Topic: WorldNetDaily
What's been happening lately with Aaron Klein's excessive use of anonymous, unverifiable sources to make dubious claims? Let's take a look.
A Feb. 24 article claimed that "NATO countries are strongly considering the possibility of an international deployment to Syria if the Syrian opposition does not make major advances in the next few weeks," citing "informed Middle Eastern diplomatic and security officials." Klein did not explain how these "officials" were "informed," making that modifier essentially meaningless.
A March 4 article claimed that "Turkey has been arming al-Qaida organizations as part of its aid to opposition targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad," citing "Egyptian security officials." As we've detailed, Klein was unusually friendly with the corrupt Mubarak regime, so much so that his reporting last year was aimed at keeping Mubarak in power and bashing the popular uprising against him.
A March 11 article claimed that "Iran has been pressing jihadist groups in Gaza to continue firing rockets into Israel," again citing "Egyptian security officials."
A March 15 article claimed that "An internal Hamas investigation has found that Iran is paying off Hamas members to form independent militias to do Tehran’s bidding against Israel," citing "sources in Hamas." Klein has long been hostile to Hamas, so there's no reason any Hamas "source" would dare trust him.
A March 26 article claimed that "The U.S., Turkey and NATO have held high level military meetings the past few days to discuss options regarding Syria, including the possibility of a military campaign targeting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad," citing only "informed Middle Eastern security officials."
A March 31 article claimed that "President Obama has been engaged in secret, back-channel talks with Iran in which he informed Tehran’s leaders he is completely opposed to any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities," citing only "informed Middle Eastern officials." Again, no explanation was offered regarding how these officials were "informed."
