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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Supplement Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Back to the Cold War
By Salama Ahmed Salama
As if the world had not seen enough human suffering in the Balkans and Iraq, or in the images of tens of thousands of civilians fleeing smart and stupid bombs alike, the assault on human reason is now underway. In the past 50 days, NATO has failed to achieve any of its objectives. It has failed to protect the Albanian refugees from ethnic cleansing, to repatriate them, or to break the will and resistance of the Serbs.
Now, NATO's high command has resorted to lies and outrageous propaganda. Instead of engaging ground troops, an option it is seeking to avoid, it is persisting in its cowardly and barbarous air strikes in a last-ditch bid to "win" the war.
When the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed and, most recently, when NATO missiles struck a village, killing more than one hundred ethnic Albanians held by Serb forces, the Western alliance refused to take the responsibility for its errors.
In the case of the Chinese embassy, NATO claimed that it had used old maps and had believed the embassy to be Serb police headquarters. In the second incident, NATO at first adamantly denied its responsibility, then backtracked, admitting that the village was on the list of Serb military targets.
It was impossible to verify whether or not this was true, since the authorities claimed the film on which the mission was supposed to have been recorded had ended before the incident took place.
The propaganda syndrome seems to have infected other parts of the world too. In Turkey, it was easy for the government to strip the veiled member of parliament of her nationality, on the grounds that she held a dual nationality: American and Turkish.
It soon became evident, however, that Turkish law does not forbid parliamentarians from wearing a veil; nor, for that matter, does it provide for any specific apparel to be worn in parliament.
The Turkish government deliberately made no mention of numerous other parliamentarians and ministers who hold dual nationalities, yet remain in office or maintain their seats in parliament. Democracy Turkish style, or "no veil democracy", is the brand the US advocates.
Another incident that has insulted the intelligence of the world community in recent days is the news that Egyptian millionaire Mohamed El-Fayed is being interrogated for publishing the names of British intelligence agents on the Internet.
Are these reassuring signs in an age of freedom and human rights? A former agent who was sacked by British intelligence after falling out with his employers was accused of having leaked the information; when it proved impossible to extradite him from his home in Switzerland, the British turned on El-Fayed. He is an easy target, it is true; having been refused British nationality a number of times, he is currently the press's bugbear of choice. And giving away state security information would be just his style.
Lies are far more common than truth in the media these days. Relativity is all very well, but the world seems to have reverted to the Cold War years, when propaganda and counter-propaganda were used to control nations and obtain unswerving loyalty by constructing a demonic enemy. The only difference between then and now is that the methods used today are far more complex -- and malicious -- than they were 20 years ago.
