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."
We got this far without getting into the whole Israel thing, I was hoping to avoid it.
I try to only concern myself with thing that can be changed. The fact that Israel is there, and is full of Jews, is unchangeable. They ain't leaving. I don't say that because I love Jews and hate Arabs, it's just a fact. Just like the "white" man lives in the U.S. No matter how bad the methods were to rid the land of the "red" man, we are here, and nothing's gonna undo that. Just like nothing's gonna undo Israel. And regardless of all the arguments for and against, or who did what to whom, the answer to one question keeps entering my mind when I think of who's the good guys, and who's the bad guys in that situation. That question is,
If Israel gave all the land they acquired after the wars with Arabs, back to their previous occupiers, and Israel never fired a shot in anger toward any Arab, would that lead to peace in the middle East?
My answer to that, as of now, is NO. I sincerely believe that there will be, in the least, terrorist attacks designed to kill as many Jews as possible, and at worst, another full scale war to rid the region of Jews forever.
It has nothing to do with religion or race to me. It's just my belief according to what I know to be true. And believe me, I've heard both sides. I've been reading these threads on FR for a long time now. I've followed links from both sides, learned all I could, and that's how I come down.
But I don't believe for a single second that ObL gives a hoot about the plight of the Palestinians. I've seen every announcement he's made available to the U.S. in all these years, and he has never, ever given the Palestinians a mention until after he knew the hammer was coming down on him. And it was only to attempt to mobilize the Arab world to be with him, against the U.S.A.
Anybody that would purposely aim to end the lives of innocent non combatants, or incite others to do so, in order to advance some political, or religious opinion, deserves to be removed from the earth. Arafat is one, and Osama is another.
Sounds like some self-hating, European/American (makes no difference) hippy to me...
The way that he "feels" about himself, his "nasty" culture, his "everything is wonderful except my own culture and race" mentality fits right in with the tone of his article.
I've been a true "victim" of his kind, teachers who were his classmates, for example, and I've managed to survive despite his generation's attempted brainwashing...
Brilliant! Good catch...
Poor misguided fool! His own stinking, rotting culture and philosophy could even bring him to make such statements...
Actually a lot longer than that. Its just gotten progressively worse in the past 9 years. Hard to miss anymore. The ironic part is that no one seems to ever figure that the guys at the top ('good' and 'bad') all have mutual investments in companies and if the 'bad' guy were taken out (ala saddam, qadaffi, binladen, arafat et al) it might devalue the 'good' guys investments. Thats why they are all still alive and well and ruling, while only innocent civilians get dead and buried. We need to get a clue.
Does this mean that you are Native American? I have absolutely no desire to 'rid' the land of the red man (although someone did, to make room for the new settlers) Sound familiar? I am fascinated with Indian culture and resent the he!! out of the gross poverty that exists on some of their 'reservations', particularly Lakota.
'It has nothing to do with religion or race to me.'
Me either. Both sides in this war are of the same ethnicity, excepting, of course, the Jews who are really descended from asian/mongol tribes and who simply adopted Judeaism back in 700 AD. They are not really Jews although they call themselves such. There's not a heck of a lot of info on that out there, but it does exist if you turn over enough big rocks.
'Anybody that would purposely aim to end the lives of innocent non combatants, or incite others to do so, in order to advance some political, or religious opinion, deserves to be removed from the earth.
Now on that point you and I totally agree, excepting I probably wouldn't remove them from the earth, imprisonment would work fine for me. We just see it differently as to WHO is actually trying to push who out. And I don't see this as particularly political OR religious. Its land, pure and simple. Just like always. There's been a lot of lip service paid to G-d in America since 911, but when you come right down to it, the only ones who actually LIVE their faith on a daily basis is the Muslims. I hate hypocrasy worse than just about anything.
If the Indians hadn't been so divided by tribal differences and had had better weapons (aka the Arabs) we might now be speaking Cherokee. And if the Whites hadn't broken so many promises/treaties (aka the Israeli's) we might now be speaking Seminole.
The truth is out there, Gump. Keep looking, and then decide.
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