Michael Collins Piper, Special to Arab News

WASHINGTON — I was saddened to learn that Saudi writer Saad ibn Salih Al-Sirhan allegedly made disparaging comments about my capabilities as a journalist in the Sept. 1, 2003 edition of Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News.

His remarks came in a commentary regarding the demise of the Abu Dhabi-based Zayed International Center for Coordination and Follow-Up, the target of a heavy-handed media campaign by the pro-Zionist Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B’nai B’rith. Al-Sirhan (like the two pro-Israel groups) cited me — among others — as being somewhat sordid in character and effectively not fit to bear the title of “scholar” or “intellectual”. I was one of the “controversial” speakers who had appeared at the Zayed Center in recent months, much to the distress of MEMRI and the ADL.

It is true that MEMRI and ADL consider me an “extremist” and if the title “extremist” refers to one who has dared to challenge the power of the Israeli lobby in America, then I cheerfully plead guilty to the charge. In fact, I have spent my entire career as a journalist documenting the activities of the Israeli lobby, and I have done so knowing full well that I would be subjected to smears from pro-Israel partisans.

It does surprise me, however, to find that an Arab writer would now lend aid and comfort to MEMRI and the ADL by joining them in describing me in less than flattering terms.

Not only have my writings on the subject of the Israeli lobby been widely circulated in the United States over the past 20 years or more — providing perhaps millions of Americans with a point of view that they would not normally find in the American media — but in recent years at least one article I wrote was picked up and re-published by Arab News and also, reportedly, by Asharq Al-Awsat.

My writings have also been used by Washington-based correspondents for Arab world newspapers and have provided the foundation for corresponding articles published in distinguished Arab world media. And I’m proud of that.

I find it ironic that I now find myself not only condemned in the American and Israeli press but also in the Arabic-language media. My only “crime” — the reason I have been declared an “extremist” — has been that I have dared to speak out against the Israeli lobby and in favor of a US policy that takes the concerns of the Arab world into consideration.

It was particularly disturbing to see Al-Sirhan effectively condemn the thesis of my book “Final Judgment”, which documents — to the satisfaction of many people worldwide — the strong likelihood of a role by Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Al-Sirhan’s remarks were particularly stinging since, among other things, my book has been published in Arabic by the distinguished Beirut-based firm of Dar El Ilm Lilmalayin, and even more so because I learned some years ago — after my book was published — that Gen. Mustafa Tlass, the highly-regarded longtime Syrian defense minister, had made public statements to the effect that it was his opinion that there was in fact a Zionist role in the JFK assassination.

In addition, in 1992, former US Congressman Paul Findley (R-Ill.), who has been an outspoken advocate for the Palestinian cause — and who suffered Zionist lobby’s retribution as a consequence — published an article in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in which he stated: “It is interesting — but not surprising — to note that in all the words written about the Kennedy assassination, Israel’s Mossad has never been mentioned. And yet a Mossad motive is obvious. On this question, American reporters cannot bring themselves to cast Israel in an unfavorable light — despite the obvious fact that Mossad complicity is as plausible as any of the other theories.” And I can tell you here — publicly, for the first time — that it was Findley who directed me to a French intelligence source who provided me very crucial information regarding the Mossad connection to the JFK assassination conspiracy.

What’s more, a number of other prominent Americans, including retired Pentagon official Col. Donn De Grand Pre — the chief Pentagon liaison to the Arab world during his career — has publicly endorsed my thesis of Mossad involvement.

Likewise, Dr. Herbert Calhoun, a former high-ranking US State Department official in the realm of arms control, has also endorsed my thesis and offered words of support. So while Al-Sirhan may not be prepared to endorse my thesis, some big names have attached their names to the theory — Al-Sirhan’s concerns about my purported “extremism” notwithstanding.

My own address to the Zayed Center, by the way, was largely devoted to the topic of what is no secret in the Arab world: The fact that a tightly-knit conglomeration of families and financial interests, all of them with close ties to Israel, dominate the American media. In the United States, it is true, it is “extremist” to say these things, but I am appalled that an Arab intellectual such as Al-Sirhan would call me an extremist in the same manner that the Zionist lobby in America does.

I should mention, for the record, that purportedly anti-Semitic statements I made in my address to the Zayed Center — as cited by the ADL — were direct quotations from the book “The Sacred Chain” by Dr. Norman Cantor, an American Jewish academic.

I deeply regret that my appearance at the Zayed Center may have given ammunition to the Zionist lobby in its campaign to destroy that institution. However, I regret even more that Zionist pressure has reached such a pinnacle that it could achieve the evisceration of the very think tank established under the auspices of the Arab League.

What it boils down to is this: Israel and its American partisans have no problem whatsoever with Arabs meeting with and talking to other Arabs. However, when institutions such as the Zayed Center dare to reach out and make contact with non-Arabs who have an empathy for the ill-treatment US and Israeli policy has accorded the Arab peoples, the line is drawn in the sand.

What I said at the Zayed Center was the following:

That the Israeli lobby in America will not be satisfied until the Arab world is subjugated under a new imperium dictated by Israel’s so-called neoconservative partisans whose influence reaches through both major political parties in America.

I encourage the people and leaders of the Arab world to extend their hands of friendship and support to those independent-minded journalists and media voices who do dare to speak out. I look forward to further opportunities to speak and share ideas with the people and leaders of the Arab world — despite what MEMRI and the ADL and Al-Sirhan might have to say about it.

E-mail: piperm@lycos.com

- Arab News Opinion 19 September 2003