, for example, would not be able to travel to Gambia (where the oldest girl, age 15, is waiting for her parents to come and marry her off to a cousin, according to sources in Gambia).</p>
<p>In 2008, Norwegian authorities decided to investigate the parents’ two youngest daughters, who lived with their parents here in Norway.  The three-year-old girl was not genitally mutilated, but the five-year-old was.  (The latter had also been in Gambia, while the former had not.)  The father was taken into pretrial custody (a historic imprisonment in Norway), while the mother escaped punishment on the grounds that she was once again pregnant.  After a few weeks, the father was a free man again, but has still refused to bring his daughters back to Norway.  So far he has not been punished.</p>
<p>What do you think would have happened in this case if the father’s citizenship could have been revoked?  The case would most likely never have been a case at all.  The parents would never have played Russian roulette with what appears to be the only thing they love, their Norwegian citizenship and the financial bounty it affords.  For that’s all that Norwegian citizenship means to parents like this: money.  In their minds and hearts, they are still back in Gambia.</p>
<p>If someone now comes along waving international human-rights conventions in defense of such parents, I can reply with the same conventions, for example the convention on children’s right to live with their parents, and as long as the parents deny their children this right, Norway can ensure that the children are given this right by sending their parents back to Gambia. Also, if we allow us to use our critical common sense, what matters more: an adult’s right to retain a citizenship he has acquired in his adulthood when in fact he could just as easily live in his country of origin, or a child’s right to be protected from ritual mutilation, and then from forced marriage with rape to follow – not to mention right to be brought up with the care and love he or she deserves?</p>
<p>We have seen the development in Europe through the 1990s and up to the present time, and it can no longer be denied: larger and larger groups from the Muslim world are living in self-imposed isolation and practicing criminal traditions that negatively affect the health of children, young people, and women.  No one can answer the question of how many of these practices have become more common, precisely because they take place “in the dark, on the inside.”</p>
<p>I believe<em> </em>that the practices have increased in frequency and will continue to do so in line with the rate of immigration, the number of Muslims living in Europe, and the resultant increase in the isolation of these minorities.  In any event, we cannot “sit and wait for better times” – because this is about the destruction of human life, and the sustainability of our welfare state.  Simply the fact that women’s rights are now going in reverse (see also <em>Aftenposten’s </em>report on the Muslim moral police who operate in the Oslo neighborhood of Gronland, and who among other things deprive women and gays of their freedom) is completely intolerable.</p>
<p>To sum up, I think that it is alarming that we should be so extremely naive as to believe that the conditions will <em>suddenly </em>become so much better in this decade.  We need for the police to take an entirely different approach.  We need to speak and act in such a way that no one can misunderstand that things have crossed the limits of patience.  A society based on humanism cannot live with such conditions.  It is, after all, about helpless and defenseless children and teenagers, and marginalized women.</p>
<p>My last word on these matters, then, is this: the ideas I am presenting here are about ten years ahead of their time. Still, I am quite certain that it is only a matter of time before citizenship will not be so sacred anymore as to be untouchable.</p>
<p><em>Translated from the Norwegian by Bruce Bawer</em></p>
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		<title>Guy Sorman: Bad Ideas Never Die  &#8211; City Journal</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/guy-sorman-bad-ideas-never-die-city-journal/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=guy-sorman-bad-ideas-never-die-city-journal</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:31:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[18 december]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Albert Camus]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[French public intellectuals have a reputation—well-deserved—for being socialists, Marxists, or Trotskyists. One thinks in this regard of popular figures like Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, and Simone de Beauvoir, all with fan clubs on American campuses. Some French thinkers, however, have carried forward another intellectual tradition, that of classical liberalism—pro-democracy and pro-market—and running from [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>French public intellectuals have a reputation—well-deserved—for being socialists, Marxists, or Trotskyists. One thinks in this regard of popular figures like Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, and Simone de Beauvoir, all with fan clubs on American campuses. Some French thinkers, however, have carried forward another intellectual tradition, that of classical liberalism—pro-democracy and pro-market—and running from the work of Alexis de Tocqueville to Albert Camus to the philosopher and journalist Jean-François Revel, who died at 82 in 2006.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc1218gs.html">Bad Ideas Never Die by Guy Sorman, City Journal 18 December 2009</a>.</p>
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		<title>JACOB LAKSIN: The Rise of the Muckraking Right, AFF Doublethink Online »</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/jacob-laksin-the-rise-of-the-muckraking-right-aff-doublethink-online-%c2%bb/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=jacob-laksin-the-rise-of-the-muckraking-right-aff-doublethink-online-%25c2%25bb</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:51:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ACORN]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Mike Flynn thought it was a crazy idea. When James O’Keefe, a 25-year-old, self-styled investigative journalist, first approached him last August about promoting a series of candid-camera style videos on the community organizing group ACORN, Flynn, an old Washington hand and editor of the new libertarian-themed website Big Government, initially dismissed the project as far-fetched. [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Mike Flynn thought it was a crazy idea. When James O’Keefe, a 25-year-old, self-styled investigative journalist, first approached him last August about promoting a series of candid-camera style videos on the community organizing group ACORN, Flynn, an old Washington hand and editor of the new libertarian-themed website Big Government, initially dismissed the project as far-fetched.</p>
<p>It didn’t temper his skepticism that the videos in question featured O’Keefe visiting ACORN offices in a pimp costume, along with a friend, Hannah Giles, dressed as a prostitute, and asking for advice on how to buy a house to run as a brothel for underage Latin American prostitutes. “If James and Hannah had told me ahead of time that they were going to do this, I would have told them, ‘There is no way in hell this is going to work,’” Flynn recalls.</p>
<p>Then he saw the videos. Even with the outrageous get-up—O’Keefe in his grandmother’s faded chinchilla fur coat, red-banded fedora, and dollar-store walking cane, Giles in a tight-fitting leather top and hoop earrings—the pair somehow produced a trove of phenomenally rich material. As they secretly videotaped, ACORN staffers in Washington, Brooklyn, San Diego, and Baltimore offered them instructions on how to evade taxes, skirt legal restrictions, and misrepresent their business to get their fictional whorehouse up and running. In their decidedly unorthodox way, O’Keefe and Giles had landed a major scoop. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this worked,’” Flynn says.</p>
<p>If the videos were proof positive of O’Keefe and Giles’s journalistic instincts, their eventual success, fueled by mass media exposure, was a testament to the growing sophistication of the conservative media. Suspecting, rightly as it turned out, that mainstream media outlets would initially ignore the ACORN videos, Flynn devised a strategy to market them for maximum impact with his friend, the web entrepreneur and Drudge Report veteran Andrew Breitbart. They decided to release the videos, one by one, to politically friendly Fox News. At the same time, they moved up the launch of Big Government and posted transcripts, lest critics claim that the videos had been doctored.</p>
<p>Their strategy worked to perfection. With Fox bringing the videos to national attention, and with Big Government and other conservative sites stoking the embers of the controversy, the ACORN story became a sensation even as the mainstream press looked the other way. By the time the ensuing storm died down, ACORN Chief Organizer Bertha Lewis had announced an independent review of the group’s operations; some of the employees captured on video had been fired; Congress voted to cut off federal funding to ACORN; and the Census Bureau severed ties with the organization. The conservative commentariat had scored a major political victory. And they had done so using the tactics—investigative reporting and savvy editorial marketing—of the mainstream media they had long reviled.</p>
<p>The ACORN story is just one recent example of the rise of the muckraking right. If the Bush years marked a heyday for liberal sites like Talking Points Memo and the Daily Kos, which combined independent reporting, punditry, and grassroots activism, the Obama era has seen the right embrace muckraking with similar success.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://americasfuture.org/doublethink/2009/11/muckrakers/">AFF Doublethink Online » The Rise of the Muckraking Right</a>.</p>
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		<title>David Keyes: Ahmadinejad, the Blogger &#8211; WSJ.com</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/david-keyes-ahmadinejad-the-blogger-wsj-com/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=david-keyes-ahmadinejad-the-blogger-wsj-com</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:27:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ahmadinejad]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=39734</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Nov. 18, two Iranian Internet activists, Ali Behzadian Nejad and Omid Lavassani, were sentenced to six years in prison. Their crimes? Mr. Lavassani had the audacity to design a Web site for the leading opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mr. Nejad is being jailed for &#8220;published comments&#8221; written by others on his blog, and [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On Nov. 18, two Iranian Internet activists, Ali Behzadian Nejad and Omid Lavassani, were sentenced to six years in prison. Their crimes? Mr. Lavassani had the audacity to design a Web site for the leading opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mr. Nejad is being jailed for &#8220;published comments&#8221; written by others on his blog, and &#8220;propaganda against the system.&#8221;</p>
<p>Iranian laws about the Web are purposely kept vague. Ahmed Batebi, the dissident who recently escaped Tehran after eight years in prison, told me that &#8220;The regime can arrest people and bloggers for any reason precisely because the laws are not clear.&#8221;</p>
<p>A journalist in the city of Yazd recently reported several cases of bloggers being shut down or involved in lawsuits due to readers&#8217; comments. And on Nov. 14, local Iranian press reported that a new police unit was formed to fight &#8220;insults and the spreading of lies&#8221; on the Internet—another phrase which effectively bans any criticism of the regime.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s hard to believe in light of this Internet repression, but Iran&#8217;s president is himself a blogger. &#8220;Mahmoud Ahmadinejad&#8217;s Personal Memos&#8221; is the place where he goes to vent and stay in touch with the common folk. He says he allots himself 15 minutes a week to write on his blog, but admits that at times he exceeds this limit.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703939404574568081943066194.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories">David Keyes: Ahmadinejad, the Blogger &#8211; WSJ.com</a>.</p>
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