Antiwar.com Blog

A rare interesting exchange at a White House press briefing.

(Via Wonkette.)

One-time beat poet-become-Sufi-devotee Stephen Schwartz responds to my blogpost. Kinda. Well, not really. Here he is in the comments section of FrontPageMag, under the (all-caps) heading “LAST EXIT TO SANITYVILLE“:

Don’t go expecting a response from Dennis. On his blog, one of his loons made it clear none will come, except for stupid little comments about hyperlinks, put forward in an attempt to deny the undeniable: that he has used and reused all the libels, hate accusations, and other filth that I described. …

I think SANITYVILLE was a few exits back, Comrade Sandalio. Anyway, the entire Internet is still waiting for you to explain these evil hyperlink thingies. Is it true that if you click on one it will steal your soul?

AFP reports that US troops score another own goal in Iraq.

I don’t have the time for a full rebuttal of this “exposé” of Antiwar.com by Stephen Schwartz, but I’ll pick out a few of its more deceitful/asinine points:

* “If, as Mary McCarthy said, every word written by the Stalinist Lillian Hellman was a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the,’ Raimondo is a prevaricator down to the placement of commas, periods, and semicolons. One of his favorite tricks is the mendacious use of hyperlinks, giving the impression that his statements are backed by other sources. These are usually his own articles, immodestly declared by him to be ‘classics,’ which in fact have little or nothing to do with his latest ravings, but lead to more lies through more links.”

Mendacious use of hyperlinks??? Schwartz (who once threatened to sue Antiwar.com over a hyperlink!) apparently avoids mendacity by having a grand total of one link in his screed, but I’ll try to explain the practice to him anyway: hyperlinks give the reader an opportunity to judge for himself the accuracy of the writer’s claims. I will guarantee you that Justin Raimondo has NEVER quoted or paraphrased Schwartz without providing a hyperlink or other citation to an original source. And anyone can look at any of Raimondo’s columns at random and judge the veracity of Schwartz’s claim that his hyperlinks “are usually [to] his own articles.”

* “Raimondo’s website consistently published propaganda generated by Randall (Ismail) Royer, a former CAIR employee now doing a 20-year federal sentence for terrorist activities.”

Consistently is an odd adverb to use there; I’ll infer that it’s a mendacious synonym for “frequently.” Again, no link. But do a Google search on the infamous “paintball terrorist” and you’ll find that exactly one article by Royer has appeared on this site. As Jim Henley once joked in relation to the Royer smear,

New Republic Writer Jim Henley is how I’d like to be referred to from now on. After all, I sold them a single article back in 1993. In Andrew Sullivan’s world (scroll down to “FIFTH COLUMN WATCH”), ever publishing a single article with a venue makes you a “[that venue] writer,” and – hey how about that – Andrew Sullivan was TNR’s editor when my article was published.

Maybe I’ll get new business cards.

* “Sometimes Raimondo posts other leftwing fascists to do his slandering for him. He has done this with Kevin Keating, infamous for hoisting a banner during the anti-Iraq demonstrations in San Francisco that read: ‘We Support Our Troops When They Shoot Their Officers.'”

A link perhaps? Nope. Here’s the only reference to Kevin Keating on Antiwar.com, again via Google.

Perhaps Schwartz, like many folks his age, just needs a remedial course on surfing the Web?

A roadside bomb went off this morning next to the motorcade of Kosovo “president” Ibrahim Rugova, reports AP/The Guardian. Rugova was on his way to meet the EU Commssar Javier Solana, to discuss the next Albanian occupation government after the resignation and surrender of “Prime Minister” Ramush Haradinaj. Solana’s message of support to the Albanians is in itself very interesting, but that’s a topic for another time.
“Unfortunately there are still people who want to destabilise Kosovo. I condemn this act and the people who do things like this should be stopped,” Rugova is quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Continue reading “Roadside bomb targets Rugova”

Our friends at the Stop the War Coalition in Britain asked me to post this appeal:

The British antiwar movement, the Stop the War Coalition is holding a national demonstration on Saturday 19 March 2005, in London, as part of the international day of protest action on the second anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq.

The London demo’s themes are: ‘Bring the Troops Home’, ‘End the Occupation of Iraq’,’No more Bush Wars’.

The coalition is ‘broke’. It has spent every last pound on the event – but wanted to fly out a key speaker from the USA – former UN Arms Inspector Scott Ritter. Ritter is warning of US plans for the invasion of Iran, which he believes could be in June 2005.

The UK protest will be a focus for world media, after the success of the Feb 2003 London anti-war demonstration which mobilised around 2 million people in London in the greatest protest in British history. This protest includes speakers from Military Families Against the War.

UK Stop the War Coalition can find some expenses but not the key travel costs such as airfare. Want to help?

We have two days to raise the airfare. If you donate and the total raised is not enough, the Stop the War Coalition will invite Ritter to a UK speaking tour this spring, and any funds raised from US supporters will be used to make that happen.

Get Ritter to London and the world’s media!

One-off donations to UK Stop the War Coalition
(NB the donations are listed in UK pounds. £1 = approx $1.83).