I'm Jealous: Jadaliyya is the Subject of a Conspiracy Theory and I'm Not

Congratulations to Jadaliyya and co-founder Bassam Haddad on making the conspiracy theory hall of fame: Quoting the Turkish newspaper Radikal about a pro-government paper in Turkey:

Under today’s headline of choice, “The Devil’s Triangle,” [pro-government] Yeni Şafak newspaper accused Jadaliyya, an internet-based news feed published in English and Arabic, of conspiring to alter the Gezi Park demonstrations into one that would topple the Turkish government by “transforming them [the demonstrations] into a Turkish Spring everything being under the sponsorship of George Soros and Georgetown University ..."

As a Georgetown product it makes me proud to know the Jesuit plot is still alive and well and still trying to overthrow Turkey. [ For the humorless among my readers, I'm joking.]  More:

"The dirty alliance, forged on the Beirut-Istanbul-Washington line, with foreign media, finance, and academic circles in participation, is becoming more de-classified and decoded every day. Jadaliyya, which has been fanatically feeding the world news about what was happening first and foremost in Istanbul, but also in other parts of Turkey, in the institutional media wing of the Arab Studies Institute of Georgetown University [sic]. The financier behind Jadaliyya, which claims to be a not-for-profit site, is, however, none other than the famous speculator and founder of the Open Society Institute, George Soros—the same name behind the ‘Orange Revolutions’ that started in Ukraine in 2004, and continued in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. Published as a monthly [sic], and carrying a 1.5 million sales in numbers, the internet site of the journal is supported by a great number of Middle Eastern and Western academics and activists. Even in its very first news reports on the demonstrations, Jadaliyya not only dubbed them as ‘Turkish Revolution’ and ‘Turkish Spring,’ but also generously featured the ugliest adjectives describing Erdoğan, ones that even the demonstrators against him did not dare to mouth."

As Bassam explains in an interview with the newspaper Radikal, reproduced at Jadaliyya, the Arab Studies Institute, though founded at Georgetown years ago, has been independent since the 1990s, and the Open Society Institute is one of many organizations to have given support with no policy strings. As he tells Radikal, “It is almost comical what was written about Jadaliyya . . . [t]hey have really overestimated us!”

I'm pleased that Jadaliyya, always worth reading, has made the big time in conspiracy theory. "Devil's Triangle," no less. I'm definitely jealous. I'll bet Jadaliyya's web traffic is soaring.

But, :"forged on the Beirut-Istanbul-Washington line"?