Juan Cole needs some help, folks. The "Informed Comment" blog author

is being threatened with a lawsuit and is requesting assistance as detailed here and on his blog today.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Intimidation by Israeli-Linked Organization Aimed at US Academic
MEMRI tries a SLAPP

I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligency, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made here at Informed Comment. This technique of the SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation had already been pioneered by polluting industries against environmental activists, and now the pro-Likud lobby in the US has apparently decided to try it out against people like me.

I urge all readers to send messages of protest to memri@memri.org. Please be polite, and simply urge MEMRI, which has a major Web presence, to withdraw the lawsuit threat and to respect the spirit of the free sharing of ideas that makes the internet possible.


Here is the letter:
http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/intimidation-by-israeli-linked.html

That's what SLAPP is all about. Tie 'em up in the courts for years and bleed them dry. Truth is irrelevant.

Yigal Carmon (after 10 years out of service, I'd retire the "Colonel Carmon" if I were Professor Cole - but he wants to make a point) says that Coles statement that "MEMRI is funded to the tune of $60 million a year" is completely false - and Cole responds with no facts - simply saying if the books were shown him he would use the right number, and until then he will note in his writings that the $60 million figure is disputed by Yigal Carmon. Cole wins on this one as it obviously not libel - but I am curious where he pulled the number from.

Cole writes that MEMRI is an "anti-Arab propaganda machine" that "cherry-picks the vast Arabic press." - Carmon responds that they reprint progressive voices in the Arab world in addition to the hardliner Islamist - Cole responds MEMRI "highlights pieces that cast Arabs, especially committed Muslims, in a negative light" and ignores moderate non-secular (meaning op-ed Islamic articles that reject pluralism - read secular - but do so with less screw minority rights language). Hard to see any libel - but also hard to see why Cole does not respond directly to Carmon with a discussion of the meaning of "secular" in the Cole world and how this differs from or is similar to the meaning Carmon attaches to progressive voices - perhaps Cole is saying committed Muslims can not be "progressive voices"?

Cole writes that "MEMRI is one of a number of public relations campaigns essentially on behalf of the far right-wing Likud Party in Israel." - and again "essentially on behalf" kills the libel - but what harm is there in Cole saying "while following the US Tax codes rules for 501c3 organizations by not being unaffiliated with any government, and by not receiving government funding, they appear to align themselves with the positions of the Likud Party?"

But I can see where an academic like Cole would tend to use "non-academic" phrasing when looking at how 501 (c) 3 is widely abused by right wing think tanks. I feel the same way.

Indeed, I wonder why Yigal Carmon thinks he has a libel suit - he appears to not understand that a court would extract a punishment from MEMRI for filing an obvious SLAPP suit.

memri@memri.org
Subject: Why is Yigal Carmon legally threatening Prof Cole because of a piece that does not libel MERMI? You fellows talk past each other - curious....

Yigal Carmon says that Cole’s statement that "MEMRI is funded to the tune of $60 million a year" is completely false - and Cole responds saying if the books were shown him he would use the right number, and until then he will note in his writings that the $60 million figure is disputed by Yigal Carmon. Cole wins on this one as it obviously not libel.

Cole writes that MEMRI is an "anti-Arab propaganda machine" that "cherry-picks the vast Arabic press." - Carmon responds that they reprint progressive voices in the Arab world in addition to the hardliner Islamist - Cole responds MEMRI "highlights pieces that cast Arabs, especially committed Muslims, in a negative light" and ignores moderate non-secular (meaning op-ed Islamic articles that reject pluralism - read secular - but do so with less screw minority rights language). Hard to see any libel - but also hard to see why Cole AND Carmon do not have a discussion of the meaning of "secular" in the Cole world and how this differs from or is similar to the meaning Carmon attaches to progressive voices - perhaps Cole is saying "committed" Muslims can not be "progressive voices"?

Cole writes that "MEMRI is one of a number of public relations campaigns essentially on behalf of the far right-wing Likud Party in Israel." - and again "essentially on behalf" kills the libel.

But I can see where an academic like Cole would tend to use "non-academic" phrasing when looking at how 501 (c) 3 is widely abused by right wing think tanks. I feel the same way.

Indeed, I wonder why Yigal Carmon thinks he has a libel suit - he appears to not understand that a court would extract a punishment from MEMRI for filing an obvious SLAPP suit.

and am proud to support this wonderful author. I hope all DUers will support this effort.

I've bookmarked your Plame thread...that's some good work. :thumbsup:

I believe they'd prefer to ruin him rather than silence him.
I find that rather chilling, because it leaves me wondering who they'll go after next to silence dissent on the internet.
I don't believe it will be drudge or the swiftboat liars.

:kick: