For all your middle east rumor mill needs

November 21, 2001 8:06 AM

For all your middle east rumor mill needs Just another alternative media, highly speculative source for rumors... blah, blah, blah Quite a few of their "stories" have been confirmed as of late. Maybe it's worth another look for those of you who have never been.
posted by yangwar (7 comments total)

Debka has been posted here a million times already. I stopped checking them out after too many of their alarming "exclusives" turned out to be a lotta baloney. On Debka, what is true is not new, and what is new is (usually) not true.
posted by Faze at 8:19 AM on November 21, 2001

Debka is good for scaring the crap out of anyone reading it, but they have posted a number of exclusives (read: rumours) that never panned out, and I tend to avoid them these days.
posted by tranquileye at 8:44 AM on November 21, 2001

I've been reading them since 9/11. My take on Debka:

Take Matt Drudge, remove the fedora, ego compensation, and closet, and add just a pinch of journalistic credential (by way of one of the two debka writers having been the israeli correspondent for The Economist) and there you have it...Debka.com

As I recall, they are right about 40% of the time, the rest of the time their sensationalistic scoops never solidify into real news that I can find on any of the other news outlets... So read with NaCl.
posted by BentPenguin at 9:06 AM on November 21, 2001

Penquin, CNN reviewed websites covering the War on Terrorism, and Debka was included. I do read it daily, some things are accurate and other items are downright scary. They compared it to Drudge during Lewinskigate.
posted by Oxydude at 10:05 AM on November 21, 2001

I've found recently the drudge is more 'accurate' than debka. And I think some of the stories that they do get right are just luck.

That said, it's not TOTAL crap. It is very Isralei biased - but it's useful to see news biased towards other nations. (i.e. those Pakistanis and those articles talking about 4000 Jews not going to work in the WTC on Sept 11).

They had a bunch of articles on Debka about China sending in a few thousand troops to fight on the Taliban side that I never heard about again (well,I think there was an article on Debka about it). I mean, COULD be true. But you think someone would have mentioned all the dead Chinese people by now.
posted by QrysDonnell at 10:33 AM on November 21, 2001

Actually I believe that article said China was allowing Chinese Muslims who wanted to fight to cross the border. They could still be there.
posted by stbalbach at 11:25 AM on November 21, 2001

debka did say that there were thousands of chinese fighters going to fight. I didn't belive it then (way to politicaly stupid. ) and I don't think I've heard anything more about it now.
posted by delmoi at 11:34 AM on November 21, 2001