tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769014608405032519.post4083203626835883626..comments2023-10-13T15:24:39.543-07:00Comments on Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers: Ali Abunimah's Twitter Tirade following U of Penn's BDS rejectionDustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06824185664523568683noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769014608405032519.post-8719302189449554072011-12-27T21:39:51.808-08:002011-12-27T21:39:51.808-08:00From the reporter than first published the quote: ...From the reporter than first published the quote: Update: 12/26/2011]<br /><br />To Alex B. Kane, purported journalist<br /><br />On 12/26/2011 05:54 PM, Alyssa A. Lappen wrote:<br /><br />Dear Alex [B. Kane] —<br /><br />This afternoon, it was brought to my attention that Ali Abunimah now<br />claims his quotations cited in my Oct. 12, 2005 piece were<br />“fabricated,” and does so based on a twisted and incomplete version of<br />my reply to your late Friday Dec. 23, 2011 inquiry to me. In other<br />words, you misrepresented yourself to me as a journalist. You acted in<br />this instance as a go-between and ally of Mr. Abunimah, not a<br />journalist. Clear enough.<br /><br />This is a preposterous claim, particularly at this late juncture.<br /><br />I never fabricated any quotation of Mr. Abunimah — or anyone else — as<br />I most certainly indicated to you. Nor for that matter have I ever<br />previously been accused of fabricating a quotation. I am astounded<br />that you gave an incomplete version of my response to Mr. Abunimah,<br />who therefore concluded that I “fabricated” the quotation, when I<br />clearly indicated that my follow-up investigation would continue into<br />this week.<br /><br />The piece in question was published in FrontPage Magazine, a widely<br />read online journal, more than six years ago. Since then, the speaker<br />Ali Abunimah never contacted me. Nor did I receive an inquiry from the<br />magazine regarding these quotations — or any content of my Oct. 12,<br />2005 piece. Had Mr. Abunimah contacted the magazine, or retained legal<br />counsel to do so for him, the editors would undoubtedly have asked me<br />to respond and I would have so responded in my usual timely and<br />complete fashion. Let there be no doubt as to my longstanding<br />professional record, or veracity.<br /><br />Several First Amendment attorneys who served as counsel to two major<br />U.S. print magazines that I long served on staff notably advised<br />journalists that we need not retain written notes for more than five<br />years after publication dates to which they pertained. Again, it has<br />been more than six years since the article in question first appeared.<br /><br />Nevertheless, subsequent to your inquiry late Friday afternoon on<br />Christmas 2011 weekend, I discovered in my electronic archives an<br />email exchange in which I arranged an interview pertaining to the Oct.<br />7, 2005 event at which Mr. Abunimah served as keynote speaker — as I<br />also so informed you in a response on Dec. 23.<br /><br />Still later on Dec. 23, 2011, I found electronic notes from interviews<br />pertaining to the same Oct. 7, 2005 conference. It is now clear that I<br />interviewed at least two people who were present at that Oct. 7, 2005<br />Chicago conference and probably three. My electronic notes further<br />corroborate that quotations in my article were given to me exactly as<br />I cited them by a witness or witnesses present.<br /><br />Based on the records I have already located, I stand by my story.<br /><br />There is no doubt whatever that Mr. Abunimah made the statements that<br />now embarrass him so deeply he has claimed that they were fabricated.<br />He made those statements before a public audience, and witnesses heard<br />him and noted his comments. Repulsive though they are, those comments<br />do not differ entirely from others Mr. Abunimah has either written or<br />stated in other public venues. On the contrary, they are quite<br />similar.<br /><br />Best regards–<br />Alyssa A. Lappen<br />Investigative journalistDustyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06824185664523568683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769014608405032519.post-9743817124729882542011-12-27T20:20:54.727-08:002011-12-27T20:20:54.727-08:00The comment that SWU posted is still contested. No...The comment that SWU posted is still contested. No one has produced any proof that Abunimah said it. <br /><br />And the quotations you cite on the bottom of the article are not racist, anti-Semitic or incendiary. Please do not equate Judaism and Zionism.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com