The following article by Brian Whitaker appeared in the TBS Journal of Spring 2005, following his earlier Guardian article and debate with MEMRI’s president. As well as criticising MEMRI’s partiality and selection techniques, he highlights the Bin Laden State-gate incident (see also: Juan Cole, Marc Lynch et al) and its implications.
Maybe Bin Ladin was indeed talking about American states, but maybe not. If he had meant American states, he could easily have said so. Short of asking him, there is no way of knowing his real intention. Other translations rightly preserved the ambiguity of the original Arabic and MEMRI was wrong to jump to conclusions. It was also a clever bit of election propaganda on MEMRI’s part, implying that Bin Ladin wanted Americans to vote for Kerry. The idea was taken up by Fox News on November 1, when John Gibson, anchorman for its evening news program, The Big Story, told viewers, “Over the weekend we finally got a good translation (i.e. from MEMRI) of Usama bin Ladin’s tape, which suddenly appeared on the air on Friday. Back on Friday, it sounded like gibberish. Now, it’s a bit more clear. Usama was trying to make a deal with Americans, along these lines: If you vote against Bush, we will not attack you. So, if Ohio votes for Kerry, Usama will not attack. If Florida votes for Bush, Usama will attack.”
Viewers would have little trouble interpreting the message there: a vote for Kerry was a vote for Bin Ladin, and all right-thinking Americans should vote for Bush.
Arabsats Get the MEMRI Treatment
By Brian Whitaker
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