Citizen G'kar: Musings on Earth

November 23, 2004

Israeli Linked Organization Threatens Blogger With Lawsuit

A former Israeli military intelligence officer is threatening Juan Cole with a SLAPP for making false statements. Juan not only stood by his statements, he added some more. He asks for an email campaign from fellow bloggers in support.

Informed Comment

    I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made here at Informed Comment, reprinted at anti-war.com. This technique of the SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation had already been pioneered by polluting industries against environmental activists, and now the pro-Likud lobby in the US has apparently decided to try it out against people like me.

    I urge all readers to send messages of protest to <a href="mailto:memri@memri.org">memri@memri.org. Please be polite, and simply urge MEMRI, which has a major Web presence, to withdraw the lawsuit threat and to respect the spirit of the free sharing of ideas that makes the internet possible.

No comments: