IP: More on robert Fisk

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/9.0.1.3108
> Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 03:17:03 -0800
> Subject: More on robert Fisk
> From: Paul Saffo <psaffo () iftf org>
> To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
> This a close friend (and member of this list) who is an old and very
> distinguished hand in the US national media. He wrote this after I sent him
> the two postings from IP about Fisk.
>
> The 'friend' he mentions is the expat spouse of a Republican administration
> official. And the story told points up the complex contradictions that seem
> to be the norm in Central/Southern Asia
> -p
> ------ Forwarded Message
> Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 10:23:32 -0800
> To: "Paul Saffo" <psaffo () iftf org>
> Subject: RE: British journalist Robert Fisk beaten up by Afghan refugees
> inPakistan
>
> Paul,
>
>     A note about Fisk: you have to take what he says with a very large grain
> of
> salt. He is reflexively anti-American in the sort of way that went out in
> Europe after the 70s. So he's not only wrong (& obnoxious), he's also
> out-of-date. Here's how a friend of mine who knows him better than I,
> described him:
>
> "I know Fiske very well.  He is what I call the "Lawrence of Arabia type."
> He has been based in Beirut for decades.  Typical foreign British
> correspondent.  Loves Arabs and hates the US.  He writes for the London
> Independent.  He also hates jews and the Israelis.  Irish originally and
> incredibly charming.  He spends all his time proving that the US and Israel
> are at the root of all problems in the Middle East.  He won the first
> SAIS-Novartis award (which I was organizing) for his work on what was going
> on in Algeria.  In this case it was Arab vs. Arab so he was quite fair."
>
> In short, I don't think he's representative of much except himself.
>
>     A note about Pakistani mobs. Fisk may have been beaten up because he was
> Western (or, perhaps British), but that may say more about Pakistani mobs
> than about the West. I was in Islamabad about 22 years covering the
> aftermath of a riot: a mob had just burned down our embassy and killed
> several employees, including an American and at least one local, as I
> remember. Most of the people I spoke to on the street thought it was a great
> thing. But they also, oddly, simultaneously thought America was a great
> place and showed me photos of relatives in the US and talked about getting
> green cards and going there, too. Couldn't wait. Meanwhile, they were having
> fun burning down the embassy and trying to murder the staff who would give
> them the visas. It had absolutely nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli
> conflict. I thought they were pretty confused, uneducated, ill-informed,
> unhappy, unemployed and hated their government. And I thought to myself what
> a great a great scapegoat the US was in places like this. I still do.

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