Since the Lara Logan story busted out all over the news sites and blogosphere early this week, there have been two reactions from Left media.
Some have diverted into theories about male repression over women in general, and various psychological ramblings. Others have responded with appropriate sympathies for Logan, while ignoring the fundamental issues involved in the rape, such as the suspected Islamist inspiration for the attack, and the fact that the attackers were not Mubarak “thugs” but rather the “peaceful” anti-Mubarak protesters.
Then free-lance journalist Nir Rosen enflamed the whole issue with his outrageous Tweets mocking the rape and assault of Logan. And that’s pretty much been the story line ever since.
The Dubai-based, ethnically Iranian Rosen hangs out on the far reaches of the American AntiWar Left. But even though he’s been the dedicated water-boy for various Far Left causes and media for years, virtually, nobody on the Left, is now willing to step forward to come to his defense.
As Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic points out:
Nir Rosen, the journalist who infamously mocked Lara Logan… has been saying hugely outrageous things for years, as I’ve documented here. He is sympathetic to the Taliban; he thinks al Qaeda poses no threat to America; he wishes Americans would “get over” 9/11; and he thinks Israel is an “abomination.”
He was a recent speaker at the New America Foundation. He has been a writer for both Rolling Stone and the hard-left UK Guardian. His reports have appeared in various forms on Daily Kos. And of course, he has a long association with the suspiciously anti-American, and curiously named, NYU Center for Law and Security.
Still, none of these foundations or media are defending Rosen. In fact, the NYU Center, to their credit, was quick to condemn his statements and later “accept his resignation.”
Leave it to the leftside of the libertarian movement to step forward.
Rosen has been a guest on AntiWar radio, sponsored by AntiWar.com editors Justin Raimondo and Eric Garris. AntiWar.com has also featured Rosen’s excerpted reports, and commented favorably on his reporting from the Middle East. The AntiWar.com-ers are closely allied with Lew Rockell, and even many elements within the Ron Paul camp. (Garris, for instance, serves as a web consultant to LewRockwell.com).
Reached by Breitbart.com for a comment, Angela Keaton, Development Director for AntiWar.com said the following:
As a feminist, awareness of rape culture should be a given. Rape wasn’t discovered yesterday. However, I’m unimpressed by
Rosen’s critics who lack the integrity to first, quote Rosen directly, or his profuse apologies. Second, the assault on Logan is being used to advance racism and violence against Arabs and Muslims. Most of Logan’s champions are not known for their fierce activism in ending violence against women. Finally, given how quickly NYU accepted Rosen’s resignation, it should alarm anyone who is committed to the American ideals of journalistic independence and academic freedom both the limits of public debate and the lack of accountability for actual examination of one’s work. However sickening and brutal the attack against Logan, she should not be shielded from criticism of her highly controversial positions.
Of course, Rosen accused Logan of being a “warmonger,” which Ms. Keaton is referring too.
The folks at AntiWar.com are on the fringes of the libertarian movement, and mainstream libertarians are largely turned off and even deeply offended by their more often than not anti-American, Islamist-sympathizing viewpoints.
Still, the near-politically homeless isolationists/non-interventionists on the libertarian Left are at least honest and straight-forward about Rosen, and not cowering from the issue as the unanimous response from the socialist Left has been.
Note – I founded the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) in 1990, as a pro-defense alternative to Raimdondo and Garris’s now defunct Libertarian Republican Organizing Comm. (LROC). I also worked as a Senior Aide to US Congressman Ron Paul from 1996 to 2003, when I resigned over his opposition to the War in Iraq. Today I publish LibertarianRepublican.net
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