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The Washington Post: neither serious nor credible
Posted on July 2, 2009	by Charles Davis
Earlier this week the Israeli military seized a boat containing humanitarian supplies for the people of Gaza. Here's Reuters noting the seizure likely constitutes a violation of international law, according to the United Nations:
GENEVA, July 2 (Reuters) – A U.N. human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel's seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip "unlawful" and said its blockade of the territory constituted a "continuing crime against humanity".
Israeli authorities on Tuesday intercepted the vessel, which was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian activists, and said it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area and its existing naval blockade.
Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the move was part of Israel's "cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza" in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against "an occupied people".
In contrast, here's the pay-to-play Washington Post's intrepid reporting on the seizure:
Somehow we didn't think we had seen the last of Cynthia McKinney.
The former controversial congresswoman from Georgia has resurfaced – on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea trying to deliver supplies to Gaza.
Israeli forces arrested McKinney and other passengers on board the ship, according to a group called Free Gaza, which said on its Web site that McKinney and the others "have been illegally incarcerated for their solidarity work with Palestine."
The Israeli Consulate General of Israel in Atlanta, however, accused McKinney and her fellow travelers of waging a "reckless political stunt."
McKinney ran for president in 2008 as a Green Party candidate. She was defeated for reelection to the House in 2006, not long after she was accused of punching a Capitol Police officer who mistook her for a tourist. She had made a brief comeback after being defeated in 2002, at which time her father said he blamed the "J-E-W-S" for his daughter's defeat.
One news outlet treats the story with the appropriate seriousness an alleged crime against humanity deserves. The preferred news outlet of the Washington establishment, on the other hand, treats it as nothing more than an amusing what-is-that-crazy-Cynthia-McKinney-up-to-now story. Naturally, the Post is the same paper that believes disgraced — but never confirmed — former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and angry walrus lookalike John Bolton should be allowed to spew on their Op-Ed page debunked talking points about an Iranian nuclear weapons program to justify a preemptive military strike without ever once mentioning that, you know, the U.S. intelligence community and the International Atomic Energy Agency say such a program doesn't actually exist.
Similarly, I noted in 2007 how the Post completely ignored credible allegations the Bush administration was backing terrorist groups in Iran in an effort to destabilize the regime. Though then-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Jay Rockefeller in an interview with me at the time said he did not dispute that the administration was capable of funding terrorists — and doing so in a way so as to avoid the oversight of his committee — the Post chose not to publish a single word about the allegation. Yet the Post did allow Dana Milbank to spend 800-plus words mocking Dennis Kucinich for caring about things and being short, though. Priorities.
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