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Implied Attitudes in The New York Times Reports on
Political Issues Concerning Iran and Israel in 2007:
A CDA Approach to Text
By:
Mohammad Ghazanfari (PHD)
&
Mohammad Rahiminejad (M.A)
Sabzevar University for Teacher Education
Abstract
The present study was conducted to see whether is there any underlying meaning in the
New York Times political reports which are written on Iran and Israel in 2007, and
whether there is any bias in the reports since Iran and Israel are considered America’s
opponent and proponent respectively. To do so, 50 reports of the Times were randomly
extracted out of the many reports which are available on the Times site
www.nytimes.com in 2007. To analyze the reports, the researcher adopted the Hallidayan
model as his framework of analysis. The analysis focused on the linguistic choices within
the three functions or meanings of Hallidayan model of language. Therefore, the
linguistic choices chosen to be analyzed in political reports on Iran and Israel were: active
and passive voices, and nominalization within ideational meaning, modality within
interpersonal meaning and thematization within textual meaning. After the analysis, the
researcher came to this conclusion that the New York Times has used the mentioned
features to show its biased attitude towards Iran and Israel.
Key words: critical discourse analysis, media discourse, Hallidayan model of language.
Lexical choice
1. Introduction
During the 1970s in the USA, there was an increasing concern about the language used
by people in power to confuse or deceive ordinary people. This type of language was
named “double speak” by the National Council of Teachers of English (Crystal, 2004, p.
176). Lutz, a member of the council, has described “double speak” in this way:
Language which pretends to communicate, but in reality it doesn’t. It is the
language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the
unpleasant appear attractive, or at least tolerable. It is language which avoids and
shifts responsibility, language which is at variance with its real or its purported
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meaning. It is language which conceals or prevents thoughts (cited in Crystal,
ibid.).
This type of language is used in speeches as a means by which men in power can impose
their ideologies to their listeners, and in discourses by which people in charge of mass
media around the world can imply their worldviews and attitudes towards different issues
in news reports and articles.
Using double speak in 1970s has asked for the analysis of this language in order
to uncover and describe the hidden intentions of the producers of such language.
Therefore, in 1970s there was the emergence of a form of discourse and text analysis that
recognized the role of language in structuring power relations in society. A structuralist
approach to media studies has the advantage of opening up many new areas for analysis
and criticism. However, questions about structuralist assumptions and methods still
remain, and we are seriously lacking satisfactory answers, many of which remain beyond
the scope of this investigation.
But if we persist in the conviction that audiences should be granted the role of
subject, that is, a role of "active agent" in television production, one capable of
constructing meanings from the language of the media, then it is also necessary to
continue under the assumption that language and meaning are in some way social
constructs. Although much of the methodology and research goals used in the study of
language have resisted this trend, today "society" and "criticism" have become key words
in various new approaches to language study and its application to the analysis of media
as discourse.
The work of Kress and Hodge (1979), Fowler, Kress, Hodge and Trew (1979),
van Dijk (1985), Fairclough (1989), and Wodak (1989) serve to explain and illustrate the
main assumptions, principles and procedures of this form of discourse which had then
become known as Critical Linguistics (cited in van Dijk, 1985).
In Simpson’s words (1993), Critical Linguistics analysis will seek to interpret,
rather than simply to describe the linguistic structure of texts (p. 105). In fact, “Critical
Linguistics seeks to interpret texts on the basis of linguistic analysis. This tradition of
analytic enquiry is traced directly to the work implemented by Roger Fowler and his
associates” (Simpson, 1993, p. 5).
In the 1990s, the analysis of such discourses aimed more at analyzing discourses
in a critical way in order to find the ideologies and worldviews in them. This kind of
analysis with the CDA label came to be used more consistently to describe this particular
approach to linguistic analysis.
The critical use of discourse analysis (CDA) in applied linguistics has led to the
development of a different approach to understanding media messages. The undeniable
power of the media has inspired many critical studies in many disciplines: linguistics,
semiotics, pragmatics, and discourse studies. Traditional, often content analytical
approaches in critical media studies have revealed biased, stereotypical, sexist or racist
images in texts, illustrations, and photos.
The New York Times, as one of the most commonly read newspapers in the US is
not an exception. It is assumed that the language by which reporters of that paper write
their reports may have some underlying meanings, and will probably show the implied
attitudes of the writers of those reports and editors of the papers. The case in this study
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consists of reports - concerning political issues - on Iran and Israel, the two political
states which are known as America’s worst opponent and best proponent, respectively.
In this study, the researcher will try to find the underlying meanings and attitudes
in the political news reports of The New York Times issues published in 2007. This will
be done by analyzing the texts in terms of Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar, as
practiced by scholars in critical discourse analysis such as van Dijk, Fairclough, and
some others.
1.2 Conceptual and theoretical frameworks
Since CDA is not a specific type of research, it does not have a unitary theoretical
framework. Within the aims mentioned above, there are many types of CDA, and these
may be theoretically and analytically quite diverse. Critical analysis of conversation is
very different from an analysis of news reports in the press or of instructional materials .
Yet, given the common perspective and the general aims of CDA, we may also find
overall conceptual and theoretical frameworks that are closely related. As Beaugrande
(2006) suggested, most kinds of CDA will ask questions about the way specific discourse
structures are deployed in the reproduction of social dominance, whether they are part of
a conversation or a news report or other genres and contexts. Thus, the typical vocabulary
of many scholars in CDA will feature such notions as "power," "dominance,"
"hegemony," "ideology," "class," "gender," "race," "discrimination," "interests,"
"reproduction," "institutions," "social structure," and "social order," besides the more
familiar discourse analytical notions (Beaugrande, 2006, p. 42).
2. Review of Literature
Discourse refers to expressing oneself using words. Discourses are ubiquitous ways of
knowing, valuing, and experiencing the world. Discourses can be used for an assertion of
power and knowledge, and they can be used for resistance and critique. This perspective
is valuable to the linguist because it affords an insight into why language is as it is
(Halliday, 2001). Discourses are used in everyday contexts for building power and
knowledge, for regulation and normalization, for the development of new knowledge and
power relations, and for hegemony (excess influence or authority of one nation over
another). Given the power of the written and spoken word, CDA is necessary for
describing, interpreting, analyzing, and critiquing social life reflected in text
(Beaugrande, 2006). CDA is concerned with studying and analyzing written texts and
spoken words to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality, and bias
and how these sources are initiated, maintained, reproduced, and transformed within
specific social, economic, political, and historical contexts (van Dijk, 1988b, cited in van
Dijk, 2006). It tries to illuminate ways in which the dominant forces in a society construct
versions of reality that favour their interests. By unmasking such practices, CDA scholars
aim to support the victims of such oppression and encourage them to resist and transform
their lives (Wodak, 2002).
Stemming from Habermas’s critical theory (1973, cited in Fairclough, 2004),
CDA aims to help the analyst understand social problems that are mediated by
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mainstream ideology and power relationships, all perpetuated by the use of written
texts in our daily and professional lives. The objective of CDA is to uncover the
ideological assumptions that are hidden in the words of our written texts or oral
speeches in order to resist and overcome various forms of power (Fairclough, 1989,
cited in Faitclough, 2004). CDA aims to systematically explore often opaque
relationships between discursive practices, texts, and events and wider social and
cultural structures, relations, and processes. It strives to explore how these nontransparent relationships are a factor in securing power and hegemony, and it draws
attention to power imbalances, social inequities, non-democratic practices, and other
injustices in hopes of spurring people to corrective actions (Fairclough, 2004).
2.1 Media discourse
Perhaps the best known outside of discourse studies is the media research carried out by
Stuart Hall and his associates within the framework of the cultural studies paradigm.
An early collection of work by Roger Fowler and his associates (Wodak, 2002) also
focused on the media. As with many other English and Australian studies in this
paradigm, the theoretical framework of Halliday's functional-systemic grammar is used in
a study of the "transitivity" of syntactic patterns of sentences (Matthiessen & Halliday,
1997). The point of such research is that events and actions may be described with
syntactic variations that are a function of the underlying involvement of actors (e.g., their
agency, responsibility, and perspective). Thus, in an analysis of the media accounts of the
"riots" during a minority festival, the responsibility of the authorities and especially of the
police in such violence may be systematically de-emphasized by defocusing, for
example, by passive constructions and nominalizations; that is, by leaving agency and
responsibility implicit. Fowler's later critical studies of the media continue this tradition,
but also pay tribute to the British cultural studies paradigm that defines news not as a
reflection of reality, but as a product shaped by political, economic, and cultural forces
(Wodak, 2002). More than in much other critical work on the media; he also focuses on
the linguistic "tools" for such a critical study, such as the analysis of transitivity in
syntax, lexical structure, modality, and speech acts. (Moore, 2007)
Similarly van Dijk (2006) applies a theory of news discourse in critical studies of
international news, racism in the press, and the coverage of squatters in Amsterdam.
2.2 CDA and media discourse
Media and politics are particular subjects of CDA because of their manifestly pivotal role
as discourse-bearing institutions (Bhatia, 2006). One main arena for CDA is media
discourse, and since mass media report from the world of politics, and since politicians
need to be in the news, the two fields – or orders of discourse – have become increasingly
intertwined or interdependent or as Bhatia (2006, p. 174) puts it, they are sharing a
paradoxical relationship whereby one needs the other to survive, or rather thrive, yet each
endorses considerable hostility for the other.
The interest in media discourse is important not only because media are a rich
source of readily accessible data for research and teaching, but because media usage
influences and represents people’s use of and attitudes towards language in a speech
community. Thus, media use can tell us a great deal about social meanings and
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stereotypes projected through language and communication, as well as reflect and
influence the formation and expression of culture, politics and social life (Bell & Garrett,
2004, cited in Bhatia, 2006, p. 22).
In some of his studies, Fairclough has focused particularly on the mass media,
scrutinizing the assumption that media language is transparent. Media institutions often
purport to be neutral, that they only provide space for public discourse, that they reflect
states of affairs disinterestedly, and that they give the perceptions and arguments of the
newsmakers. This is, of course, a complete fallacy, Fairclough insists that one must not
forget that journalists have quite a prominent role in their own right, they do not just
‘mediate’ others (Fairclough, 2004, p. 148).
According to Fairclough, journalists are just one of many categories of agents that
figure in mass media. Hence, mediatized political discourse as an order of discourse is
constituted by a mixing of elements of the orders of discourse of the political system –
the lifeworld (ordinary life), sociopolitical movements, various domains of academic and
scientific expertise, and so forth – with journalistic discourse. (Fairclough, 2004)
Van Dijk also calls for a critical look at media discourse, especially considering
that the increasingly influential role of the mass media not necessarily paves the way for
more objective reporting: “Control of knowledge crucially shapes our interpretation of
the world, as well as our discourse and other actions. Hence, the relevance of a critical
analysis of those forms of text and talk, for example, in the media and education, that
essentially aim to construct such knowledge” (van Dijk, 2007, p. 258). He also points out
that it is through mental models of everyday discourse such as conversations, news
reports and textbooks that we, in fact, acquire our knowledge of the world, our socially
shared attitudes and finally our ideologies and fundamental norms and values (van Dijk,
2006, p. 114).
2.3 News as discourse
Critical examination of news can be traced back to research that focused on its biased or
distorted nature in the 1970s (van Dijk, 1988a, cited in Bhatia, 2006). Connell (1980)
contends that news does not distort ‘objective reality’; rather, the reality presented in
news is socially, politically, and ideologically constructed (Lassen, 2006). Mander (1987)
argues that ‘objective journalism’ is a rhetorical coup that affirms the apolitical nature of
news and the empirical bias in American society. Schudson (1982) maintains that the
form of news discourse serves as a tacit contract between journalists and audience, which
legitimates the kinds of truth that can be told (Lassen, 2006). Althusser (1971) asserts
that, rather than merely reflecting the social or producing a system of meaning supporting
the existing social order, media texts present particular meaning systems as the real or
natural (Lassen, 2006).
Critical media scholars have traditionally located the origin of ideology in the
process of news production. In addition to institutional structure and ownership, the
larger social political context in which news is produced is also viewed as the locus of
ideological origin. For example, Curran and Seaton (1991), and Parenti (1993) argue that
the media have close ties with the government (cited in Bekalu, 2006).
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3. Methodology
To show the critical approach to media and especially political reports, the
researcher has decided to work on the political reports which are published in The New
York Times in 2007. The researcher has applied Halliday’s systemic-functional
linguistics. Therefore, within that framework, I have intended to indicate how the real
intentions, attitudes and viewpoints of the authors of the political reports are reflected.
3.1 Sources of data and sampling procedure
The data for the present study are the 50 political reports concerning Iran and Israel.
The rationale for choosing such topic is the critical importance of the issue for Iranian
politicians, and those students who are interested in such linguistic analysis of the news.
The data were collected through a search in The New York Times site www.nytimes.com .
In order to have the least bias on the reports selected, the researcher tried to randomly
select the 50 reports out of a collection of 110 reports which the searching system of the
mentioned site had found.
3.2 Procedure
To conduct the analysis, the researcher has tried to pick up the linguistic choices in the
reports based on the framework of the study, then the hidden meanings and attitudes
underlying the lexicon and the structures used in the reports were extracted and
elaborated.
3.3 Methodological framework of analysis
The framework of the analysis of the study involves some features which are mentioned
below:
 Transitivity including Passivization within ideational meaning.
 Nominalization within interpersonal meaning.
 Thematic structure within textual meaning.
 Lexical choice
The framework of analysis has been elaborated in the following section:
3.3.1 Ideational meaning
Halliday (1985) believes that the ideational component of language deals with happenings
in the outside world. The ideational function enables people to demonstrate the reality by
showing the happenings into clauses. The ideational component of Halliday's theory of
grammar explores the range of linguistic choices available to a person when representing his
experiences or the outer realities of the world. This part of the thesis examines how
ideational meaning is found in the language employed by the reporters of The New York
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Times in order to speak in the case of Iran and Israel. By analyzing the reports, we want
to know how the writers of the reports show their attitudes, feelings and ideology towards
Iran and Israel. The researcher is going to analyze these linguistic choices and infer the
underlying attitudes, feelings and ideology. At the level of ideational meaning, we are
mainly concerned with the process of 'transitivity'. This term is elaborated more in the
following section.
3.3.2 Transitivity
In Halliday’s terms (1985), transitivity is a part of the ideational function of the clause.
He explains that transitivity includes the basic grammatical categories through which
language describes the world in terms of agency and action, a world in which events
happen, and where agents (persons, organizations, etc.) perform actions on objects.
Devices of interest include, for example, the use of passive forms for example “twelve
rioters were shot” and nominalizations such as “a shooting”, the use of which enables a
speaker/writer to obscure, downplay, or omit mention of agency—whoever did the
shooting.
In Simpson’s words, transitivity system is the selection of words to encode
our view and experience in language. He adds that "transitivity" has proved to be a
useful analytic model in critical linguistics” (Simpson, 1993, p. 87). Two important
aspects of transitivity including "passivization" and "nominalization" are focused on
in this study. According to Thompson (1984), through manipulation of the linguistic
devices such as nominalizations, and passives, speakers and writers are able to
convey various ideological perspectives (cited in Fairclough, 2004). These two
linguistic features are explained in the following sections.
3.3.3 Passivization
Passive voice plays an effective role in manipulating the mind of readers or listeners.
With the use of passive structure, speakers and writers have the ability to monitor the
amount and sort of information given to readers or listeners. In this way, they try to shape
the people’s mentality about an event or issue in a way that is in the interests of textproducers. As Daniel Kies (2007, p. 1) states, “by controlling the amount and the kind of
information that is provided through grammatical devices like passive voice, abstract
words, and ambiguity, the writer or the speaker can attempt to control how a reader
perceives a subject under discussion” (cited in Daniel Kies, 2007). He also contends that
“passives are among the most common grammatical devices to undercut agency in
English, allowing the agentive noun phrase to occur out of thematic, sentence initial
position in an optional agentive by-phrase at the end of the sentence”. In passive voice,
the writer is able to protect someone, or to deceive the reader into thinking another person
is responsible by hiding the real agent. Sykes (1985) also points to the differential
treatment in discourse through “transformations” and compares the following pair of
sentences in terms of difference in a discursive structure:
Black youths stoned the police.
Or
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The police were stoned by the Black youths.
She explains that the passive verb in the second sentence results in two things: first, it
removes youths from the prime location of the sentence and thereby switches the
emphasis away from them and onto the police, who now take the prime location, defining
the topic of the sentence. Second, it distances the youths slightly from their action
(stoning) by the insertion of the particle by. The importance of the youths as participants
in the second sentence, as well as the closeness of their association with their own
physical acts, has been slightly diminished compared with the first sentence.
3.3.4 Interpersonal meaning
The interpersonal meaning of language is concerned with how social identities of and
relations between different social subjects and groups are constructed and the attitudes
the groups hold and the judgments they make towards the issue are articulated, and how
the roles different groups play in the issue are defined and attributed ( Lu Xiaofei, 2001,
p. 8). Matthiessen and Halliday (1997, 23) claim that “the interpersonal function allows
for the expression of attitudes and evaluations but also the expression of a relation set up
between the text-producer and the text-consumer”.
The actual analysis in the study will concentrate on one special element of
interpersonal meaning, nominalization which is elaborated in the next section.
3.3.5 Nominalization
Nominalization is one of many linguistic strategies studied by critical linguists in
exploring the relation between language structure and social structure (Kaminsky,
Sanders, Henley, Miller, Beazley & Nguyen, 2002), one which several have noted to be a
strategy employed to encode and enforce power differences (Fowler and Kress, 1979;
Penelope, 1990; van Dijk, 1993, cited in ibid.). Together with passivisation,
nominalization is one of the most common types of transformation used to delete
information from a sentence. Nominalization is a process involving the exchange of a verb
phrase for a single noun or a noun phrase. In doing so, features of the sentence such as
action, participants, indication of time and modality may be deleted. As Fowler claims,
nominalization permits "habits of concealment, particularly in the areas of power-relations
and writers' attitudes" (Fowler 1991, p. 80, cited in Nordlund, 2003, p. 14). This is an
opinion which Thompson agrees with
The use of nominalization and other devices helps to reduce complexity; but
reducing the complexity of an argument and limiting the terms which it can
contain is a drastic intervention, showing less means someone else seeing less. And
seeing less means thinking less.' Transformations involve the suppression and
distortion of material contained in the underlying linguistic structures (Thompson,
1984, p. 121, cited in ibid., p.14).
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Diminishing the role of 'agent' in a sentence is a function for the process of
nominalization as the following:
Shooting at the rioters (by police) was unexpected.
In Bloor and Bloor’s words (1995, cited in Ghazanfari, 2004), “nominalization
allows a process, more obviously realized as a verb, to be realized as a noun, hence to
become a participant in a further process” (p. 222). If we use a verb to express a process,
it is necessary to give the verb a subject (an agent), and in the case of some verbs, a
complement is also required, which entails expressing the participants in the process.
However, if we nominalize the process, we can exclude the participants relating to that
process. The elimination of human participants would have the effect of minimizing the
role of people as active conscious human agents and elimination of human intentionality
(Sykes, 1985). Kress (1991, cited in Suurmond, 2005) also argued that a frequently used
powerful discursive practice in politics is to change verbs into nouns ("nomalization"),
and to use passive instead of active forms of verbs (e.g., "there will be an attack"; instead
of "we are going to attack"). According to him, these grammatical features are a discursive
practice, since their effect is to constitute the attack as `agentless' , that is, promoting the
interests of certain social groups, while decreasing responsibility.
In sum, according to Fowler (1991, cited in Ah Choi, 2006, p. 6), nominalization
produces the following list of effects:
1. Deletes actor and affected participants and this shifts focus to the action.
2. Makes the event seem abstract: Verbs in English tend to be about actions
of processes, and they have to be placed in time. Nouns in English tend to be
about objects, abstract notions, and concepts.
3. Compresses information: Reducing the complexity of an argument and limiting
the terms which it can contain is a drastic intervention. Showing less means
someone else seeing less- And seeing less means thinking less.
4. Removes negation and turns a 'negative' action into a 'positive' action.
5. Hides responsibility of the agent participant.
3.3.6 Textual meaning
For the ‘textual’ analysis, we focus on the theme, in that, we ask: What is the point of
departure of the message? What information is selected for first position at clause level
and at the level of different sections of the text? How does the text enact theme
progression? (Harman, 2007) Textual meaning of the clause, or meaning as message, is
grammatically realized by the ‘thematic structure’ (Halliday, 1994). In English, the clause
is organized as a message by having a special status assigned to one part of it: the
‘theme’, with which the clause is concerned, is the element which serves as the point of
departure of the message; it is considered to be the key information of the whole sentence.
It can be identified by its location which is the first position of the sentence. The ‘rheme’,
then, is the remainder of the message that develops the ‘theme’ (ibid.). The second
segment of a clause, the part in which the theme is developed, is called the rheme. The
rheme is what the speaker says about the theme. It is the goal of discourse. As such, it is
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the most important element in the structure of the clause as a message because it
represents the information that the speaker or writer wants to convey to the hearer or
reader (Baker, 1999, cited in Ghazanfari, 2004).
3.3.7 Thematic structure
As Nunan states, “When moving beyond the sentence to discourse, the issue of
thematization becomes particularly important as the writer has to arrange information in
terms of given/new and also in terms of thematic prominence” (cited in Lu Xiaofei, 2001,
p. 12). As the point of departure of the message, the ‘theme’ expresses the primary
concern of the clause. To show the significance of 'thematic structure', Gee
(1999, p. 150) states that "what goes first creates the perspective from which everything
else in the clause or sentence is viewed. It is the launching off point for the rest of the
information in the clause or sentence. It sets the context in which we view the
information in the rest of the clause or sentence". To make the above claim more
tangible, he puts forward this example: "If I say, regrettably, the big girl crushed the
small box, then I am viewing the claim that the big girl hit the small box through the lens
of my regret about the matter. If I say, “The big girl, regrettably, crushed the small box,”
then I am viewing both the action of crushing and my feelings of regret about the matter
through the lens of what I think or feel or have said or will say about the big girl”.
3.3.8 Lexical choices
Vocabulary plays an important role in representing the realities of events and phenomena
in discourse. It is claimed that through the words in a piece of discourse, intentions and
attitudes are articulated more clearly than syntactic aspects. As Halliday and Hasan
(1976, cited in Lu Xiaofei, 2001) believe lexicalization is the most obvious way in which
ideational meanings, of a discourse are signaled. In systemic functional theory, all three
metafunctions (ideational, interpersonal and textual) are located both at the level of
semantics and at the level of grammar (Matthiessen and Halliday, 1997).
As Levinson (1983, cited in Wodak & Meyer, 2001) acclaimed, the types of
words that a writer uses can activate particular presuppositions, reveal speaker's attitudes,
require reader agreement for interpretation, and so forth. In particular, an interesting area
to embark on is the analysis of lexical processes in text. In fact, for a critical reflection on
a text, attention should be given to a careful and thorough analysis of the lexical choices
made by the writer from the multiple possibilities of the linguistic system. In the case of a
newspaper report, for example, a reporter might witness an event, and then be faced with
the choice of referring to it as a “demonstration” (or a “protest”), a “rally”, a “riot”, a
“street battle”, “war in the streets”, a “confrontation”, and so on.
Nordlund (2003) says that the most obvious method of lexico-semantic
manipulation is probably to use words with emotional or cultural loading. The words we
use are loaded with emotions and attitudes, some of which are positive, others negative.
The choice of such words (loaded words) may evoke certain feelings in the readers and in
that way direct their opinions (Andersson, 1996, cited Nordlund, 2003). Reah ( 1998, p.
55, cited Nordlund, 2003, p. 16) criticizes the use of loaded words and he states "the
risk is that, such a language can inhibit people from critically evaluating the opinions
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and views they hold – a fact much relied on by advertisers, politicians and those whose
function in life is to manipulate social attitudes." Halliday (1997, cited in Noriko
Iwamoto, 2000) terms the latter type of vocabulary Attitudinal Epithet; they represent an
“interpersonal element” serving an “attitudinal function” in addition to the ideational
function. Noriko Iwamoto (ibid.) himself refers to these terms as emotive terms; there are
both positive and negative emotive terms. Most of them are adjectives, but adverbs and
nouns have the same effects too.
4. Analyses and Results
As fully discussed in the previous section, Hallidayan model is a very suitable framework
for the present study. Therefore, this study is conducted within this framework. In this
chapter the researcher begins analyzing the linguistic choices of the political reports on
Iran and Israel in 2007. The analysis is done within the three functions or meanings of
Hallidayan model of language, in addition to the linguistic choices, the researcher has a
glance at the topics being discussed and also the quotations appended in the reports.
Thus, the linguistic features and other elements which are to be analyzed on this issue are
categorized into the following:




Active and passive voice
Nominalization
Thematization
Lexical choice including emotive language
4.1 Critical analysis of active and passive voices
In this section, the focus of the investigation will be on the role of ‘active and passive
voices’ in the political reports. The researcher wants to see how active and passive voices
are used and why. The following is a sample of active and passive sentences extracted
from the political reports of The New York Times in 2007.
4.1.1 Critical analysis of active voice in the case of Iran
With Tehran refusing to suspend its enrichment of uranium (By MARK LANDLER
Published: June 26, 2007)
Tehran has installed hundreds of centrifuges that can enrich uranium (By MARK
LANDLER, Published: June 26, 2007)
Tehran has kept the inspectors on a tighter leash. (By MARK LANDLER
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Published: June 26, 2007)
Iran has also continued building a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak, southwest of
Tehran (By MARK LANDLER Published: June 26, 2007)
Iran has also taken the unusual step of encouraging sex change operations for those with
homosexual tendencies (By NAZILA FATHI, Published: September 30, 2007)
Police in Iran Shut 24 Internet Cafes (Published: December 17, 2007)
The Iranian police have closed down 24 Internet cafes and other coffee shops in as many
hours, detaining 23 people, as part of a broad crackdown on immoral behavior
(Published: December 17, 2007)
Commercial satellite imagery shows Iran is building a new tunnel complex inside a
mountain near a major nuclear site — a possible attempt to protect sensitive uranium
enrichment activity from aerial attack, nuclear analysts said Monday (By REUTERS,
Published: July 10, 2007)
Analysis: In these examples we can see the use of active voice for negative actions of
refusing to suspend its enrichment of uranium, installing hundreds of centrifuges, keeping
the inspectors on a tighter leash, building a heavy-water nuclear reactor, taking the
unusual step, shutting 24 Internet Cafes, closing down coffee shops and building a new
tunnel complex inside a mountain near a major nuclear site in order to directly attribute
these negative acts to Iran. It should be mentioned that these acts may not be negative if
done by others countries, but when talking about Iran, these acts are considered to be
dangerous.
4.1.2 Critical analysis of passive voice in case of Iran
Iranian's Remark on Israel Is Condemned. (Published: June 5, 2007)
Iran Was Blocked From Buying Nuclear Materials at Least 75 Times (By WARREN
HOGE, Published: November 16, 2007)
Iran has been denied purchases of nuclear-related materials at least 75 times over the past
nine years because of suspicions the purchases could have been used for building bombs,
according to an international monitoring group. (By WARREN HOGE, Published:
November 16, 2007)
The Revolutionary Guards are also believed to be deeply involved in the country’s
nuclear program and any action against it or the Quds Force is perceived in Washington
as a way of stepping up pressure on Iran’s nuclear aspirations as well. (By MICHAEL
SLACKMAN and NAZILA FATHI, Published: September 3, 2007)
13
Analysis: In these sentences, the agents of the verbs condemn, believe, deny, and block
are hidden, and it shows that there may be an international acts and beliefs against Iran,
because no agent is present.
Three politically active students who had been sentenced to two to three years in prison
for crimes including insulting the nation’s supreme leader are expected to be released
this week on bail, their lawyer said Tuesday. (By NAZILA FATHI, Published: December
26, 2007)
“The technology that Iran is mastering today for enrichment — a capability not necessary
for Iran to have a peaceful nuclear program — could be readily applied to building a
bomb (By REUTERS, Published: December 22, 2007)
Analysis: In this section, the examples are chosen to make clear the role of passive voice
to indirectly show bias in the reports. In these examples, the objects of the verbs are forgrounded by using passive voice and also the agents of some negative acts against Iran
are hidden because of the application of passive voice.
4.1.3 Critical analysis of passive voice in case of Israel
One Palestinian man was killed and his son was wounded, Palestinians said
(By GREG MYRE, Published: February 27, 2007)
12 Palestinians have been killed in inter-factional clashes since, a Fatah spokesman said.
(By ISABEL KERSHNER, Published: March 29, 2007)
Over all, 19 Israeli police officers and 17 Palestinian protesters suffered minor injuries,
and 17 Palestinians were arrested. (By GREG MYRE, Published: February 10, 2007)
Relatives of the bomber, Mr. Siksik, said he left home three days ago and was upset
because he had no job and his baby daughter recently died of an illness, The Associated
Press reported. Also, a friend of his was killed in a clash with Israeli forces, they said.
(By GREG MYRE, Published: January 30, 2007)
Analysis: In the previous examples, passive voice was used in order to divert the
attention of the readers from the agent of the acts which is Israeli forces. These verbs
were, “was killed”, “have been killed”, “were arrested”, and “was killed”. In this part
the bias is clear, in that, the readers will find the agents at the end of the sentences, and
pay little attention to them.
4.2 Critical analysis of nominalizations
14
Nominalization is one of the most common types of transformation used to delete
information from a sentence. Through this process, features of the sentence such as action,
participants, indication of time and modality may be deleted. In the political reports of New
York Times paper, some verbs are nominalized; they are rendered into nouns or noun
phrases to conceal certain pieces of information such as agents of actions and complements.
Depriving the audience of such information would lead to their mind manipulation and this
is in the interests of Israel and against Iran. Thus, the audience is deprived of the necessary
information which aids them to think properly and come up with fair understanding of the
issue. Here, the researcher analyses the following selective instances of nominalizations
taken from the reports:
4.2.1 Nominalizations against Iran
The intelligence agencies’ 2005 finding that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons
program was consistent with strong warnings about Iran (By MARK MAZZETTI,
Published: December 5, 2007)
But a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that was issued two months later said Iran’s
leaders were working tirelessly to acquire a nuclear weapon — a finding that, like the
prewar intelligence on Iraq, has now been acknowledged to have been wrong in one of its
chief conclusions. (By MARK LANDLER, Published: June 26, 2007)
Analysis: In these two sentences, the reporters have used the word “finding” showing
that it is something accepted by a great majority. Using the nominalized form of the verb
“find” is a sign of bias, as the agents and other parts of speech are absent in this sentence,
giving the readers the view that something which is found is an international finding not
by a minority group.
The 2005 report was filled with analysis based on somewhat murky knowledge of Iran’s
capabilities and the goals of its leaders. (By MARK MAZZETTI, Published: December
5, 2007)
“The technology that Iran is mastering today for enrichment — a capability not necessary
for Iran to have a peaceful nuclear program — could be readily applied to building a
bomb (By REUTERS, Published: December 22, 2007)
The larger point of the designation would be to heighten the political and psychological
pressure on Iran, (By HELENE COOPER, Published: October 25, 2007)
Fear of persecution is so strong that some gay men and lesbians have sought and received
asylum in Western countries. (By NAZILA FATHI, Published: September 30, 2007)
Construction of Bushehr has been hindered by repeated delays, most of them a symptom
of Russia’s uneasiness about Iran’s nuclear intentions (By HELENE COOPER,
Published: December 18, 2007)
15
Analysis: in the above sentences the use of nouns “capabilities, the designation,
persecution, and construction” instead of the verb forms are signs of bias because the
other parts of speech are not known and the readers cannot understand about the roles in
these sentences, accepting the view as something believed by many.
4.3 Critical analysis of thematization
4.3.1 Thematizations in the case of Israel
Militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel almost daily since the cease-fire
began. As a result, in late December, Israel’s security cabinet authorized pinpoint
responses to rocket launchers. (By ISABEL KERSHNER, Published: March 29, 2007)
Analysis: in this sentence, the militants which are Palestinian are put at the beginning of
the sentence, attracting more attention. The reporters did so in order to forground the role
of Palestinian militants in firing the rockets.
Over the past year, more attempted attacks against Israel have originated in Nablus than
in any other West Bank city, the general said. (By GREG MYRE, Published: February 27,
2007)
Analysis: in this part the attempted attacks are emphasized by being used as the theme of
the sentence, and it is a real bias, calling more attention to the attacks and not the other
parts of the sentence.
Arab Protesters in Jerusalem clash with Israeli Forces (By GREG MYRE, Published:
February 10, 2007)
Analysis: in this extract, also there is the forgrounding of the Arab protesters against
Israel giving more attention to the readers of the reports about the theme of the sentence.
Over all, 19 Israeli police officers and 17 Palestinian protesters suffered minor injuries,
and 17 Palestinians were arrested. (By GREG MYRE, Published: February 10, 2007)
Analysis: in this sentence both “Israeli police officers” and “17 Palestinian” were
injured, but the reporter has used the “Israeli police officers” as the theme of the
sentence, showing the great emphasis for that.
Nine rockets were launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, an unusually
large number for one day, the army said, but they caused no injuries. “This was a
legitimate act of self-defense,” said David Baker, an aide to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
(By ISABEL KERSHNER, Published: March 29, 2007)
16
Three Israelis who worked in the bakery were killed by the blast; it was the first time that
Eilat, isolated at the very southern tip of Israel, has ever been hit by a suicide bombing.
(By GREG MYRE , Published: January 30, 2007)
Analysis: in the above extracts, the “Three Israelis who worked in the bakery” and “Nine
rockets” are emphasized by using them as the themes of the sentences. It gives a more
important role to the themes, asking the reader to attend more to the first phrases.
4.3.2 Thematizations in the case of Iran
More than 60 Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have signed a call to the American
government and the religious authorities in Iran to open direct negotiations and stop
planning for war. (By LAURIE GOODSTEIN, Published: December 20, 2007)
Analysis: In this part, the theme "More than 60 Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders" is
used in order to make the act valid, as it is approved by many leaders of different
religions.
Iran has done little business with the United States in more than two decades (By
HELENE COOPER, Published: October 25, 2007)
Analysis: in this part, there are two sides, Iran and the US. In fact, as it is mentioned in
the news, it is the US who has decided the do little business with Iran, but the reports
shows its negative attitude against Iran by using "Iran" as the theme of the sentence.
In the power struggle in the Middle East, there are only two sides: Iran and the U.S.” (By
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, Published: May 14, 2007)
Analysis: At the end of this extract, we see that the name of "Iran" has been brought
before the "US" showing that the struggle has more important cause by Iran, and calling
more attention towards Iran.
TEHRAN, Sept. 4 — Rents are soaring, inflation hovers around 17 percent, and 10
million Iranians live below the poverty line. The police said they shut 20 barbershops for
men in Tehran last week because they offered inappropriate hairstyles, and women have
been banned from riding bicycles in many places, as a crackdown on social freedoms
presses on. (By MICHAEL SLACKMAN, Published: September 5, 2007)
average Iranians have endured economic hardships, political repression and international
isolation as the nation’s top officials remained defiant over Iran’s nuclear program (By
MICHAEL SLACKMAN, Published: September 5, 2007)
17
Analysis: in these parts, the bad condition of living in Iran is emphasized by using them
at the beginning of the sentence. In this way, readers pay more attention to the theme
which is brought first.
The two countries are embroiled in a deepening standoff over Iran’s nuclear program,
which Western governments suspect is aimed at making atomic bombs, a charge Iran
denies. (By REUTERS, Published: August 23, 2007)
Analysis: the phrase "the charge Iran denies" is brought at the end of the sentence. It is
calling very little attention, in that, the readers will pay more attention to what is
mentioned at the beginning of the sentence, and accept it as a real fact.
4.4 Critical analysis of lexical choices
4.4.1 Critical analysis of lexical choice against Iran
Iran’s move seemed calculated to stem the rising tide of pressure over its nuclear
ambitions. (By MARK LANDLER, Published: June 26, 2007)
Analysis: the choice of the words “nuclear ambitions” shows the negative attitude of the
reporters toward Iran, as the word “ambition” means something more that program or
these things and indirectly shows that Iran is after nuclear weapons.
When Reza, a 29-year-old Iranian, heard that his president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had
denied in New York that homosexuals were in Iran, he was shocked but not surprised.
Reza knows the truth. (By NAZILA FATHI, Published: September 30, 2007)
Analysis: the Italic sentence “he was shocked but not surprised” is biased. By giving the
underlying meanings of the word “shock” and “surprise” the sentence can be rephrased
into “ his eyes were wide open because the president told a big lie, but he was not
surprised because it is something that the president does all the time”.
The case has caused tension between Iran and Canada. The Canadian government
recalled its ambassador in 2003 in protest, and it has repeatedly championed United
Nations resolutions condemning Iran’s human rights record (By NAZILA FATHI,
Published: November 28, 2007)
Analysis: this report was published when the Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi died in
Iran, and some people named it a murder and some an accidental death. Although it
might be a murder or death, the reporter has chosen the phrase “condemning Iran’s
human rights record” which has no relationship with the decease of that woman. By
writing such a phrase, the readers may suspect about the human rights in Iran.
18
Ms. Kazemi was arrested while she was photographing outside the notorious Evin prison
in Tehran (By NAZILA FATHI, Published: November 28, 2007)
Analysis: the choice of the word “notorious” for Evin Prison is a real bias which gives
the readers a bad attitude toward Iran.
Mr. Moussavian had been found guilty of “propagating against the regime.” (By
NAZILA FATHI, Published: November 28, 2007)
Analysis: the lexical choice of this sentence is biased, since the reporter is referring to
Iran as a “regime” and not a government or a country.
But since February 2006, when the agency’s 35-member governing board voted to report
Iran to the Security Council, Tehran has kept the inspectors on a tighter leash. (By
MARK LANDLER, Published: June 26, 2007)
Analysis: the choice “kept the inspectors on a tighter leash” is sort of bias as it shows a
negative attitude against Iran.
How could American intelligence agencies have overstated Iran’s intentions in 2005 so
soon after being reprimanded for making similar errors involving Iraq? (By MARK
MAZZETTI, Published: December 5, 2007)
Analysis: the reporter of this sentence has used the question form and also the word
“overstate” to show that American Intelligence agencies do not make mistake about
Iran’s nuclear program.
Their principal judgments about Iran’s weapons programs that might have relied on
outdated information. (By MARK MAZZETTI, Published: December 5, 2007)
Analysis: in this sentence, the reporter has use the phrase “Iran’s weapons programs”
instead of “Iran’s nuclear program” giving the reader his attitude which is negative, and
showing that Iran is after nuclear weapons,
4.4.2 Critical analysis of lexical choice in the case of Israel
The first time that Israel has responded to rocket attacks since a shaky cease-fire took
effect in November. (By ISABEL KERSHNER, Published: March 29, 2007)
19
Analysis: the writer of this report has use the verb “respond” for the phrase “has
responded to rocket attacks” in order to show that Israel has defended itself in this
quarrel and demonstrates that Israeli forces are innocent in such an attack.
Muslim countries have joined in criticizing Israel. But Israel says that it is carrying out
routine repair work that does not endanger the mosque compound, and that Muslim
extremists are trying to manufacture a crisis. (By GREG MYRE, Published: February 10,
2007)
Analysis: in this extract, the reporter has used the phrase “Muslim extremists” referring
to the Muslims. It gives the readers the view that those who have criticized Israel are
some extremists and not real Muslims, making Israel an innocent state.
But other officials in both departments contend that Israel’s use of the weapons was for
self-defense and aimed at stopping the Hezbollah attacks that claimed the lives of about
40 Israeli soldiers and civilians and at worst was only a technical violation. (By DAVID
S. CLOUD and GREG MYRE, Published: January 28, 2007)
Analysis: in this part, the reporter has use the word “self-defense” to show that Israeli
attacks to Palestinians are just a defense and not a real attack; it gives the readers the
view that Palestinians are responsible for their killed and injured people.
5. Conclusion
5.1 Findings
As it was explained in the previous chapters, this study aimed at finding the underlying
meanings of the comments in the political reports of The New York Times. To do so, the
researcher tried to analyze some linguistic choices, namely, nominalization,
thematization, active and passive voice, and lexical choice. These analyses were based on
Halliday's framework (1985). The researcher also made use of the quotations from
politicians which have been used against Iran and also the topics which have been
discussed on the two states of Iran and Israel.
5.1.1 The quantitative data
The followings are the quantitative data pertaining to the number of choices in each
category which have been extracted from the 50 reports.
5.1.1.1 Quantitative data pertaining to the choices against Iran
THE LINGUISTIC CHOICE
Number
20
Active voice
20
Passive voice
8
Nominalization
10
Thematization
15
Lexical choice
30
5.1.1.2 Quantitative data pertaining to the choices in favor of Israel
THE LINGUISTIC CHOICE
Number
Passive voice
6
Thematization
6
Lexical choice
10
5.1.2 Interpretation of findings
In this section, the researcher tries to gives a whole picture of the findings of the study,
and to take another look at the research questions. What follows are the different
categories of the results.
5.1.2.1 Interpretation of active and passive voice
In the findings, there were many cases of the use of active voice the agent of which was
Iran. The verbs used in the active voice for this study were the verbs which had negative
meanings. These verbs were used in active voice in order to highlight the danger of Iran
for the world and to emphasize that Iran is doing some nuclear activities to reach nuclear
weapons. Some examples are mentioned below:
Tehran has kept the inspectors on a tighter leash. (Published: June 26, 2007)
21
Iran has also continued building a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak, southwest of
Tehran (Published: June 26, 2007)
Iran has also taken the unusual step of encouraging sex change operations for those with
homosexual tendencies (Published: September 30, 2007)
Police in Iran Shut 24 Internet Cafes (Published: December 17, 2007)
There were some verbs which were used in passive form for both Iran and Israel.
For Iran, these verbs were used to hide the positive actions done by Iran, or the verbs
which hide the agents of the actions against Iran, and all in all they were used in a biased
way. For Israel, the case was the opposite; the agents of the negative verbs were Israelis
which were hidden by using the passive forms, and the reporters of these reports showed
a great bias in favor of Israel. Some examples are mentioned below:
Iranian's Remark on Israel Is Condemned. (Published: June 5, 2007)
Iran Was Blocked From Buying Nuclear Materials at Least 75 Times (Published:
November 16, 2007)
Iran has been denied purchases of nuclear-related materials at least 75 times over the past
nine years because of suspicions the purchases could have been used for building bombs,
according to an international monitoring group. (Published: November 16, 2007)
One Palestinian man was killed and his son was wounded, Palestinians said
(Published: February 27, 2007)
12 Palestinians have been killed in inter-factional clashes since, a Fatah spokesman said.
(Published: March 29, 2007)
Over all, 19 Israeli police officers and 17 Palestinian protesters suffered minor injuries,
and 17 Palestinians were arrested. (Published: February 10, 2007)
In short, by interpreting the data related to the ideational meaning, the first
question of the research can be answered in this way: The New York Times shows bias in
its political reports in favor of Israel and against Iran in 2007.
5.1.2.2 Interpretation of nominalization
In the case of nominalizations, there were some verbs used in the reports in nominalized
form. Having used the nominalized forms, the reporters have tried to hide many kinds of
information from the sentence, such as times, place, and the agents. And by using the
nominalized form of the verb, the reporters of The New York Times deleted the part from
the sentence to show the nouns which are used in the reports, were some obvious actions
to be done against Iran. There were 10 sentences found including nominalized verbs.
Some examples are mentioned below:
22
The 2005 report was filled with analysis based on somewhat murky knowledge of Iran’s
capabilities and the goals of its leaders. (Published: December 5, 2007)
“The technology that Iran is mastering today for enrichment — a capability not necessary
for Iran to have a peaceful nuclear program — could be readily applied to building a
bomb (Published: December 22, 2007)
The larger point of the designation would be to heighten the political and psychological
pressure on Iran, (Published: October 25, 2007)
Fear of persecution is so strong that some gay men and lesbians have sought and received
asylum in Western countries. (Published: September 30, 2007)
Pertaining to the information on the interpersonal meaning, one of its elements
(nominalization) was counted in the study, and the second research can be answered in
this way: The New York Times has shown bias against Iran on interpersonal meanings
concerning Iran in its political reports in 2007.
5.1.2.3 Interpretation of thematization
In the political reports of The New York Times, the reporters made use of some words and
phrases as the theme of the sentences. Using a phrase or a word as the theme gives a great
importance to that word or phrase, and asks the readers to pay more attention to that. In
the case of the extracts on Iran, there were many cases which a bad action done by Iran
comes as the theme and a good action were used at the end of the sentence, and for Israel
there were some phrases used at the beginning which were in favor of Israel. The
examples demonstrate the fact more clearly. Look at the following examples:
Over the past year, more attempted attacks against Israel have originated in Nablus than
in any other West Bank city, the general said. (Published: February 27, 2007)
Arab Protesters in Jerusalem Clash with Israeli Forces (Published: February 10, 2007)
Over all, 19 Israeli police officers and 17 Palestinian protesters suffered minor injuries,
and 17 Palestinians were arrested. (Published: February 10, 2007)
Iran has done little business with the United States in more than two decades (Published:
October 25, 2007)
In the power struggle in the Middle East, there are only two sides: Iran and the U.S.”
(Published: May 14, 2007)
Average Iranians have endured economic hardships, political repression and international
isolation as the nation’s top officials remained defiant over Iran’s nuclear program
(Published: September 5, 2007)
23
The two countries are embroiled in a deepening standoff over Iran’s nuclear program,
which Western governments suspect is aimed at making atomic bombs, a charge Iran
denies. (Published: August 23, 2007)
Considering the examples and the interpretation of the textual meanings including
thematization, the third research question can be answered in this way that The New York
Times shows bias against Iran and in favor of Israel on textual meanings in its political
reports in 2007.
5.1.2.4 Interpretation of lexical choice
In the political reports of The New York Times there are many words which are chosen to
be used against Iran and some words which are used in favor of Israel.
The lexical choice in the reports is very important, in that, gives the reader the view and
attitude towards a state. Some examples are mentioned below:
When Reza, a 29-year-old Iranian, heard that his president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had
denied in New York that homosexuals were in Iran, he was shocked but not surprised.
Reza knows the truth. (Published: September 30, 2007)
The case has caused tension between Iran and Canada. The Canadian government
recalled its ambassador in 2003 in protest, and it has repeatedly championed United
Nations resolutions condemning Iran’s human rights record (Published: November 28,
2007)
Ms. Kazemi was arrested while she was photographing outside the notorious Evin prison
in Tehran (Published: November 28, 2007)
But since February 2006, when the agency’s 35-member governing board voted to report
Iran to the Security Council, Tehran has kept the inspectors on a tighter leash.
(Published: June 26, 2007)
Mr. Moussavian had been found guilty of “propagating against the regime.” (Published:
November 28, 2007)
Considering the data pertaining lexical choice, the forth research question can be
answered in this way that The New York Times shows a great bias against Iran by using
lexical choice and in favor of Israel.
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Appendices
Two reports on Israel:
26
Israel Rejects Hamas Overture, and Presses Housing Construction
By Isabel Kershner
Published: December 24, 2007
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel on Sunday rejected overtures by
Hamas, the militant Islamic group that rules Gaza, for discussions about a temporary
cease-fire.
At the same time, Mr. Olmert’s government raised the ire of Palestinian representatives
from the West Bank, with whom Israel is embarking on negotiations for a permanent
peace, by seeking budget approval to build more housing for Jewish residents in areas
that the Palestinians claim for their future state.
Israeli officials said a Housing and Construction Ministry budget proposal for 2008
included plans to build 500 apartments in Har Homa, a Jewish development in a hotly
disputed part of East Jerusalem, and 240 apartments in Maale Adumim, the largest
Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank with a population of more than
30,000.
Israeli officials tried to play down the significance of the request. Mark Regev, a
spokesman for Mr. Olmert, said that the budget still had to be approved by Parliament,
and that “there have been no new decisions authorizing building in Maale Adumim.” It
was unclear whether the budget request was for new projects that had not yet been
approved or for units already approved but not yet built.
Either way, the action is likely to cast a pall over a meeting of the Israeli and Palestinian
negotiating teams set for Monday, the second since last month’s American-sponsored
peace conference in Annapolis, Md.
The chief of the Palestinian negotiating team, Ahmed Qurei, issued a statement saying
the Annapolis meeting and the ensuing negotiations toward an accord would have “no
meaning” if Israel continued its settlement activities. He added that the Palestinians
would raise the issue with President Bush during his visit to the region in January.
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Referring to the Gaza issue, Mr. Olmert said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting
that “counterterrorist operations will continue as they have for months” in response to the
continued rocket fire directed at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
At least five rockets were launched from Gaza on Sunday, an Israeli Army spokesman
said. One hit a factory in the industrial zone of Ashkelon, a large city in southern Israel.
Another hit a building in the Israeli border town of Sderot. Both caused damage but no
casualties.
Before dawn on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed two Hamas militants and wounded
another two in the Gaza Strip as they were traveling in a car near the border fence with
Israel, Reuters reported.
Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, had expressed a willingness,
in a telephone call to an Israeli television reporter last week, to enter into talks with Israel
for a mutual cease-fire. But Mr. Olmert said that Israel had “no interest in negotiating
with elements” that did not fulfill the internationally approved conditions of recognizing
Israel and renouncing violence.
Mr. Olmert also seemed to oppose any lull in the fighting based on an informal
understanding, describing the hostilities in Gaza as “a true war” between the Israeli
military and “terrorist elements.”
Defense Minister Ehud Barak also ruled out talks with Hamas, but suggested that if
Hamas successfully stopped the rocket fire, Israel might reciprocate. Mr. Barak was
quoted by the Israeli news media as telling the cabinet, “If they stop firing, we won’t be
opposed to quiet.”
But a Hamas spokesman, Ismail Radwan, said, “The Palestinian people have a right to
continue resistance.”
Khaled al-Batch, a high-ranking official of Islamic Jihad, a militant group that has been
firing most of the rockets lately, said his group would be willing to talk about a period of
calm only after Israel had “paid for its war crimes” in blood.
Last week, the Israeli military killed at least eight Islamic Jihad militants, including a top
commander of the armed wing. The Israeli security cabinet on Sunday allocated just over
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$200 million for the development of an antimissile system capable of knocking out shortrange rockets like those fired from Gaza and, eventually, longer-range rockets like
Katyushas. Thousands of Katyushas were fired at Israel from Lebanon during the 2006
summer war.
With regard to the budget proposal for additional housing units in East Jerusalem and the
West Bank, Israel and the Palestinians have committed to fulfill the first phase of the road
map, a dormant 2003 peace plan that calls for the Palestinians to halt all violence, and the
Israelis to cease all settlement construction.
Mr. Olmert has pledged not to build new settlements or to expropriate additional land.
But Israel has always reserved the right to build in major settlement blocs like Maale
Adumim, which it intends to keep as part of any permanent deal with the Palestinians,
and Israel contends that Jerusalem has a separate status.
Har Homa, known to the Palestinians as Jebel Abu Ghneim, was established in the late
1990s in an area of Jerusalem annexed by Israel after the 1967 war.
Days before the first meeting of the negotiating teams in December, the Israeli
government put out a request for bids for the construction of 307 apartments in Har
Homa. In an unusually forthright condemnation, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
said the construction would “not help build confidence” for peace talks.
After the Dec. 12 meeting, the Palestinian negotiators said they expected Israel to present
answers at the next meeting as to whether it was ready to stop settlement construction.
Attack on 2 Israeli Settlers Rattles Peace Negotiations
By ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: December 31, 2007
JERUSALEM — The circumstances surrounding the killing of two Israeli settlers by
Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank on Friday remained shrouded in confusion on
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Sunday, with three Palestinian militias, including one connected with President
Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah organization, claiming responsibility for the attack.
The prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, who is engaged in peace talks with Mr.
Abbas, said Sunday that Israel would be “unable to carry out any changes on the ground”
that might expose Jewish residents to danger as long as the Abbas-led Palestinian
Authority “does not take the necessary measures, with the necessary strength, to act
against the terrorist organizations.”
The Palestinian Authority and international aid organizations have long pressed Israel to
ease its security regime in the West Bank, especially to remove some of the hundreds of
army roadblocks and checkpoints that hinder the movement of people and goods.
Mr. Olmert’s comments came as a right-wing minister in his governing coalition, Eli
Yishai, of the religious Shas Party, called on the prime minister to break off negotiations
with the Palestinians because of the killings.
Palestinian officials sought to minimize the damage. Salam Fayyad, the prime minister
appointed by Mr. Abbas, said Saturday that some suspects had been arrested in
connection with the attack, without giving details about their identity. On Sunday, a
Palestinian Authority security commander in Hebron said that the motive behind the
attack was criminal, not political, and that the two suspects in custody did not belong to
any militant organization.
The two slain Israelis were off-duty soldiers, Cpl. Ahikam Amihai, 20, and Sgt. David
Rubin, 21, both sons of rabbis living in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, near
Hebron. They were hiking with a companion, a woman, in the area when they were
attacked. The woman hid from the gunmen and escaped unharmed.
The men fired their army-issued guns at the attackers, who were riding in a jeep. One of
the four Palestinian gunmen was killed at the scene, and another was taken to a
Palestinian hospital with a head wound, an Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld,
said Sunday.
Mr. Fayyad said the Palestinian Authority was cooperating with Israeli security over the
episode and sent his condolences to the bereaved families. He added that the soldiers’
weapons, which were seized by the attackers, had been returned to Israel.
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Israeli Army officials would not comment about that statement or other reports of an
army raid on a hospital in search of the wounded gunman.
On Sunday, the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility in a joint
statement, saying the operation was a response to Israeli strikes against their fighters in
the Gaza Strip and army killings and arrests in the West Bank. Earlier, a branch of the
Fatah-affiliated Aksa Martyrs Brigades militia had claimed responsibility together with
Islamic Jihad.
But the Palestinian security commander in Hebron, Samih al-Sayfi, told the Palestinian
news agency Maan that the motive behind the attack had been strictly criminal and
suggested that the attackers might have been trying to steal the Israelis’ weapons. He said
that the militant organizations had claimed responsibility to curry favor with the
Palestinian public and to confuse the local security forces.
In addition to Friday’s episode, Israeli military officials announced late Saturday that
they had intercepted a truck several weeks ago carrying about 6.5 tons of potassium
nitrate. The truck, which was stopped at a crossing point in the West Bank, was
apparently headed for Gaza.
The chemical is used to manufacture explosives for Qassam rockets, the officials said in a
statement. The officials added that the consignment was hidden in sugar bags marked as
“part of the humanitarian aid provided by the European Union” to Palestinians in Gaza.
Militants have frequently fired such rockets from Gaza into Israel.
The army refused to provide further details.
David Kriss, a spokesman for the European Commission’s delegation to Israel, described
the truck episode, based on the scant information available, as “an isolated criminal act.”
“We condemn it,” Mr. Kriss said. All European Union food assistance to Gaza that goes
through the World Food Program or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency is
always marked as such, and does not include sugar, Mr. Kriss said.
On Sunday night, at least one Palestinian, a woman returning to Gaza from the annual
Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, was killed by Israeli Army fire at the Erez
crossing on the Israel-Gaza border, and several were wounded, according to news reports.
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Army officials said they were checking the reports. The woman was among 700 pilgrims
who returned Sunday, traveling via Jordan, the West Bank and Israel.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli soldiers fired at two Palestinians who were seen laying an
explosive device near the border fence in southern Gaza, hitting one of them, an army
spokeswoman said. Palestinian medics identified the dead man as Adel Ashta, 23, a
member of the armed wing of Hamas, according to Agence France-Presse.
Separately, hundreds of Palestinians were stranded in the Egyptian Sinai on Sunday on
their way back to Gaza from the pilgrimage in Mecca amid a dispute over how they
would re-enter the Gaza Strip.
Israel asked Egypt to send the pilgrims back through an Israeli-controlled border crossing
near Gaza, where they would undergo Israeli security checks.
Two reports on Iran
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — How could American intelligence agencies have
overstated Iran’s intentions in 2005 so soon after being reprimanded for
making similar errors involving Iraq?
By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: December 5, 2007
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The spy agencies had swallowed hard and pledged to do better after a presidential
commission in March 2005 issued a blistering accounting of the intelligence failures
leading to the Iraq war.
But a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that was issued two months later said Iran’s
leaders were working tirelessly to acquire a nuclear weapon — a finding that, like the
prewar intelligence on Iraq, has now been acknowledged to have been wrong in one of its
chief conclusions.
Current and former intelligence officials insist that much of the 2005 Iran report still
holds up to scrutiny.
At the same time, they acknowledge that in retrospect, some of its conclusions appear to
have been thinly sourced and were based on methods less rigorous than were ultimately
required under an intelligence overhaul that did not begin in earnest until later.
It was also written by some of the same team that had produced key parts of the flawed
Iraq estimate. Robert D. Walpole oversaw both reports as the national intelligence officer
responsible for assessing illicit-weapons programs.
Robert Hutchings, who as head of the National Intelligence Council from 2003 to early
2005 oversaw early production of the 2005 Iran assessment, said the quality of
information about Iran’s nuclear program should have made American intelligence
analysts wary of judging anything with “high confidence.” That was how the 2005 report
described the basis for its assertion that Iran was determined to develop nuclear weapons,
a conclusion that has been disavowed.
“The fact that we’ve reversed course two years later suggests that the high confidence
back then wasn’t warranted,” said Mr. Hutchings, who had left the intelligence council by
the time the intelligence estimate was produced in May 2005.
Paul R. Pillar, another member of the National Intelligence Council in 2005, said it was a
“fair point” to criticize intelligence agencies for overstating their confidence in the
judgments of the 2005 estimate. But he said the judgment that Iran is determined to
obtain the bomb could prove correct in the long run.
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The intelligence agencies’ 2005 finding that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons
program was consistent with strong warnings about Iran issued at the time by Bush
administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and John R. Bolton, then
the under secretary of state. But there has been no indication that policy makers sought in
any way to influence the agencies’ conclusions on Iran, which like all intelligence
assessments are supposed to be immune from political pressure.
The officials said that the 2007 estimate was an attempt by spy agencies to examine the
Iran problem in a new light, and that in the process they recast many of their principal
judgments about Iran’s weapons programs that might have relied on outdated
information.
Some sources used for the 2005 estimate were discarded for the new report, and some old
information that intelligence agencies did not use for the 2005 estimate was re-examined
and included in the estimate released Monday.
The new intelligence estimate concludes with “high confidence” that Iran halted work on
its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the Democratic chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, called it “puzzling” and “disturbing” that intelligence agencies in
2005 could produce a flawed estimate so soon after what he called the Iraq “debacle.”
Government officials who have read both estimates said the 2005 report was filled with
analysis based on somewhat murky knowledge of Iran’s capabilities and the goals of its
leaders. They said the new intelligence estimate contained very specific information to
back up unusually confident conclusions about the state of Iran’s weapons program.
Government officials said the new judgments were grounded largely in information from
human sources that is buttressed by other information gathered by spy satellites and
communications intercepts.
John E. McLaughlin, the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2000 to
2004 and the acting director for two months in 2004, said the agencies’ shifting view
between 2005 and 2007 simply showed how difficult intelligence was to get right.
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“In 2005, what we had was what we had,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “I think people should
take comfort from the fact that they’ve changed their view.”
Over the past year, officials have put into place rigorous new procedures for analyzing
conclusions about difficult intelligence targets like Iran, North Korea, global terrorism
and China.
Analysts from disparate spy agencies are no longer pushed to achieve unanimity in their
conclusions, a process criticized in the past for leading to “groupthink.” Alternate
judgments are now encouraged.
In the case of the 2007 Iran report, “red teams” were established to test and find
weaknesses in the report’s conclusions. Counterintelligence officials at the C.I.A. also did
an extensive analysis to determine whether the new information might have been planted
by Tehran to throw the United States off the trail of Iran’s nuclear program.
One result was an intelligence report that some of the intelligence community’s
consistent critics have embraced.
“Just possibly, the intelligence community may have taken a major step forward,”
Senator Rockefeller said.
U.N. Inspectors Invited to Iran for Talks on Nuclear Program
By MARK LANDLER
Published: June 26, 2007
FRANKFURT, June 25 — A team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy
Agency will travel to Tehran in the coming weeks at the invitation of the Iranian
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government to try to clear up longstanding questions about Iran’s nuclear program, the
agency said Monday.
Iran issued the invitation after a flurry of meetings between Ali Larijani, its chief
negotiator; Mohamed ElBaradei, the atomic agency’s director general; and Javier Solana,
the foreign policy chief of the European Union.
The purpose of the visit is to “develop an action plan for resolving outstanding issues”
relating to Iran’s nuclear program, said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the Viennabased agency. She added that the inspectors would leave for Tehran “as early as
practicable.”
Diplomats close to the agency said Iran’s move seemed calculated to stem the rising tide
of pressure over its nuclear ambitions.
With Tehran refusing to suspend its enrichment of uranium, the United Nations Security
Council has begun deliberating a fresh set of sanctions against the country.
The yearlong stalemate has deepened fears in the West about Iran’s nuclear capabilities
because Tehran has installed hundreds of centrifuges that can enrich uranium.
The United States, which has supported European-led efforts to find a diplomatic
solution, reacted skeptically to Iran’s invitation.
“I don’t think Iran’s track record is particularly noteworthy or particularly likely to give
me or anyone else confidence that anything will come of these discussions,” said Tom
Casey, a spokesman for the State Department. “We would certainly like to see them
comply, but to date, they haven’t.”
The first sign of Iran’s proposal came Friday after Mr. Larijani met for two hours with
Dr. ElBaradei.
Afterward, Dr. ElBaradei said he hoped that within two months a plan for resolving the
agency’s unanswered questions about the program could be developed.
“I have been warning about a brewing confrontation that needs to be defused,” he said to
reporters at the time. “Establishing clear facts on the ground as we do, as our job is, will
enable the development of a political solution.”
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Mr. Larijani met with Mr. Solana in Lisbon on Saturday, then returned to Vienna for
another meeting with Dr. ElBaradei on Sunday, at which he formally made the invitation.
The agency’s delegation is expected to be led by its chief of inspections, Olli Heinonen.
He is en route to North Korea, where he is to hold talks on the logistics of shutting down
that nation’s main nuclear reactor — an offer the North Koreans made to the United
States last February. In Iran, the agency’s inspectors are still active, even at Natanz, the
nuclear plant where uranium is enriched. But since February 2006, when the agency’s 35member governing board voted to report Iran to the Security Council, Tehran has kept the
inspectors on a tighter leash. The agency is seeking the authority to inspect more sites —
for example, factories that produce centrifuge machines. It also wants to scrutinize
documents, including import-export records, which could shed light on whether Iran is
conducting clandestine efforts to make weapons. In a report to the agency’s board this
month, Dr. ElBaradei said he was frustrated by the agency’s inability to verify the scope
of Iran’s ambitions, particularly as Tehran has expanded the Natanz plant and “continues
steadily to perfect its knowledge relevant to enrichment.” Iran has also continued
building a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak, southwest of Tehran, after the agency
removed it last year from a list of projects for which it planned to provide technical
assistance. The agency, Dr. ElBaradei said, has been hindered from reviewing the latest
design blueprints. Given this bumpy history, the agency is cautious about the prospects
for the visit. But after a year with no movement on either side, agency officials said Iran’s
overture was welcome. “ElBaradei believes this is an important step,” said a senior
official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue has not yet been resolved.
“It’s a movement in a constructive direction.”
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