Propaganda Wars
A lot of our readers have been e-mailing us and leaving comments about a TV interview with a Lebanese/American by the name of Brigitte Gabriel. Most of the comments keep asking us our take on her views and it is our responsibility to answer you back.
Brigitte Gabriel is quite simply put paid by the Israeli government, thus making her a very biased source.
I don’t know her personally, but after hearing her interview and take on things, I can assure you that her family was part of the SLA (South Lebanon Army) which was funded and equipped by the Israeli military for dozens of years. The SLA were so ferocious and so barbaric that Hizbullah and other innocent prisoners during the first occupation of Lebanon would go on food strikes for weeks and would beg the Israeli army to return as prison guards. This was due to the barbaric torture methods the SLA would perform on young and old, men and woman alike.
I learned all this information from a former prisoner who spent 15 years in the infamous Khiam prison. One of the torture methods, other than whipping and hangings by the feet for days, would be to lock a prisoner in a box the size of a medium safe for weeks. He directly told me that the prisoners would do anything possible to bring back the Israelis "because they are less ruthless and more humane than the SLA." Even the Israelis rejected any involvement in the procedures due to the ferocity of the tortures used.
Brigitte keeps on forgetting that Hizbullah, who she keeps on comparing to animals, not only did not kill one single SLA member when Israel left south Lebanon in 2000, but they even handed them to the Lebanese Army to stand trial. You would think that animals would seek revenge without a second thought. Even till today, SLA members are allowed to return to Lebanon freely only if they accept to stand in front of a trial first – an option which many have chosen to follow.
Thus Brigitte Gabriel’s take on things is very biased and I wouldn’t even come close to calling her a reliable source. What she is saying is actually quite stupid. If anything she is a tiny little screw of the giant machine that is propaganda.
Click here for the link to her video.
Brigitte Gabriel is quite simply put paid by the Israeli government, thus making her a very biased source.
I don’t know her personally, but after hearing her interview and take on things, I can assure you that her family was part of the SLA (South Lebanon Army) which was funded and equipped by the Israeli military for dozens of years. The SLA were so ferocious and so barbaric that Hizbullah and other innocent prisoners during the first occupation of Lebanon would go on food strikes for weeks and would beg the Israeli army to return as prison guards. This was due to the barbaric torture methods the SLA would perform on young and old, men and woman alike.
I learned all this information from a former prisoner who spent 15 years in the infamous Khiam prison. One of the torture methods, other than whipping and hangings by the feet for days, would be to lock a prisoner in a box the size of a medium safe for weeks. He directly told me that the prisoners would do anything possible to bring back the Israelis "because they are less ruthless and more humane than the SLA." Even the Israelis rejected any involvement in the procedures due to the ferocity of the tortures used.
Brigitte keeps on forgetting that Hizbullah, who she keeps on comparing to animals, not only did not kill one single SLA member when Israel left south Lebanon in 2000, but they even handed them to the Lebanese Army to stand trial. You would think that animals would seek revenge without a second thought. Even till today, SLA members are allowed to return to Lebanon freely only if they accept to stand in front of a trial first – an option which many have chosen to follow.
Thus Brigitte Gabriel’s take on things is very biased and I wouldn’t even come close to calling her a reliable source. What she is saying is actually quite stupid. If anything she is a tiny little screw of the giant machine that is propaganda.
Click here for the link to her video.
posted by beirutlive at 9:30 AM
34 Comments:
I have to actually say she sounds pretty damm convensing.
we should put her to talk with galloway.
about the SLA - http://www.meib.org/articles/0007_l3.htm
---
one of the lawyers present at the hearings, about half of the detainees were visibly limping when they arrived in court.6 Only a few have explicitly testified that they were tortured, however. "I was beaten up and heard frightening cries which forced me to confess that I fed the (SLA) security network," Hussein Zayn al Abidin told the court. Another said he had been "suspended" in the air for refusing to answer a question
----
it doesn't sound like they had fair trials to me...
oh well...
good day to us all.
boy is she ugly!!!
all those beautiful leb girls and she is the one they chose for CNN??
Im sorry mrtez you are the one biased who cannot just post the video without any comment and leaving your readership to make their own opinions. you try to seed more hate more conspirecy and more biased pro Hez.
I say to you good luck with the state of Lebanhalla or you can call it Hezbon or Iranon or if you prefer Lebanon maybe you should first work on ousting your freedom fighters.
just a suggestion
anonymous 11:42,
last thing i checked, this was mrtez's blog, (blog as in: space where its owner posts his own comments &opinions, duh!) you don't like it, pick up your news from a perroquet newspaper.
as for brigitte afandiyeh, a joke would be a mere understatment. She mentions in her site "defending israel" as one of her basic missions. inno if that isn't biased! it's written "propaganda" all over her face (which btw byo2ta3 l riz2)
Anonymous,
First of all I was directed to this video by the readership, who quite frankly asked what we thought about this video.
And if there is one thing I have learned is never to listen to people who are either paid to say what they are saying or have such biased viewpoints that they become unreliable to say the least.
Gabriel's family was part of the brutal SLA and because of that, one cannot in any circumpstances take her word for granted.
I surely dont want to be in what you call Hezbon or Iranon, but I definetly dont want to be stupid and shallow either.
It's as if you are asking me to listen to what a vietcong has to say about americans, or the other way round. Its instructive, but definetly untrue and biased.
mrtez - don't be too nice to people.
I bet you can delete them... -)
L
be safe.. all... it's the end, so everyone are bombing like crazy.
shit.
peace.
she also has a book out! hmm trying to cash in on this crisis too...
I wonder if she would be spouting the same rhetoric if she was in an area that was getting bombed. She has a very distorted view of things Lebanese, and events in Lebanon.
Good afternoon to everybody,
Here is my reaction to the post about Brigitte Gabriel.
>A lot of our readers have been e-mailing us and leaving comments about a TV interview with a Lebanese/American by the name of Brigitte Gabriel. Most of the comments keep asking us our take on her views and it is our responsibility to answer you back.
Brigitte Gabriel is quite simply put paid by the Israeli government, thus making her a very biased source.
-Ok this is your opinion. I guess , that you think , that all Lebanese must support Hizballa.
>I don’t know her personally, but after hearing her interview and take on things, I can assure you that her family was part of the SLA (South Lebanon Army) which was funded and equipped by the Israeli military for dozens of years.
- Again , it isn't a fact , just your guess.
>The SLA were so ferocious and so barbaric that Hizbullah and other innocent prisoners during the first occupation of Lebanon would go on food strikes for weeks and would beg the Israeli army to return as prison guards. This was due to the barbaric torture methods the SLA would perform on young and old, men and woman alike.
-It may be true , because I believe , the Lebanese people , then and of course now have more reasons to hate Hizballa , than Israeli people.
>I learned all this information from a former prisoner who spent 15 years in the infamous Khiam prison. One of the torture methods, other than whipping and hangings by the feet for days, would be to lock a prisoner in a box the size of a medium safe for weeks. He directly told me that the prisoners would do anything possible to bring back the Israelis "because they are less ruthless and more humane than the SLA." Even the Israelis rejected any involvement in the procedures due to the ferocity of the tortures used.
- Just don't forget one thing. In years 1978-2000 Israel didn't impose its law and its standards on Lebanon. All the government of South Lebanon was in Lebanese hands.
>Brigitte keeps on forgetting that Hizbullah, who she keeps on comparing to animals, not only did not kill one single SLA member when Israel left south Lebanon in 2000, but they even handed them to the Lebanese Army to stand trial.
- I guess , Lebanese army can proceed trials ! It would be better , that the army of Lebanon would control all its territory.
> You would think that animals would seek revenge without a second thought. Even till today, SLA members are allowed to return to Lebanon freely only if they accept to stand in front of a trial first – an option which many have chosen to follow.
- And so most of them sit in prison. Also I've heard , that some SLA soldiers joined Hizballa , because they were angry on Israel for treason in year 2000. At that case there is no reason for Hizballa to punish them.
>Thus Brigitte Gabriel’s take on things is very biased and I wouldn’t even come close to calling her a reliable source. What she is saying is actually quite stupid. If anything she is a tiny little screw of the giant machine that is propaganda.
-Again , it's your opinion . I just want to finger to 2 points :
A. Why there are no more christian villages in the south ?
B. Most of soldiers in SLA were Shii , but there were also Christian and Druze soldiers.
And the last remark : Those who consider SLA soldiers as collaborators with Israel , somehow don't think that Hizballa members are collaborators with Syria and Iran.
with the best wishes ,
she is an airheaded bimbo who opens her mouth mainly to change the air. Here: Read Christopher Dickey's article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14286066/
Here's an extract:
In the Middle East for the last quarter century we’ve seen similar thinking among some of the leaders of Israel and the United States. When conventional diplomacy failed them, or simply tried their patience, they looked for brilliant solutions that no one else had dared to try before. (“They call me mad, MAD!” said the scientist. So, too, these strategists.) The results in the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan and especially in Iraq, that monumental experiment gone massively wrong, have helped create monstrosities more terrible than anything ever conjured on the back lots of Hollywood.
But here’s what’s so stunning about the current horror show in Lebanon: it’s a sequel. The Israeli government is not concocting bold formulas for the future that were never tried before, it’s dragging out the same old calculations for destruction, humiliation, occupation, and international intervention that failed it in Lebanon 20 years ago. The last time around, Hizbullah is what rose from the rubble. This time we can expect something even worse, and what’s perhaps more appalling, some senior Israeli officials and American officials don’t seem to care.
One especially frank strategic thinker, who’s quite close to the Israeli government, told NEWSWEEK that he (and those in power with whom he’s intimate) see three plausible outcomes of the current war.
Emil, read the Dickey piece. I don't think many people have analyzed this situation beyond the surface. This piece involves Israel's strategy concerning Iran and Syria. Lebanon is a pawn in that strategy - a set piece meant to demonstrate Israel's capability to destroy. The bombing and utter destruction of ALL facets of Lebanon are meant to show Christians, Muslims, Druze - everyone in Lebanon they have a political stake in the matter and had better do something. It also is meant to show Iran and Syria what Israel can do with only 1/5 of its air force - as Israel says, they shut the country down in a matter of hours.
But the article goes on to show the parallel with the failed US reasoning in Iraq. Here's the conclusion:
Unfortunately for thinkers in Israel like the Strategist, for the Bush administration officials who are often drawn into their wake, and for the innocents of Israel and Lebanon who pay the price with their lives, it’s not only words, but wars that have consequences, and they are rarely those intended.
emil jerusalem,
there are still many christian villages in the south. actually there are as many christian villages as there were before the war. and guess what, they all live side by side with the muslims, go to same schools. same as everywhere else in lebanon.
and stating that the SLA had shiias and druze in them is wrong. the SLA was a force completely equipped and funded by israel.
and to your last point,yes hezb is funded and armed by syria, we all know that. but the point here is not who is armed by who, its stating that what Brigitte is saying is completely biased and untrue. and i can assure you she is still funded by israel till today. would you listen to an israeli funded by iran and talking how bad the likud is? i doubt it...
Please read the following:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749294.html
A flimsy reed By Yossi Sarid
This war is, first and foremost, an Israeli tragedy. It is also a Lebanese tragedy and, in fact, an international one.
When the Israeli cabinet decided to respond to the abduction of two soldiers by launching a war, it did not take into consideration the fact that no one would stop it. Once started, there would be no element in the world today with the authority to stop it, whose call for a cease-fire would cause the warring parties to lay down their arms. The world of the early 21st century is one of total license, without discipline or authority.
Every time I hear about the "international community" and the United Nations and its Security Council, I exchange my tears for cynical laughter. There is no community without leadership, and no security council without someone or something to set the tone. The one that should be playing that leadership role, the United States of America, is a flimsy reed.
The election of George W. Bush as president of the United States was a terrible calamity for the world and all its inhabitants. We all know the world is a big place, and leading it is too big a job for Bush. He is not the one who can ease its pain. Ever since he was born again and his eyes opened, he views the world as flat. In a confluence of fundamentalist Christian and Texan cowboy traditions, he divides the world into good people and bad people, the sons of light against the sons of darkness. The division is sharp and clear, all black and white, with no shades of gray. What a pity it is that the American president has inherited the earth and not the skies, which are divided so clearly into heaven and hell.
The messenger-president never has and never will have any truck with those not on the "good path" laid down by evangelist preachers and the Pentagon's "new world order" prophets. And so, the only empire on the planet is feuding with half the world. It isn't speaking to North Korea or Iran or Syria or to their satellites and emissaries - Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban and the like.
In his total redemption crusade, Bush is ignorant of how the world does mourn. He tilts at the windmills of evil like some grumpy Don Quixote, and reaps the whirlwind. He is absolutely determined to bring democracy to every country in the world, even if they drown in their own blood. About 100,000 Iraqis have already greased the cogs of Bush's messianic revolution with their blood, and about 1,000 are slaughtered every week. The victims in Afghanistan are uncounted.
The international community is split and torn, divided and polarized as never before in recent history. It refuses to follow Bush's path, but does not have its own. The European Union occasionally seems more clear-eyed, but also more frightened. The global choice is thus a very poor one, between the soft-headed and the soft-hearted.
Only in Israel do people still thrill at the sight of Bush and his Condoleezzian entourage. Maybe they have a plan to save Israel from its enemies, but they have no plan to save it from its big buddy or from itself. The bad guys, meanwhile, have long since stopped being impressed. They do their own thing, as if there was no America and it had nothing to say. Bush can raise his voice a thousand times, and nothing happens: Georgie-boy is in a snit, and if he doesn't want to talk to us then who needs him? The crazies of the world are only uniting and growing stronger. They thumb their noses at his finger-wagging, the scolding of a teacher who is totally out of touch with his out-of-control classroom.
The United States under Bush single-handedly destroyed its deterrent power and that of the free world, including Israel. If the American demon that has taken over Iraq is not so terrible and can be worn down, then just how terrible could the Israeli demon possibly be?
Who would have believed it? Sometimes a normal human being finds himself missing the old world of blocs and the Berlin Wall. True, the fate of humankind in those days depended on the restraints imposed by what used to be called the "balance of terror," but it was a balance nonetheless that mandated serious thought before action. When the terror of the Cold War disappeared, that balance disappeared along with it, and the omnipotent American hegemony became impotent. The world is heating up and spinning out of control. In this unconstrained world, we are the victims-of-the-month.
So I read the e-mail sent to me, some interesting points. This morning I see a blog devoted to what I said a few days ago. I didn't however see a blog devoted to denouncing the Fanatic Mulsims???? Your are very biased mrtez. This is a Propaganda site as well, you know I know and most of the people here know. They just like hearing the fluffy but untruthful side of what's going on.
Oh hell, the goddamned toilet backed up again.
Oh so your family popped back up. Well dive and join them, you're all just sewer rats anyway.
For everyone's enjoyment, go to the next topic down ("Kiler Tan") and you can see this bigot's thinking and writing ability.
That's it from this former Sammy watcher. Back to the important stuff ....
Bush & the blind followers (eyes & inner voice) will be punished sooner than later. IDF used super weapons supplied by US to kill civilian, women & children. US earn a living through killing by selling their weapons. What a shame…. Can’t good & wise Americans feel & do something? We Asian, condemn the aggression and barbaric act by US & IDF. We will boycott products of US, UK & Israel.
Oh ya, like that matters. Go ahead boycott those countrie. What a joke. If you condem it and don't like and you speak for all of your people then go home and tell all of your little buddies to stop coming to the States in such great numbers. Head to N Korea, I hear it's a fun place to go.
It's dummy sammy again, folks. Embarrassed about his name, now. Watch the spelling and grammar. You'll recognize the smell right away.
Oh ye
We bought products, Made in Japan & Made In China. Cheap & durable. There are many places to visit in Asia.
Yes I was a bit miffed and was typing fast. But attacking me is okay, if thats all you have. No one can defend what I'm saying and you know it. I'm right about the state of Islam.
I've not once posted as anon intentionally. you're just to smart though.
Still responding!
Somebody pull the chain.
I support Bush 100%, it's easy we run the country and you don't. The truth is painful.
To bad we can't keep him for four more after this term.
Heaven is where I'm going and Bush will be there too, only the haters of Faith wil be in hell. The sate of islam is now what I consider hell.
Here's to your so called peace, if it's not going to help there's no need to stop now.
I just read this and got goose bumbs. This is the only way to fight terror. Keep your flowers and sad stories. No one that can stop the fighting cares.
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 4 minutes ago
JERUSALEM - Israel has begun an expanded ground offensive in southern Lebanon after expressing dissatisfaction over an emerging cease-fire deal, government officials said.
Shortly afterwards, a source close to the Israeli government said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ask him if there was any room left for diplomacy.
Olmert has indicated he’d be willing to call off the offensive if Israel’s basic demands are met, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the private conversation.
Olmert and his defense minister, Amir Peretz, made the decision to expand the offensive after meeting for four hours Friday. Peretz instructed the military to launch the offensive, officials said.
Olmert’s spokesman, Asaf Shariv, told The Associated Press that the expanded incursion had already begun. An emerging cease-fire deal being worked out by the U.N. Security Council fails to meet Israel's basic requirements, such as stationing robust international combat troops in southern Lebanon once Israel withdraws, Shariv said.
“Yesterday we were very optimistic, but they (the Security Council) took the wrong turn,” Shariv said.
The government has decided to implement a Cabinet decision on Wednesday granting the army permission to carry out a massive ground offensive “to deal with the Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon, from which barrages of missiles continue to be launched against the Israeli civilian population,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
mrtz,
Please pardon my ignorance, but this part of your post really bothers me... "Brigitte keeps on forgetting that Hezbollah, who she keeps on comparing to animals, not only did not kill one single SLA member when Israel left south Lebanon in 2000, but they even handed them to the Lebanese Army to stand trial."
EVEN HANDED THEM OVER TO THE LEBANESE ARMY TO STAND TRIAL!!?? This is what I simply don't understand. Who are these people, the Hezbollah? What is their role in your country? What is their 'authority'? Are they vigilantes…mercenaries…a political Party? It sounds as though they might be something like the KKK in this country (USA) except that they are not ever in a position to "hand over" other people to the US army.
I agree that Brigitte sounds biased and is blatantly prone to sensationalism (probably to help sell her book) but my question about the role of the Hezbollah in the Lebanese culture/government remains unanswered. I'm only aware of the fact that they have representation in the government (like a Party)??
ONCE, I would like to hear that the Lebanese citizens are truly opposed to the tactics used by the Hezbullah...if not their agenda, then their modus operandi.
On different note... I am so sorry about what you are having to live through right now. (I watched the video) That we are not all railing against this and other injustices thoughout the world is an indignity of humankind.
A great quote by Golda Meir:
"We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."
How can you "reassure" us her family was part of the SLA?
How do you know whether she was paid by the Israelis? Where are you getting your facts from?
If you want to see some of the lies going on, then check this out:
http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp
As always, you can get your news from HonestReporting.com
do the ignorant know that they are ignorant? Do they believe that they are true to themselves? Its pathetic really. Deaf, blind and dumb!
Izrael and UN history:
Back in 1948, the UN sent a Special Representative, Count Folke Bernadotte to Palestine/Israel to report on the growing disquiet of Jewish settlers killing and terrorizing the Palestinian population.
On September 17, 1948, four men dressed in Israeli Army uniforms murdered Count Bernadotte. The four killers were never brought to justice.
Israel's founding Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, knew who the assassins were: members of the so-called Stern Gang, a Jewish terrorist group of several hundred members founded in 1940. The man who organized the killing of Count Bernadotte was Yitzhak Shamir, who later became Prime Minister of Israel in 1983. The other Israeli terrorist organization operating at the time was Irgun. Many of its leaders were later honoured by the state of Israel and the current Foreign Minister of Israel, Tzipi Livni is the daughter of a prominent Irgun member, Eitan Livni, who was sentenced to 15 years in jail by the British for terrorism.
Well...
Have nice day!
blogwatch,
believe me that she was SLA. If she lived in the south, and was attacked by hizb., then she is SLA. because the hizb. only attacked lebanese people who were part of SLA. Plain simple.
If you are Lebanese, you just need to hear people's minds to know to who they follow...no real lebanese speaks the way she does. and no lebanese states that we need to protect israel. ever...
mrtez:
This is what you say: "because the hizb. only attacked lebanese people who were part of SLA. Plain simple."
Now, this is what the IDF says: "We only attack locations where there's Hezbollah. We do not target civilians."
You could announce what you say and expect all to believe it. But heaven forbid you could believe Israel.
mrtez:
Glad to see you at least don't have the audacity to make up more lies to cover your initial ones.
That's a start.
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