Frank Goebbels Gardner at it Again 83


Wonderful bit of balanced reporting from the BBC’s Frank Gardner. He said of Bahrain at 5.42pm on BBC News:

“The Shiite majority does suffer discrimination, but the rest of the population is getting fed up with the continual disruption and demonstrations.”

I remember similar arguments during apartheid:

“The black majority does suffer discrimination, but the rest of the population is getting fed up with the continual disruption and demonstrations.”

Doesn’t sound so good, does it? Anyway, here is to the BBC and keeping the interests of those troublemaking majorities firmly in the context of the much more important comfort of their oppressors.

He then explained that the oppression of opposition in Bahrain could not in the least be compared to the oppression of opposition in Syria, because in Bahrain the government had promised reform.


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83 thoughts on “Frank Goebbels Gardner at it Again

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  • angrysoba

    He then explained that the oppression of opposition in Bahrain could not in the least be compared to the oppression of opposition in Syria, because in Bahrain the government had promised reform.

    .
    Indeed, the BBC and the British government are utter hypocrites supporting Bahrain’s government against Shia protesters.
    .
    Presumably you do think the two situations are comparable and I’m glad that you do. Although I keep noticing lots of your commenters support Assad quite fervently.

  • craig Post author

    Angrysoba

    I do indeed think the two are comparable. And in neither case do I think Western bombs would help.

  • angrysoba

    I do indeed think the two are comparable. And in neither case do I think Western bombs would help.

    .
    It sounds like we are in complete agreement then.

  • nuid

    “Although I keep noticing lots of your commenters support Assad quite fervently.”
    .
    Really? Would you like to provide some quotes to back that up, Angry?

  • nuid

    Medialens:
    UN ‘Travesty’: Resolutions Of Mass Destruction – Part 1
    http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=665:travesty-un-resolutions-of-mass-destruction-part-1&catid=25:alerts-2012&Itemid=69
    .
    Snippet:
    “In short, the resolution resulted in a massive escalation in violence. Seumas Milne noted in the Guardian last week:

    ‘When it began, the death toll was 1,000 to 2,000. By the time Muammar Gaddafi was captured and lynched seven months later, it was estimated at more than 10 times that figure. The legacy of foreign intervention in Libya has also been mass ethnic cleansing, torture and detention without trial, continuing armed conflict, and a western-orchestrated administration so unaccountable it resisted revealing its members’ names’.”

  • ingo

    I’m so glad that we have grand witness angrysoba’s direct reports from inside Syria, putting us right on this evil dictators dasty deeds, but which part of Homs does he reside in and what has he got to say to the heroic NATo, Turkish and Quatari forces trying to cleanse non believing citizens from the influences of Assads regime, with the help of some cleansing sectarian murder and terror against anybody who does not agree that western help is needed, urgently, to sort our this regime once and forever.
    Hail ye messenger of freedom liberty and democracy, if these devil Syrians don’t want our murderous help, then how else can we possibly convince them?
    I shall say a prayer for angysoba, how esle could one reward such selfless and conscientious reporting in the midst of bloodthirsty evildoers. Give him a gong.

  • writerman

    I think I can trump that. This morining on the Today Programme one of the BBC’s very own expert analysts on international politics pointed out that a representative of the Arab League was visting Germany today and would meet with Merkel.

    Germany, whose ‘way’ wasn’t to send troops to ‘intervene’ overseas like France and the United Kingdom, had been wrong-footed by the rapid collapse of the Gadaffi regime and the German debate about Libya had resulted in Germany finding itself… “… in conflict with the battle between good and evil.” Oh, oh, oh, how I laughed.

  • writerman

    Dear, old Frank, must be going dear, or maybe it’s his memory that’s going? Happens to all of us at some stage, but Frank’s is so flippin’ selective!

    I, on the other hand, distinctly remember, long-gone, Gadaffi and representatives of his regime offering a whole range of ‘reforms’ to the Libyan ‘rebels’, also known as the ‘genuine, people’s revolution’, on numerous occasions, so Frank, as usual, doesn’t know WTF he’s talking about!

  • Greenmachine

    Excellent article Passpartout – have read in several sources that Frank G is the ultimate Intelligence Insider! Although O/T have just come across the article released through Rolling Stone mag by Lt Col Daniel Davis which pulls no punches about the lies, misinformation and duplicity of the US MILITARY in the Middle East (yes unbelievable – a trully critical report which has gone unnoticed, yet again, by US MSM!)

    http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/35359/

  • Mary

    Martha Kearney had a Conservative MP called Conor Burns on World at One on Radio 4 today.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01bwmwb/World_at_One_14_02_2012/
    20 mins in
    .
    Burns is Chair of the All Party parliamentary group on Bahrain and appears to speak for them here. He went to Bahrain in October 2010 and was funded by the Bahrain Government. If you google ‘conor burns bahrain’ there are many references.
    .
    TheyWorkForYou
    6. Overseas visits
    Name of donor: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bahrain
    Address of donor: c/o The Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain, 30 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8QB
    Amount of donation (or estimate of the probable value): £3,279
    Destination of visit: Bahrain
    Date of visit: 21-25 October 2010
    Purpose of visit: in my capacity as Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bahrain I was invited to visit to country to met with Government Ministers and others and to observe the Parliamentary elections that were taking place during the visit.
    .
    Other funded trips were made by Burns to Tunisia and Taiwan in 2011.
    .
    The unpaid secretariat of the APPG on Bahrain is operated by a Mr Saeed Al Habshi Mansoor. Who he?

  • nuid

    (Yesterday)
    “Kettling would work well in Bahrain, says former Met police chief”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/13/kettling-bahrain-met-police-chief
    .
    John Yates, hired to reform Bahrain force, says police are ready to deal with the anniversary of the uprising in the Gulf kingdom …
    .
    The Telegraph also quoted Yates saying of the confrontations on the streets of Bahrain: “This isn’t organised protests, its just vandalism, rioting on the streets.

    “Acts of wanton damage that are destroying the economy.”

  • nuid

    I wonder who gave Yates the “crash course” on Bahrain – or did he get it after he arrived?

  • Strangetown

    Yates is a scumbag who I fervently hope will come to regret taking on his current job. Preferably sooner rather than later.

  • lysias

    The protesters in Bahrain are Shiites protesting against a Sunni dictatorship. The protesters in Syria are Sunnis protesting against a Shiite (Alawite) dictatorship.

  • lysias

    He then explained that the oppression of opposition in Bahrain could not in the least be compared to the oppression of opposition in Syria, because in Bahrain the government had promised reform.

    Hey, hasn’t Assad repeatedly been promising reform?

  • Mary

    This is an account of the British involvement in the attack on Libya.
    .
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ellamy
    .
    Missiles used, numbers not quoted. Imagine the seared bodies, the injuries and destruction they caused.
    .
    Enhanced Paveway II laser guided bombs
    Paveway IV missiles
    Tomahawk Cruise missiles
    Storm Shadow missiles
    Brimstone missiles
    .
    Other ‘Operations’
    The coalition operation was designated by the U.S. as Operation Odyssey Dawn, The Canadian participation is Operation Mobile and the French participation is Opération Harmattan. It was confirmed in December 2011 that the cost of the UK operations was £212m – less than was estimated, including £67m for replacing spent munitions, is all expected to be met from the Treasury reserve.
    .
    The no-fly zone was proposed during the Libyan civil war to prevent government forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi from carrying out air attacks on anti-Gaddafi forces. Several countries prepared to take immediate military action at a conference in Paris on 19 March 2011.
    .
    The spelling “Ellamy” is found in a poem frequently attributed to John Skelton, “The Harmony of Birds”.
    .
    This latter choice of name is especially sick.

  • Tris

    I expect the English government wants the BBC to be nice about the Bahrain government because they are buying weapons from England. Wasn’t Cameron out there kissing up to them recently?

  • Mary

    Silly greedy little man.
    .
    But the resolute message from the Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and the sport’s governing body, the FIA, is that the race will go ahead on 22 April. Last year’s event, which was due to open the season, was cancelled after two postponements.
    .
    Ecclestone, the sport’s commercial rights holder, said day: ” I expected there was going to be a big uprising today, with the anniversary. +++But I think what happened, apparently, was that here were a lot of kids having a go at the police. I don’t think it’s anything serious at all.+++
    .
    “It doesn’t change our position in any shape or form. If the people in Bahrain [the government] say, ‘Look Bernie, it wouldn’t be good for you to come over here,’ then I would think again. That is what they said last year.”

    .
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/feb/14/bernie-ecclestone-bahrain-grand-prix

  • Tom Welsh

    “The legacy of foreign intervention in Libya has also been mass ethnic cleansing, torture and detention without trial, continuing armed conflict, and a western-orchestrated administration so unaccountable it resisted revealing its members’ names’.”

    Mission accomplished.

  • Fedup

    It is a disgrace that we the people ought to pay a propaganda tax in the guise of the TV license fee to sustain the torrents of poppycock fed to us by the zioBBC. In fact neither in USSR nor in the Nazi Germany, the populace had to pay a propaganda tax as we do, so far as record hold.
    ,
    Frank Gardner’s reflections on Bahrain revolution perfectly sums up the duplicity of the West in engaging with mid east. The acceptable dictatorships who pay their dues and behave as good poodles do, and the independent nascent democracies which are classified as dictatorships and are deemed ripe for regime change.
    ,
    In Syria the feral gunmen roaming the streets and causing mayhem are portrayed as “Free Syrian Army”, in Bahrain the revolutionaries are classified as anti social disruptive elements causing economic damage, in UK the revolutionaries were classified as rioters and looters engaged in copycat criminal activity. What would the zioBBC say about the feral gunmen in the Meadowell estate patrolling the streets by riding around shotgun in their liberated/stolen cars, taking pot shots at the police and punters alike? Not the “Free British Army” for sure!

  • DownWithThisSortOfThing

    re: Franks Wild Years.
    .
    I have often speculated that F.G. is on secondment to the BBC from some shady government outfit.
    .
    Another one I find a bit whacked-out is Emily Maitlis. I was particularly disturbed by her treatment on Newsnight of the Russian ambassador during the Georgia/South Ossetia hostilities in which Georgian forces (with the aid of 1,000 IDF ‘advisers’) shelled civilians and conducted a mass execution of captured Russian military personnel.
    .
    Emily practically accused the Russian ambassador of personally conducting a genocide against the Georgians and starting a new cold war in an act of naked aggression against a defenseless country. This was while reports were circulating suggesting that Georgia had attacked first. She’s not a spook though, just a run-of-the-mill media whore pretending to be a journalist and trying too hard to please those folk upstairs so she can stay on screen and cultivate a ‘celebrity’ persona to further her media career and make more money, i.e a media whore. :O

  • DownWithThisSortOfThing

    In Syria the feral gunmen roaming the streets and causing mayhem are portrayed as “Free Syrian Army”

    Not only that but they are pro-democracy too, as witnessed by their habit of publicly hanging people from trees in Homs.
    .
    And those car bombs? Bombs on trains? Bombs on buses? They’re freedom bombs bringing hope of a democratic future for ordinary Syrians, whether they want it or not.

  • nuid

    This is a tweet from the Independent (co.uk):
    Caught in his own blast: an Iranian targeting Israel ind.pn/zzI0Sn
    .
    That is also the title of the article: “Caught in his own blast: an Iranian targeting Israel”
    I have replied to them on Twitter and asked them, “Where in the article does it say he was targeting Israel”?
    (This is the man who blew off his own legs in Bangkok, not the attack in Delhi)
    .
    Unless I’m truly going blind, it doesn’t say so anywhere. The closest (and vaguest) is this: “but Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak was quick to point the finger. “The attempted terrorist attack in Bangkok proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to perpetrate terror,” Mr Barak said on a visit to Singapore, without offering any evidence”
    .
    and yet they’ve put that headline on it??

  • Fedup

    o/t Did anyone see the Panorama interviewing the little six years old school girl, who talked about her mother catching rats and feeding her?
    ,
    This is the fucking super power empire with the dreams of dominating the planet, and can’t look after those in the “Freedom, Freedom, Democracy ” Lands.

  • angrysoba

    Nuid: Really? Would you like to provide some quotes to back that up, Angry?

    .
    Nope, but Mark and Mary have been stalwart supporters as I am sure you have seen. This is not difficult to see as Mark is a fervent supporter of the Iranian government too and doesn’t believe either the Syrian or Iranian governments have done anything wrong at all.

  • Fedup

    the Syrian or Iranian governments have done anything wrong at all.
    This kind of absolutism and deflection only passes as debate; in ziozio land of theocratic apartheid.

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