One of the episodes that launched me into the blogosphere nearly two years ago was when I took a closer look at an oddly propagandistic San Francisco Chronicle "news analysis" column written by an Ashraf Khalil. What the Chronicle didn't tell its readers was that Ashraf Khalil was the editor of the Cairo Times, from which the column had been reprinted, and also that the Cairo Times is subject to Egyptian-government censorship.
Khalil is now freelancing from Baghdad for such publications as the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, for whom he penned this article that gives detailed instructions on how a terrorist might breach security and enter the American HQ district ("Green Zone") in central Baghdad: THE IRAQ WAR AFTERMATH: U.S. base of operations too easy for 'tourists' to infiltrate.
By way of a reader who writes:
I might have just read over this bit of self-inflating fluff except that my son is located in the Green Space that Mr Khalil so eagerly infiltrated, then exposed - not to the 1st Armored Division, but to the real terrorists who surround the Green Space and who have publicly vowed to kill as many American, etc. soldiers as possible.One has to wonder: Is Ashraf Khalil a journalist, or is he on the other side? Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 17, 2004 09:09 AM
One has to wonder: Is Ashfra Khalil a journalist, or is he on the other side?
Is there a difference?
Posted by: RedLion on February 17, 2004 09:34 AMThank you for continuing to care about this issue . How do we expose him, and people like him?
Posted by: jan stallings on February 17, 2004 12:12 PMStefan,
What's there to wonder?
Posted by: marek on February 17, 2004 12:48 PMWhat happened to the "journalists" in that bombing case, what, a month ago?, where the bombers had press badges and IDs? Or to the al-Jazeera correspondents who had been on Saddam's payroll?
One suspects that if the "bright line" between journalists and editorialists is blurred here, then the line between journalists and "the other side" over there is even more blurred, if it exists at all...
Posted by: Dean on February 17, 2004 06:36 PMYou people are genuinely frightening.
I don't know what to tell you. I don't even know where to begin. You're probably good people. But your willfull ignorance and authoritarian impulses are leading this country to ruin. I hope you have some kind of revelation.
Naah, I take it back. Let's just round up all the journalists and hold them as representatives of the vague "other side" (lumping together Al-Qaeda with anyone who brings us disquieting information or who disagrees with us) so we can continue to hold our beliefs unexamined. Yeah... now we're talking. Alright! I feel better already. But I'll feel better when every journalist not employed by Fox is crouching in Gitmo with a bag over his head.
Posted by: Mary on June 20, 2004 01:09 AMam Ashraf Khalil and im ajournalist
Posted by: Ashraf Khalil on July 12, 2004 10:07 AMWow, my brother finally inspired someone to write an entire blog dissing him (albiet in a disappointingly half-assed way). Great work, Ash!Looks like I got some catching up to do. Hopefully, whatever slander will get written about me wont have to rely quite so heavily on non sequitors.
Posted by: hK on January 27, 2005 02:44 PM