Réalité EU
Réalité EU is a website and e-newsletter that according to its own account 'focus[es] on developments in and around the Middle East which pose a threat to Europe and beyond.' The website is available in English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Arabic. [1] Spinwatch uncovered evidence suggesting that the organisation operates as a front for The Israel Project and/or B’nai B’rith International. [2]
Contents
Links to The Israel Project and B’nai B’rith International
Réalité-EU has claimed to be based at offices in London. However, when Spinwatch investigated Réalité-EU in 2009 it was discovered that its London phone number redirected to a voicemail number in Washington previously listed as belonging to The Israel Project. E-mails received from Réalité-EU were found to have been sent from a mail server registered to the Washington offices of B'nai B'rith International which also shared a mail server with The Israel Project. [3]
An expert from Réalité-EU who spoke to Spinwatch initially denied ‘any connection whatsoever’ with B'nai B'rith. However, when the organisation’s Communication Associate Gerlinde Gerber was confronted with the evidence directly linking Réalité-EU with B'nai B'rith she said that Réalité-EU organisation rents ‘services and space on their server for cost saving reasons,’ but that it had no ‘ideological or other connection to B'nai B'rith’. She also stated that the expert Spinwatch had spoken had no knowledge of this arrangement. [4]
Origins and History
Réalité EU was set up in 2007 by the British neocon activist Simon Barrett, the founder of the affiliated e-newsletter International Media Intelligence Analysis (IMIA) and several other alarmist organisations. The Réalité-EU website was registered on 19 December 2006 and launched in January 2007. An introductory press release written by Barrett stated that Réalité EU 'will include some of the previous works of IMIA but be greatly expanded,' and that it would 'give reporters experts to interview.' [5]
International Media Intelligence Analysis is referred to in some press articles as a London based think-tank, but in fact it appears to have operated merely as an e-newsletter service run solely by Barrett. In 2007 it was described on the website of Réalité-EU as follow:
International Media Intelligence Analysis (IMIA) offers a new searchlight focusing on news and developments within the Middle East and that region's impact on the rest of the world.
IMIA, a European-based organisation with global reach, provides facts, insights and analysis on key developments and trends in the Middle East. IMIA exposes the threats from state sponsors of terrorist organisations, extremist leaders and groups, financing of terrorism, proliferation of nuclear weapons, human rights violations as well as counter terrorist organisations' initiatives. IMIA offers an informed and accurate view of developments taking place in the troubled and volatile region of the Middle East - a region that has far reaching implications for the rest of the world.[6]
IMIA co-hosted an event with the Euro-sceptic think-tank Open Europe. The two organisations held a briefing on 'Iran, Britain and Europe: Post hostage crisis, what can we expect next?' in Committee Room 9, House of Commons, Tuesday 22 May 2007, 2-4pm. With: Mark Fitzpatrick, Director of Non-Proliferation International Institute for Strategic Studies; Claude Moniquet, Director European Strategic and Intelligence Center; Patrick Mercer MP; Nazenin Ansari, Diplomatic Editor, Kayhan.[7]
Activities
The main purpose of Réalité EU appears to be to provide information demonising Iran and other enemies of the US and its allies in the Middle East. This is achieved through the selection and distribution of approved material appearing in the media, and through directing journalists to approved 'expert sources'. As regards the former the website has sections providing archived news alerts, 'Insights' and 'Backgrounders'. In the latter category the website lists biographies and contact details for various policy 'experts' based in Europe.
Personnel
Expert Sources
Frederic Encel is a Middle East expert and author. Encel earned a Ph.D. in Geo-policy at the University of Paris VII and teaches International Relations at the International Institute of Public Administration and at the Institute of Political Studies in Rennes. He is a prolific author and has published several books including: The Art of War: Strategies and Battles (2000); Geopolitics of Israel (2004) Understanding the Middle-East: A Necessity for the Republic (2006). He also works in the field of risk-analysis.
Contact: geostrat@wanadoo.fr
www.fredericencel.org
Claude Moniquet is an expert on counter-terrorism and extremism and a specialist on Near and Middle East issues. He is the director of the European Strategic and Intelligence Center. Moniquet focuses on terror networks and their European connections. He has published several books and studies including: The Faceless War (2002); Jihad. Secret History and European Networks (2004); and Jihad and Islamism in Belgium (2005).
Contact: esisc@esisc.org
Dr. Matthias Küntzel is an author and a political scientist from Hamburg, Germany. Küntzel has been researching, writing and publishing on the threat of Islamic Fundamentalism and Iran. In 2006, his work on Ahmadinejad, the Bassiji movement, and Germany's policy towards Iran was published in Internationale Politik, and in The New Republic. Küntzel is also a member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.
Contact: MatKuentzel@aol.com
http://matthiaskuentzel.de
Dr. Victor Mizin is Vice-President of the Moscow based Center for Strategic Assessments, member of the Center for Political and Military Prognosis of the Russian Academy of Science IMEMO Institute, and the board of the Russian NGO Committee on Critical Technologies and Nonproliferation. Dr. Mizin formally served as a member of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he concentrated on arms control, non-proliferation and global security.
Contact: drvmizin@hotmail.com
Dr. Arnon Groiss is the co-author of the report and director of research for CMIP. He has authored several reports about textbooks in Syria, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. He is currently deputy director of the Voice of Israel-Arabic Service. Dr. Groiss earned his Ph.D. at the Department of Near East Studies, Princeton University.
Contact: arnong@iba.org.il
Political analyst and consultant, Khattar Abou Diab is a Professor at Paris III University. A specialist on the Middle East and Islam, he is a contributor to both Cahiers de l’Orient and Arabies magazine.
He is co-author of The Worldwide Dictionary of Radical Islam under the direction of Antoine Sfeir.
Contact: khattar@noos.fr
Dr. Diana Gregor is a native of Vienna. She earned her Ph.D. in journalism and communications from Vienna University in Austria. Diana Gregor has been researching, writing and publishing on Iran, its diplomatic and economic ties to Europe and its terrorist activities throughout the Middle East. Prior to joining Réalité-EU, she worked as a journalist for Austrian newspapers/news magazines.
Contact: diana.gregor@realite-eu.org
Gerlinde Gerber is a political scientist from Berlin, Germany. She earned her master’s degree at the University of Potsdam and the Free University of Berlin. Gerlinde Gerber is the author of the monograph The New Constitution of Afghanistan – Constitutional Tradition and Political Process (2007), and has done research about religious fundamentalism and the overlapping spheres of religion and politics. Prior to joining Réalité–EU, she worked for the Free University of Berlin.
Contact: gerlinde.gerber@realite-eu.org
Previous Expert Sources
Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, Ph.D., is an expert on Iran terror, Basiji movement and the recruitment of European terror cells. Wahdat-Hagh earned his doctorate at the Freie Universitat in Berlin and holds degrees in political scientist and sociologist and has lectured in a number of German universities. Wahdat-Hagh was born to Iranian parents in Ludwigsburg, Germany and lived in Tehran for a number of years during his childhood. He is a resident of Berlin.
Contact: wahdwahdathagh@aol.com
Simon Barrett, Director IMIA
Simon Barrett is the founder of IMIA, International Media Intelligence Analysis. IMIA provides journalists with specialised information on Israel, Middle East and terrorism related issues. IMIA also provides a biweekly news alert with information not generally covered by the mainstream media.
Barrett is a former Advisor to the Conservatives Frontbench Spokesman for Homeland Security on issues relating to Islamic Terrorism and Iran.
Contact: imianews2005@yahoo.co.uk
+44 207 616 8450
Resources, Contact, Notes
Resources
Rightweb Profile: Réalité EU
Tom Mills and David Miller, 'Réalité-EU: Front group for the Washington-based Israel Project?, Spinwatch, 30 October 2009
Contact
- Phone: +44 20 3239 7555
- Email: info@realite-eu.org
Notes
- ↑ Réalité–EU – Expert Sources, accessed 2 July 2009
- ↑ Tom Mills and David Miller, 'Réalité-EU: Front group for the Washington-based Israel Project?, Spinwatch, 30 October 2009.
- ↑ Tom Mills and David Miller, 'Réalité-EU: Front group for the Washington-based Israel Project?, Spinwatch, 30 October 2009.
- ↑ Tom Mills and David Miller, 'Réalité-EU: Front group for the Washington-based Israel Project?, Spinwatch, 30 October 2009.
- ↑ Screengrab created 2 July 2009, 09:40
- ↑ Internet Archive, REALITE-EU - About IMIA, 23 January 2007
- ↑ Open Europe Events, accessed 20 December 2007
- ↑ Réalité–EU – Expert Sources, accessed 2 July 2009
- ↑ Internet Archive, REALITE-EU - Expert Sources, 23 January 2007
