Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Greg Sheridan Stuffs Up Again

Understandably, when it comes to mass murder and mayhem, we're all a bit jaded these days, but I'd ask you to cast your mind back to the August 17 outrage in Bangkok.

Here, for example, is The Australian's headline for August 19:

* 20 killed, 125 wounded *Police seek man in yellow t-shirt * northeastern [sic] insurgents accused 
BANGKOK BOMBING THE WORST EVER: PM

On the same page, barely before the blood had dried and the dust settled, Greg Sheridan, the rag's foreign editor, was busy speculating about who the perpetrators were, with most of his guessing game focusing on Thai Muslim separatists from the southern state of Pattani.

But, and here's the thing, Sheridan's not the one to merely canvass the possibilities. He's got an ideological axe to grind - a bloody great Zionist one. It was given to him as a child by his Auntie Poppy, who, according to Sheridan, "always told me I must never forget that the Jews were God's chosen people." (See my 3/8/15 post, Greg Sheridan: the Making of a Gentile Zionist.)

The problem with Sheridan is that he's never recovered from that kind of indoctrination.

Which explains the insertion in his piece of the following, beyond gratuitous, bullshit:

"Southeast Asian and Western intelligence agencies have long been waiting for the separatists to bring their struggle to Bangkok. At the same time, intelligence agencies know that other terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah, have established an infrastructure in Bangkok." (Blaming rivals too neat and easy)

Now, here's the latest on the incident:

"A military court in Bangkok has indicted two men accused of carrying out the deadly bombing at a Bangkok shrine that left 20 people dead and more than 120 injured. The two, identified as Bilal Mohammad and Mieraili Yusufu, were indicted on Tuesday on 10 charges connected to the August 17 blast at the Erawan shrine. Thai officials have said the blast was revenge by a people-smuggling network against Thai authorities for breaking up their operation." (Bangkok bombing: court indicts Bilal Mohammad and Mieraili Yusufu, Associated Press, 24/11/15)

Not that that will detain "the most influential foreign affairs analyst in Australian journalism" - which is how Sheridan is amusingly described on The Australian's website.

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