Assafir‘s “scoops” are turning out to be nothing but empty propaganda wishlists.
This morning, the pro-opposition newspaper Assafir ran a story which alleged that Army officers were refusing promotions given to them by the Seniora government. Naturally, the subtext of the story was that the Army -a respectable institution- was not ok with Mr. Seniora’s using presidential powers.
Even Naharnet, the vanguard March 14 website, believed and ran Assafir‘s story. But as today’s flat Army denial shows, the story is totally false.
The Seniora cabinet had held a session to sign resolutions previously turned down by ex-President Emile Lahoud. Those included crucial measures like the payment of retirement money to government officials and belated promotions.
As falsehoods often do, Assafir‘s story backfired. The Army’s rebuttal included a reference to “H.E. Mr. Seniora”, the very point Assafir wanted to undermine.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
http://www.lebarmy.gov.lb/ is not working!!
Of course, the web site working. LebPatriot: do you work for as-safir?
I am not joking man. I have tried this for 10 times. This is what I get:
http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=capturewo8.jpg
BTW, I will kill myself before I work for a propaganda machine like As-Safir
The repulsive part of the whole Lebanese media is that they still regard AS Safir as a credible paper. It is Nothing but a rag!!! It has reported false made up stories over and over again. Yet on kalam el Nas and Bkoul J’raa, you see these two bozos quote As Safir and Al Akhbar as if they were God’s word.
The Army website is working.
As safir is just a propaganda paper but I read just to know their talking points.
Assafir is downgrading to the level of UK yellow papers. That is no surprise.
What’s is annoying is the unfaithful Talal Salman. He pretends to be Hariri’s friend. But it seems that Safavid rial or dollar made him so blind.
Its all part of the game! after sending a strong message to Sleiman through hajj’s assasination, the opposition’s media bulldozer will attempt to suck-in the military into the political turmoil. Although the military seems to be taking the neutral position, it is apparent that Sleiman is refusing to discuss any pre-set condiions prior to his election. He is still reporting to Siniora and takes his orders from the minister of defence Mr Murr, who clearly indicated to Marcel Ghanem in his last interview that “it is not much who commited the criminal act that is important but who gave the orders and instructions”. Sleiman is well aware that the opposition empowered by Syria will without any doubt try to undermine the very military instituion who is still capable of facing chaos on the streets. In fact, M8 ‘faux pas’ will rally the military to the M14 camp. The coming weeks will determine the outcome of the opposition tactics, the military in my opinion will be subject to further intimidation and threats. It will be our soldiers and officers who will pay the big price again. Wait and see!
Hariri & Sanyoura = pain in the ass !
Dont worry Dory,
we all know that Jeajea killed Francois Hajj and u still talking about lebanese army ….
Dont you think that Sanyoura goverment is involved ?
all of the 14th are !
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It’s basic journalism that when you publish something accusing X of something nasty (in this case, being partisan – not politically neutral), X will nearly always issue a denial. Nothing unusual here.