Fareed Zakaria's column

As if we did not have enough of the US-controlled media bombarding us round the clock from multiple press and TV channels, does The Daily Star now also have to become a mouthpiece for biased American views? I am referring to Fareed Zakaria, whose Newsweek columns are being recycled, presumably against heavy payment in foreign exchange, in the Point-Counterpoint page.

To cite just one example of Zakaria's role as handmaiden to the US government we may look at his interpretation of the Libyan decision to improve relations with the West, set out in a sly aside (Dec 24). Anyone capable of independent analysis would see that the Libyan announcement of the abandonment of programs of WMD (which no one had ever claimed existed before) forms part of a series of carefully orchestrated moves over a period of many years which have as their main objective allowing the return of US oil companies to that country. Ignoring all this history however, Zakaria finds only that the Libyan action is an indirect benefit of the war on Iraq! Which happens to be the exact spin that Bush and Blair have been trying to project, desperate as they are to present some justification, however far-fetched, of their invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The truth is that people like Fareed Zakaria are not journalists of integrity but propagandists who have internalised the self-serving value systems of the American establishment. Hence for example the frequent nauseating references in Zakaria's columns to the "eloquence" and "courage" of George Bush. At the same time there is never a mention of Bush's war crimes or the cowardice of his blatant pro-Israeli policies.

The Daily Star would do well to rid itself of this unnecessary occupation of its limited printspace by yet another manifestation of US media hegemony.