Posted on 07/06/2011 2:01:14 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
General Henry Knox, a Revolutionary War hero and U.S. Secretary of War in the country’s early days, was no stranger to political controversy. But the museum established at Montpelier, his home in Thomaston, seems like an unlikely site for an ideological flap generated by the attention of a national right-wing media watchdog.
The General Henry Knox Museum is a private non-profit organization. It holds an annual fundraising gala that includes a guest speaker, dinner and reception. This year’s event is scheduled for July 28 at the Strand Theatre in Rockland and will feature a talk by Abderrahim Foukara, the Washington bureau chief of Al Jazeera. Before working for the Arab-owned network, Foukara earned his journalistic chops at, among other news organizations, the BBC World Service and WGBH in Boston. He’s widely respected as an expert on the Middle East.
So what’s the big deal?
Accuracy In Media, a conservative news-coverage critic, caught wind of the event. AIM posted a piece on its Web site claiming the Knox museum was “honoring a representative of Al-Jazeera, the channel associated with various terrorist organizations.”
That prompted much blathering on the As Maine Goes Web site (“General Knox must be turning in his grave at the very thought of this”), along with threats of a boycott aimed at the business headed by the president of the Knox museum’s board.
If Accuracy In Media had lived up to its name, it wouldn’t have claimed the Maine institution was “honoring” Foukara. Nothing in any press materials from the museum mentions any honor. It appears he’s been hired to give a speech, although my efforts to confirm that with Ellen Dyer, the executive director of Montpelier, and Greg Dufour, the president, went nowhere, since neither returned my phone calls. [Correction: Dyer has since informed me via email that Foukara is not being paid for his speech.]
As for Al Jazeera’s terrorist ties, there’s been plenty of speculation about that, much of it generated by AIM, but little of it backed up by more credible sources.
A few employees of the network have been arrested for alleged involvement with al Qaeda, but the organization itself hasn’t been cited for terrorist activities by U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Of more concern from a journalistic standpoint is Al Jazeera’s link to the government of Qatar, which owns the network and sometimes appears to interfere in its coverage, a problem that isn’t uncommon at government-funded news outlets around the world.
"There is the assumption people want to see the real face of war and there is the assumption people do not [the US]..so let's santitize it".
"Our gore only comes on Law and Order," adds Stewart.
A propagandist on the "true face of war?"
"This is an Arab network." "An Arab prism on the world", Foukara admits of Al Jazeera.
Back in March, Bill Ayers, spoke at the University of Maine [Teachers College] in the foothills town of Farmington on “Lesson One: I Would Sing. (Re)Framing Education for Democracy and Liberation".
Soros held a conference way up in the mountainous April: The Balsams of NH, close to the Maine border. Bretton Woods 2, said "creating nothing less than a new global economy." He spent "$50 million in New Hampshire to bring together up to 200 academic, business and government policy leaders under his Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)".
Al Jazeera at the Strand? Forget General Knox, what does Meredith have to say about all this?!?
What POSSIBLE connection is there between General Henry Knox and Abderrahim Foukara, the Washington bureau chief of Al Jazeera?
Of course it honors him. The sponsors of the event must desperately want an Arab extremist as a speaker, since there can be no other possible reason to invite him.
It’s like inviting Fidel Castro to a Mark Twain celebration. What’s the connection?
“It’s like inviting Fidel Castro to a Mark Twain celebration”
Great analogy!
It is being held in an artsy or independent theater.
I grew up in Thomaston. Back then, scum like Greg Dufour (Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the museum and the president of Camden National Bank) would never have dreamed of pulling a stunt like this. I have issued an ultimatum to him to cancel the gig or my pals at FOX News will learn of his traitorous actions.
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