Who Knew What, When?

AllQuietOnTheNewsZombieFront
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You know, I thought it was kind of fishy when National Post editor-in-chief Douglas Kelly's apology was published behind the subscription wailing wall, unlike the original A1 above the fold Iranian Badge fabrication.

But now, more than ever, I wonder what the real motivation behind the thing was, given the latest from Taylor Marsh.

Ms. Marsh was smart enough to go right to the Simon Wiesenthal Center immediately after they and their Rabbi Cooper were cited 'sources' in the original National Post fabrication last Friday. What's more, she managed to get a 'senior researcher' there named Aaron Breitbart to tell her that the story was 'absolutely true'.

She also got Briebardt to send her a copy of a FAX that was apparently from a National Post assistant-editor named John Turley-Ewart:

Subject: Taheri on Iran

Rabbi Cooper,

As per our conversation, I'm looking at running this but I have not been able to confirm its veracity. Particularly, I want to make sure that the part saying Jews will have to wear a yellow stripe and Christians a red stripe is in fact true. Now the law has not yet come into effect, but it is moving closer to becoming law and I think we need to draw attention and much of it to this right now.

Any assistance you can give us in confirming this info would be much appreciated.

Best,

jte

Got that? If this is correct Ewart was pleading with the good folks at the Wiesenthal Center for a circular confirmation.

All of which is bad enough in pure straight-up journalistic terms, especially given that Kelly in his half-a-cup-of-mamma-mea-culpa, today admitted that they only had a single source (Taheri, cited in the FAX above) and that at the time of publication they couldn't actually locate him.

But ponder this for a moment if you will......

What if the SWC did not hear about this first from Ewart?

Sound far fetched?

Maybe, but don't forget the Weisenthal Center sent a letter to Kofi Anan on Thursday, the day before publication of the Post fabrication, demanding that the UN do something about this Iranian Badge travesty.

Why does this matter?

Because if someone else was forewarning potential participants in the circular confirmation game that would mean that the Whirlitzer was already cranked and ready to go when the Post came calling.

And if that was, indeed, the case then this really does stink to high heaven of a black-ops conspiracy.

All of which makes what Ms. Marsh got out of Wiesenthal researcher Brietbardt today, five days after the fact, pretty darned interesting:

Now (back) to Aaron Breitbart who is the senior researcher for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, specializing in the Holocaust, and the person who first confirmed the story to me last Friday. First, he said he doesn't know John Turley-Ewart. He's the guy from the National Post who wrote in the fax I received from Breitbart that "I think we need to draw attention and much of it to this right now."

{snip}

Breitbart then offered that this story was "floated about" but that as far as proving it, "certainly not." Going on, he offered that "sources" say there is talk of it happening, but it might have been "floated" (there's that word again) to "see world reaction" to it. Later in our conversation he said yet again that it was "floated around unofficially," but that we "cannot be sure."

Now before you all accuse me of having been to, as Antonia Z. calls it, the tinfoil haberdashery, consider this.......

Regardless, who did the actual floating of the story/fabrication, is it not possible that Mr. Kelly might have had an ulterior motive when he published his 'cut this thing off at the knees' - type apology today (ie. does he really want to have Mr. Ewart answer questions, for the record, about when he first contacted the Wiesenthal Center and what he told them)?

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