Last night I wrote a story about the so-called controversy in Right Wing Blogistan (promoted by Fox News commentator and conservative pundit Michelle Malkin most prominently) regarding Associated Press’s source for various stories in Baghdad, Police Captain Jamil Hussein [note: this link is to a now outdated wikipedia entry but it gives a basic run down on the controversy], now that the Iraqi Interior Ministry has admitted be actually does exist and is about to be arrested for talking out of school to the AP. Previously, both Iraq’s Interior Ministry and US Military Spokespersons, had denied that Hussein was a police captain in Baghdad, and that the AP’s story regarding 6 Sunnis individuals who were burned alive, for which Captain Hussein was one source, had occurred as reported by the AP.
Well, now that the Iraqi Interior Ministry has admitted that Jamil Hussein is a captain in the Iraqi police force in Baghdad and that he will be (or has been already?) arrested for talking to the Associated Press without official permission, you would expect that those who accepted wholeheartedly the prior denials by the US military and the Shi’a dominated Interior Ministry which denied Captain Hussein’s existence (and thus called into question the veracity of the Associated Press when it continued to claim that Hussein was a member of the Iraqi police) might be eating a little crow this morning. Well, that’s not exactly the standard reaction to this “turn of events” as this little excerpt from the wingnut blog The Jawa Report demonstrates:
The lefties don’t get it. It’s not about whether Iraq is violent. It’s not about whether Baghdad is a mess. It’s about whether or not we can trust the news coming from our mainstream news outlets. It’s about whether they have mechanisms in place to ensure that the stories they’re serving up can be independently verified. It’s about the overall quality of the news reporting from the Middle East. Yes, one side is in total denial, but it’s not the right side.
Yes, forget the ongoing and massive violence in Iraq, and George Bush’s major league clusterfuck and focus on the only thing that really matters: (1) that the “Left” is always wrong all the time, (2) that the media is biased against the US military and President Bush and (3) regardless of the truth of the matter, the Associated Press is the bad guy here. After all, why trust any news organization whose reporters in Iraq are actually risking their lives (and where many have been killed) when all you really need to do is accept verbatim every word that comes from the Bush administration, the American supported Iraqi government and the US Military to know what’s really happening over there. In other words, they’re in total denial.
How many times have we heard information coming from the Pentagon, from Vice President Dick Cheney or from President Bush’s lips himself regarding Iraq that has later been proven to be completely and utterly false? I literally can’t keep track of them all, but what follows hereafter are just a few of the of the more infamous lies, falsehoods, obfuscations and misrepresentations by our government that the good folks at The Jawa Report (and no doubt elsewhere in wingnut land) conveniently overlook every time one of these “The liberal media in Iraq is making it seem worse than it really is” memes raises its ugly head:
(cont.)
Like the Vice President’s statement that Iraq had reconstituted it’s nuclear weapons program.
Like President Bush’s statement in his State of the Union speech that Saddam was actively seeking to buy uranium from a country in Africa (i.e., Niger), and had the ability to produce 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
Like Rumsfeld’s claim that we would have no more than 30,000 troops remaining in Iraq by the end of 2003.
Like Paul Wolfowitz’s testimony before the House Committee on Appropriations Hearing on a Supplemental War Regulation, 3/27/03 that Iraq’s oil revenues would finance its own reconstruction.
Like Rumsfeld’s statement regarding Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction in an interview with ABC on March 30, 2003: “We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”
Like the Bush administration’s coverup and denials of the extent of the torture and abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and in secret prisons overseas practiced by the US military and the CIA.
Like Vice President Cheney’s bald faced lie that Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda in a campaign speech he gave on September 10, 2004, despite the 9/11 Commission’s conclusion that there was no collaborative relationship between Saddam and Al Qaeda terrorists.
Like Vice President Cheney’s assertion in June, 2005 that the Iraqi insurgency was in its “last throes.”
Like the propaganda (i.e., “good news” stories) the Pentagon has paid Iraqi newspapers publish.
Like the Pentagon’s deliberate and “significant underreporting” of the violence in Iraq disclosed in the report issued by the Iraq Study Group headed up by former Secretary of State James Baker.
These were just a few of the lies, falsehoods, cover-ups, erroneous statements, and deliberate disinformation that I recalled off the top of my head this morning. If I wanted to, I am certain that I or others could document hundreds of more examples. That won’t matter to the Kool-Aid drinkers at The Jawa Report and elsewhere in Right Wing World who will continue to believe whatever the Bush administration and the Pentagon tell them, and will continue to doubt any media report which disputes the officially approved narrative regarding Iraq, Afghanistan and the War on Terror. Those of us on the “left” do not always blindly accept at face value major news reports because of a well documented bias in the mainstream US media favoring President Bush and Republicans, and attacking liberals, progressives, Democrats and anyone else who publicly dissents regarding the Bush administration’s well documented history of disinformation, lies and propaganda. However, I think in this instance we are more than justified in granting the Associated Press more credibility when it comes to their Iraq reporting than the official statements offered by our President and his government about what’s happening “over there.” The track record of the AP in Iraq may not be perfect, but it shines like a solid gold trophy in comparison to the Bush administration’s record for truth.
Pentagon’s Disinformation campaign
Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction
