Unsettling Sudan Advert in Washington Times

Apparently the Washington Times isn't above dancing with the devil to make a little money.

Last week, the paper featured a rather large section on Sudan, carefully crafted to resemble a regular news report. The main "article" features an interview with Dr. Ghazi Salah Eddin Al Atabani, an adviser to the president of Sudan, in which he proclaims Sudan's commitment to peace talks "anytime and anywhere," restates bogus arguments against humanitarian aid workers expelled from Darfur in March, and completely glosses over the government's role in country's conflicts and in the extraordinary violence perpetrated against civilians. He also claims that the Janjaweed militias are merely a "symptom and by-product of the war in Darfur" that will "fade away once peace has been established."

Interesting, considering the overwhelming evidence that the government of Sudan equips and directs militias in Darfur. (Not all of them, and not all of the time, but enough to commit a fair amount of crimes against humanity.)

And then, in a small box in the bottom corner of the page, is this:

Well that certainly explains a lot.

Regardless of where you fall on the what-to-do-about-Sudan debate, there's no denying that the government in Khartoum is a nasty bunch. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has preceded over 20 years of non-stop war, and collected extraordinary civilian death tolls in the process.

For the Washington Times to sell ad space to a foreign government seeking to promote an undeserved and misleading good name for themselves is not only a serious moral lapse --- it's complicity in the sorted aims of a group of thugs.

The full spread is embedded below. See for yourself.

GoS in the Washington Times