The kidnap, torture and mutilation over a period of three weeks, and eventual murder

of Ilan Halimi in France has been reported by the BBC here.

In fairness to the BBC, I must point out that my colleague Laban was mistaken in thinking this murder had not been reported as of yesterday. A search for “Halimi” would not have found the earlier report that the BBC did make (on 17 February), as only the first name of the victim was mentioned at that time.

So let us look at the more recent BBC report, which appears to have been posted at ten minutes to midnight yesterday evening.

Reported: that the victim was Jewish, that there is a strong suspicion that he was killed because he was a Jew, and that the gang leader for whom a warrant has been issued is called Yussef Fofana. All these facts are relevant.

Not reported: that the kidnap gang recited verses from the Koran in their calls to Malini’s family.

Not reported: that Ilan’s mother, Ruth Halimi, has accused the French police of ignoring the anti-semitic motives of the murder in order not to alienate Muslim opinion in France.

Not reported: that the photos that the kidnappers sent Malini’s family to show them what was being done to their son, and the tortures and humiliations themselves, bore a strong “impregnation” (according to the authorities) of resemblances to the Abu Ghraib photos and the photos issued by Iraqi kidnappers of Western hostages.

Not reported: that Yussef (sometimes spelled Youssef or Yossef) Fofana has fled to his country of origin, the Ivory Coast. That would have involved saying that his country of origin was the Ivory Coast.

[UPDATE: the Ivorian angle has now been mentioned. Still no mention of the Muslim angle.]

If the religion of the victim is relevant to understanding the crime, then so is the religion of the perpetrator. The BBC would not dream of leaving it unmentioned when a religious or religious/political hate crime is carried out by a Jew. The BBC had no trouble saying Asher Weisgan was Jewish, and no trouble quoting the view of a commenter that Weisgan’s murder of four Arabs was the “wild grapes produced by Israel’s extreme right.” The BBC had no trouble mentioning the Jewish skullcap worn by Eden Nathan Zaada as he killed Israeli Arabs on a bus, and no trouble reporting on his extremist political views.

Yet all that the BBC gives us about Yussef Fofana is his name.

The BBC’s longstanding reluctance to even mention that most modern European anti-Jewish violence is carried out by Muslims, let alone discuss it, has made a small but dishonourable contribution to the legitimisation and normalisation of such violence.

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49 Responses to The kidnap, torture and mutilation over a period of three weeks, and eventual murder

  1. archduke says:

    The BBCs omission of the facts around the case is also highly dangerous for the Jewish community.

    At the present time , is walking by a BNP frequented pub more or less dangerous than walking by a mosque?

    These are important snippets of information that Jewish people can use in order to protect themselves.

    Omission of key facts is highly irresponsible.

       1 likes

  2. Bryan says:

    I sometimes wonder who’s mostly responsible for the BBC’s careful obliteration of facts it finds uncomfortable or inconvenient. Is it the editors, or do the reporters quickly learn what facts will be edited out of their reports and therefore present a polished little PC piece to the editors who then have little to do except verify that the report is in fact polished and PC?

       1 likes

  3. Rob Read says:

    The Internet routes around blackspots.

    The blogosphere routes around censorship (and that is what the bBC “news” is doing).

    The worst thing is that their ommisions are so predictable and consistent when they deal with the lefts “more equal” groups.

    If you’re not an official leftwing victim group then the bBC is your enemy.

       1 likes

  4. Socialism is Necrotizing says:

    ………and if you are an official leftwing victim group, the BBC will work to ensure that there you remain.

       1 likes

  5. archduke says:

    from the guardian:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,,1713545,00.html

    “Israel’s policies are feeding the cancer of anti-semitism”

    Written by somebody from, you guessed it, the Church Of England synod.

    So, there you have it – that recent Paris kidnapping case – its all the “Jooooos” fault. The upsurge in attacks on Jews by Muslims in this country? Its all Israels fault.

    What a morally ambiguous and vacuous argument. Sickening isnt the word for it. Repulsive more like.

       1 likes

  6. Anonymous says:

    Though even former BBC news staff allege that the majority of the BBC’s news journalists left-leaning, I imagine that high degree of the BBC’s omissions of relevant facts are enacted by the journalists themselves out of a sense of self-preservation. During my time as a reporter for one of Britain’s biggest commercial broadcasters I was constantly harangued to put a leftwing spin on my reports and once had a major row with my editor when he prohibited me from revealing how a local Labour Council had staffed an important particular residents’ association with card-carrying members of a local Labour Party branch, in order to obtain fraudulently a massive grant from English Heritage and the lottery fund. On another occasion I was browbeaten to place the blame for a particular area’s problems on private landowners, when the main culprit was most certainly a particular Labour-controlled council. The pressure to knuckle under and keep my career on course was immense but I never gave in. I eventually found myself out of work and smeared as a ”Tory”.

       0 likes

  7. Ian Barnes says:

    OT

    That’s what i love about the BBC, the word British, or not as they say..

    http://www.themanufacturer.com/uk/detail.html?contents_id=6332

    The BBC does everything in its power to promote Europe and undermine the UK..

    It’s about time someone pulled the plug on the joke that is the BBC.

    I see no reason under European Law why the BBC should receive anti competitive advantage via state subsidy.

    It should technically be privatised.

       0 likes

  8. Ian Barnes says:

    Now that’s irony for you!!!

       0 likes

  9. Rob Read says:

    Ian,

    You will notice the I type bBC. They just don’t represent the British so I I don’t capitalise.

       0 likes

  10. archduke says:

    great link Ian!
    http://www.themanufacturer.com/uk/detail.html?contents_id=6332

    trust the industrial descendants of Isambard Kingdom Brunel to really say it as it is.

    they dont hold any punches – “educational rejects”… ha!

    get a whiff of what they said:

    “going on to explain that at a meeting with BBC director general Mark Thompson he had suggested that the only way manufacturers could get a good press would be to “put some sex into it” and produce a programme about Manufacturers’ Wives.”

    Good god. has he lost his mind? whats more “sexy” to a British lad than a British fighter jet or a weapons system? Or a British tank using British communication systems trundling across British invaded southern Iraq backed up by British Tornado jets? what about all the british logistics that back all that up?

    SEXY? thats friggin sexy. that sort of thing would encourage youngsters to get into engineering/aerospace.

    but oh no – we’re in Beeboid PC world where the british army are bad bad bad, and the iraq war is bad bad bad…

       0 likes

  11. Peter Bolton says:

    O/T but sort of relevant.
    On Sunday morning Radio 5 reported that ‘the european challenge’ in the Nissan Open in LA had faded overnight. The two ‘european’ golfers were Justin Rose and Lee Westwood!
    I sent an official, lighthearted, complaint and pointed out that the Ryder Cup is several months away, that the Nissan Open is an individual tournament, that they are the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation and that the much longed for European Super State is some way off.
    They have ‘acknowledged’ my complaint.

       0 likes

  12. Rick says:

    Is it the editors

    I suspect it is the editors. The reason is because lots of reports are scripted in London. Much of the Iraq reporting is done by Iraqi stringers who file a report with London which edits it and replays it to the BBC correspondent safe in the Green Zone in Baghdad who then recites the copy fed from London.

    I suspect John Dalek Birt had the whole place rigged digitally so reporters were just mouthpieces for prepared scripts.

       0 likes

  13. Rick says:

    BTW…..I received an Email from the Danish PM thanking me for my support. That is a nice gesture.

       0 likes

  14. archduke says:

    anon -> thanks for your contribution. you should blog about it. i wonder how many others in the media find themselves in a similar situation.

       0 likes

  15. archduke says:

    rick -> nice gesture. you used the Danish PM website i presume.

       0 likes

  16. Ian Barnes says:

    ot

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=WJRAWF3Q5XMHHQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/02/21/ubrady.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/21/ixportaltop.html

    I swear that this govt, and Rupert Murdoch are really pushing their luck. With the feeble attempts to create diversionary tactics by reigniting past wounds of ordinary people.

    I cannot believe how low people will go. It just goes to show. Murdoch has gone too far recently. its about time someone gave him a bloody nose for a change for publishing such a letter.

       0 likes

  17. archduke says:

    from the front page:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/

    In Picture:
    voodoo priestess defends religion of ‘peace and healing’

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/africa_voodoo_priestess/html/1.stm

       0 likes

  18. Rick says:

    rick -> nice gesture. you used the Danish PM website i presume.

    Sure did !

       0 likes

  19. Bryan says:

    Anonymous – Interesting response. Well I suppose that it’s in the editors’ interest to have prepackaged PC nonsense fed to them. Less work for them.

    Rick – So the reports crisscross from Iraq to the UK and back, all in the name of sanitising the news?! Weird.

    If you get another e-mail from the Danish PM, give him my regards!

       1 likes

  20. Ritter says:

    Baghdad market bombing kills 22
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4736768.stm

    Women were reported to be screaming “Our children have died” and “The terrorists, may God punish them.”

    Of course, most people know a ‘terrorist’ act when they see one. The BBC is no friend of the Iraqis. It is a friend of the terrorist.

    My heart goes out to the innocent Iraqis who are murdered by the terrorists. They are brave and deserve our support. The BBC are appeasing scum and deserve our derision.

       1 likes

  21. Susan says:

    Hey, I didn’t get an email from the Danish PM, and I emailed from the same website. I’m a bit miffed!

       1 likes

  22. archduke says:

    “UN condemns German school system”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4736910.stm

    i waited with baited breath for the UN report on the Jew-hating Saudi curriculum or the “infidels are pigs” Palestinian school system.

       1 likes

  23. Rick says:

    “UN condemns German school system”

    Yeah a Costa Rican tells them how to do it ! Joke.

    There was a good letter in The Business on Sunday from a UN guy saying how the favoured ones get an Inspector job at $10.000/month – so I guess this guy is on the gravy train.

    Germans being Germans will ignore him thankfully

       1 likes

  24. archduke says:

    “Germans being Germans will ignore him thankfully”

    gravy train indeed.
    but why is the BBC promoting such an obvious non-story. oh, i see – immigrants are mentioned (but we all know they mean Muslim immigrants) – therefore its a favourite victim story.

    didnt the German ambassador get mightily pissed off a while ago about the negative BBC coverage of his country?

       1 likes

  25. dumbcisco says:

    The excellence of the German school system, and indeed of German engineering, goes back to the 1870s and the introduction (under Bismarck I believe) of the idea of Technische Hochschule – technical high schools that concentrated on vocational training while other students went to more academicically-oriented schools.

    So, a system that has worked for well over a century is now condemned by some fleeting visitor who is listening to a lot of complaints from newcomers who refuse to fit in, learn the language properly and buckle down to schoolwork. (Almost as bad as the UN report on Gitmo by [people who refused to visit it.)

    If I were German I would be furious about the UN report. But I would be even more furious about the ignorant BBC’s coverage of it.

       1 likes

  26. chevalier de st george says:

    Natalie -please explain why the bBC should want to hide the country of origin of this “piece of filth”?
    Surely the BBC is commited to uphold at all costs its dearly held view that multiculturism’s success is visible in the behaviour of second generation Muslims in western society.

       1 likes

  27. chevalier de st george says:

    incidently if you are looking for articles to really make you puke from the BBC then i really recommend this one:-
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/683968.html
    Guaranteed to induce nausea in anyone who has feelings for the suffering of christians in muslim dominatd society.

       1 likes

  28. Sarge says:

    Editing the news – 6pm

    BBC News Headline – Right Royal Revelations, Prince Charley Boy and the insiders gossip, don’t you just love Aunty?

    Sky News – Newsworthy investigative journalism on “The Lords Army” in Uganda who only want people to follow the ten commandments and use murder and rape to make sure every one conforms. Millions displaced and living in fear of torture and abduction. What a professional piece, telling it like it is in Africa.

    CNN News – well of course – live broadcast from Egypt on the press conference attended by Condaleeza Rice, you can hear what she says without it being edited and canned in the BBC bin. How it should be.

       1 likes

  29. TAoL says:

    O/T.

    John Howard has found himself in the Asia-Pacific section of the BBC news site.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4731878.stm

    The “anti-Lebanese” riots?

    I thought the fighting was between “young, white men and people of Arabic and Mediterranean background”?

       1 likes

  30. Sarah W. says:

    The BBC have a history of selective amnesia when it comes to Muslims kidnapping, torturing and murdering for racially motivated reasons. Like how they, along with the rest of the Left, ignored the horrific racist torture/murder of Kriss Doanld. And were more concerned about the BNP capitalizing from the tragedy, than they were about actually reporting the facts, or showing any conceren for the preptrators being caught!

    The trial is underway now! Have they bothered covering it, apart from inconspicuously on a remote region of their crummy website? Have they hell!!!

    A sick and twisted organisation!

    http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=5826

       1 likes

  31. Rob Read says:

    The more facts the bBC deliberatly and consistently leave out the more they open the door for idiot parties like the BNP.

    Perhaps the bBC are trying to get the most economically socialist party to win (the BNP)?

       1 likes

  32. TAoL says:

    Slightly O/T; a little mischievous.

    This is an interesting piece.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4707998.stm

    Note the absence of scare quotes around the T word.

    ‘”Delegates included many now in wheelchairs or who had lost limbs as a result of terror attacks.”‘

    Egad! Has the BBC finally decided to use the T word?

    ‘”When you bring terrorism victims together, you find that we have a common language, a common pain,” said Israeli Arnold Roth, who lost his 15-year-old daughter in a suicide attack in Jerusalem in 2002.’

    Er, no.

    So are the attendees victims of ‘terror’ attacks or victims of terror attacks? I guess it depends on who is the victim.

    I would hazard a guess that BBC thinks it is okay to talk about terrorism when the victim and perpetrator are not referred to specifically. But the BBC has a policy of using ‘neutral’* language when describing terrorist attacks because one man’s ‘terrorist’ is another man’s ‘freedom fighter’.

    So, according to the BBC’s stated policy, the people at this conference are not victims of terrorist attacks at all.

    * “We prefer to use neutral language where the political legitimacy of particular actions is hotly contested” (Richard Sambrook).

       1 likes

  33. Rob Read says:

    Terrorism is a tactic, not a policy.

       1 likes

  34. TAoL says:

    Oh, btw. I came across this earlier today. Londoners will remember these events with horror:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/780069.stm

    “right-wing terror group Combat 18”

    Ah.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/05/99/the_nail_bomb_terror/333345.stm

    “right-wing terror group, The White Wolves”

    etc.

    No problems with the Beeb calling a spade a spade here, obviously.

       1 likes

  35. TAoL says:

    RR, my use of the word “policy” refers to the BBC’s treatment of the T word, not to the T word itself.

       1 likes

  36. archduke says:

    i’ll sign off tonight, with something very British – or rather very VERY English.

    he’s only 23 and doesnt need an ASBO or any nanny state lecturing or any Beeboid crap.

    just making damn fine English music that you can be all proud of.

    Jim Noir

    http://www.jimnoir.com/

       1 likes

  37. Gary Powell says:

    Stop News
    I have serious news
    There has been an attack on our brave goverment by some-one we must all be very carefull of, someone, sinister and powerfull. Ruthless and determined. This potentialy damaging attack on the constitution could bring down democracy and the whole nation could be destroyed.

    Who is this tyrant this eater of babies, this monster?
    Has Adolf been reincarnated……NO
    Has Nick Griffin got a nuke………..NO
    Has Bin-larden done a 2/24……..NO

    It is much much worse

    It is reported by our glorious BBC brothers that Prince Charles has written some letters about the goverment to someone, and not cleared it with the BBC first.

    What further evidence of how much old big ears is a danger to the nation do you nead. And you thought he was just a blinkerd upper class twit with a plant fixation.

       1 likes

  38. Forward-CPH says:

    Muslim angles do indeed seem to have a special significance for the BBC

    In this story:
    Al-Qaeda ‘will use cartoon row’

    We can read this:

    “The cartoons, first printed in Denmark, have angered Muslims worldwide. At least 44 people have died in protests.

    Islamic tradition prohibits any depiction of Allah or the Prophet.”

    And a little later this:

    “He said the cartoons were intended as a protest against double standards in Denmark and Western Europe – a reference to perceived taboos in addressing aspects of Islam”

    So….when “islamic traditions prohibits any depiction” it is obvious from the angle chosen by the BBC that the taboos are “perceived”

    Elementary my dear Watson or WTF??

       1 likes

  39. Rick says:

    Islamic tradition prohibits any depiction of Allah or the Prophet.”

    Christian tradition thinks only heathen savages burn Christian churches or desecrate flags with a Cross on them………..QED

       1 likes

  40. Rick says:

    BTW….how good that Prince Charles is a “dissident” – would hate him to be aligned with any political party

       1 likes

  41. Grimer says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4736014.stm

    A Pakistani court has sentenced 11 militants to death for an assassination attempt on a Pakistani general in 2004 in which 11 people were killed.
    The militants belong to Jund Allah (God’s Brigade) a group accused of having links with al-Qaeda.

    Hidden away on the South Asia page is this story from the Religion of Submission.

       1 likes

  42. Gary Powell says:

    Grimer
    This sort of thing is not new
    I was in India in 1996, I think, when over 50 Indians were murderd by a car bomb explotion.

    This was reported by Indian BBC news 24 recieved in my hotel room. When I returned no-one knew anything about it.

    Muslim Terrorists have known for a while that if you want the BBC to take you seriously they have to kill westerners. The killing of Jews Christians and Hindus just does not cut it with the BBC,anymore. They are to occupied helping to create their Nazi states of Europe.

    It is worth note that the BBC never takes responsibility for its own deliberate incompetence. Remember how they liked to draw attention to George Bushes inability to see 9/11 comming, after 9 mouths in power. This when they have full access to world news but never thought to put 2 and 2 together, or even report the real news.

       1 likes

  43. Gary Powell says:

    Just to indicate how badly we have been deliberately missinformed by the BBC.

    I am sure like me, most of you, had no idear who Osama Bin-Larden was, on the morning of the 11th of September.

    A bit like not knowing who the hell Hitler was when Poland was invaded. No-one in the media thought to comment on their own lack of forsight. This point is particulary relevent, because of what has happened since, 9/11.

       1 likes

  44. Steve_Mac says:

    “…the photos that the kidnappers sent Malini’s family to show them what was being done to their son, and the tortures and humiliations themselves, bore a strong “impregnation” (according to the authorities) of resemblances to the Abu Ghraib photos and the photos issued by Iraqi kidnappers of Western hostages.”

    I’m wondering when the BBC will publish these new kidnap/torture snapshots from France… That is their policy, right? They have no problem showing the Abu Ghraib torture photos (over and over again) or those issued by Iraqi kidnappers of Western hostages. Why not publish these?

       1 likes

  45. Gary Powell says:

    Rick
    Yes agree. Does it not make you feel better that someone with such “power influence and respect” just might be on the peoples side? If the institution of the monacy is, they will be the only one left.

    Prince Charles has the teeth of a geriatric snale. Although I personaly like him, and think he would do a much better job of things than Tony Blair. Plant talking and all.

       1 likes

  46. Rick says:

    You’ve been reading George Bernard Shaw Gary – The Apple Cart !!

       1 likes

  47. gordon-bennett says:

    OT

    “plant talking”

    I cannot resist this point.

    If you talk to plants you are showering them with carbon dioxide, as you exhale, which aids photosynthesis and therefore makes the plant healthier.

    I bet archduke calls me an idiot!

       1 likes

  48. Rick says:

    http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,402457,00.html

    ANTISEMITISMUS

    Foltermord erschüttert Frankreich

    Von Kim Rahir, Paris

    Warum musste Ilan Halimi sterben? Wochenlang war der 23-Jährige in den Händen einer Pariser Vorstadtbande, die den Mann quälte, ehe er seinen Verletzungen erlag.

    SPIEGEL Magazin 22 Feb 2006

       1 likes

  49. zorro says:

    Steve: “They have no problem showing the Abu Ghraib torture photos (over and over again) or those issued by Iraqi kidnappers of Western hostages. Why not publish these?”

    Hardly relevant. Abu Graib abuse is being done in our (the “allies”) name. We don’t need to see what was done to this unfortunate man, not least through respect for his family.

       1 likes