The past few days saw the reemergence of claims and counterclaims about Damascus International Airport: The rebels say they downed an “Iranian” passenger jet laden with military supplies causing the jet to go down in flames and shut the airport down. The Syrian government, on the other hand, denies such event took place and claims …Read More
Sometimes the level of Arab and Muslim online activism stupefies me. This photo on the Africa to Gaza Convoy Facebook page has been peddled as a Gazan child killed by Israeli Air Force strikes against the Strip on 14 November.
A few days ago, a Syrian revolution activist wrote a satirical, The-Onion-style hoax report to take the mickey out of the regime’s rhetoric. It ended up completely fooling state-owned and pro-regime media. He posted it originally on a pro-regime Facebook page, which then circulated in more than two dozen websites finally to be quoted by …Read More
So Pan-Arab TVs do it again at the expense of professionalism and accuracy: In its article commemorating the 30th anniversary of Syria’s Hama Massacre, Al-Arabiya TV has been marketing this photo from the 1982 Lebanon Sabra and Shatila massacre as one from the beleaguered city of Hama. This is a poor excuse for journalism, i …Read More
Twitter’s @Elsyak termed it a “smackdown”. Much has been said and written about the fight between former MP Mustafa Allouch and Baath Party official Fayez Shokr (Here for factual report, here for translation and here for a top 5 reax roundup). Had Alloush been let loose, @Elsyak’s description would have been an understatement, for i was …Read More
On 2 June 2011, i argued my case against Guma al-Gamaty, the National Transitional Council’s coordinator in the UK. My case was built on his twitter feed and argued that Gamaty was too much of a liability due to his infantile tweets and inability to keep a secret. Now he adds inflammatory comments and condescending behaviour …Read More
Once again, Libyan state-owned TVs deal another credibility blow to Libyan rebel media and pan-Arab TVs. Tonight, Khamis al-Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader and leader of the 32nd Airborne Brigade, made a TV appearance dispelling continuous rumours of his death (he died over three times in the past 5 months). Col Milad Hussein Al-Fiqhi …Read More
For all i know, Guma El Gamaty may be a model citizen and an accomplished professional. I have been reading his online anti-Gaddafi, pro-reformist writings for a couple of years now and i’ve always been impressed with his level-headed approach. Unfortunately, however, i believe he’s ill fit to represent the new Libya in the UK …Read More
Opposition Qatar-based Libya TV and Benghazi-based Birniq newspaper have recently been reporting news of a “massive” protest in Bani Walid (180 Kms south of Tripoli) on 28/05 which ended with the “cold-blood” killing of 12 unarmed protesters who took refuge in a nearby school. A translation from the Birniq article follows: “The eye witness said …Read More