"By Frank Gardner, BBC News security correspondent." -- the byline on this article
Not the Frank Gardner?
The Frank Gardner who for years spouted pro-Arab and anti-Israel reports from the Middle East?
The Frank Gardner who on September 12, 2001 had to report "reluctantly" from Cairo that Cairenes were celebrating upon hearing news of the attacks in New York and Washington -- and one wondered why he had to report this "reluctantly"?
The Frank Gardner whom Muslim terrorists tried to kill in Saudi Arabia? As he, Frank Gardner, lay bleeding on the street, he begged passersby to "help me, I'm a Muslim, help me, I'm a Muslim." Because, you see, Frank Gardner knew after his years in the Muslim countries that the only conceivable appeal that might get someone to help him would be to say not "help me, I'm wounded" or merely "help me," but only, given his appearance, "help me, I'm a Muslim." That was the moment of truth, or should have been, for his listeners. But was it?
He recovered, pocketed a nice sum from the Saudis, and now is back to reporting, having learned nothing. And his bosses also seem to have learned nothing from that astonishing equivalent to a "dying declaration" (as it is known in American law): "Help me, I'm a Muslim."
Has Frank Gardner forgotten what, for some minutes when he thought he was dying, he appeared to recognize? He has gone right back to what he had been doing before that incident, the way that another untrustworthy reporter from the Middle East, Bob Simon, just after his brief capture by Iraqis during the Gulf War, seemed just a bit chastened, just a bit less outrageous in his reporting. But now Simon also has returned, whenever he gets chance, to his former perspective. Perhaps stupidity rather than malevolence explains it in Simon's case. Perhaps it can be attributed to his staggering incomprehension of what is going on in the Middle East, not least in the Lesser Jihad against Israel. Perhaps it is based on Bob Simon's inability or apparent unwillingness, during all his years reporting from Israel, to learn the first thing about Islam.
Frank Gardner has for years been a tireless apologist for, and therefore promoter of, the Muslim agenda. He spoke in debates at the Oxford Union in support of a "Palestinian" state. He had the usual Bush House sneer for Israel.
Now that Frank Gardner is back, reporting on naval battles in the Persian Gulf, does one have a right to ask, and now have answered by him, this question?
When you in a moment of truth screamed "help me, I'm a Muslim," what did you mean? Why did you scream those words, and not others?
We want to know. Tell us.
One has also just a few more questions for the execrable, miserable Frank Gardner: Tell us, Frank, at this point, is you is or is you ain't?
Not that it makes any difference in your coverage, which is as appalling as it could be. But still -- one would like to know -- when you cried out "Help me, I'm a Muslim," were you telling the truth? And if so, for how long had you been a Muslim, or have you become one since, in a fascinating variant on the Stockholm syndrome? Did you embrace Islam at long last because you were deeply sympathetic to it, or was what pushed you into "reversion" that attempt by a Muslim to kill you?
Tell us, Frank Gardner.
And BBC -- tell us why Frank Gardner, and Barbara Plett and Orla Guerin, and so many others "too numerous to mention" have not been discharged for journalistic malpractice, and those who protect them (see here for more on one case, John Simpson) as well? Michael Grade should seize control of the BBC World Service from the Foreign Office and fire, outright, John Simpson, that vicious anti-American, antisemitic #3 at the BBC, and the man who has helped turn the BBC World Service into the anti-American, anti-Israel organization it is.
Then fire Judy Swallow, she of the permanent sneer, and Robin Lustig, and Lyse Doucet, and bring in people who are fit for the task of reporting things straight. What does it take for the British people and government to begin to clean up the BBC? How many more outrages?
"Tell us, Frank, at this point, is you is or is you ain't?" Posted by Hugh
Brilliant, as always. Thank you.
Way to many journalists, and media talking heads report what they see, or hear but never appear to analyze the what,and the why of the actions and the behaviors of Muslims. They continously reflect no understanding of what drives these people to their incessant behaviors. Is it political correctness, and mulitculturalism run amock in their reporting world? I am always amused when they refer to these folks as investigative journalists, or reporters. A good homocide detective would make these folks look like 3 year olds when it comes to investigating. Beware when you hear them use the term "my sources tell me", what sources? That is why it is a breath of fresh air to read people who have a clear understanding of the Islamic Ideology. Contemporaries like Hugh Fitzgerald,Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes, and Caroline Glick come to mind.
God, I hope Frank Gardner Googles himself and is confronted by the question Hugh's asked him.
Even if he doesn't publicly answer (and I expect he won't), may his conscience never rest easy ever-afterward.
Prostitution as a profession is more honest, more ethical and decidely less bigoted a profession compared with journalism.
Saying that there are good journalists out there has as much a balancing effect as saying that there are moderate muslims out there: the core still remains rotten like a barrel full of apples.
"HELP ME, I'M A MUSLIM!" is going to a popular phrase in the future.
Although not in the way Garndner meant it.
Blechh. I used to be comatized by the Beeb until 9/11, and then I woke up. What cowards and quaking plates of jello be these pansies.
They should have let him bleed out....
I was slightly surprised by Lyse Doucet, last Summer, during the war in South Lebanon. She finished an on-screen interview with, if I recollect rightly, the Lebanese finance minister, by thanking him using his first name - Jihad. I was less struck by her being on first name terms with him than by the way she pronounced his name in a rather quick mumble.
"...and those who protect them (see here for more on one case, John Simpson) as well?"
Link, please.
I wonder if the following quotation from Hugh's article isn't the reason for most if not all favourable reporting and misreporting on and attitudes to Muslim/Arab atrocities and lies and general bloody behavior and attitudes.
So much of pro Islamic news and propaganda seems to emanate from Arab "embedded" journalists and ambassadors and others who have had hand to hand contact and love ins with them.
"... pocketed a nice sum from the Saudis,..."
M.O.T.
Yah, I'd like to know too Frank!
Below is the link to the Middle East Online coverage of this story, which was used when DW originally reported this back in 2004.
Look at the TV News screen cap used to illustrate the report. Gardner, the terror VICTIM, alone in the middle of the street, bleeding profusely, pleading for help while bystanders - including at least one apparent police officer - just stood and watched.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10204
Compare that image with this remarkable photo of off-duty police officer Stewart Ferguson hosing down the burning TERRORIST who had just attacked Glasgow airport.
http://cheatseekingmissiles.blogspot.com/2007/07/glasgow-bombers-mohammed-or-bill.html
Next time some liberal idiot tells you all religions are the same, show him these two links...
PS: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Do NOT nominate Stewart Ferguson for Dhimmi of the Year. He was only doing his job :))).
It reminds me again of Little Big Man,, "Didn't ya hear me say God Bless George Washington, now what kind of fool indian would say something like that!?"
What about the man who says that he was kidnapped: Alan Johnston.
So dedicated is he to his job that even when apparently under kidnappd conditions, he managed to file not one but two blistering reports, the first one that was totally indistinguishable from his normal anti-Israeli and US rant the second one wearing an item of clothing that no respectable arab should be seen without: a bomb vest.
bbc is an institutionally anti-Semite, anti-US propoganda mouthpiece for Hamas and Hezbollah. No wonder most of the al jazeera recruits are all former bbc trained reports.
I can only assume that this was spoken in Arabic, as saying it in English would not have been much good deep in Saudi Arabia. And that the translation, by the speaker, is accurate. I can draw one of two conclusions.
The first possibility is that Frank, laying there in a pool of blood, came to an awful realisation: that he had become a Muslim. Perhaps by osmosis, perhaps by forced conversion, and perhaps by some foolish choice he made in a halal bar, doped up on too much opium (can't have alcohol, but feel free to partake in your mind-altering drug of choice). Suddenly he realised that he was in great danger of dying a Muslim! So he desperately pleaded for help getting out. Help me (escape Islam)!!! If so, I feel for the guy. Tough spot, and an unfortunate place to ask for assistance in apostasizing. I guess he figured, "hey, I'm dying anyway, now's my chance, cause it doesn't matter if they kill me for takfir!"
The second possibility would seem more likely: Frank, a naive English-bred journalist braving the wilds of the Middle east with his box brownie, khakhi shorts and pith helmet, was very weak in the subtleties of the Arab tongue, and stayed only in the better hotels because the folks at the night desk always spoke a little English.
Walking about snapping pictures of everything in sight, blistered with a sort of permanent sunburn tan and dressed like a Wimbleton wannabe, was clearly NOT a muslim, and came from Northern Climes. To the mid-eastern mentality, then, he was either a Jew or a Christian. His accent showed that he was not an American or a Jew. Hence an English Christian, and almost certainly an Anglican. So he was the target of a most pitiful and plaintive kind of mendicant -- the sort who wants not your money, but your faith.
They would sit in the street, maybe recently beaten by a mob in Sharia frenzy, or looking poor and near death. "Help me, I'm a Muslim...", they would begin
Frank would quicken his pace, realising that stopping to assist one of these poor grovelling wretches would not reduce the scale of the overwhelming misery around him, for he heard this plea dozens of times per day. Besides, he was on deadline and he could not disappoint his faithful readers back home.
And so Frank never heard the rest of their plea, "...and I want to become an Anglican. Help me apostasize and become like you."
No matter, as Frank's Arabic was, Frankly, too weak to understand this more complicated part. In fact, it was too weak to properly parse even the first part. Judging from context he guessed that "[arabic] Help me, I'm a Muslim", in that peculiar Saudi accent, probably meant something like "Good Lord man can't you see I'm dying? For the love of Allah, call 9-11!"
And so it came to pass, that when Frank lay in his own pool of blood on the street, and what little Arabic he'd learned in journalism school ["Please to show how direction to lavatory", "Is close-by pavement under taxicab banana?", "Gracious sir, your wife is charming duck!"] eluded his desperate mind, he dredged this phrase he had heard so many times and flung it back in desperation.
Only later did he learn what the phrase actually meant.
Wow, all kinds of chatter in this page until I penned my masterpiece above, then everyone cleared out. 2 days later, no more comments.
Boy, nobody can clear a room faster than Arch2! Is it my body odor?