'I wanna cover this guy's Lebanon'

You don’t know Sayed to begin with nor do you know that he was subject to an assassination attempt. Unless you’re on the Pasdaran’s net? We’ll be happy to see you writing on this for we have lots of news to share with your readers

Christopher

It is so easy to be a critic, especially when one lives in peace and security.

Only we in Beirut know the truth, and Thomas Smith tried to tell you but you all are not capable of understanding the truth because you don’t live in Beirut. Or, you politicize for other gains in your country - all of which at the expense of us who fight for freedom and democracy in Lebanon. If the later is the case, then you have reached a new low for trading peoples futures and security for your political gain.

Some of you may visit Beirut, you may come and go, but until you know that the rest of your life is here - then you begin to realize what survival really is.

We are being threatened in Beirut, our daily lives - every minute - in the for front of our minds we have to think fast, react, for our future and for the security of our family.

Lebanon is under attack, it is the crossroads in the Middle East between the West and the Forces of Evil - the extremists. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what the Lebanese want - we are being used. But, if you ask the majority of Lebanese will respond - they want to live as one does in the West. In New York, or Chicago, or Paris, or even Hong Kong. But, we can’t - we can’t even speak our mind because Hezbollah and their big backers the Syrians and Iranians are threatening us every day with Intimidation.

What Thomas Smith did was reveal to you the reality on the ground in Lebanon. He did an honorable bit of reporting that hundreds of thousands in Lebanon rejoiced upon, because WE CAN’T. WE CAN NOT REPORT AS THOMAS SMITH DID OR ELSE HEZBOLLAH WOULD TARGET US.

THANK YOU THOMAS SMITH.

Hezbollah has been trained by Iranian specialists whom reside illegally in the Bekaa Valley and elsewhere in Lebanon with an agenda - a new age of intimidation. An intimidation that only one that lives in Beirut realizes. Hezbollah - in civilian clothing - blending in with others in civilian clothing - as some in the west may interpret, but the true Beirutees know - the civilian clothing is a cover, for these are the forces that spread intimidation.

Let’s not forget that close to 100 civilians, 160+Lebanese Army, have been killed since 2005. Over 35 intimidation Bombings. All of this to wreak havoc and intimidate the population to succumb to extremists agenda.

Do some research on Serge Brammertz’s new report on the Assassinations of Lebanese, in which he states that the Assassination network is still in force in Lebanon and capable of more assassinations.

Folks, do humanity and the Lebanese a favor - unless you live here, don’t politicize this topic - our very lives depend on it.

Khalil Abbas, Beirut.

Um, but I do live in Lebanon. I’m just out of the country at the moment.

So if you live in Lebanon and you’re so close to Hezbollah’s positions then their petrodollars are working well with you. Your posting in defense of Hezbollah are all over the place, and is taking five minutes for people in Lebanon and in the US to figure out your connection to the Media department of Hezbollah. Thanks to google we know who you are now..

We know why you wrote that Sayed story is not true, because you are a mouth piece to hezbollah. Sayed opposes Hezbollah and you are their mercenary. You are living in Lebanon at their expense and using media to protect terror.

They planted a delayed acid-weapon on his car’s undercarriage, which ate through the chassis and caused the vehicle to basically break in half while he was driving.

I suspect that Dick Dastardly and Muttley were the masterminds behind this attempted sabotage. Or perhaps W. Tom Smith confused Lebanon with Hanna-Barbera’s Wacky Races.

It took more than two months and almost 1,000 words, but National Review Online and its copy editor, Kathryn Jean Lopez, have finally retracted several pieces by corrupt blogger W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

As most of the blog world (with the exception of Washington Post media czar Howie Kurtz) knows by now, National Review Online published a series of pieces on Lebanon by corrupt blogger W. Thomas Smith Jr., who identified himself as a devout, South Carolina-based Conservative and former Marine. Smith, who called himself a bit of “Cowboy,” and proudly trumpeted his after all, theft of “a Hezbollah flag while I was there. Was that Thomas the journalist snagging the flag? Hardly. That was Thomas the Marine. And that’s part of who I am, which I suppose makes me part cowboy. But that’s something my detractors will just to have to live with, because that’s not going to change.”

Smith, who was in Lebanon to monitor the activities of Hezbollah, further made clear that his observers were not independent in nature.

“Frankly, I’m not concerned with what Hezbollah assumes. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, funded, trained, and equipped by the Islamic (Iranian) Revolutionary Guard Corps. My responsibility is not to concern myself with how Hezbollah perceives me, nor do I feel any compulsion to court them. They are the enemy as far as I’m concerned. My responsibility is to deliver the facts to my readers, which I have always done and will always do.”

Unfortunately, Smith turned out to be a fabulist. Here’s the conclusion of the Lopez’s blog entry, “Mea Culpa, Note for Non-Weekend Readers,” that appeared at 10:25 a.m. Dec. 3 at National Review Online:

“A regular freelancer (Smith) for NRO went to Lebanon in September and blogged in ‘The Tank’ from there. In two instances of which we’re aware, he mislead by not adequately sourcing – making clear he was relying on sources, not his own eyes for a scenes he described. We should have asked more questions. We didn’t. A well-intentioned reporter got sloppy. We got sloppy checking on him. We were wrong and I apologize.

“We’re taking steps to prevent this in the future – including setting up some very easily found and checked corrective e-mail addresses – so questions about pieces and blogs can be raised in a quick and timely manner.

“I hate that this happened, but I am grateful that it has been brought to our attention. We’ve apologized for it, and are now taking measures to keep such things from happening in the future.”

What is most striking about Lopez’s National Review Online piece and Smith’s rejoinder is their Cheney-esque quality: grudging and self-justifying in tone and still eager to lash out at their critics even when Smith’s fables from Lebanon have been shattered into a thousand pieces. In reading Lopez’s piece, you get the sense that she was seething at The Huffington Post and Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, each of whom has spearheaded coverage on Smith’s shoddy journalism and National Review Online’s absence of editorial safeguards, and at Smith for having been caught in such a hypocritical series of lies and blatant deceit that can only sully the once-proud House of Buckley.

It turns out, of course, that it was National Review Online’s critics, and not Mr. Smith or Ms. Lopez, who were vindicated, and all honor is due to them.

What National Review Online didn’t understand, and still seems unable to grasp, is that they and others saw this for what it was: an effort to use Smith’s story to paint an ugly portrait of the situation in Lebanon and of the absence of Middle East policy in the Bush-Cheney Administration. National Review Online sought to further Neoconservative attempts to open U.S. military fronts in Iran, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, and Smith’s litany of false pieces hoped to turn people into proponents of additional military action. What has happened, instead, is that the situation in Lebanon fails to follow the Bush-Cheney Neoconservative policy — and each and every one of Smith’s National Review Online pieces have utterly collapsed.

This story was a torpedo aimed directly at the hull of National Review Online; the torpedo has now hit its mark. The damage is enormous and Kathryn Jean Lopez’s explanation — which contains no formal criticism of W. Thomas Smith, Jr. or, more significantly, no apology to the members of the American military now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan unit — will only compound the damage. What Ms. Lopez called Smith having been “mislead” is really a scandal. And W. Thomas Smith, Jr. will now take his place beside Judith Miller, Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, and Jeff Gannon in the Neoconservative and Conservative Hall of Perpetual Shame.

That Howie Kurtz neglected to report promptly on this story only further sullies the reputation of Mr. Kurtz and The Washington Post.

I had a ‘65 Chevy Malibu back in 1980 that was the target of a ‘delayed acid attack’…the floorboards looked like the Flinstonemobile and it nearly broke in half on Route 2. Hezbollah is so powerful that they can control Pennsylvania winters 30 yrs ago!

Roger Ailes and Mark ( whose comment is laced with utter nonsense-mostly fabricated- and displays a true lack of understanding the situation in Middle East) would also appear to be collaborating with the enemy since they are obviously helping to support and spread the ludicrous assertions Chris put forth in his BOGUS attacks on Thomas Smiths piece.

Chris et al, would have us believe that Hezbollah is a benign organization whose numbers are minimum and that never use ANY tactics to kill, main, kidnap.

In other words, Chris is a shill for Hezbollah’s propaganda, and he has the support of Roger Ailes (which should come as NO surprise to anyone who reads his garbage) and this fool named Mark.

Even the Lebanese aren’t fooled by Hezballah:

Quoting from Kay Day (War of the Words)

“On a populist site, Lebanese Forces, a poster named “Drinkaholic” whose location is noted as “somewhere near Lebanon,” put things in perspective on the forum on December 7. “I can see that Hezbollah is acting in a very wrong way, it has become like a state-within-state where for example it even has sort of like it’s [sic] own police force in Dahieh!” <.i>

Another post concluded, “Hezbollah now has a huge base of weapons, and so other (sects) feel threatened by this now and won’t accept to see such a large amount of weapons held by just one party.” Visitors to the site commented, in the discussion thread, on Hezbollah’s physical strength and presence in Lebanon.”

As a journalist, Chris, you know the power of words, and understand that one can use words to twist meanings so therefore one must use words carefully and must use their placement within sentences carefully. Subtle nuances affect the message being delivered, and can twist the truth to suit the writers agenda.

A journalists CHOICE of words will almost always reflect his bias….ALMOST. I won’t say that this is the case all the time, but in your case, this is what has happened.

More From Kay Day (War of the Words)

Weeks after Smith returned to the United States, Thomas B. Edsall, a special correspondent for The New Republic, would write an article for a “progressive” Web site, The Huffington Post. Edsall named two journalists who questioned Smith’s veracity about his dispatches from Lebanon. Smith’s detractors described him with a level of hyperbole common on political blogs. Edsall cited Chris Allbritton, who called Smith a “fabulist.” Albritton said Smith’s “claim that 4,000 Hezbollah gunmen took over East Beirut at the end of September simply never happened.”

What Edsall didn’t point out was Allbritton’s slightly mangled quote in his email to Edsall. Smith never used the term “took over.” Smith applied the verb “deployed,” in the word’s primary definition connoting the idea of positioning. Allbritton’s perspective possibly stemmed from his lack of familiarity with military terms.

( she is being too generous here, you allegedly have covered wars including Iraq…so either you are damn lousy at what you do, or you are more than familiar with military terms and CHOSE words that were DECEITFUL in your emails)

Edsall also quoted journalist Mitchell Prothero who alleged that Smith’s accounts, including the “presence of 200 armed Hezbollah fighters in downtown Beirut laying siege to the prime minister’s office….is all insane.” Edsall had included a direct lift of some of Smith’s words regarding the 200 armed fighters. In his December 1 article, Edsall noted Smith’s claim that the fighters occupied “a sprawling Hezbollah tent city.”

The only problem there: Smith’s actual post said the Hezbollah fighters were positioned. He did not use the term, laying siege.

Positioned is not the same as laying siege. Tsk Tsk Tsk Chris, Roger, and Mark! Such smart men like yourself can’t seem to get simple facts correct, but then if you did, you couldn’t gang up on conservative bloggers in retaliation for having outed fabulist Scott Beauchamp over at TNR, Edsals stomping ground!

According to Tom Harb, secretary general of the International Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559 AND the World Council of the Cedars Revolution, Thomas Smith is a HERO.

Chris, on the hand, not so much!

By your own admission Chris, you hate bloggers, even though you have a blog, contending that you simply use a blog as a distribution vehicle, but that bloggers are NOT true journalists, and that you did not want to be considered one of their ilk. According to a post you wrote on this blog which stunk of pure condescension, being called a blogger is demeaning to you.
You use a blog, but you are not a blogger.
I pollute, but I am not a polluter. I eat meat, but I am not a meat eater.
I write a blog, where I ASK for funds to support my freelance journalist lifestyle, but I am NOT a blogger, I don’t want to be considered a blogger, and frankly, I find being a member of that club to be demeaning and insulting….but I have no problem insulting those who would give me money so I can continue to be pompous condescending jerk in general but especially towards bloggers. .

Wow - you are piece of work! Whats the matter you’re gig as a paid spokesperson for Hezbollah not paying well these days? Or wait I forgot, it was quid pro quo…they don’t kidnap you, and you shill for them! Well no wonder you reached out to those in the blogosphere for financial handouts!

So basically you are an elitist hypocrite who uses blogging to get your voice heard, raise money while denouncing bloggers, who have proven to be far more successful in getting their voices heard and COUNT, then you have been!

The Old Media is dying Chris. THE WGA is willing to suffer through a strike knowing full well that the old distribution outlets of which old media belong are D Y I N G ——.the old ways of receiving and viewing content are D Y I N G. New Media and new ways to distribute content is the money making future….and they want a piece of that future!

Lets face it if the Studios really believed there was no money to be made with downloads, blogs, websites, new media, with streaming video online,on cells, on billboards, anywhere, anytime…they wouldn’t have started HULU and they’d be offering writers a percentage of residuals, knowing that 30% of nothing is still NOTHING. Since they know they have nothing to lose — they have nothing to worry about since No residuals will be paid out…but that is true only IF they REALLY believe the NET isn’t the money maker of the future!

But I digress, let’s stick to thetruth about the lie you perpetuated in a pathetic attempt to discredit Thomas Smith, to support Hezbollah, and to exact revenge for conservative bloggers outing the fabulist Scott Beauchamp and holding TNR and their uber liberal, uber lying, uber self serving, uber stupid, editor Franklin Foer, RESPONSIBLE for HIS actions and for the debacle he created!

Even the Capt of the Titantic had the decency to go down with the ship!

But back to exposing your real agenda Chris: I especially like the part where Harb outs you for fabricating what you accused Smith of!

More from Tom Harb:

We know who attacked: a handful of supposed Lebanon-based American journalists and their blogging allies who have irresponsibly accused Smith of fabricating stories about the reality of Hezbollah. Though in their accusations, they themselves have fabricated that which they accuse Smith of. For instance, Smith never said he “saw” 200 Hezbollah militiamen in the “tent city” in downtown Beirut. He never said Hezbollah militiamen had “taken over” a section of east Beirut. Nor did he mention anything about a “kidnap” attempt.

They wrongly accused him of making those statements. And so far they have gotten away with those accusations.

But this digresses.

What has happened is Smith has been ruthlessly attacked by the handful of questionable reporters under the command of a correspondent for The New Republic (recently under fire for a true fabricator, Scott Beauchamp, and obviously looking for payback) Thomas B. Edsall writing for the controversial Huffington Post. Smith was then charged by the Left blogosphere, convicted without a hearing, and sentenced (branded a “liar,” a “fabricator,” and a “fabulist”) in the alternative and mainstream press. (…)

The problem is, Smith is an American who got too close to Hezbollah and the truth of their activities (without their approval) in Lebanon. He reported things that were not supposed to be reported in an atmosphere where there is very little media objectivity, and huge stories are often not reported because Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah control much of what is reported in both the Lebanese media and among Western journalists in Lebanon.

Smith is also a conservative journalist, who the Left is willing to destroy without the facts, and some on the Right have been too willing to sacrifice – also without the facts – to demonstrate their ability to eliminate any possible Beauchamps in their midst, though Smith is nothing of the sort.

The Left contends Smith’s report that between 4,000-5,000 Hezbollah militiamen to Christian areas of Beirut on an unspecified day in late September simply never happened.

As we write in this article, thousands of Hezbollah militants and supporters have been crossing from the southern suburbs to east Beirut for months, as hundreds – sometimes thousands – walk or motorcycle from their neighborhoods to visit or replace the hundreds of militants who are camping in front of the Prime Minister’s building. And this is only scratching the surface.

The Left also contends that Smith’s report of “some 200-plus heavily armed Hezbollah militiamen” occupying the “sprawling Hezbollah tent city” near the Lebanese parliament was wrong. And that, they say, makes him a “fabulist.”

Who do they think they are kidding? There were more than 200 in September and October. Smith actually underreported. And the militants who have occupied downtown Beirut are armed and their weapons are hidden in their tents and in different locations. So again, Smith’s attackers are flat wrong, as are any Lebanese reporters who would dare to say otherwise.

Let’s also not forget: Hezbollah, including the terrorist organization’s predecessors, are the ones who blew up the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing over 240 U.S. servicemen in 1983. They have kidnapped or murdered other Americans since, including journalists and educators.

Today, they are just as ruthless, just as murderous. But they have combined that ruthlessness with an ability to control and manipulate the national and international media. The Left’s ruthless and unjustifiable attack – initiated by Edsall and his men, and proliferated throughout the liberal blogosphere – on a respected conservative writer like Smith is but one example.

Must be nice to know your freedom in Lebanon ,Chris, is bought by being a shill for Hezbollah.