Johann Hari email exchange

Following the Lipton exposé of the Kenneth Joseph story, Paul de Rooij emailed Johann Hari to find out (1) if he was aware that the Joseph story was a hoax and (2) if he personally had been in touch with K. Joseph. There were eight emails from Hari stating that he was very busy, and could not answer at that point in time. The emails below are the tail end of the email exchange that took place. NB: Hari never clarified whether he had been personally in touch with Kenneth Joseph.

Original question (13 April 2006): Are you aware that the story of the “recanting” peace activist, Kenneth Joseph, was a deliberate right-wing hoax? See this CounterPunch article for further details (www.counterpunch.org/lipton04122003.html). As you can see, you disseminated a right-wing hoax. I wonder if you are planning to correct your article and perhaps apologize to your readership. Could you also confirm that you met or were directly in contact with Kenneth Joseph.

From: (J.Hari@Independent.co.uk)
To: "Paul de Rooij" (proox@hotmail.com)
Sent: April 17, 2003 16:24
Subject: Re: I greatly would appreciate your answer

Hi - I am looking into this, I've set asaid some time next Monday to do so.

Thanks again

Johann

From: (J.Hari@Independent.co.uk)
To: "Paul de Rooij" (proox@hotmail.com)
Sent: April 28, 2003 19:02
Subject: Re: what is the story...

Hi Paul - I've been trying to get in touch with this guy for the last week since you mailed. I'm on the case, but keep chivvying me.

Johann

From: (J.Hari@Independent.co.uk)
To: "Paul de Rooij" (proox@hotmail.com)
Sent: 06 May 2003 10:25
Subject: Re: tap...tap...tap...tap......still waiting.

Hi Paul. If it's a malicious hoax, I'll add a rider to the original article on the Indie website explaining exactly that. I'm still not able to get in touch with him to ask him about it.
However, have you seen the Indian newspaper poll – by an anti-war paper – of Iraqis which found that 51% of them backed the US invasion, and only 36%opposed? This adds credence to his story. Or have you read the ICG Report?

Thanks,
Johann

From: "Paul de Rooij" (proox@hotmail.com)
To: (J.Hari@Independent.co.uk)
Sent: May 06, 2003 10:59
Subject: last email

I find your remedy a bit weak, given that you have unwittingly spread a malicious right-wing hoax. I am of the opinion that you should have known better because the source of the story was Washington Times/UPI – both owned by Moon's Unification church.

Say that I had encountered some Iraqis before the war claiming that they supported the US-uk intervention in Iraq, then there isn't any compulsion for one to ride on their bandwagon. That is, we should strive to obtain solutions that obviate war. Furthermore, the US-uk didn't have the moral standing to wage this war – they had been in bed with Saddam for ages, they delivered most weapons, encouraged Iraq to attack Iran (armed both sides intermittently), and then they gave Hussein a green light to attack Kuwait. So it is not up to the US-uk to determine the fate of Iraq. Furthermore, it was a war of aggression given that it had no international sanction and that it was justified on the flimsiest of grounds. The world has been severely diminished by this war.

Look at Iraq today: it is a YEAR ZERO situation with everything torn to the ground. We are likely going to see continuous violence there as the locals start to attack the Americans. Who knows how many thousands are going to succumb to the DU-aerosols – used with utmost recklessness inside Iraq.

Simply put, your position supporting this war has been irresponsible and wrong. Furthermore, I wonder why you bother to call yourself a "Leftist" given that your buddies are the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Nick Cohen – people who abandoned any pretence to be anywhere near the Left.

Let me just finish by saying that I think that spreading deceptions and making up stories debase journalism. And it pains me to find your columns appear in the newspaper home to giants like Robert Fisk. I am deeply disturbed that you tarnish the journalism of others by simply inventing stories or spreading malicious deception without thinking that it is any serious matter. While you are explaining these issues, then you may also want to address the article in Private Eye about you. It is rather damning, and it is an indication of your callousness that you continue writing your silly columns as if nothing had happened. Simply put: you are a fraud.

Sincerely
Paul de Rooij
London

From: (J.Hari@Independent.co.uk)
To: "Paul de Rooij" (proox@hotmail.com)
Sent: May 06, 2003 17:28
Subject: Re: last email

Hi Paul, thanks for your mail. Re: Private Eye – a week before that article ran, I criticised Ian Hislop (its editor) in print and – magically! – a series of weird allegations appear about me. I can either add fuel to these lies by replying (when the article itself contained blatant inconsistencies – read the article I filed from genoa, and then read their interpretation of it, both are on the web – it's an absurd distortion) or just trust that most people know that Private Eye print unsourced nonsense all the time. What would you do?

By all means disagree with what i argue – and I'm happy to argue these things out with you or anyone else – but it's cheap and dishonest to try to skip my arguments because you think on teh basis of obviosuly ridiculous reports that I'm"a fraud".

Anyway – if you can get any more info on the human shield, I'd be grateful. I note you didn't comment on the poll of Iraqis which is inconvenient to your case.

Thanks for e-mailing,

Johann