Welcome to part 647 in the Chronicle of Mad Mel Phillips’ inexorably descent into total insanity, which today seems to be accelerating, hence…
The British Broadcasting JihadThe extent and implications of the BBC’s bias towards the enemies of western civilisation is still not properly understood, even by many of those who are constantly appalled by what they hear in Britain from its domestic services. The lethal damage it may be doing in parts of the world where such an ideological bent turns it into an active supporter of tyranny is something else again.
Pardon? What are you suggesting here, Mel? That the BBC’s World Service has suddenly mutated into Radio Bil Laden? (Well I guess DLT might well fit in nicely, but it still seems a bit unlikely).
Okay, you’ve made a pretty strong proposition, lets see the evidence…
On this website, Bill Roggio describes how the Islamic Courts Union is progressively spreading jihad through Somalia. But as he also notes, and according to this report, the BBC has been actively supporting this Somali wing of the Islamic jihad.
Bill Roggio? No, bit of a new one on me. New York Times, yes. Washington Post, yes. Bill Roggio, no – never come across him before.
A quick look over his website reveals Bill Roggio to be a right-wing blogger cum journalist whose CV includes having written for the distinctly Neo-Conservative Weekly Standard and National Review – nice unbiased source you have there, Mel…
Now we have the quote…
A motion against the BBC Somali Service radio was introduced in the Puntland Parliament on Monday in Garowe, the Puntland capital. Some 8 Puntland legislators introduced the bill to ban the BBC Somali Service from operating in Puntland regions. Sources said another 22 lawmakers supported the motion and a debate opened.
The Puntland MPs voted after the debate, with more than 35 lawmakers voting to have the BBC radio banned from operating inside Puntland. Lawmakers who proposed the motion accused the BBC Somali Service – the radio with the largest reach inside Somalia – of being partisan and pro-Islamic Courts, to the detriment of Puntland and other political factions.
Puntland? Isn’t that somewhere near the Channel Islands?
Despite its quaint and very British-sounding name – which sounds as if it belongs to the works of PG Wodehouse, Puntland is, it seems, a region in the North East of Somalia that declared its own autonomy in 1998. It appears to have no particular aspirations of actual nationhood and, instread, favours Somalia becoming a federal state in which it can retain its autonomy.
So far so good.
The back story here is that there’s a civil war going in Somalia (when isn’t there) between an internationally recognised transitional government (i.e. a rag-bag collective of secular tribal warlords) on one side and the fundamentalist Supreme Islamic Courts Council on the other – not much of a choice there, then.
The problem, here, should be fairly obvious – Mad Mel’s ‘case’ for the existence of Jihadis at the Beeb rests squarely on her belief that the mad dog tribal warlords are telling the truth in crying foul over alleged BBC bias, which is akin to trying to settle a dispute by taking the word of Peter Sutcliffe over that of Ian Brady.
That she has no evidence, whatsoever, to support her claim, is immaterial – the mad dog warlords say its true so it must be, notwithstanding the fact that the usual reason that foreign regimes try to block the Beeb’s World Service tend to be that its style of factual reporting rather runs at odds with their propaganda.
Mel concludes with…
Why is the British tax-payer, who pays for the BBC World Service, expected to subsidise support for the jihad in Somalia?
One might also ask why Mad Mel persists in writing this crap when anyone with half a brain can see that she’s talking utter rubbish as usual.
This is fabulous stuff. I can see a movie coming out of this – Mad Mel, in an age where oil production has fallen to near zero, driving her cop car through Somalia in pursuit of speed freaked, cackling BBC jihadis. Amazing. I think I might have experienced a mind-meld with Melanie, just then. Hold on! Now she’s imagining flying over Tehran in a B52…
Another point: the Islamic Courts outfit are only arguably “jihadis”. They are supported by most of Mogadishu’s business community, who got the whole thing started so there would be a modicum of property law. Since they took over, the port and the airport have reopened for the first time since 1991 and the electricity is back on, at least occasionally.
Since then, though, the Ethiopian government has been progressively moving troops into Somalia to support the originally planned transitional government. Not surprisingly, the ICU thinks this is preparation for a march down to Mogadishu with a view to shooting its members in their beds.
So now, faute de mieux, jihadis are indeed being signed up for the ICU’s army and mystery jets from Kyrgyzstan are landing at the airport.
Why anyone would think this is the fault of the Beeb is beyond me. Why Melanie Phillips can get through a whole column about Somalia without mentioning the fact it’s being gradually invaded by the Ethiopian army and not be fired is beyond me.