Real photo of the men pulling down the statue of Saddam at the beginning o

[demforever]

Does anyone have the photograph of the men who pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein at the beginning of the war that showed that there were really very few Iraqis in the square and that the Americans were just creating a photo op? I am in the process of explaining to a Repub what really happens in Iraq. Thank you.

[trotsky]

1. Here's a site that lays it out perfectly.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm

[BrklynLiberal]

2. here

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Another place you can scroll down and see the pciture and some comments.

http://www.ospolitics.org/worldview/

[Jacobin]

4. The media was very cooperative with this propaganda

Not one media outlet in this country showed what really happened. They all had the tight view of the charade. Not one pulled back the cameras to show what was really happening

[ContraBass Black]

5. Someone did later.

I think it was either "Nightline" or "60 Minutes."

[evermind]

6. You might like this LAT article: army report admits it was a psyop.

If you haven't seen it already that is..

Published on Saturday, July 3, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
Army Stage-Managed Fall of Hussein Statue
by David Zucchino

The Army's internal study of the war in Iraq criticizes some efforts by its own psychological operations units, but one spur-of-the-moment effort last year produced the most memorable image of the invasion.

As the Iraqi regime was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. It was a Marine colonel — not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images — who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking.

After the colonel — who was not named in the report — selected the statue as a "target of opportunity," the psychological team used loudspeakers to encourage Iraqi civilians to assist, according to an account by a unit member.

--snip--

Ultimately, a Marine recovery vehicle toppled the statue with a chain, but the effort appeared to be Iraqi-inspired because the psychological team had managed to pack the vehicle with cheering Iraqi children.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0703-02.htm has the article. The LA Times has it at http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/658306361.html?did=658306361&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Jul+3%2C+2004&author=David+Zucchino&desc=THE+NATION%3B+Army+Stage-Managed+Fall+of+Hussein+Statue but you have to pay for the full text. Also reported at http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000562754 in a story that adds nothing to the LAT one.

[donkeyotay]

7. that was one of the greats

Thanks for retrieving that one. I'm sure this will still be news to many trolling by.