Juan Cole urges reader response to threat of suit against him...

[Rose Siding]

Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Intimidation by Israeli-Linked Organization Aimed at US Academic
MEMRI tries a SLAPP

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. 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 [e-mail]. 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.

MEMRI letter and Cole's response follow...
http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/intimidation-by-israeli-linked.html

I'm sure I'm not alone in having benefited frequently from Cole's Informed Comment, yet only visit his site sporadically. Please try to keep this kicked so many eyes will see.

[papau]

1. I sent one yesterday! Feel free to copy/ignore/add value

:-)



[e-mail]
Subject: Why is Yigal Carmon legally threatening Prof Cole because of a piece that does not libel MERMI? You fellows talk past each other - curious....

Yigal Carmon says that Cole’s statement that "MEMRI is funded to the tune of $60 million a year" is completely false - and Cole responds saying if the books were shown him he would use the right number, and until then he will note in his writings that the $60 million figure is disputed by Yigal Carmon. Cole wins on this one as it obviously not libel.

Cole writes that MEMRI is an "anti-Arab propaganda machine" that "cherry-picks the vast Arabic press." - Carmon responds that they reprint progressive voices in the Arab world in addition to the hardliner Islamist - Cole responds MEMRI "highlights pieces that cast Arabs, especially committed Muslims, in a negative light" and ignores moderate non-secular (meaning op-ed Islamic articles that reject pluralism - read secular - but do so with less screw minority rights language). Hard to see any libel - but also hard to see why Cole AND Carmon do not have a discussion of the meaning of "secular" in the Cole world and how this differs from or is similar to the meaning Carmon attaches to progressive voices - perhaps Cole is saying "committed" Muslims can not be "progressive voices"?

Cole writes that "MEMRI is one of a number of public relations campaigns essentially on behalf of the far right-wing Likud Party in Israel." - and again "essentially on behalf" kills the libel.

But I can see where an academic like Cole would tend to use "non-academic" phrasing when looking at how 501 (c) 3 is widely abused by right wing think tanks. I feel the same way.

Indeed, I wonder why Yigal Carmon thinks he has a libel suit - he appears to not understand that a court would extract a punishment from MEMRI for filing an obvious SLAPP suit.

[asjr]

2. Why don't these groups sue Rush, O'Really, Scarborough and Fox?

They outright lie and get away with it.

[papau]

3. It is about selling fear so as to stop non-conservative comments

A SLAPP is expensive - hence fear.

But Rush, O'Really, Scarborough and Fox need not fear a SLAPP as they are already lock step with the right wing.

[BeHereNow]

7. Bully tactics

"Don't point out that we are bullies, or we will bully you."
That is the message of Carmon's letter.
We KNOW you are bullies, and we will continue to
point it out.
GO Juan!
I think Mr. Carmon needs to read up on Free Speech.
This is, the last time I looked, the United States of America,
although it does seem to be declining into the United States
of Corporations.
BHN

[Cat Atomic]

4. Thanks for the heads up.

And bump.

[Ducks In A Row]

5. kicky

[H2O Man]

6. This is very important

and deserves the attention ans support of DUers.

[Cat Atomic]

8. Kick

[Rose Siding]

9. Thanks, all

kick