JOURNALIST GUNNED DOWN IN MOSUL, FOURTH IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS

Reporters Without Borders condemns cameraman Alaa Edwar’s murder yesterday in Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh. Employed by Nineveh Al-Ghad, a local TV station supported by the provincial authorities, Edwar was gunned down hear his home in the northern suburb of Al-Majmoaa Al-Thakafiya.

Aged 41, Edwar was shot three times in the head and chest by unidentified gunmen and died on the spot. He had previously worked for Al-Rashid TV and for other TV stations as a freelance cameraman.

“We offer our heartfelt condolences to Edwar’s family and colleagues,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We are very concerned by the decline in security for news providers in Iraq, especially in Nineveh province. Edwar was the fourth journalist to have been gunned down in similar circumstances in Mosul in less than two months.

“The identity of those responsible is still unknown in all of these cases. We urge the national and local authorities to deploy the resources needed for independent investigations so that both the perpetrators and instigators of these shocking murders can be brought to justice. Investigators should not rule out the possibility of links with the victims’ work as journalists.”

Reporters Without Borders added: “The security forces have meanwhile learned of a list naming 44 journalists for ‘physical liquidation.’ We urge the authorities to do everything necessary to ensure that those on the list are protected.”

All of the four journalists killed in the past two months were deliberately targeted. Gunmen shot Al-Sharqiya TV reporter Mohamed Karim Al-Badrani and his cameraman, Mohamed Al-Ghanem, in the head while they were doing a report on the preparations for Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) in Al-Sarjakhaneh market, in the centre of Mosul, on 5 October.

Al-Mosuliya TV cameraman Bashar Abdulqader Najm Al-Nouaymi was shot by gunmen using silencers outside his home on the afternoon of 24 October. Al-Masar TV correspondent Falah Hassanwas badly wounded when gunmen shot him in Mosul on 27 October.

Iraqi journalists are often threatened, especially when they cover stories involving corruption and armed violence, and many have to flee to other cities or flee abroad.

They include Houssam Mahmoud Farj and Salim Mohamed, who received death threats after satellite TV station Al-Etejah broadcast a documentary by them at the end of October called “The reign of chaos,” in which they criticized corruption in state institutions. Farj had already been threatened in connection with his reporting in the past.

Iraq is ranked 150th out of 179 countries in the 2013 Reporters Without Borders index, which measures respect for media freedom, and is ranked No. 1 in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual Impunity Index, which measures failure to punish murders of journalists.

Reporters Without Borders

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The Palestinian Authority's Reign of Terror

The Fatah thugs are regularly sent by the Palestinian Authority, which is funded by the West, to threaten and batter journalists, writers, university students and political opponents -- driving them into the open arms of Hamas and other extremist groups.

Until recently, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank used to arrest Palestinians who criticized its leaders, especially Mahmoud Abbas.

But now the Palestinian Authority has resumed using thugs to break the bones of its critics.

It is an easy and quick way to deal with the critics and deter others from speaking out against Palestinian Authority leaders.

The thugs are often members of Abbas's ruling Fatah faction. However, they do not hold any official position in the Palestinian Authority; they do not belong to Palestinian Authority security forces or any government-related agency in the West Bank.

This allows the Palestinian Authority to distance itself from the thugs each time they perpetrate a crime.

But the thugs, who are referred to by Palestinians as "Shabbiha," are known to act on instructions from top Palestinian Authority leaders.

In the Arab world, "Shabbiha" are known as groups of thugs and militiamen who are used by the government to crack down on critics and political opponents.

The Palestinian Authority's "Shabbiha" are not as ruthless as Syrian President Bashar Assad's thugs. They do not go around slaughtering innocent women and children, and they do not rape young girls.

The Palestinian "Shabbiha" -- most of whom are on the payroll of the Western-funded Palestinian Authority -- have managed to impose a reign of terror and intimidation on the Palestinian public.

The last time the Palestinian Authority used its thugs was last weekend at Bethlehem University.

During a conference to promote boycott and sanctions against Israel on campus, a Palestinian activist asked Palestinian Authority Minister of Economy, Jawad Naji, a provocative question: How come the Palestinian Authority talks about promoting the boycott of Israel while at the same time it continues to conduct security coordination with Israel, and some of its leaders hold secret meetings with Israelis?

At the end of the conference, as he was driving home, the activist, 34-year-old Nizar Banat, was intercepted by seven thugs, who dragged him out of his car and beat him severely.

Fatah later issued a leaflet justifying the assault on Banat -- apparently carried out by its own thugs -- and threatened to use an "iron fist" against anyone who dares to criticize a Palestinian Authority leader.

The use of Fatah thugs by the Palestinian Authority is not a new phenomenon. The thugs are often recruited from refugee camps and their mission is to do the "dirty work" for the Palestinian Authority leadership.

The thugs are regularly sent to threaten and batter journalists, writers, university students and political opponents in the West Bank. Another of their preferred methods is the torching of vehicles.

With the help of the thugs, the Palestinian Authority leadership was able to suppress what appeared to be the beginning of a "Palestinian Spring" in the West Bank two years ago.

Then, Fatah thugs recruited by the Palestinian Authority attacked dozens of Palestinian protesters who had set up tents in the center of Ramallah. The protesters were beaten and their tents set on fire as Palestinian Authority policemen stood on the side and refused to interfere.

By resorting to this policy of terror and intimidation against its critics and political opponents, the Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank is once again showing that it is not much different from other Arab dictatorships. It is these measures that have driven many Palestinians away from the Palestinian Authority and straight into the open arms of Hamas and other extremist groups.
by Khaled Abu Toameh


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A New Front in the War on Journalista

As I noted earlier today, the government’s treatment of Fox News reporter James Rosen betrayed the Obama administration’s unhinged obsession with targeting journalists. But as troubling as that is, the problem goes deeper than the attempt by the Department of Justice to eviscerate the First Amendment. The news that one of the reporters who had been aggressively covering the Benghazi scandal had her computer tampered with should alarm more than just her fellow scribes. So, too, should the increasingly shrill attacks from the president’s cheering section on other journalists who have been following the stories about government misconduct.

As Politico reports:

Sharyl Attkisson, the Emmy-award winning CBS News investigative reporter, says that her personal and work computers have been compromised and are under investigation.

“I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I’m not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I’ve been patient and methodical about this matter,” Attkisson told POLITICO on Tuesday. “I need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on info we make public.”

In an earlier interview with WPHT Philadelphia, Attkisson said that though she did not know the full details of the intrusion, “there could be some relationship between these things and what’s happened to James [Rosen].”

Like the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups, this incident illustrates the old line that said just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. After what happened to the Associated Press and Rosen, no one should be dismissing out of hand the notion that what’s going on with Attkisson is a matter of foul play.

While that doesn’t allow us to jump to conclusions, let’s also understand what we’ve been witnessing in the last week as the president’s supporters reeled in the face of a deluge of scandals that they are trying desperately to minimize or dismiss as the figment of conservative imaginations. The widespread sliming of ABC News’s Jonathan Karl—who followed up the reporting of the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes on the Benghazi emails—by the left is part of this equation. In particular, the misleading and vicious attacks by the left-wing groups Media Matters and FAIR on Karl tells us a lot about the way the president’s supporters view the stakes in this debate. They aren’t interested in winning a debate. They want to silence opposing views.

Liberals mocked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s claims over the weekend that the president and his staff have instilled “a culture of intimidation” throughout the government that can be linked to the IRS scandal. But the connection isn’t just to the outrageous behavior of the IRS, for which we’ve yet to receive an answer to the question of who ordered the targeting and why they did it. The blithe manner with which the Department of Justice has spied on journalists and the willingness to smear anyone who calls out the White House on any of these manners is a symptom of what really is a latter-day version of Nixonian tactics.

Some may consider it self-serving that even the liberal mainstream press is undergoing what Jonah Goldberg wittily referred to as their own version of the “Arab Spring,” as so many have finally awoken to the fact that the Obama administration is ensnared in a web of deceptions. The out-of-control nature of the president’s belief in big government isn’t just about taking over health care, it’s also about expanding the reach of the federal leviathan into every aspect of public life in ways that chill the practice of journalism and undermine our freedoms. Make fun of these newly-minted Obama skeptics all you want. The attack on the free press represents a fundamental threat to our democracy.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/

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