A
journalist who produced a film defending Israel’s war crimes in Gaza for the
BBC is the same man who wrote hoax stories about Palestine and Lebanon a decade
ago, The Electronic Intifada has learned.
In
2002, South African-British freelance journalist Paul Martin posed as a
Palestinian journalist writing from Bethlehem under the fake name Sayed Anwar.
But Martin later had to admit there was no such person. Martin also sometimes
uses the name Paul Cainer.
In
stories written for right-wing broadsheet The Washington Times in 2002, Martin
posed as a native informant reporting a "reign of terror" against
Palestinian Christians by "hard-core Palestinian militants" who he
claimed had "seized the Church of the Nativity" ("Exiled
Palestinian militants ran two-year reign of terror," 13 May 2002;
"Arafat Aided group that besieged church," 23 May 2002).
A
few months later Martin was found by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to
have attributed a fabricated quotation to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Writing as Paul Martin on the front page of The Washington Times, he quoted
Nasrallah as saying: "I encourage Palestinians to take suicide bombings
worldwide. Don’t be shy about it" ("Hezbollah calls for global attacks,"
4 December 2002).
But
CBC’s Neil Macdonald scoured the TV archives in Lebanon and found Nasrallah had
never said any such thing. "The story originated not in the Middle East
but in London, with this man [Paul Martin]" Macdonald concluded at the time.
Martin publicly threatened to sue Macdonald and CBC but, unsurprisingly, he
never did so.
Fabrications
swept under the rug
Martin
has re-emerged in recent years as a freelance filmmaker, his past swept under
the rug. His documentary reports have appeared several times on the BBC’s
flagship Newsnight program since 2008, mostly reporting on Palestinian fighters
in Gaza. Newsnight described him as "our correspondent" on at least
one occasion.
In
January 2010, Newsnight broadcast one of Martin’s films featuring British
Colonel Tim Collins (who gave a much-reported speech to the Royal Irish
Regiment in Kuwait on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in which he urged
British troops to be "ferocious in battle" and "show no
mercy" to followers of Saddam Hussein). The point of the segment was
essentially to cast doubt on the Goldstone report, the UN-sponsored
investigation into Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2008 and 2009, one year after the
ceasefire that ended that bloody assault. Collins visited a mosque that had
been bombed-out by Israel and claimed it had been used to store arms.
In
an interview with the Middle East Monitor, Desmond Travers, the retired Irish
army colonel who co-authored the Goldstone report, accused Collins of
"serving the propaganda interests of one belligerent over another"
and described Collins’ mosque accusation as "drivel" ("Gaza is
the only gulag in the Western hemisphere," 2 February 2010).
The
segment can still be viewed online. The BBC Newsnight website notes the film
was made by ConflictZones (one of Martin’s dissolved companies) and links to
its site (see "Celebrated Iraq war veteran’s view of the Gaza
conflict," 19 January 2010).
In
2010, one of Martin’s documentaries, Rocket Man Under Fire, was shown several
times on BBC World, the corporation’s international satellite news channel. An
earlier, related film was also shown on Al Jazeera English’s People and Power
strand (and is still available to watch on Al Jazeera English’s YouTube channel
under the title Rocket Men).
Martin
writes on a freelance basis in for London’s Evening Standard, which recently
ran reports by him datelined Libya and Egypt.
BBC
stands by Martin
BBC
editors contacted by The Electronic Intifada have stood by Martin. Newsnight
editor Peter Rippon said: "We do not have any concerns regarding the work
he has done for us."
BBC
World commissioning editor Mary Wilkinson confirmed that the channel was in
negotiations to buy his next film: "we do [work with him] from time to
time. We last ran a film of his in 2010 … I am talking to him about [another
film]." She did not respond to an offer to comment on Martin’s past
fabrications.
But
Martin’s freelance relationship with the BBC does not extend to all parts of
the vast public corporation’s news operation.
The
BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen told The Electronic Intifada: "I’ve
never worked with Paul Martin and never, as far as I remember, even met him. I
know he’s done some work for Newsnight in the past. They do their own
commissioning. As far as I know Mr. Martin has never worked for BBC News [as
opposed to BBC World]."
Gaza
arrest
Martin’s
name hit headlines in 2010 when he was arrested and held for a month by Hamas
authorities in the Gaza Strip. Hamas spokespeople accused him of being "a
spy for Israel" and being in contact with Palestinians accused of
collaboration with Israel. But they ultimately released him without charge,
deporting him from Gaza. A senior Hamas figure Mahmoud Zahhar — foreign
minister in Gaza’s internal administration — said Martin would face trial if he
ever returned to Gaza.
Ma’an,
the Palestinian news agency, reported at the time that Martin was released at
the request of South African and British diplomats ("British journalist
released from Gaza jail," 11 March 2010).
Arriving
at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel just after his release, a British
reporter asked Martin to respond to the accusation of spying: "ridiculous,
ridiculous," he said ("British 'Spy’ Reporter Released By
Hamas," Sky News, 11 March 2010).
Martin
had been detained since 14 February that year and interrogated by Hamas
intelligence over interviews he had been conducting with a Palestinian accused
of collaborating with Israel. This seems to have been Muhammed Abu Mualik, the
subject of Rocket Man Under Fire which would be shown on BBC World later in
2010. The story of Martin’s detention was also told in that film.
Paul
Martin responds
At
the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley, London, on Sunday 8 July, Martin held a
public screening of a rough cut for the forthcoming film he said was set to run
on BBC World. Friends Under Fire is a follow-up to Rocket Man Under Fire, in
which Martin meets with Abu Mualik’s Israeli friend "Dan."
During
the question-and-answer session that followed the screening, this reporter
cited Martin’s 2002 fabrications, and asked why his new film should be trusted.
In
front of the audience, Martin stood by the fabricated Nasrallah quote and
promised to email its source to The Electronic Intifada. Weeks later, Martin
has failed to make good on this promise, despite follow-up requests over phone
and email.
Martin
admitted to writing under the name "Sayed Anwar" but claimed an
original disclaimer clarifying the use of a pseudonym was mistakenly left out
because of a Washington Times editing mistake: "I did use a pseudonym …
half the story wasn’t written by me, it was written by a Palestinian … [a
disclaimer] was put at the bottom on the story but the sub-editor took off the
last paragraph and that statement."
Martin
did not directly respond to a question asking why he never followed through on
his public threat to sue Neil Macdonald and CBC, claiming only that he had
offered to appear on the channel.
After
the question and answer session, Martin approached this reporter and insisted
he had only written a single article under the pseudonym: "there was only
one [article] where that name was used."
However,
a database search of The Washington Times back issues proved that the pseudonym
had been used at least twice, and in both articles there was no disclaimer. The
two Washington Times articles under that by-line are also preserved on the
Internet Archive (the articles are still on the Washington Times website, but
with no author named).
Martin
also said: "I’d be delighted to talk to The [Electronic] Intifada. By the
way I think it’s an excellent website … I try to be balanced."
So
The Electronic Intifada later called Martin with a list of follow-up questions.
He repeated the false claim that "Sayed Anwar" was only ever used
once, and said he would email the source of the quote, but refused to answer
further questions over the phone, hanging up when asked why he also used the
name Paul Cainer.
The
Electronic Intifada emailed Martin the questions, which included: why did you
not follow through on your threat to sue Neil Macdonald? Why do you sometimes
use the name Cainer? Martin did not respond to the questions, but did ask to
see a copy of this reporter’s draft article "so I am in a position to
respond" (his request was denied).
Martin’s
background
In
2002, the Toronto Star quoted CBC’s Macdonald saying that Martin eventually
admitted that his source for the fake Hezbollah quote was Walid Phares
("Curious silence greets discredited Hezbollah tale," 13 December
2002).
A
former top-ranking political leader of the far-right sectarian Lebanese Forces
militia, Phares has reinvented himself in recent years as a "terrorism
expert." Last year he was controversially given a top job as part of US
presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s team of Middle East policy advisors.
The
Canadian press caught onto the story in 2002 because the fabricated quote
appeared at a time when the Canadian government was considering a ban on Hezbollah’s
political-social wing. The quote appeared to be decisive in the ban going
through, although the government denied that was the case after the CBC exposed
the quote to be false.
A
source who was in a class with Martin at the University of Cape Town in the
1970s said he had been known as Paul Cainer in South Africa.
Speaking
on condition of anonymity, the source recalled that The Cape Times in June 1972
had run a photograph of "Paul Cainer" as a young student in a
wheelchair after being beaten up by police while protesting against apartheid.
The Electronic Intifada found a copy of the photograph in the British Library
Newspaper Archive in London.
After
Martin was arrested in 2010, Agence France-Presse reported that "Israel’s
Government Press Office, which accredits foreign journalists wishing to work in
Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it had issued a press card for a
Cainer Paul Martin, who also has US and South African passports"
("Hamas faces calls to release British reporter," 15 February 2010).
A
LinkedIn profile for "Paul Cainer" shows him to be the chief
executive of World News and Features, the name of Martin’s main production
company (although it was dissolved as a limited company in 2009).
What
appears to be Martin’s Facebook profile has one "friend" listed as
"Paul Cainer." Both profiles appear to be rarely used, with only
small handfuls of contacts. "Paul Cainer" is "friends" with
the British ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould, the Israeli settler Itamar
Marcus and Alan Mendoza, co-founder of the neoconservative think tank the Henry
Jackson Society.
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Despite the fact that the mainstream media got key facts wrong in early reporting
