Private Eye has published a significant story the Guardian/Al Fagih article – sadly not online – which I nevertheless won’t reproduce in full, because its content will be familiar to readers of this site. The Eye poses a question that we’ve also been asking here:
“Was the Guardian aware of this? If not, it certainly knows now. But although several readers have written to point out the omission, not one of their letters has been printed: nor has the famous Corrections and Clarifications column “clarified” al-Fagih’s potted biography”
Scott Burgess has, in fact, received a response to his post on the Al Fagih issue from the Guardian reader’s editor Ian Mayes, which is distinguished by its “complete avoidance of even the remotest allusion to the issue at hand”
So, again:
1. Did the Comment Editor know that Mr Al-Fagih was included on the United Nations 1267 Committee consolidated list of individuals belonging to or associated with the Al Qaida organisation?
2. Why was the fact that Mr al-Fagih was included on the United Nations list not disclosed with the article?
3. Why did the Guardian publish, without context or criticism, what appears to be a propaganda piece for a theocratic and totalitarian terrorist organisation?
If anybody does know the answer to these questions, as always, feel free to email me.
