Just after Christmas my uncle, a stirrer of the finest order, sent me an email titled "Nearly 200,000 books in Egypt reduced to ashes at the hands of Islamic supremacists".

Written by Ryan Jones of Israel Today Magazine on the 27th December 2011 it went on to detail "Earlier this month, in a development nearly two weeks old (as of this writing), approximately 192,000 rare books and manuscripts belonging to the Institute of Egypt in Cairo went up in flames, destroyed by rampaging Muslim mob."
http://israeltoday.co.il/News/tabid/178/nid/23061/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Ryan manages to use the gamut of pushbutton words in the short piece; Hitler, Muslim Brotherhood, Christians, medieval, Ayatollah Khomeini, Yasser Arafat, Hamas, Sharia Law, and for good measure Iran.

A quick fact checking showed that the building was one of a number that caught fire during the latest violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Tahrir Square. 

A report can be found here;
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/violence-rocks-cairo-for-third-day-20111218-1p0eq.html?skin=text-only

What is interesting is not the fact that such a biased article was written but rather the speed with which it has been propagated around the web. I have watched with a morbid fascination the Google hits explode as site after site has run with the piece. Now it ranks before virtually all the news reports of the incident.

The question is are we seeing agenda driven ideologues spreading their warped version of reality or something more sinister? Is it in the 'black op' league? Is this a shining example of the deliberate dissemination of disinformation?

Anyone up for a little sleuthing? UOG this should be right up your alley.

An interesting thread CSteele, but I think it is hard to see what is or isn't true about the book-burning incident. I would be skeptical about the account from such a biased site as 'Israel Today' though.

I was looking up the history of book-burning as a matter of interest, and came across several sites stating that it was a well known practice of some Christian groups in the past (?present) too, especially the following site:

"Book Burning: A True Christian Tradition"
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news1002/bookburning.html

I don't think that either religious group can say they haven't been involved in this sort of activity.

Good morning csteele, this is the point you will say I am sweating and heated.
That my anger over rules thoughts, not true quite calm, but understand it helps you handle the fact we oppose one another on such subjects.
Lies are currency in all groups in the middle east.
And your relatives have a holly book that says it is not just ok but good/required to lie to us.
Well worth noting the little boy who cried wolf here.
I have recently seen a list of dreadful crimes said to be perpetrated by America, on folk from this part of the world.
Including, no joke, mens penis falling of after drinking Coke Cola!

oh dear im getting typecast
but my search reveals it didnt rate any mention
http://whatreallyhappened.com/

no doudt frank will be looking into this
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-world-today-radio-podcasts.html

israel should be for israelies
not zion...

ditto palistein/iran..etc
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2011/12/20/romney-obama-agree-on-iran-keep-up-aggression-impede-peace/

[so we expect spin]..like the book burning to be propagated
[pre their intended attack on iran]...babies from incubaters..etc

anything but peace tal-king

anything to get the maccabees..[and the chinees]
http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.com/2012/01/invading-iran-is-invading-russia-china.html

the 911
injury toll continues
http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/01/01/all-american-muslim-9-11/

The true number of military personnel..injured over the course of our nine-year-long fiasco in Iraq is in the hundreds of thousands -- maybe even more than half a million --

if you take into account..all the men and women who returned from their deployments with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress, depression, hearing loss,..breathing disorders,..diseases, and other long-term health problems.
http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-many-us-soldiers-were-wounded-in.html

absolute power corrupts absolutly
http://rt.com/news/obama-torture-change-killing-103/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMOp1tk5Z5o

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=17142
http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9lp0YFqVC1E#!

depleted uranium makes birth defects
so too white phospher..and cluster bombs
[noted in the prison camp known as palistein]
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/gaza-the-3-week-nightmare-that-has-lasted-for-3-years/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kPe5zcTjH4
http://lewrockwell.com/scheuer/scheuer12.1.html
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/01/02/lessons-in-american-history-scapegoating/

the war mongering leech
has sukked its own people dry
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Formerly_Great_Cities_All_Over_America_Are_Turning_Into_Open%2C_Festering_Sores_/17251/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Dear Suseonline,

Thanks for the reply.

The facts are that on the day there were dramatic clashes between protesters and security forces, remember this was when the footage was captured of the woman being stripped half naked and beaten and kicked while she lay unconscious on the ground.

Footage of protesters using fire-bombs to dislodge security snipers from rooftop positions has been shown time and time again from Egypt.

Reports state that part of the reason the army went in so hard this time was the absence of the more religious elements at the square because of how well those elements had done in the elections.

However none of this was mentioned in Ryan's article. One can see it as just disingenuous or a calculated manipulation of the facts. The following from the website gives us the answer.
“Israel is at the centre of a media war, and you can help tip the scales in her favor. The recent events in Egypt once again demonstrate how powerfully the media can influence realities on the ground by manipulating the perception the world has of what is happening in the Middle East. The media is a full-fledged actor in the battle facing Israel. And Israel is losing the media war.”

The logo for Israel Today is two Jewish symbols over a Christian one.

What is interesting is that Ryan is a 'gentile'. A search for 'Ryan Jones Israel' gets us his Linkedin profile. We see he was educated at Baker University in Kansas, currently a Reporter/Editor/News Writer at Israel Today Magazine. Past employment was as “Freelance Reporter at Cybercast News Service”, “Middle East Correspondent at All Headline News”, Writer/Webmaster at International Christian Zionist Center. He has an open Google profile complete with family photo albums, which is strange for someone who is obviously computer savvy.

A search for 'Ryan Jones Israel Wikipedia' gets us a page on the Israel Insider, “daily online publication that provides news and commentary about Israel, including security and diplomatic issues, politics, culture, and global Jewish concerns, in particular anti-Semitism.” whose other contributors include Benjamin Netanyahu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israelinsider

Cont

Cont.

“The publication's revenue model is based primarily on reader contributions, advertising, and the licensing of Israel and Jewish history maps.”. The last part threw me a little, until I found out that the chief customer for those maps appears to be the Israeli Military. What a great way to create a seemingly legit money trail, or am I being a little cynical?

However the link back to our Mr Jones is obviously tenuous. The question is whether he is being funded in part or wholly by the Israeli government? Or does he do this purely from a deeply held religious conviction? Certainly the reach of his articles throughout the blog-o-sphere puts our David Singer to shame but leaves us with suspicions rather than answers.

Dear UOG,

Needed a touch more focus but thank you for trying.

Dear Belly,

My self-imposed ban on our engaging is reinstated because I do not want to put your blood pressure at risk nor be diverted on this thread. Thank you.

To all,

The reason for the thread is the need I have to understand how things work. I'm not keen to pass judgement since all sides engage in disinformation, but it have witnessed this instance occurring in real time has been intriguing to say the least. So is Mr Jones.