AlQaedaInHaditha-NatHelmsThe media in our country is very negative towards US military press releases. So much so, they'll damn near never run them - because they don't want to spread propaganda.October 6, 2007 – Buried in the mountain of exhibits attached to the once secret Haditha, Iraq murder inquiry prepared by US Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell is an obscure Marine Corps intelligence summary (see pdf) that says the deadly encounter was an intentional propaganda ploy planned and paid for by Al Qaeda foreign fighters.
Yet they have no problems at all with running propaganda from the other side as fact.
The prosecutors in the case against eight Marines charged with murder and cover up at Haditha still maintain the besieged infantrymen acted solely out of malice and poor judgment when they killed 24 Iraqis there. The prosecution’s investigation was launched after a story by Time magazine reporter Tim McGirk on March 6, 2006 accused the Marines of cold blooded murder in retaliation for the death of a brother Marine.Isn't it rather odd to to think that a news agency will automatically accept as true, unbiased and accurate pronouncements of events from the other side - yet ignore what the Marines themselves might have to say?McGirk received his video “evidence” and contacts from two known Iraqi insurgent operatives already under observation by Marine Corps counter intelligence teams.
One of the Iraqi witnesses McGirk relied on had just been released from almost six months captivity for insurgent activities and the other witness was considered a useful intelligence tool by Marines listening to him talk on his cell phone. McGirk never interviewed the Marines, who ironically had prepared a similar intelligence summary in anticipation of his canceled visit.
And the left calls the right (or anyone to the right of them...) unthinking and credulous. Seems to me that there's a decided lack of critical and skeptical thought on the left, especially when it comes to certain items which might not fit the narrative.
J.
Comments (3)
I tried to link to Sweetness-light.com on this, but was unable to - don't know what the problem is, but he's done articles on this since the beginning, reporting of the individuals who initially reported it. It looked to me like propaganda from the start - especially when permission to exhume the bodies for autopsy was refused. Exhumation is not common in islam, but it is permitted when the reason is serious - which it certainly would have have been in this case. The other thing that really got my ire up is that the NCIS had a half hour of overhead filming that exonerated the marines, and they chose to give to the defense only about 5-10 minutes that did _not_ exonerate them. I _really_ don't understand the justification for that. And now _this_! Whose side is NCIS on? Not that they should lie or not present evidence that exists against our military, but that they are suppressing evidence that _supports_ our military???? What the heck...! _Somebody _else_ should get courtmartialed! Wonder if they've got some of those "phony soldiers" in the NCIS branch...some of those bureaucrats in places they shouldn't be...
Posted by suek | October 8, 2007 11:57 AM
Posted on October 8, 2007 11:57
It devolves to a 'win at all costs' mentality - and if they've got to scorch the earth to take it, well, that's too bad.
We got too many lawyers in the military. It doesn't help to fight a war if you're afraid of hurting the enemy.
J.
Posted by JLawson | October 8, 2007 8:37 PM
Posted on October 8, 2007 20:37
No problem linking today. Computer gremlins, I guess. If you go to this link, at the bottom of the page is a "previous entries" link. Click on that and you can go back to some of his initial entries on this. Taken in sequence, it's a very interesting tale. I still think someone else should be courtmartialed - for working _against_ the marines who were involved and who were _supposed_ to be on the same side.
http://www.sweetness-light.com/index.php?s=haditha
Posted by suek | October 9, 2007 11:13 AM
Posted on October 9, 2007 11:13