US military denies it hyped up Zarqawi threat

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10600399.htm

US military denies it hyped up Zarqawi threat

BAGHDAD, April 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. military denied on Monday a newspaper report that it had waged a propaganda campaign to overstate the threat posed by al Qaeda's leader in Iraq.

The Washington Post had reported that some senior military intelligence officers believe the importance of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been exaggerated, citing military documents and officers familiar with the alleged campaign.

According to the article, Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq, told a U.S. Army meeting: "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will, made him more important than he really is, in some ways."

Major General Rick Lynch, the chief military spokesman in Iraq, issued a statement denying the Washington Post report and saying that Zarqawi remained a grave threat.

[leesa]

1. "...remained a grave threat" So he IS dead as we've always suspected.

[6000eliot]

11. He ought to be.

They killed him enough times, didn't they?

[IndianaGreen]

2. DOD denies that they have created an Emmanuel Goldstein

yet they continue to use Emmanuel Goldstein as their bogeyman.

[Roland99]

3. *cough*bullshit*cough*

[creeksneakers2]

4. Why they have to deny this

Up to this day, the White House has claimed that Al Qaeda is behind the civil war in Iraq. The White House maintains that Zarqawi communicated with Al Qaeda and they hatched a plot to cause a civil war by attacking Shi'ites and making it look like Sunni's did it, or attacking Sunnis and making it look like Shi'ites did it. For proof, the White House said they had "captured a letter" between Zarqawi and the Al Qaeda leadership about the plot.

We now have proof that the story about the "Al Qaeda/Zarqawi plot" is a total fabrication.

The Post story doesn't actually say that, but it does say:

"That slide, created by Casey's subordinates, does not specifically state that U.S. citizens were being targeted by the effort, but other sections of the briefings indicate that there were direct military efforts to use the U.S. media to affect views of the war. One slide in the same briefing, for example, noted that a "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page on Feb. 9, 2004."

What the Post says here about the New York Times article isn't quite true. The Post says the Times article was about Zarqawi "boasting of suicide attack."

A simple $3.50 to the Times archive brings up the article, which actually says:

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: INTELLIGENCE; U.S. Says Files Seek Qaeda Aid In Iraq Conflict


Article
By DEXTER FILKINS; DOUGLAS JEHL CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON FOR THIS ARTICLE.
Published: February 9, 2004

"BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 8 - American officials here have obtained a detailed proposal that they conclude was written by an operative in Iraq to senior leaders of Al Qaeda, asking for help to wage a ''sectarian war'' in Iraq in the next months.
The Americans say they believe that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has long been under scrutiny by the United States for suspected ties to Al Qaeda, wrote the undated 17-page document. Mr. Zarqawi is believed to be operating here in Iraq.


(snip)

The memo says extremists are failing to enlist support inside the country, and have been unable to scare the Americans into leaving. It even laments Iraq's lack of mountains in which to take refuge.

Yet mounting an attack on Iraq's Shiite majority could rescue the movement, according to the document. The aim, the document contends, is to prompt a counterattack against the Arab Sunni minority.

Such a ''sectarian war'' will rally the Sunni Arabs to the religious extremists, the document argues. It says a war against the Shiites must start soon -- at ''zero hour'' -- before the Americans hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis. That is scheduled for the end of June."

End Times story

The story in the Times refers to the same document Bush bases his claims on that the civil war in Iraq is caused by Al Qaeda. Its all a total fabrication. This is the proof!

[MrPrax]

7. New WP story up...

Still subscribed, but states bluntly:

Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi
Jordanian Painted As Foreign Threat To Iraq's Stability

By Thomas E. Ricks

....
For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html">WP Subscriber Portal

Looking at Google News hits...the story is in high circulation with foreign news site now going back over their own reports...it becomes a little dicey as if you remember Zarqawi has been blamed quite a bit for bombings and kidnappings, like the Sgrena kidnapping and then subsequent shooting of the Italian secret service agent...

Funny how many people here actually took this Zarqawi crap seriously--and kudos to students of propaganda that smelt a rat from day one.

[TomInTib]

8. Read what Robert Fisk has to say about Mr Zaqawi

Now quite apart from the fact that many Iraqis - along, I have to admit, with myself - have grave doubts about whether Zarqawi exists, and that al-Qai'da's Zarqawi, if he does exist, does not merit the title of "insurgency mastermind", the words that caught my eye were "US authorities say". And as I read through the report, I note how the Los Angeles Times sources this extraordinary tale. I thought American reporters no longer trusted the US administration, not after the mythical weapons of mass destruction and the equally mythical connections between Saddam and the international crimes against humanity of 11 September 2001. Of course, I was wrong.

Here are the sources - on pages one and 10 for the yarn spun by reporters Josh Meyer and Mark Mazzetti: "US officials said", "said one US Justice Department counter-terrorism official", "Officials ... said", "those officials said", "the officials confirmed", "American officials complained", "the US officials stressed", "US authorities believe", "said one senior US intelligence official", "US officials said", "Jordanian officials ... said" - here, at least is some light relief - "several US officials said", "the US officials said", "American officials said", "officials say", "say US officials", "US officials said", "one US counter-terrorism official said".
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12395.htm

[MrPrax]

9. But But...

You are allowed 4 paragraphs!! Please allow me to elaborate on that wonderful piece by Robert Fisk:

I do truly treasure this story. It proves my point that the Los Angeles Times - along with the big east coast dailies - should all be called US OFFICIALS SAY. But it's not just this fawning on political power that makes me despair. Let's move to a more recent example of what I can only call institutionalised racism in American reporting of Iraq. I have to thank reader Andrew Gorman for this gem, a January Associated Press report about the killing of an Iraqi prisoner under interrogation by US Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jnr.

ICH

Yes--I presume many many publications will be having their webmasters working overtime in the next couple of days--busy scrubbing their more fanciful stories...

Would it be out of line to suggest that this and other things is partly why the Press was so sheepishly silent over the Judith Miller jailing...perhaps they were whistling by graveyards, thinking, 'There, but for the Grace of God, go I..."

[Judi Lynn]

16. I hope many DU'ers take time to read your WP link. It's very important.n/t

[maddezmom]

5. AP's headline:U.S. Spokesman Blames Al-Zarqawi Group

BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than 90 percent of the suicide attacks in Iraq are carried out by terrorists and foreign fighters recruited, trained and equipped by al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.

Al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida in Iraq "are real threats to the citizens, security and stability of Iraq and we continue to conduct aggressive operations to eliminate the threat they pose not only to Iraq, but also to the rest of the region," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said in a statement.

The Washington Post reported Monday that U.S. military was conducting a propaganda campaign to "magnify the role" of al-Zarqawi to turn Iraqis against him and to link the war in Iraq to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

According to the newspaper, some U.S. military intelligence officials believe the campaign has overstated al-Zarqawi's importance within the Iraqi insurgency.

Lynch's statement did not refer directly to the Post story but said "a recent article" had called into question the threat posed by al-Zarqawi.

more;http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060410/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_al_zarqawi;_

[rodeodance]

6. name recognition is important. Blame has to have recognized name.

[creeksneakers2]

10. More on "Zarqawi behind the insurgency stories"

(different Zarqawi behind the insurgency letter)
The Sunday Times - World

The Sunday Times April 09, 2006

US leak of Zarqawi letter riles Israelis

ISRAELI military intelligence officials have accused President George W Bush’s administration of undermining their attempts to infiltrate Al-Qaeda’s operations in Iraq by revealing the contents of a secret letter written by Osama Bin Laden’s second-in-command, writes Uzi Mahnaimi.
Israel passed the letter — in which Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined his Middle East strategy to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq — to Washington last October on condition of strict anonymity.

Israeli officials were dismayed, however, when John Negroponte, the US director of national intelligence, made it available in both English and its original Arabic on his office web site.

Bush then referred to it during his weekly address. “The Al-Qaeda letter points to Vietnam as a model,” the president declared. “Al-Qaeda believes that America can be made to run again. They are gravely mistaken. America will not run and we will not forget our responsibilities.”

Israeli intelligence sources said officials who had worked on “Operation Tiramisu” inside Iraq took emergency steps to protect their sources, but it was not clear how successful they had been in averting the damage to their intelligence network.

End Sunday Times story

From CNN 10/13/05

US officials say the letter was "intercepted."

Al Qaeda in Iraq: Letter to al-Zarqawi a fake
U.S. official says multiple sources verified document

Thursday, October 13, 2005 Posted: 2039 GMT (0439 HKT)


Al Qaeda in Iraq said Thursday a letter purportedly from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a fake, according to a statement on several Islamist Web sites.

The terrorist group denied the letter was from al Qaeda and claimed it was "another fabrication ... by the Black House," using its term for the White House.

CNN has not authenticated the statement, which was posted on several Web sites that often carry messages from al Qaeda in Iraq and was signed by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, the man who acts as the group's spokesperson.

U.S. officials say they intercepted the 6,300-word letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi, head of al Qaeda in Iraq, and released this week a translation of the full text of the manuscript. (Full text)

[creeksneakers2]

12. Still more on original Zarqawi behind insurgency letter

The original NYT story on February 9, 2004 article contained this paragraph:

Still, a senior United States intelligence official in Washington said, ''I know of no reason to believe the letter is bogus in any way.'' He said the letter was seized in a raid on a known Qaeda safe house in Baghdad, and did not pass through Iraqi groups that American intelligence officials have said in the past may have provided unreliable information.

End Times story

But a story in Newsweek magazine just after the Times article said:

Rod Nordland, the magazine’s Baghdad bureau chief, on March 6 wrote: “The letter so neatly and comprehensively lays out a blueprint for fomenting strife with the Shia, and later the Kurds, that it's a little hard to believe in it unreservedly. It came originally from Kurdish sources who have a long history of disinformation and dissimulation. It was an electronic document on a CD-ROM, so there's no way to authenticate signature or handwriting, aside from the testimony of those captured with it, about which the authorities have not released much information.”

(courtesy Editor and Publisher) http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/new/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002314713

[creeksneakers2]

13. From wookie294 on previous thread

This article from the News.Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk./news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/04/wirq04.xml
(snip)
No concrete proof of the link between Zarqawi and bin Laden was offered until US officials this year trumpeted the discovery of a computer disk, allegedly intercepted by Kurdish peshmerga guerrillas. Among its files was an apparent draft of a letter from Zarqawi to bin Laden.
(snip)
That seemed proof enough for the US government. "Zarqawi is the best evidence of the connection to al-Qa'eda affiliates and al-Qa'eda," Mr Bush said in June.

But senior diplomats in Baghdad claim that the letter was almost certainly a hoax. They say the two men may have met in Afghanistan but it appeared they never got on and there has been a rift for several years.

[creeksneakers2]

14. President Bush Discusses Global War on Terror

Speech 04/10/06

The terrorists know that the greatest threat to their aspirations is Iraqi self-government. And we know this from the terrorists' own words. In 2004, we intercepted a letter from Zarqawi to Osama bin Laden. In it, Zarqawi expressed his concern about "the gap that will emerge between us and the people of the land." He declared "democracy is coming." He went on to say, this will mean "suffocation" for the terrorists. Zarqawi laid out his strategy to stop democracy from taking root in Iraq. He wrote, "If we succeed in dragging the Shia into the arena of sectarian war, it will become possible to awaken the inattentive Sunnis as they feel imminent danger ... the only solution for us is to strike the religious, military, and other cadres among the Shia with blow after blow."

(cannot find original place this was posted on DU but I thank whoever came across this)

[MrSlayer]

15. Well that's a sure sign that they did.

Whatever they say, the opposite is true.