Editor's Note: We have always had the highest respect for Robert Fisk and his wonderful analyses and hard-hitting reports on the Middle East. We noted that The Independent (UK) stopped publishing the work of Robert Fisk at no cost a couple of years ago. From that time on, his wonderful analyses and reports were made available only by paid subscription. We viewed this move on the part of The Indpendent as a method of corporate censorship. Subsequently, Axis of Logic purchased a subscription from the Independent and continued to publish reprints of his reports in a dedicated column. After a few months of these publications, the Independent canceled our subscription without refund and never replied to our letters asking the reason for cancellation. I met Mr. Fisk for the first time at a conference at M.I.T. in Cambridge, MA where he spoke last year to a receptive audience. We regret that the government and it's corporate media censors have barred him from entering the U.S. - but this move on their part should not come as a surprise to anyone. Their fear of him and the Truth reinforces our view that the enemy is on the defensive. It tells us that their invincibility is an illusion of their creation and only serves to empower us - "the people".  - Les Blough, Editor

September 22, 2005

The internationally renowned correspodent for The Independent -- the great British  journalist Robert Fisk (right) -- has been banned from entering the United States. Fisk has been covering war zones for decades, but is above all known for his incisive reporting from the Middle East for more than 20 years. His critical coverage of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, and the continuing occupation that has followed it, has repeatedly exposed U.S. and British government disinformation campaigns. He also has exposed how the bulk of the press reports from Iraq have been "hotel journalism" -- a phrase Fisk coined --

The daily New Mexican reports that "U.S. immigration officials refused Tuesday to allow Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East correspondent for the London newspaper, The Independent, to board a plane from Toronto to Denver. Fisk was on his way to Santa Fe for a sold-out appearance in the Lannan Foundation ’s readings-and-conversations series Wednesday night. According to Christie Mazuera Davis, a Lannan program officer, Fisk was told that his papers were not in order. Davis made last-minute arrangements Wednesday for Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica Radio’s daily news show, Democracy Now!, to interview Fisk via satellite from a television station in Toronto..." A recording of this satellite interview will soon be available on the Lannan Foundation's website. If Fisk has been barred from entry, it's very hard not to believe it has something to do with dispaches of his like this one from September 15.

I have long admired Fisk's unbeatably first-rate journalism, his intrepid insistence on sticking his nose where the authorities -- of whatever country he's in -- don't want him to go. He constantly shows up the sluggish cowardice and indolent hand-out journalism practiced by so many U.S. foreign correspondents from the safety of their hotel bars. That the U.S. won't allow this great journalist into this country to tell what he has seen and what he knows is a scandal.

If you're not familiar with Fisk's reporting, there is an entire website devoted to it -- read Fisk's latest, and find an archive of his articles (plus audio-visual materials) by clicking here. You can also order Fisk's books, like Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon, and The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East.

Posted by Doug Ireland at 10:17 PM | Permalink