Pepperdine University's poll of Syria

Saudi and Qatari media have been touting a "poll of Syria". It got my attention because I try to follow public opinion surveys in the region. Then I heard on a Saudi news channel (Al-Arabiyya TV, owned by King Fahd's brother-in-law) that it was conducted by Pepperdine University. Of course, Arab viewers don't know anything about this university (it has a great campus in Malibu by the way). They don't know that it is a fanatically right-wing university with ties to Zionist evangelists. This is the university that hired Edwin Meese and Ken Start, for potato's sake. So I got more curious because I know that the university has no background in Middle East studies whatsoever. I then learned that the poll was conducted "in secret" (don't tell anyone) by Pepperdine University in conjunction with a Zionist outfit in LA, called Democracy Council.

The best part of the CNN report (see link) about the survey is the reference to James Prince (a Zionist non-expert of the Middle East) as "leading expert on Arab civil society". If that does not get you a chuckle, Family Guy is not your show. Regarding the results? They don't matter.

The entire affair is suspect, and the notion that they were able "to train" a staff (that reads to me that they are Lebanese right-wingers) and send them to Syria is not credible.

Did they survey people in Dir`a for example? And how did the face-to-face interview go?

My favorite part of the bogus survey is that a mere 5% of Syrian had negative opinions of the protesters. That is really delicious. So according to the survey, the regime has fallen and all `Alawites are now opposed to the regime. We need to establish a center to monitor and critique Middle East news analysis in the Western press and point out the daily dosage of trash.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian