More on Margolis

He is no stranger to outlandish CTs

From the Honest Reporting website: But Margolis (in photo at left) stands out among his colleagues by presenting outlandish conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality. For example, in a 1998 column, Margolis repeated allegations from a Times of London article that Israeli scientists were working on an "ethnic bomb" that would kill Arabs but spare Jews. Western scientists dismissed this claim -- embraced by Arab media, anti-Israel propagandists and conspiracy theorists -- as unscientific nonsense. Yet Margolis's column, which appeared in the Edmonton Sun and Ottawa Sun, quoted “numerous reliable sources” who claimed, “Israeli scientists are attempting to engineer deadly micro-organisms that only attack DNA within the cells of victims with distinctive Arab genes.” In the same column, Margolis also re-hashed the urban legend that “an Israeli cargo plane that crashed in Amsterdam in 1992 was carrying precursor chemicals for the deadly nerve gas, Sarin.” And now Margolis is at it again. Last week (Feb. 13), without presenting evidence, Margolis suggested in the Toronto Sun that Israel killed Yasser Arafat: “Arafat's convenient death removed a major obstacle to U.S.-Israeli plans. This writer continues to suspect Arafat was murdered by an untraceable nerve or blood toxin. He was being held prisoner by Israel in his Ramallah compound.” (Perhaps Margolis believes Israel used its "ethnic bomb" to kill Arafat.) And this week (Feb. 20), Margolis implied that Israel might also have killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri: “Israel is determined to get revenge on Hezbollah, which defeated its attempts to turn Lebanon into an Israeli protectorate and drove Israeli occupation forces from Lebanon -- a small but vicious war this writer saw firsthand. Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's rightist Likud Party may be renewing previous efforts to bring Lebanon back into Israel's sphere of influence.” Observing that “the professional expertise of the bombing strongly suggests a state intelligence agency,” Margolis named only one state intelligence agency in his column: “Israel’s Mossad.” Lebanese protesters (AP photo at right) seem to disagree. I don't think it's fair to criticise him for plugging the ethnic bomb theory it originated after all on the pages of one of the world's most respected newspapers and the idea that such a weapon was possible was accepted by several experts. But pushing the Isreal killed Arafat and Hariri theories without evidence is crack-pottery.