Reuters still downplaying IAEA report on Iran's nuclear weapons program

In our post on November 8, 2011 following the release of the latest United Nations IAEA report on Iran's nuclear weapons program, we noted Reuters long-standing efforts to downplay overwhelming evidence of that program and asked whether the news agency would continue in that vein, notwithstanding the IAEAs damning findings.  Robin Pomeroy, Reuters man in Iran, provides the answer to our question:

Britain last week banned all its financial institutions from any dealings with Iran, including its central bank, after a report by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency suggested Iran may have worked on developing a nuclear arsenal.

The IAEA report "suggested" Iran "may have" worked on developing a nuclear arsenal??

Er, no.  Here's a key section of the report:

The information indicates that Iran has carried out the following activities that are relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device:
• Efforts, some successful, to procure nuclear related and dual use equipment and materials by military related individuals and entities (Annex, Sections C.1 and C.2);
• Efforts to develop undeclared pathways for the production of nuclear material (Annex, Section C.3);
• The acquisition of nuclear weapons development information and documentation from a clandestine nuclear supply network (Annex, Section C.4); and
• Work on the development of an indigenous design of a nuclear weapon including the testing of components (Annex, Sections C.5–C.12).

Nice try though, Robin.

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood changes its mind on a civil state, Reuters shocked

Since the February revolution in Egypt, Reuters has spent reams of paper carefully sanitizing the history, dogma, and objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Just last May for example, the agency was assuring us that the Brotherhood had no interest in a parliamentary majority in Egypt and was not seeking to impose Islamic law (Sharia).

Things seem to have changed:

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's liberal Wafd party said on Sunday it may quit an electoral deal with the Muslim Brotherhood, highlighting growing tensions between liberals and Islamists over their vision for Muslim-majority Egypt.
The pact's aim was to allay fears that Islamists would seek to dominate debate about a new constitution, due to be re-written after parliament is elected. Some liberals fear Islamists want the constitution to create an Islamic state [...]

"It seems that the Brotherhood has retracted its position from the document that all members of the alliance have signed setting general rules that the new constitution must have," Yassin Tageldin, Wafd's deputy chairman, told Reuters.

He said Wafd understood that the agreement laid down principles to ensure that when re-written would establish a civil state.

The Brotherhood, which insists it wants a constitution that respects Muslims and non-Muslims alike, have said the pact was not a statement of principles about any constitutional debate but covered how groups would behave before elections [...]

Another Wafd leader, Essam Sheha, told Egypt's al-Mal newspaper that his party wanted to leave the pact after "the Brotherhood ... raised slogans calling for a religious state."

It was a reference to a demonstration on July 29, that was dominated by Salafists with a very strict view of Islam, whose slogans included saying said Islam came before any constitution.

We await the return of former Reuters Cairo Bureau Chief Jonathan Wright who will undoubtedly assure us all is well because the Brotherhood's leadership consists of engineers, doctors, lawyers, and academics.

Nothing to see here; move on.

Reuters downplays international recognition of Hamas as a terrorist group

In a story on the Greek government arresting and then releasing the captain of one of the ships originally bound for Gaza in the latest attempt to breach the Israeli weapons embargo of the territory, Reuters correspondent Renee Maltezou writes:

Israel says its blockade of Gaza is aimed at stopping weapons from reaching the enclave's rulers, Hamas -- an Islamist group that is branded a terrorist group by some Western nations.

Quite apart from the Reuters compulsory "we-have-to-provide-an-official-Israeli-explanation-but-it's-just-an Israeli-claim-so-don't-you-believe-it" citation on the purpose of the maritime embargo, Maltezou attempts to subvert nearly universal recognition of Hamas as a terrorist group by asserting that only "some" Western nations have adopted this view.  So let's review the current list of Western nations that see things this way:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bugaria, Canada, Cypress, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US...

all officially classify Hamas as a terrorist group.

There is of course, Norway, which does not consider Hamas a terrorist group and regularly meets with its leaders but then, the Norwegians are known for mass-murdering defenseless, intelligent sea creatures so we can hardly expect more from them.

Douglas Hamilton downplays effect of Palestinian rockets; reader sets him straight

In an op-ed masquerading as "Analysis" and laden with fatuous assertions, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton, who should have been terminated long ago for material breaches of the Reuters Trust Principles, suggests that:

Most Gaza rockets inflict no more than material damage [on Israeli communities]

A commenter on the Reuters website sets Hamilton straight:

I take issue with the statement: “Most Gaza rockets inflict no more than material damage.” There are hundreds of thousands of residents who are being traumatized many times every day by the threat of these missiles. And this has been going on, on and off, for years! Children are growing up under this constant threat, always having to be aware of where the nearest shelter is in case of a siren. And there have been injuries and death from these rockets in the past.
And please don’t tell me that the Gazans have it worse. All they have to do is STOP launching rockets and mortars, stop tunneling under the fence in order to attack and the Israeli army will have no reason to attack them!

Hear, hear.

Can Tom Perry tell the truth?

Writing about the prospects of a third Palestinian terror war against Israel should peace talks fail, Reuters correspondent and serial liar Tom Perry cunningly understates the number of Israelis killed during the second terror war:

Over 500 Israeli civilians died in 140 Palestinian suicide bomb attacks from 2000 to 2007. More than 4,500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the same period.

Note how Perry includes all Palestinians killed by any means but willfully excludes Israeli security personnel and those Israelis killed by means other than suicide bomb attacks.  When these groups are included, the number of Israelis killed rises to more than double Perry's estimate.  And note how Perry describes the Israelis as having "died" while the Palestinians were "killed".

Perry then goes on to misrepresent both the level of recent violence emanating from Gaza and the violence threatened by Hamas:

Relative, if fragile, stability has even reached the Gaza Strip. Run by the Hamas movement, it remains an "enemy entity" to Israel. But the Iranian-backed Islamists are enforcing a de facto ceasefire that has curbed rocket fire into Israel...

The group has said it will not use force to derail the negotiations set to begin in Washington Thursday -- a tactic it employed in the 1990s when, less powerful, it frequently interrupted U.S.-backed peace talks with suicide attacks.

There have actually been over 200 Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks targeting Israeli communities since the Gaza war ended in 2009.  And Hamas is threatening a full-scale war if negotiations do not go their way.

Tom Perry is either asleep or systematically prevaricating.  Since his pen is moving, our money is on the latter.

Nidal al-Mughrabi picks up the lie and runs with it

Yesterday, we wrote about Reuters mendacious coverage of the explosion of a Palestinian Grad rocket in Ashkelon, Israel.  Today, in a story on Israel's military response to the attack, correspondent Nidal al-Mughrabi picks up where Amir Cohen and Douglas Hamilton left off, parrots some of the same propaganda and injects some of his own:

The militant group [Hamas] has a rocket arsenal of crude, homemade projectiles and longer-range rockets smuggled in through tunnels under the border with Egypt.

For years and in scores of stories, Reuters has sought to minimize the danger and devastating effects of Palestinian rockets by referring to them as "crude, homemade".  As Hamas has been able to acquire and launch rockets with increasing range and lethality from countries like Iran, Reuters is less able to dismiss these attacks with loaded language but as seen above, that doesn't prevent propagandists like al-Mughrabi from trying.

Continuing:

No one was injured by the blast [in Askelon], which police said was caused by a 122mm, Chinese-made Grad rocket. But the attack ended over a year of calm for the Israeli city closest to Gaza... The [2009 Israeli] offensive largely ended rocket fire into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

No one was injured by shrapnel, but several Israelis were treated for shock.  And as we documented in our previous post, the assertion of "over a year of calm" is a bald-faced lie.  As is the notion that the 2008-09 Gaza war "largely ended rocket fire into Israel".

Palestinians attack; Reuters lies

When Palestinians launch an attack against Israel, one can be certain that Reuters will either ignore it or downplay it.  A Grad missile fired from Gaza hit a residential area in Ashkelon today shattering windows in nearby cars and buildings.  It was followed by the firing of two Palestinian mortar shells.  Reuters reports only on the missile strike and predictably misleads on the level of violence directed by Palestinians against Israel:

The rare attack on the southern city, which was likely to elicit a military response from Israel, came after months of quiet following Israel's launch of a three week military campaign in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in late 2008...

There has been sporadic rocket fire since the [Gaza] war, mostly in the direction of smaller Israeli towns closer to the border and none of it lethal. But Israeli forces usually respond by striking at militant targets inside Gaza.

As documented, there have actually been several hundred Palestinian rockets and mortars fired at Israel between the end of the Gaza war in 2009 and 2010.  Reuters continues to prevaricate about this onslaught.

UPDATE JULY 30, 12:03: Get a load of this headline and story update from Amir Cohen and Douglas Hamilton:

Gaza rocket ends quiet year for Ashkelon

"No one was injured in the blast. But the attack ended over a year of calm for the city closest to the enclave ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement and it was likely to trigger a military response by Israel.

As a reminder for Amir and Doug, here's what that "year of calm" has seen:

Jan 7, 2010
A Katyusha rocket launched from the Gaza Strip landed in an open field south of Ashkelon.

February 12, 2010
A Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area between Shaar Hanegev Regional Council and Ashkelon Coast Regional Council.

March 18, 2010
A Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into a greenhouse in Netiv Haasara, a cooperative agricultural community in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. Manee Singmueangphon, a 33-year-old Thai agricultural guest worker,[23] was killed in the explosion, and 50 additional Thai workers suffered from shock.

March 20, 2010
Four Qassam rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, causing the Color Red alarm to sound several times and forcing residents in southern Israel to take cover in secure rooms. The first rocket landed in an open area in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

March 21, 2010
In the evening, a Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip struck an open field in a kibbutz south of Ashkelon, in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

March 23, 2010
A Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip exploded near a parking lot in the heart of a populated zone in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

April 1, 2010
At night, a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, near Ashkelon, causing damage but no injuries

May 8, 2010
A Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip exploded south of Ashkelon, in an open area in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council.

May 19, 2010
In the evening, at the end of the Shavuot holiday, a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near Ashkelon, hitting an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council.

May 25, 2010
Two mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip at the Netiv Ha'asara area, near Ashkelon.

May 26, 2010
In the late evening, a Qassam rocket fired at Israel exploded in an open area in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council.

June 1, 2010
Overnight, a Qassam rocket exploded among greenhouses in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, damaging a greenhouse.

June 3, 2010
Around 9 pm, two Qassam rockets exploded in an open area south of Ashkelon. Another rocket landed in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, near a kibbutz.

June 24, 2010
Eight mortars and one rocket were fired at Israeli communities. Around 1:30 pm, three mortar shells exploded in open areas in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

And today.

Thomson Reuters: no Principles, no Trust.

Reuters continues to suppress news of Hezbollah rearmament

As Lebanon continues to violate UNSCR 1701 by facilitating the massing of tens of thousands of Hezbollah missiles throughout the country, UNIFIL, the United Nations security force charged with assisting the Lebanese government in its obligation to prevent this rearmament continues to look the other way.  And the largest global news agency, Reuters, continues to run interference for Lebanon, UNIFIL, and Hezbollah by downplaying news of the rearmament and UNIFILs complicity in the same. 

Reuters is however, on the job when it comes to reporting on personal relations between UNIFIL and the modest folks in south Lebanon: 

Villagers in south Lebanon have blamed French peacekeepers for the recent confrontations in the south, saying their patrols had become provocative and intrusive, including taking photographs of people inside their houses. Some Western diplomats say Hezbollah was involved, which the group denies.

Not to worry however, we are now assured that things have been patched up and all is well:

A U.N. envoy to Lebanon said on Wednesday he believed trouble between U.N. peacekeepers and villagers in south Lebanon that has led to confrontations in recent weeks had now been sorted out...

"I can confirm that the situation in the south is now much better, that I believe that calm and stability have been returned," special coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams told reporters after briefing the Security Council.

(Williams you may recall, was formerly UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's personal representative to the PLO.)

Glad we got that little misunderstanding cleared up.

Reuters Jerusalem Bureau Chief to step down

Alastair Macdonald, whose work we have followed closely since our website commenced last August, is "ending his assignment" as Reuters Bureau Chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories.  Although we don't know the details behind Macdonald's exit nor do we know yet who will be replacing him, we will be frank and say that for any observer wishing for accurate and unbiased reporting of the Middle East conflict, Macdonald's departure will not be viewed with a great deal of sympathy.

In the ten months that we have been analyzing Reuters coverage of the conflict, Macdonald has demonstrated, 1) a refusal to take responsibility for factual errors, 2) a tendency to cherry-pick survey data to support his own political views, 3) repeated efforts to downplay and whitewash Palestinian violence, 4) systematic bias in favor of the Arabs, 5) reference to racist epithets to support his pro-Arab bias, 6) reliance on libelous information sources, 7) the use of spurious "man bites dog" stories in an effort to demonize Jews, 8) willful omission of highly newsworthy stories that undermine Palestinian image-making, 9) the parroting of Palestinian propaganda, 10) selective amnesia on the historical facts along with a host of false assertions, and 11) the scandalous publication on his watch, of doctored photos in violation of the Reuters Handbook and all standards of professional and ethical journalism.

Let's see; did we forget anything?

Airbrushing the facts

Even when Reuters makes an ostensible effort to write a balanced story, its choice of language betrays its compulsive bias.  Correspondent Nidal al-Mughrabi reports on Arab League chief Amr Moussa visiting the Gaza Strip today.  In an early version of the story, al-Mughrabi writes:

But Cairo reopened its Rafah crossing with the territory after Israeli marines killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists during a raid on a Turkish-flagged vessel in the aid convoy on May 31.

In a subsequent revision, al-Mughrabi (or his editor) makes the following change and addition:

But Cairo reopened its Rafah crossing with the enclave after Israeli marines killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists in a May 31 raid on a Turkish-flagged aid vessel where passengers with metal rods and knives confronted the boarding party.  [emphasis ours]

Note that the "Turkish-flagged vessel in the aid convoy" in the first generation story has become the "Turkish-flagged aid vessel" in the update.  As we know (no thanks to Reuters which has yet to report on the development), the Mavi Marmara carried no humanitarian aid whatsoever; the passengers -- members of the terror-linked IHH -- were on a singular mission of provocation and violence.

The updated story adds a reference to the weapons carried by the passengers but while explicitly mentioning those killed by Israeli marines, sanitizes the precipitating bloody assault perpetrated by the passengers with a reference only to the boarding party being "confronted".  No mention of the vicious beating, knifing, and ransoming of Israeli marines by members of the Turkish IHH which Reuters has attempted to airbrush from history.

Reuters in need of remedial math class

In a story on the Hamas "apology" for Israeli civilians killed in rocket attacks, Reuters correspondent Nidal al-Mughrabi, who frequently fails to get his facts straight, reports that:

Over 500 Israelis were killed in suicide bombings during a Palestinian uprising from 2000.

UPDATE: According to statistics compiled by the left-wing NGO B'tselem, over 1,000 Israelis were killed during the second Palestinian intifada, the vast majority in bombings.

UPDATE 3/16/10: A reader refers us to the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs which reports a lesser number of Israelis killed via suicide bombings: 542.  However, the total number of Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorism during the period is reported as 1,185 -- even higher than the B'tselem figure. Thus, it's a distinction without a difference.  By citing only suicide bombings, Reuters is willfully understating the number of Israelis killed during the intifada.

In other news, Reuters is also reporting that there are over 100 days in a year.

Reuters makes light of Gaza rockets

Reuters has a long, sorry history of downplaying the threat to Israeli civilian communities from rockets and mortars fired by terror groups in Gaza.  In a cynical effort to portray these projectiles as only marginally more dangerous than fireworks, Reuters frequently characterizes them as "homemade" and "crude".

In a story on Israel's decision to delay deployment of its "Iron Dome" missile defense system near Gaza due to economic constraints, correspondent Dan Williams continues in the Reuters tradition:

While the north has gone quiet, sporadic fire still pesters towns inland from Gaza. The rockets are inaccurate and only rarely inflict damage or injury. But each firing triggers a loud alert, sending people rushing to shelters and keeping nerves on edge in towns such as Sderot.

We have already noted Reuters Orwellian reference to the hundreds of rocket attacks emanating from Gaza over the last year as "sporadic" and Williams here seeks to further trivialize the terror and trauma suffered by Israelis by characterizing the rocket fire as something that "pesters".  Moreover, note how Williams slyly suggests that the trauma is caused not by Palestinian missiles but rather, by the Israeli incoming missile alert system.  To ensure more credible reporting, we might suggest Reuters house its correspondents in one of the Israeli border communities.

Reuters downplays extent of antisemitism in Venezuela

In September, we noted a Reuters' story about Hugh Chavez and his accusation at the time that Israel was attempting to "exterminate" the Palestinians.  Reuters presents Chavez' risible claim sans any of the contempt it typically reserves for statements by Israeli officials.

Yesterday, Reuters correspondents Frank Jack Daniel and Andrew Cawthorne reported on Chavez' latest outburst where, during a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former referred to Israel as "a murderous arm of the Yankee empire".  Daniel and Cawthorne note that Chavez was lauded by Muslims for his previous accusations against Israel and that:

His fierce speeches against Israel are taken by some supporters as a green light for anti-Semitism and walls in Caracas are often daubed with anti-Jewish slogans.

For a clearer perspective on the abuse, threats, and violence the Venezuelan Jewish community is suffering as a result of Chavez' rabid antisemitism, we link here to a lengthy article in the Boston Review.

Sporadic skewed reporting

Reuters correspondents love to play down Palestinian terror attacks (when reported at all) and their favorite Orwellian adjective to minimize describe rocket attacks from Gaza -- over 250 of which have been launched since the war ended in January -- is "sporadic".  On Saturday, Israel responded to one of these attacks and true to form, Reuters seeks to downplay Palestinian efforts to murder Israeli civilians:

The [Israeli] attacks occurred one day after Hamas said it had reached an agreement with smaller armed groups in the territory to halt sporadic rocket fire toward Israel, which often responds with air strikes.

And, a few paragraphs down, again:

The Israeli military usually responds to sporadic rocket attacks by launching air strikes against tunnels under the Egyptian border used to smuggle goods and weapons into Gaza.

Since Reuters rarely reports on the effects of these "sporadic" rocket attacks, we think a reminder is in order:

"Sporadic exceptions"

That's the way Reuters' Nidal al-Mughrabi and Alastair Macdonald allude to the more than 200 rockets and mortars fired at Israel by Palestinian terror groups since the Gaza "ceasefire" in January.

An average of nearly one rocket or mortar per day = "sporadic exceptions". George Orwell must be rolling over.

Reuters: violence is only violence when Israel defends

In a story today about the death of a Palestinian teenager in Gaza, Reuters wants us to know that:

"Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Hamas-controlled enclave has been minimal since Israel ended a military offensive there in January."

There have of course, been over 200 Palestinian rockets and mortars fired at Israel since that time, but who's counting? Clearly not Reuters.

Thanks to Elder of Ziyon, who is (counting).