WND's Aaron Klein and radio host Rusty Humphries with the senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, including Ala Senekreh, the infamous Brigades chief of the West Bank, and Nasser Abu Aziz, the Brigades' deputy commander |
Congressional Quarterly has retracted a statement regarding WND's Aaron Klein in which an online columnist called the Jerusalem bureau chief's terrorist sources "questionable."
David C. Morrison, a columnist for the private publication that reports primarily on Congress, wrote that in a piece last week he "unfairly questioned the reporting of WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein."
"The aspersion was unsupported, such snap judgments are out of place at CQ and in this column, and their author sincerely regrets the error in judgment," Morrison wrote in response to a column last week by WND Founder Joseph Farah slamming the smear.
Morrison also apologized in-depth in an e-mail to Klein, explaining his negative comments were not in response to anything in particular, merely his "personal skepticism" that terrorists would sound off about American politics and favor democrats.
In a CQ column last week summarizing recent media coverage of U.S. security issues, Morrison wrote, "The Democratic primaries have proved 'the invasion of Iraq was judged by Allah to be a failure [and that] America needs to stop letting its foreign policy be dictated by the Zionists,' WorldNetDaily's questionably-sourced Aaron Klein quotes a supposed Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade deputy."
In his WND column last Thursday, Farah blasted what he called Morrison's "arm-chair smear" of Klein:
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Morrison, an undistinguished writer from all I can gather by Googling his name, has the audacity to question Aaron Klein's sources without so much as the slightest evidence, without any research, without so much as placing a phone call. He brings nothing but disrepute on his publication by making such reckless and cavalier public indictments.
What is David C. Morrison implying here? Is he suggesting Aaron Klein, the only reporter in the Middle East brave enough to meet with terrorists, talk to them face to face, interview them, record much of what they say and who recently authored a book about his unique and fearless work in this regard is making it up?
Aaron Klein names names. He's not resorting to the cowardice of unnamed sources in this courageous, groundbreaking work.
Klein, author of the recently released "Schmoozing with Terrorists," is known for his regular interviews with terrorist chiefs. He has many times ventured into terror strongholds to meet leading jihadists, occasionally bringing with him television producers, journalists, photographers, camera crews and even top American radio hosts, including G. Gordon Liddy and Rusty Humphries.
Terrorist leaders have sounded off on the record about Klein's work. Some of his articles have been boasted about by militants on official websites of Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees terror group. A Google Images search turns up pictures of Klein with infamous terrorists, including the very Brigades deputies questioned in Morrison's column.
Klein also has conducted scores of live radio interviews with notorious terrorists, including with Mahmoud al-Zahar, chief of Hamas in Gaza; Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group; Khaled Al-Batch, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad; and Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Many of the radio interviews were broadcast on ABC Radio's John Batchelor Show.
To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861.
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Previous commentary:
CQ's arm-chair smear of Aaron Klein