Bartholomew's Notes

Charles Johnson draws attention to a new post by Pamela Geller, in which she cites a website that claims that Osama bin Laden only met his end because the military overrode the wishes of the President: “it appears Obama had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the OBL operation”, she tells her readers. Johnson notes:

Her source for this ridiculous rant? A site called “NewsFlavor” (it has the flavor of news without all those fattening facts), featuring unprofessional “articles” written by anonymous Internet non-entities. This article is credited only to “Ulsterman.”

Stay tuned, because the killing of Osama bin Laden has motivated Geller to plumb new depths of bad craziness. I have a feeling she’s just getting warmed up.

“Ulsterman” has been posting online for several months; he purports to be receiving information from a “White House Insider” (or “Deep Thoat 2”), and his “scoops” have included “Obama Battling Severe Depression” and the like, written in breathlessly polemical style (he’s also a birther, naturally). However, “Ulsterman” has been debunked as a hoax for months; this blog documents fake sources and names that have appeared in “Ulsterman’s” articles on a range of other subjects.

In November, Sam Gefland of the Twin Cities Daily Planet published circumstantial evidence that “Ulsterman” is a certain Anthony G. Martin; Martin has a Twitter feed and Youtube channel under the name “Welshman”, and he writes regular pieces praising and echoing “Ulsterman” on Conservative Examiner:

It would appear that the explanation is simple: Anthony G. Martin is the blogger known as Ulsterman.  He writes unfounded articles and publishes them on Newsflavor, a website that will print anything without any sources.  Then, he references the Ulsterman articles to back up his opinions.  Because his opinions have no facts to back them up, he creates the facts.  And, at the end of the day, it may not just be a political argument that he’s trying to win.

Triond pays its writers for how many clicks their articles get.  The more people who read the Ulsterman articles, the more money he receives.  Even though this amounts to a few pennies or maybe dollars per month, it is still clearly a motivating factor for Triond writers, who often make up outrageous and false stories in hopes of earning easy cash. 

Martin denies being “Ulsterman”, but it’s a pattern I’ve seen before on the internet: sites of ambiguous or obscure authorship that appear to know each other intimately, and which use citations to compensate for and distract from the fact that purported information being peddled cannot be traced back to any authoritative source. The hope is that the false impression of independent endorsements and of a wider conversation taking place will eventually lead to the information trickling up into the wider blogosphere or media. For that to happen, you need someone higher up the food-chain you can hoodwink or who doesn’t care a damn about what’s true or what’s false, just so long as it serves their interests. Step forward Pamela Geller.

Martin also has a website called “Martin Christian Ministries” (again posting as “Welshman”), where he advertises himself as a “Pastor, chaplain, evangelist, revival preacher”, who is available for “concerts, preaching, Bible conferences, all on a free-will, love-offering basis”.

I wonder if John Bolton ever feels embarrassed that his endorsement continues to appear on Geller’s website, or for providing a foreword for her anti-Obama book?

UPDATE: Robert Spencer is flirting with the same material; Christian Right newssite OneNewsNow reports:

Many critics think Obama is trying to use bin Laden’s demise as a way to prop up his credibility in the foreign policy arena.

“He’s certainly going to try,” notes Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer.

“He’s already taken credit for it, even though a series of revelations [has] come out now that indicates that he was quite reluctant to do it and that it was other people on his team, notably Leon Panetta, who were ultimately responsible for it. Nonetheless, he’s been taking credit for it and [will] continue to do so.”

There’s also an absurd coda:

…he points out that though Obama may have Islamic leanings, that does not mean he favors terrorism, as he may oppose it as a matter of principle.

So, although Obama may be a secret Muslim, he might not be a member of Al Qaeda. Right…

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