Truth and lies

Posted on 13 September 2011 - 07:36pm
Last updated on 13 September 2011 - 09:55pm

R. Nadeswaran

ROBERT Fisk, whose bylines have graced the pages of this newspaper on a regular basis, especially in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, is not noted for his ties with the Allied Forces. Neither does he have any sympathies for what he sometimes refers to as "invading forces".
Fisk is a purveyor of truth, which sometimes does not go down with the establishment. As a columnist for The Independent, he had exposed the many wrongdoings perpetrated against the Iraqi people.
Fisk has been a keen observer of conflicts and was in the Middle East long before the arrival of "embedded journalists" after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. His dispatches from within and outside the war zones did send a few tongues wagging at both Downing Street and the White House.
In December 2004, he wrote: "Baha Mousa, 26, was working as a hotel receptionist in Basra 14 months ago when British troops surrounded the building and arrested seven men. They were taken to a British base and were reportedly hooded and beaten. Two days later, Mousa was dead. The family was given US$3,000 in compensation and rejected a further US$5,000. What they wanted was justice. Yesterday, after more than a year of official stonewalling, his relatives won a historic ruling to force the Ministry of Defence to hold an independent inquiry. Will the truth now be known?"
Last week, after seven long years, the truth emerged. The Independent had on its front page, a post-mortem photograph of Mousa with the headlines: "Kicked and punched to death by cowards." A three-year public inquiry concluded that suspected insurgents were routinely subjected to "unjustified and wholly unacceptable" hooding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, extreme noise and withholding food and water – which contributed to his death.
Sir William Gage who chaired the inquiry said Mousa was subjected to "violent and cowardly" abuse and pointed the finger at four soldiers who he said "bear a heavy responsibility" for the "shameful events that took place on Sept 14 and 16, 2003.
Fisk was not exactly thumping his chest that he yet again fingered the guilty parties. On the contrary, he wrote another scathing piece on the British army. "It wasn't the brutality that was systematic. It was the lying that was systematic."
He went on to describe how defence officials had told one lie after another to prevent him from investigating further into the atrocities of the army.
To those who followed the US invasion live on CNN or BBC, journalists were sending their reports live on the foray and the invading soldiers were portrayed as "saviours" of a nation and its people from an evil and cruel dictator.
But it is people like Fisk who present accurate pictures of what the conflict is all about – loss of innocent lives, destruction of property, bullying and even thieving. (Fisk alleges that Mousa was killed because he saw soldiers ransacking the hotel safe and taking away stashes of cash.)
While Fisk is tackling physical abuse, another British journalist is chasing another kind of abuse – money and power.
Andrew Jennings, who is hell-bent on cleaning sports, especially football, has blown the lid off the back-handers, sleaze, hush money and slush funds in FIFA, the governing body of the sport. Over the years, he has relentlessly pursued the culprits, naming and shaming officials involved in malpractices.
Although bringing down Sepp Blatter is proving more difficult than perceived, Jennings has turned his eye on the so-called whistle blower, Chuck Blazer, whose statements caused the resignation of FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.
His latest expose has prompted calls for FIFA's ethics committee to investigate payments from regional football organisations to offshore Caribbean accounts belonging to Blazer, a FIFA committee member.
Two weeks ago, Jennings wrote that Blazer confirmed that he had received around US$500,000 from the Caribbean Football Union, supposedly, a repayment of personal loans he had made to Warner. If they were inappropriate, Blazer said, he would return the money.
The payments had been authorised by Warner who resigned in May in the wake of disclosures about an alleged attempt to bribe regional officials in FIFA's presidential election.
The character and responsibilities of a journalist are ever-changing. From being one who is supposed to "inform, educate and entertain" the readers, he has now evolved into an investigator and most often than not, being judgmental.
No one should complain because at the end of it all, aren't we scribes supposed to be searching for the truth, even if it means exposing the crooked, the cheats, the felons and the pretenders who stalk the corridors of power?
R. Nadeswaran is theSun's UK correspondent based in London and can be contacted at:citizen-nades@thesundaily.com