Behind the Sources (I): The One-Stop Shop
al-Akhbar, Nov 2 2012

Once upon a time, Hezbollah parliamentarian Ali Fayyad was a much coveted interlocutor for western journalists passing through Beirut to do a story on USAia’s formidable enemy. It was recurrently reported that Fayyad, urbane despite his membership in an Islamist movement, spoke impeccable English, smoked cigars, and ate generous helpings of ice cream. These apparently curious details provided the mandatory “color” to many a report from Beirut. But no more. For the past year at least, Hezbollah has imposed a moratorium on interviews with western media. One consequence of this “blackout” has been the ever-increasing reliance of western reporters on a miniscule pool of English-speaking “experts” who feign proximity to, or knowledge of, the party. This is the first of a three-part series in which al-Akhbar takes a hard look at the sources providing insight and analysis for the mainstream media.

Hilal Khashan, professor of political science at the USAian University of Beirut, is a one-stop shop for foreign reporters seeking commentary on a myriad of actors and issues, including of course insight into the inner workings of Lebanon’s premier resistance group, Hezbollah. In a sample of major western media stories from Oct 18 to 26, admittedly an unusually busy week for reporters stationed in Beirut due to the explosion in Achrafieh and subsequent street violence, Khashan was cited by AFP, Reuters, the WaPo, the FT and VoA, to name but a few outlets. During that week, the WaPo solicited Khashan’s commentary for no less than three separate articles, on Oct 18, 19 and 26. On Oct 18, the newspaper’s Liz Sly interviewed Khashan in Beirut for a story about Syrian Alawis, who are allegedly turning against the regime in droves. The following day, Sly again sought comment from Khashan, this time in regard to the assassination of Wissam al-Hassan. Apart from a Hariri spokesperson and an eyewitness only identified as George Azzi, a hilariously common name, Khashan was the only source interviewed and cited in this article:

After Friday’s killing, Lebanese braced for the fallout as angry Sunnis, some of them armed, took to the streets in several Sunni areas across Lebanon to protest the killing. Streets in the capital emptied and a brief gun battle was reported in Tripoli between Sunnis and members of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs. “There will be repercussions, they will be severe, and I’m afraid the Sunni community will not accept this,” predicted Hilal Khashan.

A week later, Khashan’s hackneyed observations again made their way into the paper:

“You know how we find out that Hezbollah is under pressure?” asked Hilal Khashan, a professor in the political science department at the USAian University of Beirut. “They remain quiet. They are keeping a very low profile during these days. There is already pressure on Hezbollah and the pressure is mounting.”

VoA also cited Khashan in three separate articles on Syria and Lebanon, two of them filed from Cairo. In one of the stories, he appears to be the only source interviewed outside of official statements made to other media. The FT fared slightly better with only one recent Khashan citation, though Beirut correspondent Abigail Fielding-Smith has cited his insights in eight articles since the end of May, including one for a story on Hezbollah’s rumored participation in the fighting in Syria. In addition, both the widely-cited newswiresReuters and AFP, whose stories are reprinted by thousands of outlets, quoted Khashan that week: the French agency published his rather trite observation that the Eid ceasefire in Syria would in all likelihood fail. One former stringer for a major US newspaper explained to al-Akhbar that Khashan was such a delectable source for western reporters, because he is always available to give comment and speaks English.

But aside from the digestible truisms he reliably supplies, al-Akhbar has uncovered that Khashan also moonlights as an informer for the US-based, private global intelligence agency, Stratfor. And he is not just any informer. Stratfor’s “analysis” of events in the Levant, according to a cache of the company’s internal emails obtained by WikiLeaks earlier this year, is primarily reliant on the insights and alleged “human intelligence” that an operative codenamed “ME1” provides for a steep fee. Even within Stratfor, ME1′s identity is a closely-guarded secret. Based on analysis of Stratfor’s email cache, al-Akhbar has established that ME1 is none other than Hilal Khashan. Incidentally, some of the same media outlets that regularly seek out Khashan’s views on a range of subjects also bolster their coverage of the region with Stratfor’s insights, which are, unbeknownst to them, often gleaned from the same professor. Yazan al-Saadi has the story on Stratfor’s top Middle East source below.

“ME1” Unmasked: Stratfor’s Star Informer

Earlier this year, WikiLeaks, working with more than twenty media partners including al-Akhbar, released some of Stratfor’s private emails in a project dubbed the “Global Intelligence Files.” In relation to Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East, the emails instantaneously showed that Stratfor placed singular importance on one source, codenamed ME1. Prior to connecting the dots and uncovering ME1’s identity, al-Akhbar blogged about him in a Mar 26 post entitled “Our Man in Beirut,” with evidence gleaned from the “GI Files”:

For the Levant, Senior Analyst for the Middle East and South Asia (MESA), Reva Bhalla, gains the bulk of her human insights from a single main source. Codenamed ME1, the identity of this valuable source is protected even in Stratfor’s own internal source listings. All the files listing the informants’ names and contact information were conveniently entitled “source lists.” We don’t yet know who ME1 is, but Reva describes her relationship with him as follows: “I have been working with ME1 for more than 4 years now. He needs ego stroking and is very defensive, but very well connected. I have caught several instances though where what he has reported is in the OS verbatim. When you inquire about it, he shows classic defensive tactics. He has great sources, but his source information can be difficult to evaluate b/c I can’t tell when he might be fabricating the information to justify his pay. Known since 2003. Tempermental (sic). Sometimes his immediate reaction is suspect. Often good info but hard to tell when it is and isn’t. Emphasized quantity over quality.”

Previous readings by al-Akhbar reported that ME1 was an active source at least as far back as 2006. The Stratfor emails also indicated that he was a major link connecting the private intelligence firm to other sources, which allegedly included military, academic, diplomatic and media figures in Lebanon and elsewhere. Moreover, ME1’s importance to Stratfor was made evident by the fact that he received a significant pay raise last October, which brought his salary up from $3k/month to $6k/month, making him one of the highest-paid contractors for the so-called “Shadow CIA.” Upon deeper examinations of the GI Files, ME1’s identity was uncovered: Hilal Khashan. Khashan is the author of a number of written works, notably a book titled “Inside the Lebanese Confessional Mind,” described by Daniel Pipes as “a stunningly original study on the political attitudes of Lebanese.” Khashan is also a fellow and regular contributor to Pipes’ Middle East Quarterly. Khashan first appears within the Stratfor files in Nov 2004. Corresponding with Anthony Sullivan, a recruiter for the firm, Khashan wrote about his “great interest” in Stratfor founder George Friedman’s article scrutinizing the CIA and added:

I am writing this note to express to you my interest in cooperating in this worthwhile effort.

A month later, Khashan sent his CV to Sullivan, who in turn passed it on to other senior employees within Stratfor’s Special Operations department. While Director of Special Operations Bob Rushing expressed concern over the new recruit’s ability to gain access as an academic, Sullivan assured him:

Khashan has knowledge of Muslim movements and connections with Muslim personalities in Lebanon and elsewhere [in] the Levant.

That seemed to put to rest any doubts over Khashan’s merits as a provider of “human intelligence.” The use of the codename ME1 appears to have begun in 2006.

[ed notes:click link for whole article..