Keeping An Eye On The MediaAl Guardian Strikes Again

Harry and Dave T. at Harry's Place keeps an eye on the Guardian and discovers that they are again either idiots or purposefully deceiving their readers; again.

The Guardian has today published a Comment piece by Sa'ad al-Fagih. Al-Fagih is described as "a leading exiled Saudi dissident and director of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia". I am concerned that the Guardian does not know that on 23 Dec 2004, Mr Al-Fagih was included on the United Nations 1267 Committee consolidated list of individuals belonging to or associated with the Al Qaida organisation.

My concern is this. If the Comments Editor of the Guardian did not know that al-Fagih is included on the United Nations list, he should have known. If he did know, the article should have informed your readers of al-Fagih's status.

Read the rest of Dave's letter to the Guardian here

Dave and Harry give some background:

Sa’ad al-Faqih described in the footnote to the article as “a leading exiled Saudi dissident and director of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia”.

In fact Sa’ad al-Faqih is a little bit more than that.

Al-Faiqih seems to have bought the satellite phone which was used by one of the Al Qaeda suicide bombers who blew up the US embassy in Nairobi.

Sa'ad al-Faqih, was "designated" by the United States Treasury on December 21, 2004 and on 23 Dec 2004 was named on the United Nations 1267 Committee consolidated list of individuals belonging to or associated with the Al-Qaida organisation.

On 14 July 2005, the US Treasury "designated" al-Faiqih's "Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia" (MIRA), a U.K.-based Saudi oppositionist organization, for providing material support to al Qaida

They have more.

According to the Times, "One of the claims for the London Underground bombings was placed on his website by an al-Qaeda group."

Did the Guardian know any of this?

Again, why didn't they flag it up to their readership?

Harry adds: It is not as if al-Faqih has been out of the news recently. A few days after the July 7th terrorist attacks in London he decided to send a message to the Italians via the newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Here is a report in English from an Italian news agency:

"Italy should be very careful, al-Qaeda will strike it soon. Following its strategy, that is the most logical thing it will do," Saad al-Faqih, a surgeon the US believes has helped finance al-Qaeda, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

This guy is acting like an outside observer, anlayzing the situation, but his links to Al Qaida are known. Except, apparently, by news organizations whose job it is to investigate and report.