BBC: PA Pays for Murder of Israelis

[NewsGuy]

The BBC may be an unlikely source, but here's what their investigation revelaed:

From news article:

Palestinian Authority funds go to militants

The Palestinian Authority, headed by Yasser Arafat, is paying members of a Palestinian militant organisation which has been responsible for carrying out suicide attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, a BBC investigation has found.

A total of up to $50,000 a month is being sent to members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group that emerged shortly after the outbreak of the current Palestinian intifada, a BBC Correspondent programme reveals.

In April 2002, Israeli troops stormed Mr Arafat's compound in Ramallah as part of a widespread incursion into the West Bank in response to a number of suicide attacks. Israeli officials claim that they found documents proving that the Palestinian leader was funding Palestinian suicide bombers.

They used this as part of their argument, supported by US President George W Bush, that Mr Arafat could not be trusted and that rather than opposing terrorism, he was, in fact, encouraging it.

Fatah links

Close links between Mr Arafat's political faction Fatah and al-Aqsa are also discovered by the programme. One local Fatah leader in the West Bank town of Jenin says that the al-Aqsa group is the military wing of his organisation and that Mr Arafat is the overall leader of both the political and military arms.

"Fatah has two sections: a military wing, led by the military and a political wing, led by politicians. But there is no difference between Fatah and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades," a leader of Fatah in the Jenin refugee camp tells Correspondent.

Full Story (including Palestinian contradictory denials) at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3243071.stm

[RichardP]

Originally posted by NewsGuy
The BBC may be an unlikely source, but here's what their investigation revelaed:

From news article:

Palestinian Authority funds go to militants

The Palestinian Authority, headed by Yasser Arafat, is paying members of a Palestinian militant organisation which has been responsible for carrying out suicide attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, a BBC investigation has found.

A total of up to $50,000 a month is being sent to members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group that emerged shortly after the outbreak of the current Palestinian intifada, a BBC Correspondent programme reveals.

In April 2002, Israeli troops stormed Mr Arafat's compound in Ramallah as part of a widespread incursion into the West Bank in response to a number of suicide attacks. Israeli officials claim that they found documents proving that the Palestinian leader was funding Palestinian suicide bombers.

They used this as part of their argument, supported by US President George W Bush, that Mr Arafat could not be trusted and that rather than opposing terrorism, he was, in fact, encouraging it.

Fatah links

Close links between Mr Arafat's political faction Fatah and al-Aqsa are also discovered by the programme. One local Fatah leader in the West Bank town of Jenin says that the al-Aqsa group is the military wing of his organisation and that Mr Arafat is the overall leader of both the political and military arms.

"Fatah has two sections: a military wing, led by the military and a political wing, led by politicians. But there is no difference between Fatah and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades," a leader of Fatah in the Jenin refugee camp tells Correspondent.

Full Story (including Palestinian contradictory denials) at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3243071.stm

Has BBC has finally seen the light? It’s nice to know that they confirm that which most of us have known for quite some time. Though, they would not admit it, perhaps, the criticisms of their biased reporting of the ME and Israel has thrown the switch on. I only hope, it isn’t a momentary lapse on their part, as maybe other mainstream media will take note and follow BBC’s example, by reporting facts in place of fiction.
Being a cynic, I believe it is an anomaly and tomorrow; BBC will be back to reporting its distorted version of the “truth”. I pray I am mistaken.

[porcupine]

BBC doesn't do ANYTHING without inciting against Israel.

[Miriam]

Originally posted by NewsGuy
The BBC may be an unlikely source, but

Maybe we are interpreting the position of the media wrongly at times. Give them hard facts of genuine sensationalist value, and they'll bring them, no matter what worldview the story supports. Besides, the "poor little Palestinian" story is wearing off a bit through permanent rehashes.

Btw., the European media has been sceptical about Arafat for some time now, without getting any Israel-friendlier in many cases. In part, it's related to the newly-fashionable binational state idea, with Arafat/PA regarded as a major obstacle.

[Kapiti]

So lets list all those biased clearly anti semitic media organisations which have a Jewish boycott, proposed Jewish boycott or at the very least can be disregarded as worthless left winged rantings of anti-semetics.

CNN, BBC, LA Times, New York Times, ABC (Australia), All the European Newspapers (I mean everyone knows that all Europeans are anti-semtic), All the papers published in countries where there is a majority Muslim population, (clearly biased), Any country supposed belonging to the non-aligned UN Grouping. (those biased fools all stick together), Any media part of the anti-USA block (anti-USA and also anti-Israel), All of Africa (to close to their mates in the north of Africa and the ME).....

Pretty much you can disregard what any media organisation says unless they belong to a far right conservative christian religious group or Israel (excluding some leftist Israeli media)

However when you listen to the media of the lunatic right in the USA or in Israel you finally get good unbiased reporting.

I suppose it is no wonder that right winged Jews have no idea on the rest of the world. They have absolutely no sense of reality as they are fed a strict diet of good Jewish BS which only they could swallow.

[nuttie]

Well, Kapiti, if this is your opinion of the media, then this is your own problem. Others, including most of those posting here, distinguish very well between fair reporting (unpleasant as it may sometimes be) and biased reporting. Among Western English-language media, Auntie Beeb is probably the worst. Look up honestreporting.com

[Mediocrates]

Kapiti you forgot to include the unfairly slandered yet overflowing with peace and fairness Arab press in both Arabic and English.

[Mediocrates]

Kapiti if you're so frustrated with we stiff necked Jews then feel free to bang your head against the wall.

[Kapiti]

Nuttie --- Well, Kapiti, if this is your opinion of the media, then this is your own problem. Others, including most of those posting here, distinguish very well between fair reporting (unpleasant as it may sometimes be) and biased reporting. Among Western English-language media, Auntie Beeb is probably the worst. Look up honestreporting.com

Nutie let me get this right. I say that one common thing that the Jewish far right seems to share with each other is a view that the whole world is biased against it in its reporting and you give me a link to a pro-Jewish site which promotes the fact that it organises its "readers sent up to 6,000 e-mails a day to CNN executives, effectively paralyzing their internal e-mail system."

I can see now how you got you name.

[nuttie]

Originally posted by Kapiti
Nutie let me get this right. I say that one common thing that the Jewish far right seems to share with each other is a view that the whole world is biased against it in its reporting and you give me a link to a pro-Jewish site which promotes the fact that it organises its "readers sent up to 6,000 e-mails a day to CNN executives, effectively paralyzing their internal e-mail system."

I can see now how you got you name.

Kapiti, generalisations would get you nowhere. If you bothered to look into the various items in honestreporting.com, you would have discovered that all are factual, and have nothing to do with far right opinions. The website points out instances of distorted facts, and asks the readers, if they agree with the observation, to complain to the media outlet in question. This is democratic civil involvement.

Your generalisation is a typical distortion. According to you, everything pro-Israeli is necessarily far right. It seems to me that you have not looked into details, nor do you have the slightest idea what left and right really mean.

As to my nickname, how would you know how I got it? or perhaps you would see something "extreme right wing" also in this little piece of frivolity?

[RichardP]

Originally posted by nuttie
Kapiti, generalisations would get you nowhere. If you bothered to look into the various items in honestreporting.com, you would have discovered that all are factual, and have nothing to do with far right opinions. The website points out instances of distorted facts, and asks the readers, if they agree with the observation, to complain to the media outlet in question. This is democratic civil involvement.

Your generalisation is a typical distortion. According to you, everything pro-Israeli is necessarily far right. It seems to me that you have not looked into details, nor do you have the slightest idea what left and right really mean.

As to my nickname, how would you know how I got it? or perhaps you would see something "extreme right wing" also in this little piece of frivolity?

You are right, Nuttie, as posted, BBC has established a "watchdog" to oversee their own biasedeporting on Israeli and other Middle East issues. Kapiti owes you an apology: though, there seems to be no chance of that, as he/she is spellbound
with his/her own bias and arrogance.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.arabianews.org/english/index.cfm


This is an English lang. site that covers news from the Kingdom in a distinctly different bent. It is Washington DC based.

1900 L Street, N.W. Suite No. 309, Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone : 202-466-2300

I recommend this.

[Mediocrates]

IG Farben the makers of Zyklon B announced it was declaring bankruptcy.

http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2003/...any/index.html

Company with Nazi past claims bankruptcy

By David McHugh

Nov. 10, 2003 | FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- IG Farben, the former German chemical giant that used thousands of slave laborers at Auschwitz, said Monday it plans to file for bankruptcy and is unlikely to pay further compensation to victims of the Nazi war machine.

Once the world's largest chemical firm, IG Farben was broken up and ordered into trusteeship by the World War II Allies in 1952. It continued operating as a trust to pay Nazi-era claims and its shares are still traded on stock exchanges.

Bankruptcy has become unavoidable because a deal to sell real estate holdings, the company's main remaining asset, fell through, trustee Volker Pollehn told a news conference. As a result, no further compensation is likely to be paid, he said.

IG Farben's wartime factories included a synthetic rubber plant at the Auschwitz death camp complex where 30,000 inmates worked until they died or were deemed unfit for work and sent to the gas chambers. The company partly owned Degesch, which made the Zyklon-B poison used to gas death camp inmates.

Monday's news conference drew about 30 young protesters, who held placards asking "Where Is The Money To Compensate The Victims" and whistled at the trustees as they left.

Henry Mathews, who heads a group of IG Farben shareholders pressing the trust to pay former slave laborers, urged banks owed money by IG Farben to forego their claims in bankruptcy court.

"We want the banks to renounce these claims so the money can be paid to the victims," Mathews said.

I.G. Farben employed an estimated 350,000 prisoners at its chemical factories during the war. Under a 1957 deal with the Jewish Claims Conference, the IG Farben trust agreed to pay $7 million in compensation, mostly to Jewish former prisoners.

Former IG Farben slave laborers are also eligible to claim compensation from a $5.9 billion German fund that in 2001 began compensating remaining former slave laborers and camp inmates.

Most of them had been deported from Eastern Europe and missed out on compensation because they returned to homes behind the Iron Curtain.

IG Farben's German successor companies -- BASF, Bayer and Hoechst -- were founder members of the industry-government fund, but IG Farben set up its own $295,000 fund in July 2001.

However, the trustees decided the fund was too small to pay credible compensation and had hoped to fill it up with proceeds of the real estate sales, Pollehn said.

The trustees say that all remaining legal claims against the company by former laborers have been settled and that any further payments would have been on a moral and humanitarian basis.

The Claims Conference's Frankfurt office refused to comment on Monday's announcement.

Pollehn said the trust had hoped to bring in more money through an option agreed two years ago with German investment company WCM, which undertook to purchase IG Farben property holdings valued at about $19.7 million. But WCM ran into financial trouble and paid only $1.4 million, he said.

Now the trust, which had planned to keep going until as late as the end of 2004, will move into bankruptcy proceedings where its remaining assets would be disposed of, Pollehn said.

WCM said it only signed a preliminary statement of intent and backed out when an assessment showed the property was worth less than IG Farben claimed. WCM has "no financial obligation" to the trust, spokeswoman Maren Moisl said.

[RichardP]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
IG Farben the makers of Zyklon B announced it was declaring bankruptcy.

http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2003/...any/index.html

Company with Nazi past claims bankruptcy

By David McHugh

Nov. 10, 2003 | FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- IG Farben, the former German chemical giant that used thousands of slave laborers at Auschwitz, said Monday it plans to file for bankruptcy and is unlikely to pay further compensation to victims of the Nazi war machine.

Once the world's largest chemical firm, IG Farben was broken up and ordered into trusteeship by the World War II Allies in 1952. It continued operating as a trust to pay Nazi-era claims and its shares are still traded on stock exchanges.

Bankruptcy has become unavoidable because a deal to sell real estate holdings, the company's main remaining asset, fell through, trustee Volker Pollehn told a news conference. As a result, no further compensation is likely to be paid, he said.

IG Farben's wartime factories included a synthetic rubber plant at the Auschwitz death camp complex where 30,000 inmates worked until they died or were deemed unfit for work and sent to the gas chambers. The company partly owned Degesch, which made the Zyklon-B poison used to gas death camp inmates.

Monday's news conference drew about 30 young protesters, who held placards asking "Where Is The Money To Compensate The Victims" and whistled at the trustees as they left.

Henry Mathews, who heads a group of IG Farben shareholders pressing the trust to pay former slave laborers, urged banks owed money by IG Farben to forego their claims in bankruptcy court.

"We want the banks to renounce these claims so the money can be paid to the victims," Mathews said.

I.G. Farben employed an estimated 350,000 prisoners at its chemical factories during the war. Under a 1957 deal with the Jewish Claims Conference, the IG Farben trust agreed to pay $7 million in compensation, mostly to Jewish former prisoners.

Former IG Farben slave laborers are also eligible to claim compensation from a $5.9 billion German fund that in 2001 began compensating remaining former slave laborers and camp inmates.

Most of them had been deported from Eastern Europe and missed out on compensation because they returned to homes behind the Iron Curtain.

IG Farben's German successor companies -- BASF, Bayer and Hoechst -- were founder members of the industry-government fund, but IG Farben set up its own $295,000 fund in July 2001.

However, the trustees decided the fund was too small to pay credible compensation and had hoped to fill it up with proceeds of the real estate sales, Pollehn said.

The trustees say that all remaining legal claims against the company by former laborers have been settled and that any further payments would have been on a moral and humanitarian basis.

The Claims Conference's Frankfurt office refused to comment on Monday's announcement.

Pollehn said the trust had hoped to bring in more money through an option agreed two years ago with German investment company WCM, which undertook to purchase IG Farben property holdings valued at about $19.7 million. But WCM ran into financial trouble and paid only $1.4 million, he said.

Now the trust, which had planned to keep going until as late as the end of 2004, will move into bankruptcy proceedings where its remaining assets would be disposed of, Pollehn said.

WCM said it only signed a preliminary statement of intent and backed out when an assessment showed the property was worth less than IG Farben claimed. WCM has "no financial obligation" to the trust, spokeswoman Maren Moisl said.

Interesting article, Mediocrates, I’m sure there will be tears of nostalgia shed in the Fatherland for its demise. Further claims for past actions are to be based on a “moral” and “humanitarian” grounds; this is enough to make me toss my cookies!
When I think of the murderous industrialists who walked away unscathed in post-war Germany; it speaks volumes not only about the Germans but the allies prioritising as well! Morality and humanitarian it makes me want to cry!

[Canajew]

Originally posted by Kapiti
Nutie let me get this right. I say that one common thing that the Jewish far right seems to share with each other is a view that the whole world is biased against it in its reporting and you give me a link to a pro-Jewish site which promotes the fact that it organises its "readers sent up to 6,000 e-mails a day to CNN executives, effectively paralyzing their internal e-mail system."

I can see now how you got you name. [/B]

ok Kapiti. it seems you are either lazy or inept (Iwill assume the former, it is often my vice as well) so I will give you a more precise link. below is Honest Reporting's piece on bias in the media. it is essentially an academic piece which goes into specifics about the nature and manifestation of bias. Seems pretty good to me, but if you would like to get into an academic discussion regarding the nature of bias I would be more than happy to participate.

Now, please go back to the main honest reporting page and try to do some actual ANALYSIS (or, at a minimum, try to follow their analysis) and see where it gets you.