5/13/10: Part 2

.

Continued from

Part 1: 5/13/10: HuffPost publishes another incendiary libel against the U.S. military (user hate-fest erupts: HuffPost: "Approved!!!")

======================

(1) Why HuffPost's actions against the U.S. military may end up getting American soldiers killed --- if it hasn't already

======================

We at Huff-Watch are deeply concerned that HuffPost's irresponsible actions, and its journalistic "jihad" against the U.S. military, are going to end up getting American soldiers killed --- if they haven't already.

Recall that on June 1, 2009, an American who recently converted to Islam murdered a U.S. Army recruiter in Arkansas, and seriously injured another, in a shooting spree. His explanation? He developed a "hatred" of the U.S. military --- presumably thanks to "news" stories like this, which are spread on the Internet like wildfire by radical Islamists and their supporters. Given the fact that an estimated 135,000* or more of HuffPost's monthly visitors originate in Iran and Pakistan, we don't think our concerns are unfounded (see Section 4.3 here). Also consider:

• The Internet has become the primary medium through which radical Islamists (Muslim supremacists) and jihadists spread and reinforce their propaganda --- including their incendiary blood libels (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Al Qaeda even has its own Web propaganda division.
  
  
• One of these groups' missions is to infiltrate Western websites to spread their messages of hate, in order to demoralize and undermine their nations' efforts to combat militant and cultural Islamism (1, 2, 3, 4).

For more information, please see "About The Cyber-Jihad."

Have HuffPost's actions led to harm coming to American soldiers, either directly or indirectly, as a result of the cyber-jihad, and "sudden jihad syndrome"?

As of this date, the answer to this question is unknown.

What is known, however, is that some would-be jihadist terrorists only need that last bit of a stimulus to drive them to action, or what is now referred to in counter-terrorism circles as "sudden jihad syndrome," a term coined by Dr. Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum. As Islamic author-researcher Robert Spencer noted:

Some analysts have opined that Muhammad (the perpetrator of the Arkansas recruiting station shootings) was committing what has been described as “sudden jihad syndrome” – that is, something made him snap, and his murder was unpremeditated. However, Fox News reported Tuesday night that Muhammad was not acting alone. His act was part of a larger jihad plot to attack military personnel.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford of The Jawa Report also has an excellent piece on "sudden jihad syndrome" here.

Why HuffPost's giving an uncriticized global platform to Seymour Hersh is so dangerous

Is Hersh's unfounded allegation sufficient to drive radical Islamists to acts of violence against American soldiers? By himself, no. Because few if any people would be aware of it. Because few if any publications would sink so low as to give him a platform for such libels against the U.S. military.

If, however, Hersh's allegation is broadcast globally...
...by the "legitimized," #1 most-read blog in the world, without even a hint of critical analysis --- which also has hundreds of thousands of readers in two of the nations most responsible for fomenting and supporting global terror, Iran and Pakistan...
...you have the formula for a disaster.

======================

(2) So what kinds of user comments did HuffPost review, approve and decide to publish, in response to this incitement?

======================

As you review the following comments, keep the following in mind:

• Despite its denials, as documented in great detail in this special report, HuffPost has been pre-moderating user comments on its news threads since at least March 1, 2008. This means that no comment appears without HuffPost having reviewed, approved and made the decision to publish it. This was all confirmed by Ms. Huffington in a July 2008 interview. When asked to identify the biggest mistake HuffPost made since its debut, she replied:

  "From the beginning, I would have established a policy of pre-moderating all comments on the site... [O]ur comments on the news site were originally post-moderated (i.e., objectionable comments were removed only after our moderators were alerted). We eventually decided that it was worth the substantial effort and expense to have human pre-moderation on both blogs and news."

• HuffPost's "Comment Policy" and Terms of Service claim that the site prohibits "ad hominem attacks...(and) defamatory, libelous, threatening comments." HuffPost also claims that it works diligently, 24-7, to prevent such violations of its policies from appearing on the site.
  
  
• Many of the users who posted these vile comments have 20 to over 400 or more "fans" (highlighted in bold), meaning they are not hit and run "trolls" that Ms. Huffington falsely claims are the ones responsible for comments that violate her site's policies.
  
  
• If you think some of these comments sound like they came directly from al Qaeda, Hamas, the Taliban, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ask yourself: Might the users who submitted them actually be the Internet Jihadists described earlier, while hiding behind American-sounding screen names? And does not HuffPost have an obligation to act against such egregious violations of its policies? See "About The Cyber-Jihad" for more information.
  
  
• These people, incited to harbor such hateful delusions by HuffPost, vote --- and may cancel out your vote.
  

A sampling of the comments that appeared on this thread:

porsche996 (273 fans) Permalink
We invaded OBL's sacred homeland in 1991 in support of our ME oil agenda. The WTC's were destroyed as a direct result. We started these conflicts by interfering in the sovereignty of oil producing countries in our quest for imperialistic hegemony. We are getting exactly only that which we deserve.
[*Ed. See end of these comments for an interesting correlation to a... famous person's pontifications that sound awfully similar to this drivel.]

Pedestrian . Permalink
Tell me again: and why are we (the Middle Easters) the ones labeled "terrorist"?!!!!! So I guess if you kill hundreds of thousands of innocents with a flag and a tall, dashing president behind you wearing Armani or Tom Ford, it doesn't count as terrorism anymore?

DJlaysitup (54 fans) Permalink
Sometimes I think it's best to leave the guys (soldiers) over there...or find a new place for them to conquer. I don't want one living next to me...manicuring his lawn by day and cleaning his M-16 by night. [...]

phredralf (29 fans) Permalink
I've heard first-hand accounts from several soldiers returned from Iraq, who have admitted to indiscriminately killing women and children and innocent people. [...] Sometimes they would shoot passersby just for fun. [...]

Martel (115 fans) Permalink
Yeah. We're just killing people, not destroying highrise buildings. Now, if we were leveling Afghan cities, that would be bad. That's PROPERTY damage. We might have a use for buildings at some point. But, again, it's just people...and we're the great empire, so it's our right to kill. What can they expect? Given the battlefield instructions regarding prisoners, there should be little doubt that Hersh is correct. [...] a perfect expression of American morality at this point. You become who you fight - eventually, if not immediately.

Chaotician101 . Permalink
The problem of course is not that America "troops" commit atrocities just like any other army in history! The problem is that we are not at war with anyone that we are killing; we are in effect fighting a genocidal war against a peoples in there own country opposing American and other international forces trying exert colonial occupation of their country! [...]
[*Ed. See end of these comments for an interesting correlation to a... famous person's pontifications that sound awfully similar to this drivel.]

earwicker7 . Permalink
Americans define terror as "The killing of innocent civilians for political or strategic reasons by a non-Judeo/Christian."

satanlite (369 fans) Permalink
We need to get out of the Bush wars immediately. This will all come home one day, just as sure as crazy vets are gonna be shooting up our streets in the future.

TexasDem0 (72 fans) Permalink
Are they there to kill the enemy, people who may be innocent civilians, or just everybody they see? What are the consequences of killing innocent civilians? Do you understand that this is murder, not war?

maserati2 (22 fans) Permalink
Depending on battlefield justice for a convenient way to dispose of captives, guilty or innocent, exposes us as a nation without scruples or conscience. Has our conversion to a corporate-owned population stolen the last of our humanity? The hatred engendered by the actions taken in our name, whether by our own military, Blackwater, or the all-but-total corporate confiscation of the world economy will color our futures for generations to come. [...]
[*Ed. See end of these comments for an interesting correlation to a... famous person's pontifications that sound awfully similar to this drivel.]

BluestateGuyInTX (130 fans) Permalink
[...] Brave military protecting our freedoms yatta yatta. How? All our foreign deployments do is stir the hornets nest and cause more terrorism which inevitably causes more of our freedoms to be removed. Every time one of our brave military kills a civilian in a foreign country he/she creates far more than one terrorist. [...]

OliverTwist (122 fans) Permalink
If we are looking for terrorists our best bet is probably to look in the mirror. How sad that we have become ourselves the kind of monsters we used to revile.
[*Ed. See end of these comments for an interesting correlation to a... famous person's pontifications that sound awfully similar to this drivel.]

squeezed (765 fans) Permalink
This makes me sick. The whole thing makes me sick. How many innocent people, men, women, and children, have lost their lives because they got between us and our vengeance? [...]
[*Ed. See end of these comments for an interesting correlation to a... famous person's pontifications that sound awfully similar to this drivel.]

FREEDOM BELL (49 fans) Permalink
[...] They are told to set free any prisoner they can't determine to be Taliban. Instead, they shoot them dead. This is a serious WAR CRIME. What are they doing with those they have determined to be Taliban? Torturing them and then killing them? [...]

muck-raker (158 fans) Permalink
Here is an article....."Bombing is to America as apple pie" [...]

hippie4ever (544 fans) Permalink
Afghanistan has been lost, and Pakistan is due for a change in leadership. Iraq is a victim of the George bin Laden Bushes. Failure all around but Halliburton and the other thugs all got paid; that's what this war is all about; that and the natural gas pipeline pimped by Unocal.
[*Ed. See end of these comments for an interesting correlation to a... famous person's pontifications that sound awfully similar to this drivel.]

(reply)
muck-raker (158 fans) Permalink
It has been said for some time now....that the only thing that acually wins in a war is the DEFENSE INDUSTRIES......my personal opinion is that in looking at the size of the "donations" to our "Democratically elected legislators we might some time in the future remame this country to "The United Corporations of the Northern Hemisphere" [...]
[*Ed. See end of these comments for an interesting correlation to a... famous person's pontifications that sound awfully similar to this drivel.]

vinny (250 fans) Permalink
BRING THEM ALL HOME!!!

fsapphire . Permalink
the worse part is that these soldiers are going to come home sometime and they will live with this everyday. i suspect a large number will come home with drug habits, i mean c'mon , the worlds supplier of heroin and hash. [...]

gbloodgood (37 fans) Permalink
US out of everywhere! Let's stop this ridiculous theory of war and start evolving people Terrorism / War / Killing by any other name... It's all immoral

* For an interesting exercise, compare many of the above comments to what Osama bin Laden had to say in 2007 about America's efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan --- and how he echoed the radical left's conspiracy theories, and propaganda against capitalism, our corporations, etc.

======================

(3) Action item: How to make your voice known

======================

Are you as outraged by all this as we are? If so, what do you think about the fact that unlike any other blog, HuffPost is:

• Getting access to, and preferential treatment in presidential press conferences?
  
  
• The recipient of an explicit endorsement by the President of the United States of America?
  
  
• Asked to testify before the U.S. Senate* and the Federal Trade Commission on... "the future of journalism"?
  (*in front of many Senators who also happen to be official HuffPost article writers, or "bloggers")

If you'd like to make your voice known on all these matters, here's how to share your thoughts with HuffPost's leadership (politely, please):

Eric Hippeau
Chief Executive Officer
HuffingtonPost.com
eric@huffingtonpost.com

Arianna Huffington
Editor in Chief
HuffingtonPost.com
arianna@huffingtonpost.com

Mario Ruiz
Vice President - Media Relations
HuffingtonPost.com
mario@huffingtonpost.com

HuffingtonPost.com
560 Broadway, Suite 308
New York, NY 10012
(212) 245-7845 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (212) 245-7845 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Fax: (646) 557-0803

Also, here are some government officials you might consider contacting --- a number of whom are also official HuffPost bloggers, as indicated:

Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, which recently conducted a hearing on "the future of journalism" at which Ms. Huffington testified:
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC
20510
(202) 224-6472
(202) 224-7665 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (202) 224-7665 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Fax)
NOTE: Five members of this committee are also official HuffPost bloggers, including Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Byron Dorgan, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Sen. Mark Begich.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ranking Minority Member, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation:
284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4304
(202) 224-5922 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (202) 224-5922 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
(202) 224-0776 (Fax)

-------------

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and member of the Armed Services Committee:
706 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4041 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (202) 224-4041 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
(202) 224-9750 (Fax)

Sen. Carl Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee (and an official HuffPost blogger):
269 Russell Office Building
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510-2202
(202) 224-6221
(202) 224-1388 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (202) 224-1388 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Fax)
NOTE: Below is a front-page splash headline regarding an April 22, 2009 editorial that Sen. Levin wrote exclusively for HuffPost.


Sen. John McCain, Ranking Member, Armed Services Committee
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-2235
(202) 228-2862 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (202) 228-2862 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Fax)

.