From my inbox, read and enjoy.

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US Coup Backfires, But Most Media Outlets Unwilling to
Investigate, Cover Story
by Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO - A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine "exposing"
a U.S.-planned coup attempt against Palestinian resistance
movement Hamas last year has ignited a storm of debate
about Washington's Middle East policies. Yet for more than
nine months, details of the plot were reported in the
independent Arabic press — and elsewhere — leading some
observers to ask: Where was the mainstream media?

"From the very beginning, Hamas has publicly insisted that
what happened in Gaza last year came in reaction to plans
being hatched against it," Tarek Abd al-Gaber, former news
correspondent for Egyptian state television covering Israel
and the Palestinian territories, told IPS.

Hamas has been widely blamed in much of the mainstream
media for carrying out a "violent coup" against the
Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Gaza Strip last summer.
After six days of heavy fighting, Hamas wrested control
of the territory from the government of PA President
Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the U.S.-backed Fatah movement,
in mid-June.

Hamas fighters quickly seized all official institutions
and symbols of governance in the Gaza Strip, including the
presidential residence in Gaza city.

Declaring a state of emergency from the Fatah-ruled West
Bank, Abbas announced the dissolution of the previous
national unity government, led by Hamas-affiliated Prime
Minister Ismael Haniyeh. Hamas leaders in Gaza, however,
refused to recognise the declaration, and have remained
in control of the territory.

Most western capitals, led by Washington, quickly condemned
the takeover, placing blame for the dangerous turn of
events squarely on Hamas. The refrain was taken up by much
of the western media, which consistently portrayed the
dispute as one between "extremist" Hamas in the Gaza Strip
and "moderate" Fatah in the West Bank.

Many Arab capitals, too, denounced Hamas's seizure of the
volatile territory. The day after the upset, Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak was quoted in the state press as
describing what happened as "the overthrow of Palestinian
legitimacy."

"What happened in the Gaza Strip was nothing less than a
military coup d'etat," Mohamed Basyouni, former Egyptian
ambassador to Israel and current head of the Shura (upper
parliamentary) Council's committee for Arab affairs, told
IPS at the time. "It was totally illegitimate."

Yet in its April issue, the U.S. leisure magazine Vanity
Fair makes a startling claim: that Hamas's takeover of
the territory was prompted by a secret U.S. plan aimed at
extirpating the Islamist group's leadership in Gaza.

In an article entitled 'The Gaza Bombshell', the magazine
purports to "lay bare a covert initiative" approved by the
White House and implemented by the U.S. State Department
"to provoke a Palestinian civil war."

Relying on confidential documents and former administration
officials, author David Rose writes that after Hamas's
unexpected victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative
elections, the U.S. administration drew up a plan to arm
Fatah cadres with the aim of forcefully removing Hamas
from power in Gaza. Under the terms of the arrangement,
Rose writes, Fatah received arms and financing through a
handful of Washington's Arab allies, including Egypt and
Jordan.

According to sources cited in the article, the plan was to
be jointly coordinated by U.S. Lieutenant-General Keith
Dayton and long-time Fatah strongman Mohamed Dahlan.

But the conspiracy was stillborn. After a Jordanian
newspaper leaked details of the plot, Hamas pre-emptively
seized control of Gaza on Jun. 14 and arrested much of
Fatah's leadership throughout the territory.

Instead of driving the Islamist group from power, Vanity
Fair writes, "U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently
provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza."

White House and State Department officials have strenuously
denied the article's claims. Nevertheless, the Gaza
"bombshell" has received wide coverage in the western news
media, with several commentators comparing the magazine's
"revelations" to the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s,
which also involved the covert — and illegal — supply of
arms to the Middle East.

Yet according to many local observers, the existence of
the so-called "Dayton Plan" has been fairly well known
since the upset in Gaza more than nine months ago.

"Hamas has consistently and publicly stated that what
happened in June came in reaction to the Dayton Plan,
which aimed at the group's destruction," said Ibrahim
Eissa, editor-in-chief of independent daily al-Dustour,
which published Hamas's allegations last summer.

"But the group's claims received little coverage in the
mainstream Arab media — even (Arabic language news channel)
al-Jazeera didn't give the issue much attention," Eissa
told IPS. "The plot allegations were only covered in a
handful of independent newspapers and on websites
sympathetic to Hamas."


Abd al-Gaber agreed that Egyptian state media wholly
neglected to convey Hamas's point of view regarding the
reasons for the Gaza seizure.

"The official press took the U.S. line and simply blamed
Hamas for everything," he said. "The White House insisted
on calling Hamas's actions a 'coup' regardless of the
circumstances, and official media — in the west and in
the Arab world — repeated this mantra."

One notable exception to this was the Egyptian English-
language state broadsheet al-Ahram Weekly. In its Jun. 21
edition, only one week after the Gaza upset, the newspaper
quoted Hamas leader Yehia Moussa at length about the failed
plot.

"[U.S.-backed Fatah fighters] were planning to carry out a
bloody coup against Hamas involving the murder of hundreds
of people, including Hamas's political and religious
leaders," Moussa was quoted as saying. "But we managed to
thwart their plans before they could carry them out."

Nor did IPS miss the story. In August of last year, in an
article devoted to Fatah's declining popularity ('Bush
Could Have Given Fatah That Kiss of Death'), IPS explicitly
cited the Dayton Plan as a chief reason for Fatah's
deteriorating image on the Arab Street.

"Fatah's image has also been tarnished by revelations that
emerged in the immediate wake of the Gaza upset regarding
a failed plan to extirpate the Hamas leadership," IPS
reported from Cairo on Aug. 21. "According to Hamas
officials, the 'Dayton Plan' — named after U.S. General
Keith Dayton — had been scheduled to take place on
Jul. 13."

Citing Hamas spokesmen, the article noted that that the
operation "was to be led by Fatah-affiliated strongman
Mohamed Dahlan with logistical support from the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency."

The article went on to quote Essam al-Arian, a leading
member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement — which
controls a fifth of the Egyptian parliament and is
ideologically close to Hamas — as saying: "The so-called
Dayton Plan aimed to manipulate the Palestinians into
waging war against each other."

So why, then — if details of the U.S. plan were so readily
accessible for the last nine months — are Vanity Fair's
disclosures being treated by the mainstream media as new
information?

Mohamed Mansour, professor of media at Cairo University,
says the belated reporting proves the overwhelming bias
against Hamas in much, if not all, of the western media.

"Western media institutions do everything in their power
to tarnish the image of the Palestinian quest for state-
hood," Mansour told IPS. "This can only be attributed to
the Zionist influence on western, particularly American,
media — a fact that can no longer be debated."

Although the Vanity Fair article serves to vindicate
Hamas's Gaza takeover, Mansour went on to question the
timing of its publication.

"Why did the media take so long to break the story?" he
asked. "I suspect the article was only published now to
further aggravate the rift between Hamas and Fatah and
divert attention from developments elsewhere."

According to Eissa, Egypt's official press has yet to
mention the contentious Vanity Fair report.

"Even now, the state press hasn't reported on the Vanity
Fair story," he said, noting that al-Dustour, by contrast,
had published translated selections from the article in
the first week of March.

Eissa added: "Like much of the western media, the official
Arab press would rather ignore Hamas than publish stories
that might serve to justify the resistance group's
actions."

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I am not suprise,the main stream media are just part of western goverment propangada tools,any rational person can clearly see that in the way they censored prince harry's stay in afganistan,as well their mockery noises about zimbabwe.

They tell you what they want you to know,schooling.

Na todaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

redsun:


I am not suprise,the main stream media are just part of western goverment propangada tools,any rational person can clearly see that in the way they censored prince harry's stay in afganistan,as well their mockery noises about zimbabwe.

They tell you what they want you to know,schooling.

Kudos to you !! You are so right !!!

@Afam, thanks for the post.

Russian toddlers would do a far better job running US foreign policy than the boneheads doing it now.

RichyBlacK:

@Afam, thanks for the post.

Russian toddlers would do a far better job running US foreign policy than the boneheads doing it now.

Chief, how far? Long time.

No mind these americans that are being led by a lying president that is trying to hard to make the world more dangerous.

The economic recession is already at home in the US and the stats are interesting to the point that the most ardent supporters and lovers of the US cannot just shout.

RichyBlacK:


Russian toddlers would do a far better job running US foreign policy than the boneheads doing it now.

You speak the truth!

I wish our Govt could be wise and intelligent to cut loose from the bondage of slavery so that Nigeria can be great someday. Until they can challenge the influence of the WEST. Until they can so NO [/b]to [b]WESTERN POLICIES,then Nigeria will be great. [i]BOOCH [/i]IS THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE!

You trust a chain mail over CNN and BBC? How silly.

Seun:

You trust a chain mail over CNN and BBC? How silly.

@Seun,
What do you mean? Are you saying that CNN and BBC do not collude with their respective governments (US and UK) to manipulate the news towards a political end? _{Though I trust BBC more than CNN.}

Seun:

You trust a chain mail over CNN and BBC? How silly.

Seun, I have lived in the west for over 10 years and the pictures of africa that I see on CNN 99% of the time
are pictures of places like ajegunle and mushin in Lagos.

Even when President Clinton was in Abuja, the footage of abuja shown on tv were the outskirts
that looks really crappy, again similar to ajegunle. CNN intentionally shows crappy pictures of
africa to make us look backward, uncivilized and grossly underdeveloped.

I wish you were here to see things for yourself.

Afam:

Chief, how far? Long time.

No mind these americans that are being led by a lying president that is trying to hard to make the world more dangerous.

The economic recession is already at home in the US and the stats are interesting to the point that the most ardent supporters and lovers of the US cannot just shout.

Chairman, I dey o. Just trying to fend off the nonsense George W. Bush id throwing at us.

Just like they were stammering to call the atrocities of Rwanda a genocide, see the heavy stammering to call this current financial wahala a recession. Dem go try to use plenty plenty words to confuse common man.

@Tonim

I do agree the way the likes of Nigeria are visually represented could be more nuanced

but even you must agree that those pictures give a more accurate picture of how things are

in vast swathes of the country.

Tonim:


Seun, I have lived in the west for over 10 years and the pictures of africa that I see on CNN 99% of the time
are pictures of places like ajegunle and mushin in Lagos.

Even when President Clinton was in Abuja, the footage of abuja shown on tv were the outskirts
that looks really crappy, again similar to ajegunle. CNN intentionally shows crappy pictures of
africa to make us look backward, uncivilized and grossly underdeveloped.

I wish you were here to see things for yourself.

My sister, a beg tell am wetin dey happen.

Seun:

You trust a chain mail over CNN and BBC? How silly.

@Seun,

It is obvious you are the one that is being silly here for not being able to understand that what you see or hear in any mainstream media is what has been programmed from top to bottom for you to hear.

Let Sun Newspapers write any negative story about Orji Uzo Kalu and see if the writer will have a job within 10 minutes of publishing the story, that is if the story is ever published.

Afam:

@Seun,

It is obvious you are the one that is being silly here for not being able to understand that what you see or hear in any mainstream media is what has been programmed from top to bottom for you to hear.

Let Sun Newspapers write any negative story about Orji Uzo Kalu and see if the writer will have a job within 10 minutes of publishing the story, that is if the story is ever published.

Well, if you don't trust the mainstream media because they are serving some sort of agenda,

you must be implying that your own source of info has no agenda of its own.

you must be implying that your own source of info has no agenda of its own.

Precisely.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/02/8046/

http://archives.gophercentral.com/Viewpoint_US_Coup_Backfires.html

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza_documents200804

its not quite a chain letter. . .

oyb:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/02/8046/
http://archives.gophercentral.com/Viewpoint_US_Coup_Backfires.html

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza_documents200804

its not quite a chain letter. . .

The above don't have an agenda? That will be like linking Washington Times,and a couple other blogs like Michelle Malkin's and effectively telling you they all "speak truth to power". Vanity Fair and Commondreams? You must be kidding

vanityfair, lmao

Tonim:

Seun, I have lived in the west for over 10 years and the pictures of africa that I see on CNN 99% of the time
are pictures of places like ajegunle and mushin in Lagos.

Even when President Clinton was in Abuja, the footage of abuja shown on tv were the outskirts
that looks really crappy, again similar to ajegunle. CNN intentionally shows crappy pictures of
africa to make us look backward, uncivilized and grossly underdeveloped.

I wish you were here to see things for yourself.

There is a reason you have "lived in the West for over 10 years",you come from a grossly underdeveloped continent.What do you want CNN to show?Tinapia?

As we speak,3.7m have died in DRC Congo,150000 in Darfur,1m in South Sudan,e.t.c.I constantly hear people from these places complaining that they don't have enough media coverage compared to Palestinians and Iraqis.

Its interesting that while we have our brothers and sisters dying in various places,someone,from the comfort of the West wants to see less of our dying and suffering.I wonder what your opinion will be if you or members of your family were living in Bredjing refugee camp.

Re: Us Coup Backfires, But Most Media Outlets Unwilling To Investigate, Cover Story

did you perhaps miss the topic?

rather than blathering about the existence of an 'agenda' do you at least agree that bush and co are once again engaged in ' regime change' ?

has vanity fair refuted their story? you can have any agenda you want, interpret ecvents in any way tyou want, but as long as your info is based on verifiable facts -

oyb:

Re: Us Coup Backfires, But Most Media Outlets Unwilling To Investigate, Cover Story

did you perhaps miss the topic?
rather than blathering about the existence of an 'agenda' do you at least agree that bush and co are once again engaged in ' regime change' ?

has vanity fair refuted their story? you can have any agenda you want, interpret ecvents in any way tyou want, but as long as your info is based on verifiable facts -

I think you are lost in the maelstrom of your own prejudice. We don't accept as facts the substance of the report.A story doesn't become factual merely because it appeared in Vanity Fair.

Now,Oyb instantly believes an anti-American and anti-Israel piece,tell me something new.I can get you many reports out of right-wing news outlets that paint an entirely different picture but until a news report is corroborated by many across the 'mainstream' media,it should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Just like they were stammering to call the atrocities of Rwanda a genocide, see the heavy stammering to call this current financial wahala a recession. Dem go try to use plenty plenty words to confuse common man.

@RichyBlack

Don't blame your ignorance on the media.A recession is technically defined as 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth.The 4th quarter of 2007(Oct-Dec) showed modest positive growth.We are still in April and have only completed 1 quarter(Jan-March),until the figures are out for the 1st and 2nd quarters(Jan-June)showing negative growth for the two,the media will be right to 'stammer' in calling it a recession.

Coming out and wholeheartedly claiming a recession is definitely underway would amount to 'voodoo' journalism. The kind you get with the likes of Vanity Fair and Afam's 'chain mails'.

yawn. . .

if the story isn't true -  why hasn't it been refuted?

you seem to have chosen to obsfucate the issue by casting aspersions on the messenger.

i'm suprised you haven't posted links refuting the story.isn't that your standard mo?

your head is buried in the ands of denial - your heros are only concerned with the 'life liberty and the pursuit of hapiness' of caucasian americans. and your friends the jews .

don't worry we only have to wait a little. . .the mainstream media will have no choice but to publish, as the story keeps growing.

'extraordinary rendition' was the barest whiff of rmor when it first surfaced - was it not?

I doubt you know what 'refute' means.The story has been denied several times.All of a sudden,its the duty of those querying a claim to adduce proof.

Look at this Arab slave telling me about "your friends the Jews".

Extra-ordinary rendition,which has been going on for decades,first came out in many mainstream outlets from its earliest inception.The BBC mentioned it as far back as 2002.This is entirely different from discussing the rubbish that is dredged up from all sorts of leftist outlets on the web.9 months now and you are still waiting.

look at this house nigger from uncle tom's cabin calling me an 'arab slave'

rather than assert that the claim has been 'denied' - post links.

i seem to remember that dan rather had to resign last year or was it two years ago over some misinformation. please show us links where your good old us government categorically denied the allegations.

Na you be the archetypal Abd,complete with Arab or Arabized name to boot.

Here is a link from your Arab masters:

The US on Tuesday denied the coup plot allegations.
"There is no accuracy to that story. I've checked and there is no truth to it," Sean McCormack, the US state department spokesman, said.

A statement from the office of Mohammad Dahlan, the former head of the Palestinian national security council, called the Vantiy Fair article "highly inaccurate and misleading".

"Accordingly there was (and remains) no secret plan to carry out a coup against Hamas," said the statement.
"Although the US offered its financial support for the plan to reform the PA's [Palestinian Authority's] security forces (by offering assistance for non-lethal equipment as requested by the PA), financial support was never received."


No official US stamps or seals appear on the document.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/935DF029-9ECA-4133-BCD3-7DC26FB80E4A.htm

In typical Al-Jazeera style,they left it at the bottom of the page.

congratulations for finally doing what you should have done from the beginning.


no wonder it took you so long to answer, you must have been burning up google!

your assertion that they left it 'at the bottom of the page' is more than a little dishonest . . . i thought it would be a footnote.

how sad. . . some of your ancestors waded into the sea and drowned - rather than be slaves. who would have thought their descndants would be so different? . you've fallen very far from the tree. . . .come to think of it. . tom (a bastardized anglicanisation) does suit you as a name. . .then again so does quisling. . .

You made an ignorant and misleading comment which I have corrected.I didn't see the need for a link for if one believes that the US was involved in a coup plot,a statement of denial from the US won't tell us anything.

Like I once told Denex,its pointless seeking your opinion on issues affecting the Arabs.All I have to do is obtain the opinion of Arabs,I can bet that your viewpoint will be the same as that of the Arabs-quintessential mental slavery.

There is no independence of thought or diversity of opinion,just groupthink(whatever the Arabs want).

PS:Unlike you,I have 100% Igbo names.No institutionalized cultural enslavement unlike some .

hmm. . . how would i have an igbo name when i'm yoruba?

i think all this ripping off of big big grammer from your wordprocessor is disabling your already significantly limited ability to reason.

4 Play:



Like I once told Denex,its pointless seeking your opinion on issues affecting the Arabs.All I have to do is obtain the opinion of Arabs,I can bet that your viewpoint will be the same as that of the Arabs-quintessential mental slavery.

There is no independence of thought or diversity of opinion,just groupthink(whatever the Arabs want).

it is equally pointless seeking your opinion on issues affecting americans. you would have us beleieve that americans are lily white heros with halos who are interested in life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all peoples rather than just causcasians.

oh well, someone has to brownose uncle sam

@oyb

If you had an ability to reason,you will know I mean having local names instead of adopting Arabized names out of cultural slavery.Are you saying you don't have one? Tell me now that you don't bear a name that wasn't in existence in Yorubaland until the Fulani Jihadists made their way down south.

Diversity of opinion is welcome.What is troubling is when an entire people outsource their thinking to Arabs,especially,with no perceivable benefit in return.