Israel insinuations precede Thailand coup news

[Teddy Bear]

Yesterday, on the day the Thai government has just been taken over by a military coup. Forget about the thousands of British holidaymakers and businessman who must be visiting there or planning to go there shortly, what does BBC2's Jeremy Paxman choose to use as his lead off story?
This, although this article doesn't mention the insinuation that Israel might be training the Kurds for a future incursion into Iran, which is how Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman began this report: (Highlights Mine)

Israel 'trains Iraqi Kurd forces'
By Magdi Abdelhadi
Arab affairs analyst, BBC News

Arabs have long accused Kurds of co-operating with Israelis
The BBC has obtained evidence that Israelis have been giving military training to Kurds in northern Iraq.

A report on the BBC TV programme Newsnight showed Israeli experts in Kurdish areas of north Iraq, drilling soldiers in shooting techniques.

Kurdish officials have refused to comment on the report and Israel has denied it knows of any involvement.

The revelation is set to cause enormous problems for the Kurds, not only in Iraq but also in the wider region.

Inside Iraq as well as in the wider region Israel is seen as an enemy of Arabs and Muslims.

'Against Israeli law'

Kurdish politicians will most likely come under pressure to explain what their semi-autonomous government has been up too.

Israeli security experts who spoke to the BBC said they could not have worked inside Kurdistan without the knowledge of the Kurdish authorities.

The news will most probably increase the tension between the Kurds and other Iraqis.

Iraq's neighbours, too, will be outraged.

Iran and Syria, which have long accused the Kurds of allowing the Israelis to operate on Iraqi territory, will demand an explanation from the government in Baghdad.

The Israeli government says it is conducting an investigation into the BBC report because it is against Israeli law to export military know-how without prior permission.

'Conspiracy evidence'

The BBC report will be like the smoking gun the Arab media has spent years looking for.

Ever since the US-led invasion of Iraq began over three years ago, Arab journalists have been speaking of Israelis operating inside the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

They said this was evidence that toppling Saddam Hussein was only the first chapter in a wider American-Israeli conspiracy to eliminate threats to their strategic interests and re-draw the map of the Middle East.

Syria and Iran, which have common borders with Kurdish areas, are believed to be the primary target.

To listen to the actual broadcast, although Paxman's introduction is absent, click here: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm or go to news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm and click on link to watch video of "Israelis training Kurdish Forces"

Bear in mind, this report is over 12 minutes long, and with Paxman's preamble and later interviews it runs for more than 15 minutes before going on to other news - like the military coup in Thailand for example.

Israelis are training Kurds - So what!
Kurds were massacred in their tens or hundreds of thousands by Saddam, isn't it likely that they will want the best training to hopefully avoid such events in the future? Whether it is done with or without the knowledge of the Israeli government, does it really matter?

So what does Paxman read into this? He begins the report with the insinuation that Israel might be training the Kurds for a future plan to infiltrate Iran along with their own forces. PURE SPECULATION! The BBC do make the observation (highlighted above) that their report certainly makes life difficult for the Kurds with their Arab neighbours, SO WHY HAVE THEY RUN THIS STORY AS THEIR MAIN NEWS OR AT ALL?

Exactly who is the BBC working for? It would appear they have done a great service for Syria and Iran - identified as part of the axis of evil.

So what do we call an organisation that helps this axis of evil with their propaganda?


Answer: The BBC

[Teddy Bear]

Surprise, Surprise, the BBC actually ran my comment to them over this 'news story'. Out of 6 comments posted on their blog site on this issue only 2 commended them. One of them, the 3rd, looks like it may well have been written by a Kurd, who seems very angry at their report.
Here are the comments posted there so far, feel free to add you own on their website (linked above), and be sure to copy them here as well:

Comments
1. At 10:55 AM on 20 Sep 2006, chris wrote:
Paxman looked like he had just woken up during the intro last night. Why dont you plug him into the mains 2 mins before the show - get him amped up a bit. I want to see him serving up some major heat not dozing off.

2. At 11:06 AM on 20 Sep 2006, Josh wrote:
How did you do it? Amazing report about israeli training camps in northern Iraq. Good stuff!!


3. At 12:57 PM on 20 Sep 2006, Sheelan Talabani wrote:
Thanks to the BBC for reporting nothing about a big genocide in the 20th century and for which Saddam is now being on trial: the genocide of Kurds during 1987 and 1988, the Anfal genocide, and exatcly at the time of this case trail, and instead of making one report about the Anfal genocide (which is much bigger than the genosides in Bosdnia), chooses to talk about what shovinist Arabs are trying to prove so desperately so that eyes of the Arabic nations are turned away from the atrocities commited by one whom some of them are still considering an Arab hero!!

You can convince no one with an atom of brain that this timing had been done innocently. It isnt the first time I recognise the biasness of BBC towards shovinsts Arabs. It also isnt the first time that we Kurds notice how ignoring the BBC is towards the Kurdish case. The BBC did not, until the starting of the second trail of Saddam, even know about the word "Anfal", which is the name of the genocide campaign against more than 200,000 Kurds.

What a brillient timing to talk about alleged military training of Israelies in Kurdistan, when ignoring talking about so many important and big issues about the Kurds. Not even al-Jazeera could be so insensitive and so biased !

I think the BBC is no longer the independent organisation once, ages ago, it was.

4. At 08:27 PM on 20 Sep 2006, Nadia wrote:
Thank your for showing this. Many Iraqis have been telling about this and have been told liars now the truth is coming out at BBC and that is one step forward.

In my view the fact that Israel have been training Kurdish militias is a clear proof that they are working against a united Iraq. They want it divided that it what these actions have shown.

It also shows how double standards Israel has. Here the last months we hear Israel complain about a foreign county training the Hizbollah in Lebanon. Israel demands that the world attacks Iran and take away Hizbolla’s weapons. All this and Israel have all along been doing the same and worse in Iraq by training a Kurdish militia.

5. At 12:57 AM on 21 Sep 2006, Theodore Berra wrote:
So pure speculation that Israel is planning to use Kurdish troops, or their airport, to launch an attack on Iran has greater priority than the military coup in Thailand, which followed 15 minutes into your broadcast.
All you succeeded in doing with this story was to make life harder for the Kurds, and increase enmity towards Israel. It is understandable to most intelligent people, that following the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Kurds during the Saddam era they would wish to be trained by the best soldiers with the expertise in this type of warfare - Israeli. Yet you manage to see all kinds of potential conspiracies. You certainly give additional propaganda to Syria and Iran - part of the axis of evil, in case you've forgotten. Which society exactly does the BBC serve?

It is time you ceased trying to ingratiate yourselves to evil regimes in order to increase your world media status and represent the society that empowers you.

6. At 02:44 PM on 21 Sep 2006, freedom lover wrote:
I totally agree with the comments of Theodore. Has the BBC become the mouth piece of the extremists & Islamist fascists? You “expose” the Kurdistan security services in trying to prevent terrorist attacking the Kurdish international airport!!! What’s the big deal? Is it because the companies were not “British”? Even if true what’s the problem with Israelis training the Kurds?
Unlike most Arabs, (which Kurds are not) they recognize the state of Israel (so does the Palestinian president). These trainings were alleged to have taken place over 3-4 years ago, so how does this relate to attacks on Iran today?
The Kurds are trying & managing to defend themselves from terrorist attacks by themselves without asking for foreign troops to be deployed, unlike the Iranian backed & trained Hezbollah who are bent on destroying Israel & killing civilians while forcing their brand of extremist Shia Islam by force. Was the pope wrong in his recent comments? Just watch newsnights interviews with the Islamist fascists!!!

[Teddy Bear]

Another comment posted on the BBC website regarding their report:

7. At 08:44 PM on 21 Sep 2006, Kaprani wrote:

I can't believe this. Is it BBC I am watching or Al-Jazeera. I started to doubt BBC's impartiality. BBC, specially its Arabic service, is infiltrated by Arab nationalists who hate everything Kurdish and see the rise of Kurdistan as a threat. I agree with the other commenters that timing is no coincidental, as BBC is supposed to cover the Saddam trial and Anfal genocides campaign against Kurds instead of wasting time by showing unsubstantiated allegations like this.