Officers, docs; US military using propaganda to help bush tie Iraq to 911

[LynnTheDem]

The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12243324/

Wake up, America.

[countryjake]

1. "U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq in 2004 cost $24 million"

So how much have they spent on the propaganda effort HERE? Is that where all that money is going!

Not to mention, most who are aware know that Zarqawi is probably long dead.

"Spin" rises to new proportions; no wonder nobody knows who the "real enemy" is!

[LynnTheDem]

2. We know who the real enemy is...

That would be the man & his Cabal who've caused more American deaths & suffering (not to even mention non-American deaths & suffering) than OBL.

[lyonn]

3. Zarqawi was known to have a camp in the Kurdish

area prior to the war. So why didn't they bomb it first thing since we now know that he and his gang were the only terrorist in Iraq. Hard to believe this gang that can't shoot straight would be clever enough to keep him around for their whipping boy.

The lies and deceptions just keep on going on.

[LynnTheDem]

4. 3 times the US military wanted to bomb Zarqawi's camp before bush's

Hitleresque war of aggression against Iraq...and 3 times bush said no; it would have taken away from his "terrorists in Iraq" bullshit.

FACTS.

[countryjake]

6. And how do we know...

that Zarqawi's chemical weapons lab that was supposedly producing deadly ricin and cyanide up there isn't more of this same propaganda? Powell made a pretty good case with it, continually calling it an al-Qaida set-up, before the war.

[LynnTheDem]

7. Nothing was found in Zarqawi's Kurdish camps by US troops. No ricin,

No cyanide.

No nothing.

[countryjake]

9. Funny how that one-legged guy gets around, ain't it?

One dozen al-Qaida and a handicapped fella packed all that crap outta there, while our satellites were watching?

Never believed a word of it!

[Garbo 2004]

5. Military wanted to take out Zarqawi prewar, Bush said no. See article

for info on various media reports on this: http://mediamatters.org/items/200410270007

Zarqawi was worth much more to the Bush Administration alive than dead.

[lyonn]

8. Thanks Garbo

Imagine the WSJ reporting that info and almost "zip" by the MSM. That was a good article.

Another problem with the Zarqawi story is that he was in the Northern Kurdish area and not snuggled close to Saddam. Always wondered why more wasn't made of that fact, if Saddam was so tight with the terrorist why was Zarqawi out of his reach? Actually we know the answer, Saddam was not working with Al Quiada (sp?) or Zarqawi.

[LynnTheDem]

10. Zarqawi's group, Ansar al Islam, was trying to kill Hussein.

OBL was & is Hussein's enemy.

Zarqawi was & is Hussein's enemy.

Funny how the US "media" rarely bothered to mention those FACTS.

[lyonn]

11. OBL, who is that?

Just kidding. Haven't heard from or about him in awhile. Out of sight out of mind. This web that is being woven by the bush bunch looks like a drunken spider was at work.

It's late, best go to bed before I get totally ridiculous.

[LynnTheDem]

13. Sorry, I don't remember.

Some guy that was supposedly responsible for something really bad that bush vowed to get "dead or alive" and then said he "doesn't really care" and as the guy -whoever he is- has been free as a bird since 9/11, I presume he wasn't actually responsible for anything bad at all, else bush would have caught him years ago.

So forget whatshisname.

[IChing]

12. As Steven Colbert said on Truthiness...nominated

Truthiness.

Now I'm sure some of the Word Police,
the wordanistas over at Webster's, are gonna say, "Hey, that's not a word
." Well, anybody who knows me knows that I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books.

They're elitist.
Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, or what did or didn't happen.
Who's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was finished in 1914? If I wanna say it happened in 1941, that's my right. I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart.

The military is guilty of war crimes with this propaganda and needs to be purged.

[magellan]

14. Lynn, I never disagree with you, but one small correction

al-Tawhid was Zarqawi's group. Their raison d'etre was to overthrow the Jordanian government and replace it with Islamic rule (Zarqawi, of course, being Jordanian). The like-minded Ansar-al-Islam was a group in northern Iraq that opposed Hussein. The similar goals of these two groups are probably what brought them together.

[LynnTheDem]

16. al-Tawhid and Ansar al Islam joined forces; Ansar of course being KURDS,

something the US "media" never bothered to point out when they were busy stenographing bush's bullshit of needing to save the poor Kurds...and Zarqawi is now the "leader" of Ansar al Islam, the previous leader living a happy & free man in Norway.

[magellan]

22. Yes, that's true

Ansar were a radical Kurdish group that operated in a remote region of Kurdish territory. (Wasn't PUK engaged in running skirmishes with them?) I'm just pointing out that at the time, before the invasion, Zarqawi's group was a separate entity. The ideology was the same, but the goals were different. Zarqawi wanted to overthrow the Jordanian government, Ansar wanted to overthrow Hussein. Obviously they shared enough common ground to join forces against the US in Iraq.

And their merging and continued existence is without question the fault of Bush** and the neocons. Bush** had the opportunity to exterminate Zarqawi and Ansar al Islam a few times before the war but didn't. As someone above said, Zarqawi was worth a lot more to BushCo alive than dead. With him and Ansar operating freely in northern Iraq, Bush** could convince an ignorant American populace that Saddam was in league with Zarqawi and by extension OBL. And the corporate media did nothing to illuminate the absurdity of that claim.

[Arkansas Granny]

19. What, and get rid of one of his primary enemies and bad guys

that would help him keep the level of fear he needed from his supporters? Zarqawi was very important to Bush and his gang as he allowed them to put a face on "terrorism". He made the perfect "boogie man".

[cynatnite]

15. using the media...again

seems they never learn. :eyes:

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.

Leaks to reporters from U.S. officials in Iraq are common, but official evidence of a propaganda operation using an American reporter is rare.


Great find, Lynn!

[DBoon]

17. are we a police state yet?

nt

[LynnTheDem]

18. We're at least thisclose, uh huh.

But maybe once the tanks are rolling thru US streets and drones are flying over US cities, maybe then the majority of Americans will wake up.

[The2ndWheel]

20. And some here want them to take over

in a military coup.

It's funny though, how this administration gets us to defend agencies such as the CIA and NSA, almost beg for a takeover of the US Government by the military, and agree with Pat Buchanan on some issues.

It's crazy.

[genie_weenie]

21. The problem isn't America it is

that this propaganda has been used to indoctrinate the already State institutionalized soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines. And as long as the State is able to gain people willing to swear the allegiance unto death and pay them by stealing the funds from the rest of the people OIF, OEF, and whatever other war the State wants will continue...