Mr. Smith Goes To Beirut
I criticized W. Thomas Smith's Lebanon blog, hosted by National Review Online, a few months ago. It's good to see that other American journalists are picking up on the scent. Yesterday, National Review ran a retraction of some of Smith's posts, and Smith commented on the matter himself.
The retraction is slightly bizarre, because it doesn't name the journalist who brought the inaccuracies of Smith's reporting, or mention the exact criticisms. But apparently, Smith wrote on September 25, 2006, that Beirut's downtown was occupied by "some 200-plus heavily armed Hezbollah militiamen." Now, it turns out that he did not see 200 armed Hezbollahi in downtown per se -- rather, he saw two AK-47s while in a moving vehicle on the highway above the camp. And he was informed, by "very reliable sources" which he of course cannot name, that Hezbollah kept weapons in the tents. He writes, "If I mistakenly conveyed that impression [that he saw many armed Hezbollahi] to my readers, I apologize." How could anyone come away with that impression?
If you think that is bad, check out the news that he broke on September 29. On that date, in case you missed the news, 4,000 - 5,000 Hezbollah gunmen "deployed to the Christian areas of Beirut." Did he see any Hezbollah gunmen?* Well, he saw what he thought were Hezbollah militiamen at road intersections in Achrafieh while passing from a moving car. Now, I was not in this moving car, from which it appears that Mr. Smith does all his reporting. But since he no longer appears willing to stand by his assertion that he actually saw any "Hezbollah gunmen," let me go out on a limb and suggest they were actually Lebanese Army soldiers. Keep in mind, Mr. Smith used to be a United States Marine. The inability to distinguish Hezbollah from the Lebanese Army either means one is being spectacularly stupid, or intentionally sensationalistic.
Anyone with the slightest knowledge of Lebanon knows that these events didn't happen. So, who fed Mr. Smith this bogus news. According to him, they are "reliable sources within the Cedar Revolution movement, as well as insiders within the Lebanese national security apparatus." None of whom, apparently, are willing to go on the record. Mr. Smith says this is because they need to preserve their safety. Very well. Let me suggest a different explanation. There are plenty of people willing to feed a naive journalist fake news; there is nobody willing to risk their reputations by going on the record with blatant lies. If 4,000 - 5,000 Hezbollah foot soldiers really did deploy to Christian areas of Beirut in September, Lebanon would be tumbling over the precipice into civil war. Christian politicians and security experts would be screaming from the rooftops, not making off the record statements to one foreign journalist/blogger.
Finally, Smith brings up the "flag incident" which I mocked him for months ago, where he bragged about stealing a Hezbollah flag from the dahiyeh. He cites objections that this might put other Western journalists in danger by making Hezbollah the impression that they could be hostile to their interests. He is giving himself too much credit; his blog is nowhere near that influential. The post was actually objectionable because it was juvenile and designed to score cheap political points.
Smith claims to have had wonderful access to top security officials in Lebanon, including Michel Sleiman, "multiple high-ranking military and intelligence officers," and "the special forces and counterterrorist strike force commanders." Those are great contacts; good for him. But with all those available resources, he chose to write about how he stole one of the million Hezbollah flags from dahiyeh? He could have advanced a policy suggesting how to sap Hezbollah's political and military strength. Instead, he chose to thrill his readers in Ohio, rather than do any serious damage to Hezbollah in Beirut. Smith took the lazy way out -- which, come to think about it, sums up his Lebanon reporting very well.
P.S. Welcome to all of Andrew Sullivan's readers. Thanks for showing up!
*Typo fixed.