Tim Blair

Fisk says: ..the "Interim Prime Minister" is widely believed in Baghdad to have executed seven prisoners..

Translation: ..the Sydney Morning Herald believes..

Fisk can now join Naomi Klein in the pool of reporters spouting idiot conspiracy theories (Who seized Simona Torretta? "This Iraqi kidnapping has the mark of an undercover police operation"). Since Simona Torretta was released and told a press conference that she was indeed kidnapped by jihad warriors Naomi has been oddly quiet on the subject.

Fisk is in serious denial.....could it be his head popped after President Bush was re-elected? One can always hope!

That should read, "Seven political prisoners. Juveniles. Right after he promised them ice cream."

"So if anyone doubted the murderous nature of the insurgents, what better way to prove their viciousness than to produce evidence of Margaret Hassan's murder?"

Um, if you think anyone needs to PROVE their viciousness, then you must indeed doubt the murderous nature of the insurgents, in which case you are a dipshit and of no further interest.

oh that's a good one Robert, a new vein entirely. Maybe Tim or someone else who has been around papers longer than I have can explain.

Putting aside the insanity he believes, my question is why to editors allow this...what he doesn't get wrong he misrepresents. Does he sell a lot of papers?

my editors woud never allow this crap.

The Fisking of Tim Blair:

"Robert Fisk, completely out of his mind,..."

You have to have one to be out of one.

Thankyou

tin pot army?????? What a loon.

Fisk has been out in the sun for too long. There is a brilliant sketch of him in William Dalrymple's "From the Holy Mountain" (much recommended) which artfully captures the vanity and lunacy of the "war junkie" with a taste for enormous cigars and vintage Cognac bought for him by a student on a tiny travel grant.

Inspector Fisk forgot to ask the most important question.
Do you have a license for your minkey?

This was quickly nicknamed the "Alawi tape".... That's odd, because to check the widespread use of this nickname I just googled for "Allawi tape" and "Alawi tape" and all it found was a single article dated 26 July 2004, written by... Robert Fisk. I think what he means is This tape, which I have nicknamed the "Alawi tape" despite it neither featuring nor mentioning him...

"from six to seven... alert the Lancet!"

A spokesperson for the Lancet announced today that an increase from six to seven is well within the Lancet's acceptable range of statistical variation — between "zero" and "everybody" — based on its other Iraqi casualty studies, and no further action needs to be taken...

Fisk needs another well-deserved beating by a "freedom fighter".

ummm...wasn't fisk the one who got the crap kicked out of him in some ME country for beinga western reporter? I can't remember

Yes, Jewels - that's what I was referring to. In Afghanistan. He took it like the whimpering self loathing idiot that he is.

Note also that Fisk has boosted the number of Allawi's Amariya victims from six to seven.

Hmm, when's the last time we heard from Paul McGeough? Maybe Allawi decided to finish up the job, so to speak.

Fisk accused Allawi and not the Zionists? The man's slipping.

Will the lefties ever stop slurring Allawi? The man faces death every day when he crosses the Green Zone to go to work. How much risk does Fisk take when he goes to work?

By the way, Allawi is the elected Interim Prime Minister of Iraq; he doesn't merely "hold the title."

How much risk does Fisk take when he goes to work? Not nearly enough.

Can't seem to generate even a tiny bit of interest in Galloway or Redgrave's parties. I haven't been enthusiastic about a political candidate since Jethro Q. Bunn Whackett Buzzard Stubble and Boot Walrustitty of the Silly Party.

Allawi is an ex-Baathist? On what facts or half-truths does he base that claim?

"No, of course we cannot say that Alawi was involved ... Just because the 'Interim Prime Minister' is widely believed in Baghdad to have executed seven prisoners in the Amariya Police Station ... should not suggest he would ever have a hand in so terrible a deed."

McGeough leaves glaringly unanswered the Real Question: what role was played in Hassan's disappearance by the man whose puppet Allawi is? Yes, that's right, President Evil, G. W. Bush.

Though ... just because he in turn is widely believed to be the puppet of a Hitlerite neocon-global-Zionist conspiracy should not suggest he would ever have a hand in Hassan's murder. Or Yasser Arafat's, come to that...

Fisk is usually fit only for mockery, bur his latest is too disgusting for that. I hope he gets kidnapped sometime soon by the heroic Iraqi resistance.

Excuse me? Tinpot army? The most lethal group of young men ever to set boot to soil? If Fisk really thinks that, he should get himself an AK47 and hide somewhere with some "insurgents." Fat Chance.

"In the www arena where the world speaks invisibly to itself, a new word has appeared: 'to fisk', meaning the selection of evidence solely in order to bolster preconceptions and prejudices. Just as cardigans or mackintoshes are named after an inventive individual, so fisking derives from the work of Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent of the Independent, stationed these many years in Beirut.

fisking: n.
[blogosphere; very common] A point-by-point refutation of a blog entry or (especially) news story. A really stylish fisking is witty, logical, sarcastic and ruthlessly factual; flaming or handwaving is considered poor form. Named after Robert Fisk, a British journalist who was a frequent (and deserving) early target of such treatment"

I was expecting that someone would claim that the murder was a "false-flag" operation.

I think I understand why no up-and-coming group of terrorist wannabes has kidnapped and beheaded Mr. Fisk: there'd be no challenge in it. He probably roams the streets of Baghdad (or whatever Middle-Eastern burg is unfortunate to be currently hosting him) begging someone to take him hostage and film his beheading "because I deserve it."

If you want a dose of truly revolting moral equivalence, read the editorial in this week's New Statesentity (22 November 2004) [NB: that's not a permalink -- only good for this week]

... Why would a rebel movement kill a possible sympathiser and alienate many Iraqis as well as Americans and Europeans? The answer is that war allows no such discrimination between victims. No doubt many US bombs were dropped on sworn enemies of Saddam Hussein and on supporters of the invasion. American marines did not inquire at each house in Fallujah as to the charitable activities and political sympathies of the inhabitants before reducing it to rubble...

Uh-huh. Now, of course, if the UN Security Council had only approved the Iraq War, then "shock and awe" could have used those special smart Eurobombs, the ones that -- unlike the dumb American Jesusbombs -- only kill bad people when they explode. If you are a kid playing innocently, or a right-minded hostage being held by some nutcase militias, then the blast impact has no effect on you.

On the other hand, if you been holdin some broad hostage for two weeks, of course yuh gotta kill huh. Yuh got no udder choice. What, youse ain't seen Fargo? It ain't like yuh can jest let huh go unharmed, right.

I wonder what al-Zarqawi was going to do with these? Go to second photo.

Amazon lets you search inside the book linked to by rexie. On page 219 Fisk is describing Beirut.

In the old days there was almost total silence in this area. No traffic. No people. Just the gentle crack, crack of snipers. Wonderful.

Creepy.

Fisk has now evolved into a new, improved version of himself: he is now self-fisking, like one of those self-basting turkeys. No one has to do it for him. He is now officially and utterly balmy.

However, one has to ask, why do his editors still allow his ravings to be published? The Washington Post dumped Ted Rall today. Can one hope that Fisk won't be far behind?

Andrea

No Terrorist would kidnap Fisk, after all he is on their side. They could not dream of a more usefull fool.

This latest effort by Fisk is so loathsome and ludicrous that one could wonder wether he himself is not a one man false flag operation.

When the Anti-war crowd uses arguments marshalled by the likes of Moore and Fisk they merely confirm my view that there is no principled or reasonable objection that could be mustered against the intervention in Iraq.

Fisk has just earnt another session on the Philip Adams radio rant after this dose of fantasy. Phil will be absolutely frothing at this one. And this guy has the front to blame Bush for telling lies!

Dog,

You got it wrong. Tool not fool.

"could have used those special smart Eurobombs"

It took Europeans to invent industrialised genocide.

And Fascism

And Nazism

And Communism

Could one of the lefties out there please tell me anyone should listen to Europeans?

"Allawi is an ex-Baathist? On what facts or half-truths does he base that claim?"

That's actually correct. He worked for the Baathists back in the late 70s (forget what his title was) before he split with them and headed to England. The Baathists responded by sending assassins to England and slicing him up while he slept. Allawi was fortunate that they assumed he was dead and left.

Of course an ex-Baathist from 1978 and ex-Baathist from 2002 are two different creatures entirely but needless to say Fisk's aim wasn't to fully inform.

It may be a disgusting way, but Mr Frisk is merely making a living. I know people doing even worst things to feed their families.

It may be a disgusting way, but Mr Frisk is merely making a living. I know people doing even worst things to feed their families.