3 Thoughts on “Prisoner X”
February 13, 2013 14:19 by Simon Plosker
It’s not surprising that the story of “Prisoner X” has captured the attention of the world’s media. Here are a couple of thoughts on what we’ve seen so far.
1. You can’t put a lid on it:
One thing is crystal clear, however. The Israeli government’s attempts to squash the story have backfired and have drawn more attention to itself. The gag order meant to muzzle the Israeli press has been shown to be a blunt and ineffective instrument. For some people, their morning delivery of the English edition of Haaretz came packaged with the International Herald Tribune. While Haaretz was subject to publishing restrictions, the IHT had no such problem with printing the “Prisoner X” story.
In an age of global communications, it is virtually impossible to keep a lid on the information leaking out somewhere and Israeli media are quite adept at reporting what the foreign media are reporting in order to circumvent the limited censorship that exists when it comes to issues pertaining to national security.
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2. Less is more:
Intrigue, spies, the Mossad – all the ingredients of a Bond-esq caper. And to top it all off, the chance to speculate or weave conspiracy theories surrounding Israeli behavior. Indeed, in this case, less really is more. The story seems to have grown legs precisely due to the lack of information and the mystery involved.
Add to this the fact that most of the story is based on on a single Australian news report that relies on unnamed sources and the “expert analysis” of a former Australian intelligence operative who is also reliant on speculative guesswork.
3. Journalistic responsibility?
When Julian Assange published classified material on his Wikileaks site, his crusade for “transparency” showed little regard for the people whose identities were exposed, including intelligence operatives and informants. Most likely, some of these people may have even lost their lives as a result of this internet exposure.
In 2009, Australian Fairfax journalist Jason Koutsoukis investigated Ben Zygier – a.k.a. “Prisoner X” – and was told that three Australians with joint Israeli citizenship were allegedly working for the Mossad and said to be selling electronics to Iran through a company based in Europe. When Fairfax published its story in 2010, it did not expose the “Mossad front company.”
Koutsoukis has not revealed why this was. Could it be that he saw the bigger picture and decided not to expose an Israeli operation against Iran’s nuclear program? If this is the case (and once again, we can only speculate) then Koutsoukis may have been putting his responsibility for the greater good above that of publishing the full story.
Likewise, Israeli journalists, up until the point where the gag order was partially lifted, went along with the Israeli authorities’ instructions not to publish. Not because of any sympathy with censorship or curtailing freedom of speech but from a profound sense of patriotism and the recognition that sometimes the security of the state and a citizen’s responsibility to uphold it trumps the freedom to publish.
***
Perhaps this case has drawn the ire of some Israeli politicians and the press as it is, thankfully, so unusual for such a dramatic gag order to be made in a country with a free and vibrant press.We may never know the full story behind the “Prisoner X” affair but you can bet that the media, both Israeli and foreign, won’t stop trying to find out everything.
Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com, flickr/Lauren Michell, flickr.
Bernd Dahlenburg
7:45 pm
Feb 13, 2013
Hi Simon,
expectedly the German Media already climbed the bandwagon as mentioned in my link:
https://www.google.com/news?ncl=dBl55EjxjVcUWaMMO88PFGxVGgJiM&q=h%C3%A4ftling+x&lr=German&hl=de
My translation of your original text into German: http://backsp.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/uberlegungen-zu-haftling-x/ (my footnote at the bottom of the translation).
Greetings
Bernd
Bavaria
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reijo
8:09 am
Feb 14, 2013
“Senator” Bob Carr is a greenhorn who was offered the position in the Senate when the then incumbent decided he had had enough and resigned.
He was considered a star recruit by the Gillard Government – why is anybody’s guess.
He would have known bugger all about the X case when it was drawn to his attention.
In any case he will only be the foreign minister until September 14th when this hopeless bunch of socialist incompetents are going to get punted – hopefully a long way into political oblivion.
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Michael Kerjman
3:49 pm
Feb 14, 2013
So, what are the thoughts on as announced in a title? What had a son of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Inc. boss commit for being jailed in Eretz? Not much to read via URL linked to known Taliban-spared Jason Koutsoukis’s publication at all.
Full stop-I have ongoing problems after commenting on the Melbournian aged care already.
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Michael Z.
10:51 pm
Feb 14, 2013
I want to point your attention on poisonously anti-Israeli article by ultra-left professor Ben Saul on Australian (similarly ultra-left and anti-Israeli) ABC TV site http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4518166.html?WT.svl=theDrum
I think it could compete in “Dishonest Reporting Award” competition in Category “How To Bend Facts” While this guys cannot deny (though ABC itself should apologize about previous lies on its site) that Zygler got all due process, he slips in big lies as matter of fact. Made me remember Brezhnev’s “Izvestija” (“Pravda” was much more blatantly lying, and it never entered our home anyway:) In any case Ben Saul is apprentice compared to Soviet lie masters.
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Moll
4:37 am
Feb 15, 2013
Re: Prisoner “X”: What IF: he IS a Mossad agent, par excellence; what IF he had to “die” for PR purposes; what IF he undergoes plastic surgery, loses weight, changes the color of his eyes with contact lenses, etc., etc. Have I read too many Tom Clancy novels? Probably!! But, just imagine, what IF….
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E Pluribus Beagle
4:36 pm
Feb 15, 2013
If the Israeli authorities took away the tools and wherewithal he used to kill himself these same antisemites would be screaming ‘oppression’ anyway.
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Ed Frias
5:47 pm
Feb 15, 2013
This story has been on the frontpage of the NY Times the last few days.
Jodi Rudoren the Kapo left wing reporter for the Times has been quoting Far Leftist lawyer
Avigdor Feldman who in the past has condemned Israel for killing Palestinian mass murderers like Yassin and Rantisi.
Rudoren is known for defending Palestinian prisoners going on hunger strikes in Israel, without mentioning these Palestinians Prisoners are responsible for slaughtering Israeli civilians.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/world/middleeast/palestinian-resistance-shifts-to-hunger-strikes.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=jodirudoren
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Ed Frias
5:50 pm
Feb 15, 2013
Arnold Roth who lost his daughter in the Sbarros massacre in 01, wrote a great article about the Terrorstinian prisoners. You wont see Arnold Roth writing for the Times and showing what mass murderers these Pals are.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11649#.URpKnKVEGdI
Op-Ed: PA Prisoners Are Hungry, But For What?
May 14, 2012
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Ed Frias
5:52 pm
Feb 15, 2013
Jodi Rudoren quotes Avigdor Feldman alot in the articles how concerned Feldman is about Prisoner X and how this must be investigated urgently.
This is the same Avigdor Feldman who is known for defending Arab murderers of Israeli children.
Feldman is known for defending the Arab murderers of Dani Katz who was butchered by Arab terrorists in Haifa in 83.
Just google, Dani Katz Avigdor Feldman
Steven Plaut over the years has shown what a crazy appeaser of Arab terrorists Feldman is.
Feldman represented Teddy Katz, the Meretz MA student who fabricated a massacre of Arabs at Tantora in 1948 by the Palmach, and later admitted his whole claim of a massacre was an invention.
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Ed Frias
5:57 pm
Feb 15, 2013
Feldman represented Tali Fahima (was did jail time for helping her Palestinian terrorist boyfriend plan atrocities),
Avigdor Feldman also was the lawyer for Mohammed Bakri’s film Jenin Jenin in 2002, which was barred in Israel and Feldman wanted it played in Israeli movie theaters.
We all remember the Pallywood Jenin Blood libel against Israel.
Steven Plaut wrote a great article destroying the lies of Mohammed Bakri’s and his Goebbels film Jenin Jenin in 2002.
Here’s the article.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/1547
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Mr. Light-Bright
8:09 pm
Feb 15, 2013
The suicide part is what bothers me.
If he had to die – why not just say “we had to kill him.” But then again people see everything the wrong way at times (makes everything into a conspiracy).
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BARNEY WAINER
10:35 pm
Feb 15, 2013
Seems this guy was a double agent (aust/Isrl) and like all agents any side of the globe, was expendable – perhaps in this instance from Israel’s point of view – bcs suicide in a modern hi-tech cell where you are under surveillance TOTALLY I don’t know how suicide is possible. Spying is a cynical and risky profession and it will take 50 yrs bfore we find out and by then i won’t be here to find out.
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Morley
3:03 am
Feb 16, 2013
Given the nature if evil in this world – this whole thing is the proverbial ” tempest in a teapot ” – so please ” hak mir nisht kein cheinik ! “
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Louisa
4:28 am
Feb 16, 2013
If he was arranging a plea bargain, it appears to me that he was actually guilty for the crime for which he was arrested and placed in solitary confinement. I doubt very much that the Israeli authorities would have so seriously treated him, if they did not have an equally serious cause or evidence.
His lawyer told him that once the information was released he would be ostracised by his friends and family, as well as Israel. I believe the gag order was there for the security of Israel, and that the ABC in Australia who sympathises with the Palestinians, care nothing about Israel’s security. For them, this story would boost their ratings—–they have a HIGH MUSLIM following.
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Inessa
10:31 am
Feb 16, 2013
It does happen that people commit suicide in the most unlikely places. I had an elderly patient, who committed suicide while an in-patient in aged psychiatric ward. They went through his bag, took all belts and shoelaces etc. He somehow managed to procure a cord from a jacket and hung himself on a rung in the wardrobe.
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Inessa
10:33 am
Feb 16, 2013
It does happen that people commit suicide despite the possibility being unlikely. I had an elderly patient, who committed suicide while an in-patient in aged psychiatric ward. They went through his bag, took all belts and shoelaces etc. He somehow managed to procure a cord from a jacket and hung himself on a rung in the wardrobe.
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Inessa
10:34 am
Feb 16, 2013
I had an elderly patient, who committed suicide while an in-patient in aged psychiatric ward. They went through his bag, took all belts and shoelaces etc. He somehow managed to procure a cord from a jacket and hung himself on a rung in the wardrobe.
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Inessa
10:35 am
Feb 16, 2013
It does happen that people commit suicide in unlikely circumstances. I had an elderly patient, who committed suicide while an in-patient in aged psychiatric ward. They went through his bag, took all belts and shoelaces etc. He somehow managed to procure a cord from a jacket and hung himself on a rung in the wardrobe.
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andrew
4:03 am
Feb 17, 2013
We also have prisoners in Oz who kill each other, they are given more time to serve, and those who kill themselves. If a person is desperate enough they will always find a way to kill or be killed. This is the ‘nature’ of the criminal mind. I am fascinated by these ‘so called experts’ who ‘think’ they can understand the mindset. There is no ‘reason’, they ‘do’ because they ‘can’. We have prisoners in jails in many countries, we hardly hear about any of them. Our gov’t doesn’t care. the attitude is, “if they broke the law, so be it”, I say, when abroad, obey or pay, pretty simple really, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime”.
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Brent Pudsey
2:12 pm
Feb 17, 2013
Excellent commentary and very valid points about the media. It is intersting how difficult it is for a small country like Israel to conduct itself on the world stage and to try to control how she is portrayed.
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