Poland Says It Was Mistaken (no new French Missiles in Iraq)

[papau]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAH28FVDLD.html

Poland Says It Was Mistaken in Report That Troops Found Newly Built French Missiles in Iraq
By Beata Pasek
Associated Press Writer

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - After a protest from French President Jacques Chirac, Poland said Saturday it had been mistaken in reporting that its troops found new French-made anti-aircraft misiles in central Iraq. Chirac swiftly denied selling Iraq weapons in violation of the U.N. weapons embargo against Saddam Hussein's regime. The claims, he said, "are as false today as they were yesterday." An aide to the Polish prime minister said an initial report that the Roland missiles found by Polish troops days ago were produced in 2003 was incorrect. France said it stopped producing any type of Roland missile in 1993. Prime Minister Leszek Miller met with Chirac twice to explain the mistake, said the aide, Tadeusz Iwinski. The two leaders were in Rome on Saturday for a European Union summit. "There can be no 2003 missiles since these missiles have not been made for 15 years," Chirac told reporters in Rome. "Polish soldiers confused things. I told ... Miller so frankly - friendly but firmly." <snip>
The Polish defense minister, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, "expressed his regrets" for the mistake, a ministry statement said.
The report first came in a statement by a ministry spokesman to Polish state television that the troops uncovered French-made Roland missiles in the town of Hilla, in the zone of central Iraq where the Poles lead a peacekeeping force. A ministry statement said the missiles were destroyed on Wednesday. Since Saddam's fall in April, U.S. troops and journalists have seen Roland missiles at some weapons sites. France long had close ties to Iraq that included lucrative weapons deals. Paris supplied arms, in exchange for oil, during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. The French Foreign Ministry statement Saturday said that Roland 1 missiles and their launchers were exported to Iraq in 1980-81, whole Roland 2 missiles were exported for three years, from 1983 to 1986. France stopped making Roland 2s in 1988 and Roland 3s in 1993, it said. The French ministry emphasized that France has not authorized the sale of weapons, or even spare parts, to Iraq since after July 1990. <snip>

The United States stopped producing the Roland-type weapon in 1981.
AP-ES-10-04-03 1236EDT

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAH28FVDLD.html

[MGKrebs]

1. I guess I'll have to print this out,

'cuz i know that when i see my AM radio-listening, first-paragraph-only-reading, president*-shrub-believing friend on Monday, he will have only seen the original story.

[Rose Siding]

10. That's the thing isn't it?

The damage is already done. We can't possibly run around with this article to ALL the believing masses. Mission accomplished.

[legin]

11. Not quite on topic but interesting

<<snip>>

Social psychology textbooks list several ways in which audiences can be deceived by propaganda.
First of all, audiences are more likely to accept an idea if they believe it was heard inadvertently; in other words, there is a natural tendency to resist a message that is presented in an assertive way, while there will be far less negative reaction if the audience hears the same theme in a context that is relatively "matter-of-fact."

Audiences are also more likely to actually change their opinions if they receive a message from a variety of sources that mutually reinforce one another. Similarly, people tend to approve of a statement made by someone who is in some way similar to them, an expert on the topic under discussion, or one who begins by expressing an opinion with which the listener (or viewer or reader) strongly agrees.

Under some circumstances, propaganda messages can be made more potent by incorporating opposing arguments in a way that tends to discredit them, while at the same time giving the audience the impression that it is hearing both side of the debate.

In large operations, propagandists often stimulate changes in attitudes by generating a "band-wagon effect" -- creating the false impression that a particular set of beliefs is more widely accepted than it really is. And where a specific behavioral change is the intended goal of a communications campaign, it is extremely useful to get members of the target group either to express the idea publicly (thereby committing themselves to it) or to engage in the desired conduct in some way short of compulsion (so that they assume "ownership" of the idea). In either case, the tendency is to continue to defend the opinion or action and in so doing to internalize the propaganda.

<<snip>>

best bit from:
http://www.africa2000.com/PNDX/theory.htm

there seem to be a list of articles here:
http://www.africa2000.com/PNDX/plist.html

[Brucey]

2. Picking on the French again.

As Gene McCarthy said, "Sorry I was right."

[soupkitchen]

3. Sounds like a Polish Joke to me.

[IndianaGreen]

5. The Polish deployment is a sore issue in Poland

Against a tide of popular opinion, the Polish government decided to send troops to Iraq. Once they got there the Polish soldiers found themselves without any working equipment or weapons. Their old Soviet-era radios could not even transmit in the frequencies used by the US. The US had to issue them brand new equipment.

The same horror story was repeated with the small Latvian contingent.

[burrowowl]

4. Non-existent

missiles and 1 vial of botulism.
This hunt for WMDs is damned expensive.
LOL the Polish joke, no further comment.

[prolesunited]

6. Typical

announce during the week when most people will hear it, retract on Saturday when no one is paying attention. Is it any wonder that the public has fallen for so many lies? You have to be really paying attention to keep up with this crew.

[legin]

7. Well that is that story debunked

So now all we have to do is wait a week or so for Faux News to be reporting that 500 brand new state of the art missles have been found in Iraq.

(I just looked at WMD in Kuwait thread)

It would seem that you have to run a preliminary propaganda article first before you push it home with the big story at a later date.

The preliminary article also gives you the oppotunity to test the reaction to the story, to see how successful it is going to be. Sort of like businesses market testing a new product on a selected group of people first before launching it to the general public.

[alcuno]

8. Poor Poles. They were only saying what the Americans told them

to say in the first place.

[fshrink]

16. Poor Poles. They were only saying what the Germans told them.

...

[Paschall]

18. Yes, as if Centcom hadn't okayed...

...the Polish announcement of this "find." Riiight! I mean the Poles are under US command, are they not? :eyes:

[karlschneider]

9. But, but...I saw PICTURES of them on MSRNC today! With "made 2003"

stenciled right on their sides! They did look a little rusty, though...
I guess all that rain in the desert does that...

:eyes:

[MGKrebs]

12. Who the heck is "Roland" anyway?

And why does he have a missile named after him?

Will we someday see the SU5000 "Dick"?

Or the Raytheon XR "Condi"?

I might be willing to bet that we will soon see a "Wolf" named weapon, in a sorta subtle prop to Wolfowitz.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Roland was a mythical French hero

so it's the equivalent of the British calling a missle 'Lancelot' or 'Gallahad' (and the Royal Navy has used the latter as a ship name).

[MGKrebs]

15. Wow, cool. Thank you.

We have a "mythical" hero also. "Ronald".

At least it's a myth that he was a hero.

:evilgrin:

[Paschall]

17. "The Song of Roland," 11th century French poem

First great epic poem in French, based on actual 8th century French military hero, Hrodland (ie Roland), Count of the Marches of Brittany.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html

[w4rma]

14. The Boy Who Cried “Wolf!”