Port Side Web Editor, Jeremy B. Merrill, Caught Lying About Arabic Language Skills

Jeremy B. Merrill CMC '12 was caught lying or being a lazy journalist earlier in the comment section of The Claremont Port Side. Merrill lists himself as editor of the web edition of The Claremont Port Side on his own personal website, but he also lists this curious fact: Merrill is, by his own admission, "proficient in Arabic." So why couldn't The Port Side, which he edits, translate the Arabic documents that I released in December 2010?

This is particularly curious because he wrote as editor of The Claremont Port Side wrote in a factually inaccurate and downright dishonest piece that my (very pricey) translations couldn't be properly vetted. Here he is in his own words, words, by the way, that he didn't sign, but for which he, as editor of the web edition, is responsible.

We do not know whether these quotes are true or accurately translated. Most of the documents are in Arabic. None of the translated documents have been made public in their entirety. Only a few of these documents are made available in the original Arabic. Many of these are not Prof. Frangieh’s own comments, but instead petitions that he appears to have signed. So, the veracity of Johnson’s claims or of his translations cannot be independently verified. [Emphasis mine]

This is particularly untrue because, as I have noted elsewhere, I posted all of the Arabic language documents for that story here and because I gave the other editor of The Port Side the entire translation for the interview where Frangieh says, in his own words, that he supports terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas with "great joy".

In fairness to Merrill, who lists his resume on the next page, he lists "some Arabic" but, on the opening page, he writes that he's proficient in it. So which is it? In further fairness to Merrill, the Arabic language interview which I gave to his co-editor, Everett "Alex" Heiney CMC '12, six days before the story was published, is cached here so he might, you know, actually have to do some actual leg work if he wanted to find the initial story, but that shouldn't have been too difficult for Merrill. After all, he lists all of his tech accomplishments on his web page, too. For a "web developer skilled in PHP, mySQL, HTML/CSS, WordPress, etc" and with his own LinkedIn profile promoting his techy skills, I find it hard to believe that he couldn't sleuth this one out. But maybe Jeremy B. Merrill's resume is less truthful than he is? Could it be?

But I must ask: Is Jeremy Merrill either lying or lazy? I've repeatedly asked Merrill to correct The Port Side story. He refuses. I've also informed him that I'm talking with counsel about if he won't. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Update: The real question here is not Merrill's integrity, but why it was that The Port Side couldn't do their own translations and why, for that matter, the students from the Arabic program haven't done them either. If I am wrong, I will retract everything.

Do Those Who Boycott Oranges Boycott People?

Professor Bassam Frangieh supports a boycott of all Israeli goods and academics according to a pro-Hezbollah petition he signed in 2006. Dean Hess's statement to the faculty which I critiqued here never mentioned Professor Frangieh's support for a boycott of all Israeli goods and academics but some of his students have privately told me that he would, of course, be against a boycott. They do this, I suspect, because they are well-wishes, as Professor Frangieh has said nary a word on the whole scandal now enveloping him, despite repeated requests for comment.

Well, here he is in his own words saying he personally boycott's oranges from Jaffa and that he is deeply cynical about the peace process. Given that he has never brought a pro-Israeli speaker to campus, is it too much to think that, perhaps, Professor Frangieh boycotts people as well as oranges?

Have a look for yourself. Here's Frangieh in his own words from a May 26, 2006 interview. 

Q: You are the son of a Jaffa family, which emigrated from Palestine…the first country.

A: My family lived in Jaffa, as I mentioned, and is a Jaffa family. My father worked in orchards—orange orchards. Whenever he saw oranges in the markets after the Nakba, he would cry. The orange was a symbol of his lost country, work, house, and identity. He swore to never touch or eat an orange until he returned to Palestine. My father died without ever eating another orange.  A few years ago I happened to see in an American market an orange imported from Jaffa. I stood pondering, and grasped the orange. It had a distinct smell, something different than the typical orange. “Ah, if only my father had seen it,” I said to myself. I didn’t buy it, and I will never eat it. These oranges that I saw had been opened with a wound in [word missing in interview]

I returned home afterward, where I had received several letters inviting me to attend a lecture at the University, in which officials from the Palestinian Authority as well as American officials were participating in a discussion on the Road Map and its dimensions. I wanted to cry. There’s no way they are talking about this. This must be a profitable venture, no doubt, done in the name of the Palestinian people. Everything was in the name of the Palestinian people—the private jets, the limousines, the five-star hotels… [ellipsis in original] [Emphasis mine]

Some Questions About Hezbollah for The Claremont Port Side, Melissa Carlson CMC '13, and Alex Heiney CMC '12

In an article rife with factual inaccuracy and misstatements, The Claremont Portside thinks it is no big deal that Professor Frangieh supports the terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas. 


They write,  

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is extremely complex. Disagreeing with the U.S. government’s support for Israeli military actions and its condemnation of violent Palestinian actions does not necessitate opposition to core American values. Further, Hamas and Hezbollah are not purely military groups, but also quasi-governmental organizations in Gaza and Lebanon, respectively. Hezbollah was in fact a member of Lebanon’s parliamentary opposition, until its ministers in the Prime Minister’s cabinet withdrew earlier in January.Whether Hamas and Hezbollah are murderous, religiously-oriented terrorist groups or legitimate resistance groups using violence against Israeli occupation (or some of both) ought to be a topic of debate — despite the U.S. government’s pronouncements.

Hassan Nasrallah, who heads Hezbollah, hasn't repudiated his views that he hopes all of the Jews gather in Israel so he doesn't have to go through the trouble of exterminating the Jews worldwide, and as recently as 2009, Hezbollah plotted a terrorist attack in Azerbaijan against the Israeli, Japanese, and Thai embassies. 


The very fact that Hezbollah was allowed to be a part of the government, despite overwhelming evidence that it was still conducting terrorism, shows us unequivocally that the parties of terrorists will still pursue the ends of terrorism, 


Melissa Carlson CMC '13, who The Claremont Port Side quotes favorably, also expressed dismay that Hezbollah toppled the government of Lebanon on her Facebook wall. "We are standing at the brink of the unknown," she wrote. (She ultimately deleted my pointing out that her professor, Bassam Frangieh, supports Hezbollah -- something he continues to do, despite repeated requests that he denounce these organizations.)


We now know that The Claremont Port Side's editor, Everett "Alex" Heiney CMC '12, doesn't think Hezbollah is a terrorist organization thanks to that unsigned piece that appeared in The Claremont Port Side yesterday.  Alex is a ROTC cadet and a patriot, but I wonder, what's he doing letting his paper publish factually inaccurate pieces? Doesn't he know that Hezbollah routinely kills his fellow American soldiers in Iraq? 


Hezbollah kills Americans in Iraq. Says one American soldier quoted by Michael J. Totten,  "I don't know why Hezbollah is so much more ruthless [than Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia], but they are." In 2008, then Iraqi president Jalal Talabani told the U.S.-funded Alhurra that there had "been several occasions" when Hezbollah members have been detained in Iraq. 


The United States, Germany, Spain, and France banned Hezbollah's satellite television station, Al Manar. The State Department (you know, where Bassam Frangieh's wife, Aleta Wenger was employed), said the channel "preaches violence and hatred."


If the whole purpose of the Arabic program was to train the next generation of diplomats and America's place for diplomats is the State Department and the State Department condemns Hezbollah's television station, to say nothing of its condemnation of Hezbollah, what does that tell us about The Port Side? 

My Challenge to the Arabic Program Students In Favor of Frangieh: Stand Up and Debate

 Over at the factually misinformed and dishonest Port Side piece, I've left this comment criticizing a "supportive student" who is apparently so supportive that s/he won't put his name to his comment.

I’m dismayed that a “supportive student” calls my work “hateful” when it has been vetted by half a dozen scholars on the Middle East and the real hate is that of Bassam Frangieh who condones suicide bombing and violence against Israelis. I have a proposal for him/her, though: If my work is libelous, why doesn’t Frangieh sue me? I’ll meet him in court any day of the week — and I’ll win because the truth is the best defense. Why is his approach — and that of the College — to repeatedly say, “no comment”? The only reason that the world even knows of Dean Hess’s statement to the faculty, by the way, Claremont Portside, is because I had a source leak it to me.

His being a “fantastic teacher” has nothing to do with his harboring of support for anti-Semitic terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas.(You left out grade inflating…)

I notice that you don’t have the courage to put your name to your comment. That is, unfortunately, to be expected — the Claremont Independent can’t find a single Arabic student to write a letter to the editor — but should you decide to come out publicly as a “supportive” student for a professor whose views are now so widely known and increasingly so, I’ll glad debate you on this topic in front of the entire school.

In fact, I am so sure of my sources that I’ll debate any, or all, member(s) of the Arabic program, though I ask that they select their best debaters if only to make it easier on the audience.