Seán Ó'Muireagáin held by Israeli's

bug

regardless of your beliefs and views about republican paramilitaries do you think that this sky news article is completely un-biased?
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1096845,00.html

in comparison to this one from rte which outlines the possibility that he may be a journalist? I know many members from the palastinian solidarity that are in fact NOT belonged to any paramilitary group.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0714/mideast01.html

/I wonder, as suggested in the news bulletins at 9.30am this morning on sky, if the israeli army are relying on the same intelligence for their tip off that led the uk population to believe their was no doubt that it took 45 mins for Sadam to launch an attack./

My point being there that there is no reference to the fact that he may be a reporter in the sky news article.

In hardline Republican districts of Belfast it is common to see pro-Palestinian slogans painted on walls.

Shock horror, well then he must be guilty.:rolleyes:

gandalf

TBH Bug CNN carried the same text to the word earlier today. But they have updated the story on their site http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/14/mideast.irish.arrest/index.html

And the CNN article still states "and some Roman Catholic neighborhoods in Northern Ireland -- as well as the Republic of Ireland -- fly the Palestinian flag alongside Irish ones, with slogans daubed on walls." which to be honest is accurate(well in NI anyway, never seen them down here).

If it turns out to be true that this guy is a journalist, it will demonstrates how shoddy the intelligence services are getting. Or is this a smokescreen to deflect some heat from Tony & George and allow them to keep stocking the "terrorists" are out to get us paranoia for their publics to hide the fact they fabricated the evidence to go to war with Iraq.

Gandalf.

DancesWithChimp

Regardless of whether the man was an IRA bomb-maker, journalist or human rights observer, as far as the Israeli government is concerned, anyone who helps out the Palestinians in any way, or expresses solidarity with them or tries to report what's going on from their point of view is labelled as anti-semitic(how they come to this conclusion is a mystery) and a threat to Israel's existance, and if you're unfortunate enough to be captured or attacked by the amred forces, I'm not sure there's much anyone can do for you.

People are demanding an apology.
Don't hold your breath is all I can say!

dahamsta

I'm not judging, but it has to be pointed out that he could be a journalist /and/ terrorist. There's are such things as fronts, and journalism would be an excellent one for a RealIRA operative that needs to travel around to make a few extra quid for, ahem, the cause.

adam

Lemming

An interesting point made today (admittedly printed in the Star) is that security services in the north have no record of him ever being a suspected paramilitary. So where the british are coming from with their "we want to talk to him too" is looking a bit dubious

bonkey

Originally posted by Lemming
So where the british are coming from with their "we want to talk to him too" is looking a bit dubious

Simple - they have new incontrovewrtible evidence that he's a terrorist.....the Israeli's have told them

jc

growler

sorry about that it was all a mistake says israel

from BBC Monitoring news service

"There are increasing doubts that the Briton arrested by Israel near Ramallah earlier this week is in fact a weapons expert who came to assist Palestinian terrorists. Friends of the man, whose name is [name withheld], say he is a peace activist and has no connection with terrorism," the radio reported.

"The wanted man has the same name, and there are indications that this may be a case of mistaken identity. Israeli security officials have confirmed the apparent mistake in the arrest. [Name withheld] is still being held and questioned by the Shin Bet [Israeli intelligence]," the radio added.

this whole thing stinks IMO , how was the Observer so sure of it's story on Sunday , what were it's sources for such wild accusation, and wasn't it convenient how they got in another unsubstaqntiated allegation that an IRA sniper may have been behind up to 12 attacks on israeli forces and settles in 2002. At least there was some semnblance of balance by including the pro-israeli protestant line in the article but it seemed to serve the unionist cause more than anything while justifying the usa in a more anti-ira stance.

Do the security services have a clue whats going on ? from what i recall of the article this master bombmaker had gone off their radar 4 years ago !! superb intelligence !

pity the poor sod getting interrogated by Shin Bet though, hope he sues.

Lemming

Originally posted by growler
sorry about that it was all a mistake says israel

As are the cigeratte burns* I'm sure ... :rolleyes:

But what p*sses me off is the fact that the media was so quick to post negatively. Will they now post the truth? Or will he be quietly forgotten 'cause the truth doesn't lend to sensationalism so well? :mad:

That comment by Donaldson reflects VERY poorly on unionists more than anything else in N.Ireland imo. Whatever happened to "guilty until proven innocent"? :mad: :rolleyes:

Can you spell "impartiality" Mr.Donaldson? No .. that's "bigot" you've just spelt ..... try again. Have a lollipop for trying though ... :rolleyes:



* this is a purely sarcastic and cynical remark before anyone gets uppity

Originally posted by Lemming
But what p*sses me off is the fact that the media was so quick to post negatively. Will they now post the truth? Or will he be quietly forgotten 'cause the truth doesn't lend to sensationalism so well? :mad:

There was a debate recently in the U.K regarding the fact that BBC news 24 and Sky News were becoming so competitive for scoops, that the accuracy of the breaking news suffered for the speed at which it was being delivered.
It *appears* to have happened across the media in this case, in that, whatever about the accuracy or inaccuracy of the Israeli intelligence, the most damning news was what was first reported, ie that someone from NI with probable real IRA connections was found to be helping arab terrorists.
mm

dahamsta

Watching Sky News tweak stories as the day goes on is almost embarrassing. Particularly dead figures. They seem to think that saying "it's thought" is enough, when they should be saying "wild unsubstantiated rumours suggest". To be fair, I think they've improved just a /little/ since the end of Bush II's war.

adam

Paddy20

The Israeli Government and a large proportion of its people are extremely dangerous, misguided, overfunded & militarised in the extreme.

Which all adds up too very volatile situation where the civil rights of anyone is at risk, no matter what nationality they may be.

May God help the Palestinians and anyone else foolish enough to set foot in Israel or anywhere else in the Middle East at this time, where Life itself is regarded as cheap.

Sparks

Watching Sky News tweak stories as the day goes on is almost embarrassing.

It's more the raw incompetence and lack of knowlege that their presenters demonstrate. For instance, the crash of the Firefly at duxford saw comments on the two pilots (there's only one pilot in a Firefly, the other person is an observer) and a query as to why they didn't eject from the jet (the firefly is an early naval version of the spitfire, it doesn't have ejector seats, and it's got this bloody great big propellor up front...).
*sigh*
If they get things that obvious wrong, how can you trust the rest of their stuff?

Cork

The media coverage has been deplorable.

bigotry and rasism should not enter into our media. Some comments that have been made have at least been bordering on this.


The Israeli Government has got to let us know that this man is not being mis-treated.

bonkey

Originally posted by Sparks
It's more the raw incompetence and lack of knowlege that their presenters demonstrate.

I disagree.

No-one could possibly be expected to have the breadth of knowledge at their fingertips that would be required for a reporter / anchorman to be able to handle every story which was broken to them.

In a more traditional system, this is where research came in. People took time to learn about what they were going to be talking about before talking about it.

Today, there is a need to break the story effectively imposed on the reporters by the business. Not only that, but "breaking news" is no longer a case of "we mentioned it first", but rather "we covered it first", meaning that its not enough to simply report that "X appears to have happened", but rather that you give every scrap of breaking news, and correct your mistakes as you go along.

This has led to such classics as CNN's famous "breaking news" summary, stating that the shuttle broke up as it entered the atmosphere at 26 times the speed of light. OK - fairly simple mistake - but not everyone is au fait with even basic physics.

Similarly, I wouldn't laugh at anyone for making some oopses when discussing a plane-type they had been told crashed 3 mins ago, and thats about the limit of what they have to go on initially.

And the same for this story.

As news consumers, this is not necessarily a bad thing - its just something we like to complain about. Imagine what would happen if the newsies put a restriction on themselves that they wouldnt report anything until they knew the facts. There'd be delays of several hours on breaking many stories, and potentially even days.

Ask yourself this...what would your reaction be if the 9/11 disasters hadn't been reported immediately. What would the reaction of those in New York and Washington have been, knowing that something had happened, but hearing nothing - indeed, being refused information on the grounds that "we don't want to make a mistake, so we're saying nothing".

I don't think that would go down too well....and yet when the press get it wrong - as such a rush will inevitably lead to on occasion - we are so quick to blame the media for being irresponsible, sensationalist, or whatever.

As for the notion that they seem to want to cover it up....they dont. Reporting "Exclusive ; we were wrong" will not sell papers, and at the end of the day, its still a business.

jc

growler

paddy20

May God help the Palestinians and anyone else foolish enough to set foot in Israel or anywhere else in the Middle East at this time, where Life itself is regarded as cheap.

what ? besides the fact that palestinians live in the middle east , that's a sweeping statement that life is cheap , I regularly travel to the middle east to UAE , Saudi and Oman and they don't seem to think life is cheap at all , in fact they have the same hassels in life as we do and if an arab said to me that they would be afraid to travel to ireland i wouldn't be surprised given our fame for terrorism.

Sparks

reply spun off to here.

Biffa Bacon

Originally posted by Sparks
It's more the raw incompetence and lack of knowlege that their presenters demonstrate. For instance, the crash of the Firefly at duxford saw comments on the two pilots (there's only one pilot in a Firefly, the other person is an observer) and a query as to why they didn't eject from the jet (the firefly is an early naval version of the spitfire, it doesn't have ejector seats, and it's got this bloody great big propellor up front...).
*sigh*
If they get things that obvious wrong, how can you trust the rest of their stuff?

Sparks I thought you were taking the piss with the above comment until I saw the new thread you started.

How the hell is anyone supposed to know that plane has only one pilot and no ejector seat? Be fair for flips sake.

Biffa Bacon

Back on topic though, if the guy's not a terrorist he's definitely a terrorist sympathiser and shouldn't even be allowed set foot in Israel. "Peace activist" my arse - there's some real media bias for you. He's a pro-Palestinian activist.

Regardless of whether the man was an IRA bomb-maker, journalist or human rights observer, as far as the Israeli government is concerned, anyone who helps out the Palestinians in any way, or expresses solidarity with them or tries to report what's going on from their point of view is labelled as anti-semitic(how they come to this conclusion is a mystery)...

Basically because if you condemn someone for defending themselves from attack it's usually because you want to see harm come to them.

Sparks

Biffa, I'll answer that over in the right thread...

As to the comment on Seán Ó'Muireagáin, I'll quote your least favorite newspaper:

Northern Irish security sources said they were not aware the man detained had any involvement in terrorism at home, and two west Belfast-based newspapers said he was filing reports from the West Bank to them and an Irish language radio station.
Mr Morgan's parents, Teresa and John, were adamant that their son was in the West Bank setting up a schools exchange programme.

Turns out he's well known for that sort of thing. And was arrested because another John Morgan from Northern Ireland is well known for being a member of the RIRA.
Well done the IDF... :rolleyes:
Maybe I should go to Israel - I could get a few TV interviews about my NFL career...

Paddy20

growler,

Do not start me on the U.A.E, Saudi & Oman!. My opinion of them leaves a lot too be desired.

A scenario of peasentry suddenly bestowed with unthought of wealth and influence which they squander with delight like children. While still cutting off the limbs and heads in public, of those unfortunates who are mainly the poor, or truly innocent victims of medieval family States. Not too mention the public floggings the- cutting out of workers tongues- in case they should gossip about some sheikhs* secrets, is in my opinion totally unacceptable and anyone who condones this behaviour needs to look deeply at their own motives for visiting such States.