Talk:Dan Senor

From SourceWatch
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The accuracy of the following comment added to the Dan Senor article is unsubstantiated by any documentation or attribution. Artificial Intelligence 14:06, 8 Sep 2005 (EDT)

Cole's blog comment is libelous propaganda

Professor Cole's assertion that Senor ordered the arrest of al-Sadr is irresponsible, speculative and libelous. There is no evidence to support such a claim and no independent confirmation. His "source" may be fabricating information from the shadows, lobbing accusations from dark, hidden corners of the Earth, or perhaps this source does not even exist. His blog comment is pure propaganda and should be treated as such.


The contributor above contacted me wanting to know why their views were relocated to the talk page. While I agree their comments don't belong on the article page I do think they do raise some valid points about relying on one report from an anonymous source. Given the time that has elapsed since it was first posted one would have thought Senor would have been asked about it or other sources confirmed or denied it. So I'm relocating the section here --Bob Burton 16:07, 8 Sep 2005 (EDT)

Professor Juan Cole alleges Senor ordered arrest of al-Sadr

Quoting "a source I consider reliable" University of Michigan Middle East historian Juan Cole recently speculated on his weblog [1] that it was Senor who ordered the arrest of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric who led the resistance at Najaf. Cole writes:

""Senor is said to have acted on instructions from Neoconservatives in the Pentagon, and to have kept Paul Bremer, his putative boss, out of the loop. Bremer was presented with a fait accompli.

"I speculated at the time that the Neocons came after Muqtada because he had objected so loudly to Sharon's murder of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the clerical leader of the Hamas Party (the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood). Muqtada had highlighted the assassination in his newspaper, al-Hawzah al-Natiqah, which the Coalition Provisional Authority ordered closed. And then Muqtada had promised to be the right hand of Hamas in Iraq, and to open Hamas offices all around the country.
"In other words, his position was completely intolerable to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Likud Party, and their American fellow-travelers among the Neocons."