Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Il fascismo di MEMRI

Un professore di Storia Medio-Orientale scrive, su internet,
un'articolo lungo e ben argomentato che prova che MEMRI e' un'organo
di propaganda, e non informazione.
La risposta:   Una bella minaccia di processo, per tappare la bocca a
chi esprime opinioni critiche.
-----------------------------
http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/intimidation-by-israeli-linked.html
I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel
Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official
at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He
threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made here at
Informed Comment, reprinted at 
anti-war.com
( 
http://www.anti-war.com/cole/?articleid=3898
 ). 
This technique of the SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuits against Public
Participation had already been pioneered by polluting industries
against environmental activists, and now the pro-Likud lobby in the US
has apparently decided to try it out against people like me.
I urge all readers to send messages of protest to 
me...@memri.org
.
Please be polite, and simply urge MEMRI, which has a major Web
presence, to withdraw the lawsuit threat and to respect the spirit of
the free sharing of ideas that makes the internet possible.
Here is the letter:
    ' November 8, 2004
    Professor Juan Cole
    University of Michigan History Department
    1029 Tisch Hall
    435 S. State Street
    Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003
    Dear Professor Cole,
    I write in response to your article "Osama Threatening Red
States?" published on November 3, 2004 on 
antiwar.com
. The article
included several statements about MEMRI which go beyond what could be
considered legitimate criticism, and which in fact qualify as slander
and libel. While we respect your right to argue the veracity of our
translations, you certainly may not fabricate information about our
organization. You make several claims that are patently false:
    Trying to paint MEMRI in a conspiratorial manner by portraying us
as a rich, sinister group, you write that "MEMRI is funded to the tune
of $60 million a year." This is completely false.
    You also write that MEMRI is an "anti-Arab propaganda machine"
that "cherry-picks the vast Arabic press." If you have any level of
familiarity with MEMRI, you should be aware of our Reform Project,
which is one of the most important of MEMRI's projects, and which
receives much of our energy and resources. The Reform Project
(
www.memri.org/reform.html
) is devoted solely to finding and
amplifying the progressive voices in the Arab world. It is especially
disappointing that these charges do not come from an overzealous
journalist, but from a member of the academic community, from whom one
should be able to expect at least the minimum amount of research and
corroboration.
    In addition, you write that "MEMRI is one of a number of public
relations campaigns essentially on behalf of the far right-wing Likud
Party in Israel." This, too, is completely false. MEMRI is totally
unaffiliated with any government, and receives no government funding.
While I was formerly an Israeli official (and retired more than a
decade ago), I have never been affiliated with the Likud Party, or any
other party.
    As such, we demand that you retract the false statements you have
made about MEMRI. If you will not do so, we will be forced to pursue
legal action against you personally and against the University of
Michigan, which the article identifies you as an employee of. We hope
this will not be necessary.
    Sincerely,
    [signed]
    Yigal Carmon
Colonel Carmon's letter makes three charges: 1) that I alleged that
MEMRI receives $60 million a year for its operations. 2) That I
alleged that MEMRI cherry-picks the vast Arab press for articles that
make the Arabs look bad. 3) That I said that MEMRI was affiliated with
the Likud Party.
This is how I would reply:
1) I am glad to publish the annual funding of MEMRI, and its sources,
as provided by Colonel Carmon, if he will tell us what the figure is,
which he has not. As a historian, I have no desire to have anything
but the facts in evidence. MEMRI obviously a well-funded operation, as
any familiarity with its scope and activities would make clear. In the
meantime, I am glad to acknowledge that the figure I gave has been
disputed by Colonel Carmon. I think he would find that in democratic
countries, in any case, a dispute over an organization's level of
funding would be laughed out of court as a basis for a libel action.
In fact, I am giggling as I write this.
2) I continue to maintain that MEMRI is selective and biased against
the Arab press, and that it highlights pieces that cast Arabs,
especially committed Muslims, in a negative light. That it also
rewards secular Arabs for being secularists is entirely beside the
point (and this is the function of the "reform" site). On more than
one occasion I have seen, say, a bigotted Arabic article translated by
MEMRI and when I went to the source on the Web, found that it was on
the same op-ed page with other, moderate articles arguing for
tolerance. These latter were not translated.
3) I did not allege that MEMRI or Colonel Carmon are "affiliated" with
the Likud Party. What I said was that MEMRI functions as a PR campaign
for Likud Party goals. Colonel Carmon and Meyrav Wurmser, who run
MEMRI, were both die-hard opponents of the Oslo peace process, and so
ipso facto were identified with the Likud rejectionists on that
central issue.
( 
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=MEMRI:_Middle_East_Media_Research_Institute
)
Colonel Carmon was not a formal member of the Likud party while
serving in Israeli military intelligence because active-duty military
are not usually involved in civilian political parties. Since he
retired to the US, he did not have the occasion to join the Likud, but
there seems little question that if he were living in Israel he would
vote for Likud rather than Labor, given his public stances.
So, the charge, that I claimed an "affiliation" of MEMRI with Likud,
isn't true in the first place, and there is nothing to retract. That
issue almost certainly generated the entire letter. MEMRI is a 501 (c)
3 organization, which is tax exempt in US law, and therefore cannot
engage in (much) directly political activity without endangering its
exemption. I don't think MEMRI does so directly intervene in politics
as to make its 501 (c) 3 status questionable. But it is obvious that
501 (c) 3 is widely abused by rightwing think tanks.
More discussion on MEMRI on the Web can be found at
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103
I've said all I am going to say to Colonel Carmon just now. Israeli
military intelligence is used to being able to censor the Israeli
press and to intimidate journalists, and it is a bit shocking that
Carmon should imagine that such intimidation would work in a free
society.
I will add another criticism of MEMRI, which is that it systematically
violates the intellectual property of Arab writers by appropriating
their content without paying for it and storing them on its servers,
and then claiming copyright in their work as translated. This is a
shameful way of proceeding. Where the source articles are published in
a country that is signatory to the major international copyright
agreements, it may be illegal. All sites dealing in other languages do
quote or translate from time to time, which falls under fair use. But
MEMRI has a much more systematic set of appropriations going.
MEMRI has begun taking out blog ads. Since it can hardly go about
threatening bloggers with lawsuits without violating the essential
spirit of open discourse on the Web, it has forfeited any claim on our
eyeballs. I urge all bloggers to decline advertisements from MEMRI
until such time as Colonel Carmon withdraws his outrageous threat.

spirit of open discourse on the Web,
Puttanata.
-Stefano

 Cosa che purtroppo non sara' mai in grado di dimostrare :)
Cosa che, essendo un'opinione, non ha nessun bisogno di essere "dimostrata".
Al massimo, se è un'opinione idiota, ti incaricherai tu di liquidarla con un
"Puttanata! *LOL*".
--
Cingar
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://arianna.libero.it/usenet/

condannare qualcuno, sarà lui a dover produrre le prove di qualcosa.
No. Se vuol far condannare qualcuno per affermazioni false al riguardo,
gli basta anche solo stare a guardare che l'altra persona non abbia
niente a sostegno delle stesse, negando qualsiasi veridicita' e
autorevolezza alle affermazioni.
Infatti non sta alla "vittima" dimostrare la propria innocenza.
-Stefano

 at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI.
Tanto per completare il quadro, ecco l'opinione di Yigal Carmon sulla
tortura, espressa nel 1995:
*Washington Post May 4, 1995: "Yigal Carmon, a former terrorism
adviser to Rabin and former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir . . . [,]
Asked whether he would justify the infliction of pain to extract
information, Carmon replied: "Pain is not taking life. Pain comes and
goes. Pain disappears. You know, everyone experiences that.
Unwillingly, of course."
Gradirei sopratutto un commento di quelli che amano postare le
"traduzioni" di questa gente come oro colato.

)
Rileggi ciò che hai affermato o fattela spiegare da qualcuno dotato di
cervello.

 autorevolezza alle affermazioni.
Minchia, dott. De Cesari, da quando in qua fare affermazioni false è un
reato!? Se così fosse, solo per il messaggio a cui sto rispondendo dovresti
finire in galera!
Passo e chiudo. Che ti si cucchi qualcuno più paziente di me.


'sto MEMRI!?)
Puoi fartene un'idea dalle passate discussioni su questo NG
http://tinyurl.com/5emgt

 'sto MEMRI!?)
Un sito molto interessante, che traduce alcune cose che si scrivono
sulla stampa araba (pare questo sia particolarmente sgradito a Torrieri)
Puoi fartene un'idea visitando 
www.memri.org
Tb
-- 
Alcuni di noi hanno storie di merda che fanno male. 
(il primo kiwi con tastiera incorporata)

finire in galera!
E perche' mai?
-Stefano

 'sto MEMRI!?)
:Un sito molto interessante,
Sicuramente, interessantissimo.
:che traduce alcune cose che si scrivono sulla stampa araba
E' vero, li traduce piu' o meno nello stesso modo in cui 
http://tinyurl.com/4quvr
"traduce alcune cose che si scrivono sui libri sacri Ebraici"
e lo fa per il medesimo scopo.
GT

 e lo fa per il medesimo scopo.
No, direi che Memri non c'entra niente. Anche perché traduce
integralmente, non pillole, e anche cose di vario genere, tra cui i
vagiti sicuramente apprezzabili di un'opinione araba liberale e
moderata.
Certo, traduce anche cose che disturbano un po' certe vacche sacre
antisioniste, dunque č comprensibile il tuo risentimento. E mette in
onda spettacolini televisivi che non hanno bisogno nemmeno di essere
tradotti. Comprendo il dolore.
Per quanto riguarda il secondo sito, il cultore di opuscoli negazionisti
sei tu, dunque il tuo illuminato parere č sicuramente meritevole di
considerazione.


 E l'hai messo anche tra * * per farlo notare :)
Mi stai dicendo che non sai che cos'è l'onore?
Non so perché ma la cosa non mi stupisce. To', istruisciti:
 
"onore - s.m. - FO - 1 buona reputazione, prestigio di cui una persona gode
in base ai propri meriti e alle proprie capacità o in rapporto ai valori
etici e sociali dominanti: perdere tutto fuorché l’o., difendere, salvare il
proprio o., offendere, ledere l’o. di un casato, di una famiglia [...]"
(
http://www.demauroparavia.it/76331
)


 Puoi specificarmi la differenza tra prove e chiacchiere?
Lo potrei fare solo se fossi "qualcuno dotato di cervello".
Stefano De Cesari 
news:4173F981...@people.it

e lo fa per il medesimo scopo.
Abbiamo sentito la puttanata del giorno!
-Torrieri


L'hai gia`ripetuto almeno quattro volte stasera... mi puoi dire chi e` il 
cliente piu` assiduo tra: Giorgio Torrieri, Franco, amalric, Aber Rock
Giannozzo