Reuters latest propaganda mantra

We define a propaganda mantra as a false, fabricated, or misleading construct appearing repeatedly in a Reuters story so as to drum the notion into the mind of the reader until he or she simply surrenders his or her critical faculty and accepts the propaganda as truth.

Correspondents in Reuters Jerusalem Bureau regularly dream up new entrants in this category and then employ them consistently in and across all stories published by the bureau.  Examples of the many Reuters propaganda mantras can be seen in our right sidebar with counts as to how many times these phrases have appeared in Reuters stories over the last couple of years.

The latest propaganda mantra to insinuate its way into Reuters Middle East coverage appears in a story by correspondent Dan Williams about a Salafi terrorist -- er sorry, "militant" -- killed by the Israeli air force as he was preparing to fire a rocket from Gaza:

Though Hamas echoes Salafi calls for Israel's ultimate destruction, its ambitions are framed within Palestinian nationalism, not al Qaeda-style global jihad, and include a possible ceasefire with the militarily superior Jewish state which, with Egyptian help, has tried to isolate Gaza.

Williams' (unsupported) assertion, i.e., that the goal of Hamas is one of merely achieving a Palestinian state rather than waging a broader war of jihad against non-Muslims so as to reconquer all land that has ever been under Islamic rule, is utterly false.  It is intended to draw a spurious distinction between Hamas and al-Qaeda for naive western audiences so that Williams and his colleagues at Reuters can carry on with their Palestinian advocacy campaign, justifying Palestinian violence under the deliberately misleading banner of "nationalism".

To see that Williams is simply blowing smoke, all one need do is read the Hamas Charter which, in setting out the terror group's mission and strategy, employs the word "jihad" no fewer than 36 times, including this section describing the relationship between Hamas and other jihadists:

Article Twenty-Three: Our Position Vis-a-Vis the Islamic Movements

The Hamas views the other Islamic movements with respect and appreciation. Even when it differs from them in one aspect or another or on one concept or another, it agrees with them in other aspects and concepts. It reads those movements as included in the framework of striving [for the sake of Allah], as long as they hold sound intentions and abide by their devotion to Allah, and as along as their conduct remains within the perimeter of the Islamic circle. All the fighters of Jihad have their reward. The Hamas regards those movements as its stock holders and asks Allah for guidance and integrity of conduct for all. It shall not fail to continue to raise the banner of unity and to exert efforts in order to implement it, [based] upon the [Holy] Book and the [Prophet’s] Tradition. “And hold fast, all of you together, to the cable of Allah, do not separate. And remember Allah’s favor unto you how ye were enemies and He made friendship between your hearts so that ye became as brothers by His grace; and (how) ye were upon the brink of an abyss of fire, and He did save you from it. Thus Allah makes clear His revelations unto you, that happily ye may be guided.” Sura III (Al-’Imran), verse 102.

And this section acknowledging that Hamas is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood (which, like al-Qaeda, advocates for a global caliphate):

Article Two: The Link between Hamas and the Association of Muslim Brothers

The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a world organization, the largest Islamic Movement in the modern era. It is characterized by a profound understanding, by precise notions and by a complete comprehensiveness of all concepts of Islam in all domains of life: views and beliefs, politics and economics, education and society, jurisprudence and rule, indoctrination and teaching, the arts and publications, the hidden and the evident, and all the other domains of life.

Indeed, even the Brotherhood affiliate in Tunisia, the al-Nahda party, boasts of Jerusalem becoming the center of the new caliphate -- once of course, it is conquered by the Palestinians:

The Muslim Brotherhood unmasked

Contrary to the "free of bias" pleadings found in its mission statement and handbook of journalistic standards, Reuters is an ideologically-driven organization.  The agency's correspondents and editors harbor deeply-held political views and objectives that manifest daily in their stories, published on the Reuters website and syndicated to hundreds of other news outlets worldwide.

As it has done for decades on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs, Reuters is now engaged in a public relations campaign, designed to promote the image and interests of the Islamists in Egypt while masking the true and, by any civilized standard, deplorable nature of these groups.

In recent days, we've highlighted a sample of Reuters stories that employ propaganda in the form of card stacking, euphemisms, and red herrings intended to conceal and sanitize the intrinsic barbarism and expansionist goals of the Salafists and Muslim Brotherhood.  Thanks to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch of the book, Jihad Is the Way, written by Mustafa Mashhur, the official leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt between 1996-2002 (a period during which Reuters never fails to remind us the Brotherhood had renounced violence), we can glimpse the true face of these movements:

"...the Islamic Ummah [nation]... can regain its power and be liberated and assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted nation among men, as the teachers of humanity..."
- "...know your status, and believe firmly that you are the masters of the world, even if your enemies desire your degradation..."
- "It should be known that Jihad and preparation towards Jihad are not only for the purpose of fending-off assaults and attacks of Allah's enemies from Muslims, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of establishing an Islamic state and strengthening the religion and spreading it around the world..."
- "...Jihad for Allah is not limited to the specific region of the Islamic countries, since the Muslim homeland is one and is not divided, and the banner of Jihad has already been raised in some of its parts, and it shall continue to be raised, with the help of Allah, until every inch of the land of Islam will be liberated, the State of Islam will be established,..."

"Then comes the power of arms and weapons,... and this is the role of Jihad."
- "Jihad is a religious public duty... incumbent upon the Islamic nation, and is a personal duty to fend off the infidels' attack on the nation..."
- "And the youth should know that the problems of the Islamic world, such as Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, or the Philippines, are not issues of territories and nations, but of faith and religion. They are problems of Islam and the Muslims, and they can be resolved neither by negotiation nor by recognizing the enemy's right to the Islamic land he stole. Rather, the only option is Jihad for Allah, and this is why Jihad is the way."
- "The symbol of the [Muslim] Brotherhood is the book of Allah [the Quran] between two swords. The swords symbolize Jihad and the force that protects the truth represented in Allah's book."
- "...that is, go out to battle, oh believers, young and old, by foot or with animal, under all circumstances and conditions..."

Read it all.  Reuters obviously hasn't.

Reuters whitewash of the Muslim Brotherhood continues

It's only 267 miles as the crow flies between Ramallah and Cairo, and Reuters correspondent Tom Perry, whose beat has shifted from the former to the latter, proves that's just a stone's throw away when it comes to transmitting Arab propaganda.

And with the Muslim Brotherhood on the verge of power in Egypt, Perry is busy cleaning up the image of the group for western consumption:

Headed by doctors, engineers and teachers, the Brotherhood's slogan is "Islam is the solution." Yet it talks the same language as other reformists when it comes to the need for democracy, an independent judiciary and social justice in Egypt.

Actually, the Brotherhood's slogan is, “Allah is our objective, the Prophet is our leader, the Koran is our law, Jihad is our way, and dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu-akbar!”.

That chilling manifesto has been carefully concealed in the run-up to elections in Egypt but remains the Islamist group's raison d'etre.

And note how Perry attempts to bring respectability to the Brotherhood by asserting it is headed by "doctors, engineers and teachers".  This is of course, irrelevant to the group's extremist agenda nor can one forget that the Nazi Party in Germany was also led by many in upstanding professions.

Perry then parrots the Brotherhood's feigned rejection of violence:

Though the Brotherhood disavowed violence in Egypt in the 1970s, state suspicions lingered over its goals. 

Perhaps the reason "state suspicions lingered over its goals" is because the Brotherhood was implicated in the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and the terrorist attack in 1997 which killed 62 tourists in Luxor.

To soothe western fears over what the Brotherhood has in mind for Egypt, Perry interviews one of its members:

Ali Khafagi, a 28-year-old Brotherhood activist, says fears about the group are overblown. A member since high school, he describes the Brotherhood as "very moderate and open minded."
"The Brotherhood's goal is to end corruption and start reform and economic development and that is what attracted many of its supporters to join it including myself," he said.
Khafagi dismissed talk about the Brotherhood banning alcohol or forcing women to wear headscarves if it came to power.
"That could only be done by a mad group and the Brotherhood is not a mad group, but a decent logical group with a good understanding of the Egyptian people and Islam," he added.

A good understanding of Islam.  Indeed.

Reuters: Muslim Brotherhood is "spiritual guide" for Hamas

Reuters reports that officials of the Obama administration have met with members of the Egyptian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood.  If true, this would be a break with long-standing US policy to shun contacts with the Brotherhood, although there was an announcement in June that such contacts would now be permitted.  With no hint of irony, Bureau Chief Edmund Blair writes:

The contacts may unsettle Israel and its U.S. backers. The Brotherhood renounced violence as a means to achieve political change in Egypt years ago. But groups like Hamas, which have not disavowed violence, look to the Brotherhood as a spiritual guide.

Blair is prevaricating here.  Per its own founding doctrine, the Brotherhood is an Islamic jihad group, committed to waging warfare to liberate what it considers Islamic lands and to rid the world of secular laws and governance.

And Hamas does not see the Brotherhood simply as a "spiritual guide'; Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood.

Nice try though, Edmund.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Reuters

In a story about the rise of Muslim extremism in the UK, Reuters correspondents Michael Holden, Stefano Ambrogi and William Maclean have no difficulty using the "T-word" and the "J-word":

On the frontline of the war against terrorism -- and Britain is undoubtedly a frontline -- private initiatives like Mahmood's hint at the failure of state-sponsored efforts to counter jihad. Almost six years on from a massive coordinated terror attack on London's transport system, the main nationwide programme to deter young men from extremism still hasn't moved past mistrust and suspicion. The one-year-old Conservative-led government now wants to tweak the policy. For some Muslims, the question is whether the state should even try.

Britain is on the frontline of the war against terrorism??  Please.  Israel is on the frontline; Britain is the terrified tot hiding behind.

And note the liberal use of the words terrorism and jihad absent scare quotes which always accompany Reuters reports of terror attacks in Israel (when their correspondents are not censoring the words entirely). 

Apparently, lethal attacks on civilians only constitute terror when it is your mate who is killed on the Piccadilly tube.

Reuters forgets a little something IV

Reuters reports that Germany has banned the International Humanitarian Relief Organization (IHH) from operating in the country due to its funding for Hamas.  What Reuters doesn't report is that the passengers on the Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara who attempted to lynch the Israeli boarding party with knives and metal rods were members of the IHH.  

In over 500 stories published on its website since the incident, Reuters has maintained a strict blackout on the linkage we noted here, between the IHH and Islamic terror groups.  This, in a palpable effort to conceal the identity and true motives of the "activists" on board the ship.

Reuters neglects to mention something else:

Germany has staunchly supported Israel following the Nazi genocide of European Jews in World War Two and has strongly criticised Hamas, which Israel considers to be a terrorist organisation.

Hamas is of course, also classed as a terrorist organization by Germany and the rest of the EU.

UPDATE July 13, 2010: Reader Shai notes a Haaretz story asserting that IHH of Germany has "no connection to the Turkish group that organized the flotilla"; however, the Canadian Press reports that the two chapters were originally a single organization formed in Freiburg Germany.  The US State Department has confirmed that the Turkish IHH has links to Hamas and the organization is currently under review for designation as a terrorist group.

Turkish captain knew IHH passengers planned violence. No comment from Reuters

Reuters has devoted nearly two weeks and literally hundreds of articles to the tale of the Gaza flotilla.  In that many iterations, their correspondents have yet to disclose details of the well-established links between the İnsani Yardım Vakfı (IHH), which sponsored the Turkish-flagged ship where the violence occurred, and Jihadist activities around the world.

We now know that IHH passengers on board the ship were planning violence:

The captain of the Mavi Marmara  tried to convince dozens of IHH activists not to engage in violent clashes with the IDF two hours prior to the commando's boarding of the ship, reported Army Radio on Friday.

The Gaza flotilla ship's captain, Mehmet Tubal, said while being investigated in Israel that he and other members of the Mavi Marmara's staff did all they could to prevent the activists from confronting soldiers, even throwing some of the IHH member's metal pipes and chains overboard.

Another senior member of the ship's staff said that 40 IHH activists took control of the Mavi Marmara and dictated the rest of the passengers' movements.

We also know that the Turkish government must have sanctioned the operation:

"[The] IHH acquired the Mavi Marmara ship from the AKP-run municipality of Istanbul. It is not conceivable that the IHH’s Gaza operation could have been carried out absent high-level government sanction," wrote Svante Cornell, a Swedish security expert who specializes in Eurasia, in an article published on Monday.

A journalist on-board the Mavi Marmara, described as having good links with the heads of the Turkish government and Bulent Yildirim, head of the IHH, had stated, "The flotilla was organized with the support of the Turkish government and Prime Minister Erdogan gave the instructions for it to set sail. That was despite the fact that everyone knew it would never reach its destination," according to the report.

We know all this with no thanks to Reuters which continues to maintain a total blackout on the story.

Hamas beauty makeover continues

There's a movement afoot at Reuters to recast Hamas as a moderate "nationalist" group opposed to violent Jihad.  In today's installment, "Jihadists Challenge Hamas Western Approach", correspondent Nidal al-Mughrabi reports on a terror attack at a Gaza wedding party by anonymous gunmen purportedly upset that Hamas is not extremist enough:

They had just finished performing east of Khan Younis when armed militants burst in, set fire to $40,000 worth of instruments and fired shots between the legs of band members.

Al-Mughrabi then repeats the lie issued earlier this week in his story of a terror attack at a UN summer camp:

The threat comes from Salafi jihadists whose agenda of global holy war against the West is against the nationalist goals of Gaza's rulers Hamas...

Au contraire, as we noted in our post at the time, Jihadism (holy war) is very much at the core of Hamas' identity.

Moreover, we wonder how al-Mughrabi knows the attacks are being perpetrated by Salafi jihadists when apparently no one was arrested following the wedding party incident and Hamas has refused to identify the affiliation of the attackers in the earlier UN summer camp incident.

But not to fear, although many members of the Jihadist Salafi factions "were once trained activists of Hamas' armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades", the moderate law and order guys at Hamas have things well in hand:

Ehab al-Ghsain, spokesman of the Hamas interior ministry, said security services had finalised the plan to provide security protection to public places where residents would go to enjoy summer holidays including restaurants and beaches... Ghsain attributed a drop in bomb attacks in the territory to a security campaign to "arrest characters involved in causing chaos" and to an educational plan to rehabilitate members.

 Well, thank heaven for that.

Hamas, the anti-Islamists?

Reuters correspondent Nidal al-Mughrabi reports on an attack, by masked gunmen, of a UNRWA summer camp for children in the "religiously conservative" Gaza Strip:

About 20 men, some carrying assault rifles, tore up large plastic tents and burned storage facilities at the site, where tens of thousands of children are due to attend camp sessions, said Ibrahim Elewa, a private guard who was on duty when they struck.

Al-Mughrabi reports that Hamas condemned the attack and, in a fatuous effort to draw a distinction between Hamas and other Islamists, delivers this howler:

Fundamentalist Muslims, or Salafis, whose agenda of global or holy war against the West is against Hamas' nationalist goals, have stepped up attacks in the Gaza Strip over the past several months, targeting Hamas security men and offices.

Al-Mughrabi may wish to take a break from his banal propaganda efforts and have a read of the Hamas Charter which contains no fewer than 36 sympathetic references to global Jihad (holy war) including:

By virtue of the distribution of Muslims, who pursue the cause of the Hamas, all over the globe, and strive for its victory, for the reinforcement of its positions and for the encouragement of its Jihad, the Movement is a universal one.

And:

Nothing is loftier or deeper in Nationalism than waging Jihad against the enemy and confronting him when he sets foot on the land of the Muslims.  [Including, of course, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia; ed.]

And:

When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, Jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims.  [Including, of course, southern Thailand, Kashmir, Andalusia; ed.]

And:

We must spread the spirit of Jihad among the [Islamic] Umma, clash with the enemies and join the ranks of the Jihad fighters.

And:

At the same time, we must be aware of current events, follow the news and study the analyses and commentaries on it [including, of course, Reuters; ed.], together with drawing plans for the present and the future and examining every phenomenon, so that every Muslim, fighting Jihad, could live out his era aware of his objective, his goals, his way and the things happening round him.

And:

The Hamas views the other Islamic movements with respect and appreciation. Even when it differs from them in one aspect or another or on one concept or another, it agrees with them in other aspects and concepts. It reads those movements as included in the framework of striving [for the sake of Allah], as long as they hold sound intentions and abide by their devotion to Allah, and as along as their conduct remains within the perimeter of the Islamic circle. All the fighters of Jihad have their reward.

Al-Mughrabi and Reuters would like readers to believe there is some material difference -- other than geography -- between the aims and methods of Hamas and those of other Islamic movements waging Jihad around the world but the Hamas Charter clearly gives lie to that notion.

Reuters fuels the myth

One of the most pervasive and pernicious myths associated with the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs is that if a "two-state solution" were to be realized, Islamic terrorism around the world would assuredly subside.  In a triad of articles and "Factboxes" containing quotes from analysts, academics, and terrorists, Reuters attempts to make the case that a "solution" to the conflict would "hurt al-Qaeda" and "help drain the pool" of potential Islamic terrorists.

Yet for all the psychological power associated with the appeal to authority and bandwagon logical fallacies, it is stunning how utterly devoid of any material support are these assertions.  For example, Reuters quotes British Security Minister Lord West:

Middle East peace "would make a huge difference to extremism; it would change it fundamentally."

And a former coordinator of Swiss intelligence, Jacques Pitteloud:

[there is] no doubt the dispute and the "perceived double standards of Western foreign policy" [are] significant factors enabling jihadist recruitment... "If the issue were solved peacefully it would go a long way to addressing militancy."

But absolutely no evidence is offered for these contentions.  Indeed, the quotes Reuters draws from Osama bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists serve to refute the views of Western "analysts":

1970s - Bin Laden's teenage friend and neighbor Khaled Batarfi, recalling their Jeddah childhood: "We used to go to his (bin Laden's) house and sing religious chants about Muslim youth and Palestine. (His view was) Unless we, the new generations, change and become stronger and more educated, we will never reclaim Palestine."

1994 - In a letter to Saudi grand mufti Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Bin Baz, bin Laden wrote: "The legal duty regarding Palestine and our brothers there ... is to wage jihad for the sake of God and to motivate our umma to jihad so that Palestine may be completely liberated and returned to Islamic sovereignty."

December 2001 - Al-Zawahri writes: "The one slogan the (Muslim) community has understood well, and to which it has responded for the past 50 years, is the call to jihad against Israel."

2005 - UK suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer says in a video issued posthumously: "The attacks will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan and until you stop your military support of America and Israel."

Clearly, bin Laden and his acolytes are motivated by much more than the objective of a "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Indeed, they have told us repeatedly that they will accept nothing less than the complete eradication of a Jewish sovereign in the Middle East and the end to a Western presence in the region.  The global Islamic jihad movement will not be sated with the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel; it is disingenuous or fatuous for Western analysts and the media to suggest otherwise.

Reuters parrots Arab euphemisms for murdering Jews

"resistance"
"armed struggle"
"liberate"

What do these terms have in common?  They're all euphemisms employed by the Arabs and dutifully parroted by Reuters to characterize the military and political goals of Fatah and Hamas:

Hamas will not recognise Israel despite new pressures on the group and will give priority to building resistance to the Jewish state, the Islamist group's leader Khaled Meshaal said on Friday.

Addressing a rally in the Syrian capital to mark the end of the Israeli attack on Gaza a year ago that killed 1,400 Palestinians, Meshaal said Hamas does not want another war with Israel but it will stick to armed struggle as a means to liberate occupied land.

Those excerpts from a story by Reuters' Khaled Yacoub Oweis on the latest affirmations by Hamas.  Note the absence of scare quotes around the terms, resistance, armed struggle, and liberate.  Scare quotes that Reuters scrupulously inserts when citing comments by Israeli leaders, as in this story:

Israel has complained to the United States, sponsor of the 2003 "road map" plan for Middle East peace, about both Fayyad and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying they had breached obligations under the plan to end such "incitement".

Thus does Reuters uncritically report (and adopt) the Arab lexicon while bringing journalistic skepticism to bear on characterizations and assertions made by Israel.

Of course, when Meshaal speaks of "liberation", what he actually means is this:

The Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine is an Individual Obligation
When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, Jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims. In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad. [Article 15, Hamas Charter]

And when Meshaal speaks of "struggle", what he actually means is this:

For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails. [Introduction, Hamas Charter]

But Reuters apparently feels those references are a bit too much for delicate Western ears and eyes so they go unreported.

Reuters blames Israel for Islamic terrorism on all fronts

Reuters publishes op-eds which -- though this is difficult to believe -- are more heavily biased and laden with propaganda than their usual "news" stories.  The media giant labels these op-eds "Analysis" so when you see that word emblazoned at the top of Reuters' webpage, it's generally advisable to prepare for the most extreme examples of one-sided claptrap a writer can possibly dream up.

Alistair Lyon, whose recent stories we have commented on here, here, and here now shifts his propaganda machine to Jordan where he leads with:

Jordanians share Palestinian despondency on peace

Ah yes, everyone is despondent that there is no peace in the Middle East except it seems, the Israelis.  (We cannot recall the last time Reuters did a story where they interviewed ordinary run-of-the-mill Israelis in Tel Aviv or Haifa about their aspirations for the region.  Must be challenging for one of Reuters' 100+ correspondents in the area to get to the coast).

Lyon runs through the litany of standard Reuters boilerplate banalities to portray that Arab "despondency".  There's despair:

Outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip, despair at the failure of years of U.S.-led Middle East peacemaking...

And feelings of futility:

Even those who once backed the "peace process" now view it as futile.

And of course, the ubiquitous Arab humiliation:

President Barack Obama's failure to secure his own demand that Israel stop building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is seen here as a humiliating sign...

And desperation:

Jordanian politicians acknowledge that such a move is likely to be doomed to failure but sympathise with the desperation...

And according to Nawaf Tell, a Foreign Ministry official heading the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan:

"The frustration, the disappointment, was biggest with Jordan."

Well of course it was, since Jordan sits on land representing 78% of the original Palestine Mandate and has a population which is 60-70% Palestinian Arab.  You can bet that Jordanian government officials, who clearly do not want more Palestinians in their 89,000 square kilometers of territory (Israel possesses 22,000 sq km), will be disappointed in any outcome that prevents them from expelling the Palestinian Arabs that currently reside in the country.

And since:

"The Palestinians are cornered," said Taher al-Masri, a former Jordanian prime minister of Palestinian origin...

And according to Reuters' Lyon:

Israel has no interest in trading land for peace, only in endless negotiations that will buy it more time to tighten its grip on East Jerusalem and the West Bank...

There must also be the perennial Arab threat of violence:

"But with this Israeli government it is difficult. It is the perfect recipe for violence and deadlock in the peace process."

And the completely unsupported assertion that:

Perceived injustice to the Palestinians also fuels Islamic militancy as far away as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Because after all, there is just so much evidence that the Pashtuns in Afghanistan fighting to overthrow the Karzai government are doing so on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs.

And finally, the utterly absurd conclusion:

"Every Arab leader has been telling the world, start with the Palestinian question and even terrorism can be contained."

Since it is common knowledge that Islamic jihad only dates back to 1967 when Israel recovered the territories from Jordan.