Keadilan Daily
Belum pun reda isu kerajaan menggunakan khidmat Apco dengan bayaran RM77 juta setahun, terbaru Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak didedah menggunakan khidmat sekumpulan blogger Amerika pro Israel.
Selain Najib, Ketua Menteri Sarawak, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud juga dikatakan menggunakan khidmat blogger yang sama bagi tujuan meningkatkan imej, seperti dilapor sebuah portal berita semalam, Free Malaysia Today.
Lebih memalukan, salah seorang blogger itu, Caleb Howe, dikesan memburuk Islam pada laman twitternya 23 April tahun lepas dengan menghina junjungan besar umat Islam, Nabi Muhammad.
"Saya melukis gambar (nabi) Muhammad hari ini. Saya menunjukkan beliau mengahwini kanak-kanak sebelum sunti.
Pada mesej twitter yang sama selepas itu, beliau menulis "Boleh kah saya berkahwin dengan pra-sunti? Maaf…itu kesalahan ejaan saya. Maksud saya merogol".
Howe dan blogger lain dilihat bukan kali pertama telah membuat kenyataan yang menghina dan memburukkan Islam secara keterlaluan terutama di laman twitter.
Beliau juga dikaitkan dengan Josh Trevino, penulis blog berhaluan kanan di belakang blog Amerika 'Red State' dan 'New Ledger' dan juga syarikat yang dipanggil Rogue Strategic Services.
Rogue Services dilapor menyediakan perkhidmatan untuk Barisan Nasional sejak zaman bekas Perdana Menteri, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Howe juga penyumbang tetap kepada laman web utama Trevino 'Red State' , juga pembantu akaun Twitter 'Malaysia Matters' yang mana berkait dengan laman web Malaysia Matters- satu daripada projek Trevino untuk mempromosikan pemimpin BN.
Laman web Malaysia Matters telah dimulakan dalam 2008 oleh Trevino dan seorang rakan sekerja Jerome Amstrong.
Armsrong, yang juga profesional 'blogger upahan', ditugaskan oleh kerajaan Malaysia untuk khidmat berkenaan- beliau menyenaraikan Malaysia sebagai pelanggan di laman web syarikatnya, Webstrong.
Trevino sendiri bukan lagi menjadi rahsia dengan pandangannya yang pro israel sehingga dia berbalas cicipan twitter sesama rakan Amerika yang berasa kasihan dengan rakyat Palestin dan isu kapal flotilla yang diserang tentera Israel.
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'Anti-Islam bloggers in US on Najib/BN payroll'
Clare Rewcastle Brown | July 25, 2011
A team of American bloggers allegedly hired by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud to improve their respective images, are in fact pro-Israel and known to publicly slander Islam.
One member of the team, Caleb Howe, indulged in a sustained, childish rant on his public Twitter page on April 23 last year, in which he said: "I drew a picture of Mohammed today. I showed him marrying a pre-tween. Might as well be historically correct right?"
Eighteen minutes later on the same twitter message, he posted: "Did I say marrying a pre-tween? Sorry.. that was my typo.I meant raping." Caleb's outburst against Islam is not an isolated incident (see image below).
He and his team have indulged in a number of such anti-Islamic rants on Twitter that are clearly designed to give extreme offence to Muslims.
Few would dream of engaging in such an unpleasant and offensive attack.
It thus comes as a surprise that Najib and Taib would hire Howe and his colleagues who sustain other blogs such as Red State, New Ledger, Sarawak Report(s), Malaysia Matters as their professional promoters.
It seems somewhat a misjudgement that Najib, who sees himself as the great protector of his own Muslim religion, continues to be associated with this team of Americans.
Pro-Israeli views
Howe [photo below] is closely linked to Josh Trevino, the right-wing blogger behind the American 'Red State' and 'New Ledger' blogs and also a PR company called Rogue Strategic Services.
Rogue Services have been in employ with Barisan Nasional since the days of former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Now their portfolio includes Najib and Taib. They have been allegedly hired to create 'positive publicity' on their behalf.
This is achieved through a network of websites. These websites have been engaged by Najib and Taib to promote them by publishing favourable articles in their blogs in the US.
These reports are then carried in Malaysian blogs. Local media then quote these blogs, giving Malaysians the impression that Najib and Taib have positive international endorsement.
Howe, who is a regular contributor to Trevino's flagship 'Red State' website, also curates a Twitter account called Malaysia Matters which is linked to the Malaysia Matters website, one of Trevino's projects to promote BN leaders.
The Malaysia Matters website (which has just been re-launched) was started in 2008 by Trevino and a colleague Jerome Armstrong.
Armstrong, who is also a professional 'blogger for hire', has made no secret of the fact that the project was commissioned by the Malaysian government – he lists them as a client on the website of his company WebStrong.
Trevino himself has made no secret of his rabid pro-Israeli views – to the extent that he tweeted that fellow Americans who felt sorry for the Palestinians and took part in the mercy ship flotilla deserved to be shot dead.
Clare Rewcastle Brown is the founder/editor of Sarawak Report
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