Defaming Arab Leftist Professor As'ad Abukhalil, And Responses [Updated]

[As`ad AbuKhalil addressing students in the University of Manchester. Image via Wikipedia.] [As`ad AbuKhalil addressing students in the University of Manchester. Image via Wikipedia.]

Defaming Arab Leftist Professor As'ad Abukhalil, And Responses [Updated]

By : Jadaliyya Reports

Below are excerpts from two posts in response to the attempt to defame As`ad Abukhalil, a leftist professor of political science at California State University Stanislaus. The first post is from Electronic Intifada and the other from Abukhalil`s own blog, The Angry Arab New Service. We will update this post as necessary. Happy new defamation campaings!
 


 

[The following article was originally published on Electronic Intifada and is being updated regularly. You may follow the story here.]

Debunked: The Claim That As’ad AbuKhalil Worked for The CIA
Submitted by Benjamin Doherty on Monday 30 December 2013 

Allegations disseminated by the website Now that California State University Stanislaus professor As’ad AbuKhalil worked for the CIA are based on nothing more than information harvested from Internet spam sites and web forums.

AbuKhalil is also the author of the widely-read blog The Angry Arab News Service, where he has frequently been harshly critical of both the Syrian regime and opposition.

This post will demonstrate that the information on which basis it is claimed AbuKhalil worked for the CIA lacks any element of credibility or reliability whatsoever.

AbuKhalil has forcefully denied the claims.

The Allegation

In a 29 December [2013] article in Arabic on the website Now, Ahed al-Hendi, identified as as a “Syrian opposition activist,” alleges that AbuKhalil worked as a “doorman” or “host” for the CIA:

Washington–It is naive to believe that the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has no doorman. More important is that one of the “doormen” at the headquarters of this agency formerly was an “Angry” Arab of California and “resister” As’ad AbuKhalil. This is no silly joke, mere accusation, or secret or classified information, but information provided by American firms that specialize in collating public records about individuals, companies and organizations.

The website LexisNexis is the world’s biggest database of legal documents, public records about individuals and companies, and this information is provided to the public. When searched for As’ad AbuKhalil, the site reveals that he worked during an unspecified period for the Central Intelligence Agency, as a host. The agency’s phone number on the website belongs to the agency’s public affairs office.

This information comes in the context of the website’s presentation of the positions a person held based on his Social Security Number, and it appears that AbuKhalil worked as a professor at the University of California [sic] with the same Social Security Number, which eliminates any doubt about a similarity of names.

Al-Hendi’s article is accompanied by this tightly cropped screenshot purporting to support its allegations:

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[Evidence presented by Ahed Al-Hendi in Now.]

This is the only part of the article that sets out the “evidence” regarding AbuKhalil. Taking his own claims to be true, al-Hendi engages in speculations about AbuKhalil’s motives and tries to explain AbuKhalil’s alleged position of “host”–which on its face makes little sense. Why would the CIA hire AbuKhalil as a “host” or “doorman?”

Al-Hendi’s claims are then laundered in an article by a writer called Hussain Abdul-Hussain, identified as the “Washington Bureau Chief of Kuwaiti newspaper Alrai” in an article on the English version of the Now website, headlined “‘Angry Arab’ or CIA operative?”.

Abdul-Hussain’s article claims, “only until today was evidence finally uncovered after Syrian activist Ahed al-Hendi, while perusing through public records on the Internet, discovered that AbuKhalil had been paid by the CIA.”

[You may read the rest of the story and check for updates here.] 


 

[Below are exerpts from As`ad Abukhalil`s response on his The Angry Arab News Service. See the full response here.]

The Campaign Against Me: My Response
Monday, 30 December 2013

Ever since I started writing for Al-Akhbar against their idols and icons, they started a vicious campaign against me, just as the American Zionists launched campaigns against me ever since I launched my blog, or even ever since I opened my mouth as a student here against Zionism and US foreign policy and war. The Saudi government did not ever dare to try to bribe me directly–they don`t dare.  They however have tried repeatedly–I can reveal this here--to bribe the paper in which I write. The Saudi Minister of Justice, `Abdul-`Aziz Al-Khujah, offered millions to Al-Akhbar to shut me up, but he failed....

...You, o worshipers of money and generous governments, in the span of one year alone, you accused me of being a paid propagandist for the Iranian regime and Hizbullah and for the Syrian regime, and now you have moved to accuse me of being a CIA agent–all that in one year, and only because my writings against puppets of Saudi Arabia in Syria and Lebanon is unrelenting.  More than a year ago, Walid Phares and other Zionist here, launched a campaign in which I was accused of serving the Iranian regime and Hizbullah. That campaign aimed at endangering me here, just as your campaign wants to endanger me. What? You want to deny the accusation? You want me to deny that I was ever a spy or an agent, I who never wrote one unfree word in my life? Of course, I never ever was an employee, or an agent or "a functionary" or an informant or a doorman (the person in the Syrian exile opposition who instigated this campaign first claimed that I was a CIA spy, but when probably he was alerted that spies of the CIA work and live overseas, he changed his tune and claimed in a published article in the yellow journalism of oil that I was a doorman–notice the class hostility in the accusation...

...I never ever was employed by any intelligence agency in the world, and my writings–unlike yours–never ever was submitted to any authority for approval--and it shows. To those in the Syrian opposition who participated in this campaign, I say: when your own leaders were delivering lectures at the Asad Library in Damascus, I refused such invitations that I received before the beginning of the Syrian uprising and the Syrian conflict. I have too much respect for the sentiments of the Syrian people and for the plight of the prisoners to accept. I told those who called me from the Ministry of Information that I categorically reject the invitation–full expenses paid. They then tried to invite me in the name of some "civil society" organization with ties to the regime. I refused. As for my life in Washington, DC, my life there was no secret. I did not live in a cave. There are many people who were part of my social circle and they know that the only job I held there before obtaining my PhD was doing research work for the Institute for Palestine Studies in DC. During my student days, I once lived only on Za`tar sandwiches for lack of funds, and because I did not want to request the assistance of my parents. A childhood friend (he knows who he is) once visited me and saw the life I was living and against my wishes sent me a check. You want to lecture me about integrity and ethics, you who follow the worst and most corrupt governments on earth? You who live on the margins of the entourage of princes? I resolve that I will remain a thorn in your eye and a bitter taste in your mouth forever. I will be like a whip on your backs--nay on the back of the princes who order you. And the irony is that this accusation comes from those–unlike me–who are advocates of US wars and policies in the region. It is more than an irony for sure. What do you want? To compare bank account? To reveal our incomes and its sources publicly? I am all for it. I can easily reveal all that I own, but you would not dare....  

...My lifetime savings are so meager that they won`t be enough to buy an old car with three tires, not four.  In my checking account, there is now some $200.  I have lived in the US for 30 years, and I never employed a servant. I clean my own house myself: I go on my hands and knees and clean and wipe and dry and sweep (along with whomever shares my life at that point).  When I was in Doha back 2003 to tape a show for Aljazeera, I did accept a visit from the Emir. But what you don`t know is that I called Aljazeera management before the visit and told them that I will not accept any gift from the Emir, whether in the form of a fancy watch or an envelope of cash.  I told them that if he tries, I will toss in his face.  And when the Emir asked me about my work on a book on Saudi Arabia, he offered "assistance" in translations and distribution. I told him: thank you, but if you can assist the children of Palestine. They need assistance. One of them made me a spy last week and a doorman at the CIA the next and speculated that I was a receptionist there–I who never wore a tie in his life.  Zionists here make me a propagandist for Iran and Hizbullah and the Hariri and Saudi media went along with that. Take this challenge from me about your accusation: I say here in classical English that the CIA and other US intelligence agencies commit crimes around the world. Take this challenge. I accuse you of absolute subservience and loyalty to all the government agencies of the Saudi government.

I defy you to say that Saudi intelligence commit crimes, or that it makes mistakes or that it has lapses of judgment. I defy you. You would not dare. And who is the free now? Who is the free operator? Who is the one beholden to a foreign government? How dare you. Read my last week`s article in Al-Akhbar about the Kalashnikov: does it reflect the views of the US government, you fools?  I speak on behalf of the US government when I post my praises for George Habash?  I have lived here for 30 years, try to find one word by me in praise of the US government, any government. One word. I propagandize for any government, or an intelligence agency?  I read one word by you and guess the identify of the funder.  One word or even just the headline.  You who sneeze and cry and laugh and weep by an order from an aide in the entourage of the prince or the Hariri family. The extent of the freedom of the individual is reflected in the content of his writings.  I woke up daily and write against the crimes of US wars and foreign policies....

...I call daily for the full liberation of Palestine and support the right of the Palestinian people to engage in armed struggle among other forms of struggle against Israeli terrorism and occupation, and you think that the US government sponsors that? Really? The Three Stooges are far more wise than you are and far more knowledgeable than you are.  Name me one regime that you accuse me of being a servant of, so that I can call for its overthrow, and name me one intelligence agency of the US that you accuse me of being in the employ of so that I can accuse it of committing crimes. I have more freedoms than you ever will dream of. Search the internet and you shall find that my words are consistent, in Arabic and in English. I say the same words in Arabic and English. I give lectures all over the US, and I have lectured in Washington, DC numerous times at think tanks, and research centers and universities. And some of my audience members were members of US Congress and senior representative of government agencies. And my message would be the sam. I am one who Zionists leave the audience when it is my turn to speak and you think that someone in the US government sponsors me? I have never sued anyone in my life but after thinking about it, I will make an exception especially that the attacks this time were directed against my own sister--a woman who devoted her life to the Palestinian cause and to serving the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon. I will now sue, in Washington, DC and in Beirut. There is a clear campaign of distortions, fabrications and lies. But I don`t have the financial means. If there is a wealthy benefactor out there, or more than one (but only if you are somebody who can spare money to assist), who are willing to assist me in this endeavor please email me privately. I want to establish a defense fund. I know that money is not a problem for you, you who get funding from oil princes and sheikhs. And if it is proven that the US government is involved in dirty tricks against me, I shall sue the US government as well.  Lastly, I say that I am free against your will, and I shall remain free. Don`t take my word for it, let the readers decide who is the free one here. Read me in Arabic and English and decide....

[Read the complete response on Abukhalil`s The Angry Arab Blog here.]

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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412