Posted on 12/09/2001 6:22:59 AM PST by philo
Journalist beaten by Afghan mob
LONDON, England -- A British journalist has been attacked and beaten by a mob of Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
Robert Fisk, 55, a veteran foreign correspondent for the London-based Independent national newspaper, was assaulted when his car broke down on the road between the border city of Quetta and Charnan.
He suffered head, face and hand injuries after being pelted with stones when he was set upon by a group of up to 100 people.
Recovering at his hotel in Quetta, the veteran journalist told the Press Association:
"It was a very frightening experience and I am in a lot of pain but I am glad to be alive.
"I'm going to bear the scars for the rest of my life - sadly I broke down in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Fisk, the newspaper's Middle East correspondent, had been travelling to Charnan when his car overheated and broke down close to a village housing refugees who had fled across the border from Afghanistan.
He got out of the vehicle and was attempting to push it to the side of the road when a group of 40 to 50 people gathered.
"At first they were reasonably friendly but then a little kid threw a stone at me. More stones followed and then I find myself being punched and beaten in the face.
"My glasses were smashed and my spare glasses were ripped away from me. I was covered in blood and couldn't see anything. I was obviously frightened."
Fisk said he fought back and began lashing out at the mob, whose numbers swelled to about 100.
He knocked a couple of his attackers to the ground but was then rescued by a Muslim religious leader, who forced the mob back and guided him to a police wagon.
"Without his intervention I would now be dead," he sa id.
He made it back to his hotel in Quetta, where he was given further medical attention by two Pakistani doctors.
But Fisk said he could understand the mob's anger.
"I later found out that the village housed lots of Afghan refugees, whose relatives had been killed just last week in the American bombing of Kandahar," he said.
"It doesn't excuse them for beating me up so badly but there was a real reason why they should hate Westerners so much. "I don't want this to be seen as a Muslim mob attacking a Westerner for no reason.
They had every reason to be angry -- I've been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me.
"I have worked in the Middle East for many years. This is a warzone and sometimes you just have to accept that these things happen."
I wonder what would happen to Dan Rather, Bonehead Jennings and their ilk if they showed up at a Freeper party?
Wasn't Dan Rather mugged once in New York?
Islam is a religion of peace.
They apparently knew the guy was AntiAmerican/ ProTaliban.
I can just wait to see his next article, where he blames an American conspiracy for this.
No, of course not. And yet when there are a few isolated incidents of Americans attacking Middle Easterners in the immediate aftermath of September 11, we were described as a country torn apart by hatred and bigotry.
I don't mean to sound callous, but the best part of this war is that more Western journalists have been killed than Western soldiers.
"They had every reason to be angry -- I've been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me."
I'm absolutely speechless.
Oh no, you don't sound callous, you sound sick and disturbed. Go tell the families of the journalists that you are glad they are dead. Go ahead. I'll wait.
He already has. From the article:
But Fisk said he could understand the mob's anger.
"I later found out that the village housed lots of Afghan refugees, whose relatives had been killed just last week in the American bombing of Kandahar," he said.
"It doesn't excuse them for beating me up so badly but there was a real reason why they should hate Westerners so much. "I don't want this to be seen as a Muslim mob attacking a Westerner for no reason.
They had every reason to be angry -- I've been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me.
While the media sleazes only publish material that make them, personally, look good and the USA look bad, the material that they pass on to thier Israeli, Saudi, Iranian, Indian, or Chinese superiors is usually biased the other way; it makes the locals look bad.
And cut Robert Fisk a little slack in the days to come, it’s quite possible he sustained a concussion in the melee and might not be able to rapidly formulate the article where he blames the U.S. for this incident.
Don't we have a reason to be upset with Arabs and Southwest Asians for their part in killing thousands of Americans on 9-11? Does that mean it would be understandable if we attack them whenever we see them walking around? What's wrong with that jerk?
Hell, I wouldn't tell the family of Osama bin Laden I'm glad he's dead. But I'll still be glad when he's dead.
Taunting dead people's families is a little outré, isn't it? What made you think of it?
Absolutely perfect.
The Anti-Israel Rants of Robert Fisk
June 2, 1994 by Andrea Levin. The Anti-Israel Rant
of Robert Fisk. Usual fare on cable ...
Robert Fisk's Orwellian Newspeak
... Robert Fisk's Orwellian Newspeak For more than two decades, journalist Robert Fisk
has used his correspondent card to proudly become a crusader for Arab and ...
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Press&publishing | BBC man hits back ...
... 3, 2001 BBC world affairs editor John Simpson has hit back at the Independent's Robert
Fisk over his claim that the BBC kow-towed to the Israeli government in ...
Iraq Under Siege Authors
... Robert Fisk. Robert Fisk is an award-winning reporter for The Independent newspaper
in London. As the Independent’s Middle east correspondent since 1976, he ...
Special report on the US and terrorism.
... For three days in a row the London Independent allowed its Middle East correspondent
Robert Fisk to give vent to his anger at the Americans, on its news pages ...
If a crowd of 100 angry Arabs wanted to do this guy damage, he would most probably now be dead and in icky pieces, too. What stopped the angry mob, anyway? Maybe they ran out of rocks to throw, or something. How did he escape without transportation? What a clintonistic piece of self-serving, self-glorifying nonsense this story is.
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