[Peace-discuss] Provoking war with Iran?

[C. G. Estabrook]

[The excellent emptywheel writes today about the bodyguard of lies.]

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/07/propaganda-squa.html#more

	Propaganda Squared
	by emptywheel

I've been referring to Brigadier Bergner as Baghdad Bergner since he 
first started giving press conferences. There was the press conference 
where he blamed Iran for the woes in Iraq, based on the interrogation of 
one Shiite. There's this press conference where he blamed all the woes 
in Iraq on Al Qaeda in Iraq. The man clearly has no shame at telling the 
most transparent lies--from a podium not far from where his predecessor 
Baghdad Bob used to do the same.

But I gotta say, as someone whose credentials for analyzing all things 
postmodern are impeccable, this makes me dizzy.

     "In March, he was declared captured. In May, he was declared 
killed, and his purported corpse was displayed on state-run TV. But on 
Wednesday, Abu Omar Baghdadi, the supposed leader of an Al 
Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq, was declared nonexistent by U.S. 
military officials, who said he was a fictional character created to 
give an Iraqi face to a foreign-run terrorist organization.

     "An Iraqi actor has been used to read statements attributed to 
Baghdadi, who since October has been identified as the leader of the 
Islamic State of Iraq group, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner.

     "Bergner said the new information came from a man captured July 4, 
described as the highest-ranking Iraqi within the Islamic State of Iraq.

     "He said the detainee, identified as Khalid Abdul Fatah Daud 
Mahmoud Mashadani, has served as a propaganda chief in the organization, 
a Sunni Muslim insurgent group that swears allegiance to Osama bin 
Laden's Al Qaeda."

Here's our shameless propaganda chief, claiming that their shameless 
propaganda chief invented a bogeyman that we could then say we had 
captured. Because it's not like we've invented such bogeymans for our 
own use, nuh uh, not us. And conveniently, this little hall of mirrors 
ends up right back where BushCo would like to have us, with the claim 
that Al Qaeda in Iraq is Al Qaeda is the War on Terror is the 
never-ending war is the big bogeyman no one seems to care about anymore.

Now, to her credit, reporter Tina Susman provides two caveats presumably 
designed to suggest she can tell bullshit when she sees it:

     "There was no way to confirm the military's claim, which comes at a 
time of heightened pressure on the White House to justify keeping U.S. 
troops in Iraq. Critics of the Bush administration say the president has 
been trying to do so by linking Bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network 
to the conflict in Iraq, even though the organization had no substantial 
presence here until after the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.

     [snip]

     "The announcement was the latest in a series of statements from 
U.S. officials here blaming foreign elements for Iraq's violence. They 
accuse Iran of providing weapons and training to Shiite militias and 
Sunni extremists, and say Al Qaeda-linked groups are pouring foreign 
fighters into the country. Earlier, the U.S. had said Iraq's Shiite 
militias were the biggest problem facing security forces."

You kind of have to sympathize--it's not considered polite, after all, 
to say, "Baghdad Bergner has given a series of press conferences to 
present dubious claims that all seem to fit George Bush's latest 
justification of the war; his credibility, like that of his predecessor, 
Baghdad Bob, remains doubtful."

But it'd be nice if she just used the moniker Baghdad Bergner. That 
ought to do the trick.

July 19, 2007 at 09:23 in Bush/Republican Scandals, 
Contributor--emptywheel | Permalink


Chas. 'Mark' Bee wrote:
>>
>> ----------------------  Original Message:  ---------------------
>> From:    "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>
>> To:      Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Provoking war with Iran?
>> Date:    Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:11:01 +0000
>>
>>> [There's a lot wrong with this -- the US invasion of Vietnam began in
>>> 1962, not 1964, and we know from Seymour Hersh's reporting that the US
>>> is already conducting military operations inside Iran -- but when
>>> Democratic presidential candidates are agreeing that "We must not rule
>>> out using military force" against Iran (Obama), it's important to note
>>> a few protests.  --CGE]
>>>
>>> Tonkin Gulf II and the Guns of August?
>>> By Patrick J. Buchanan
>>>
>>> 07/17/07 WorldNet Daily -- Is the United States provoking war with Iran,
>>> to begin while the Congress is conveniently on its August recess?
>>>  ...
>>> Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the al-Qaida group known as the Islamic
>>> State in Iraq, says his fighters have been preparing for four years for
>>> war on Iran:
> 
>  Isn't that the guy who was just discovered to be a fictitious 
> character? =)
> 
> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Abu+Omar+al-Baghdadi+actor&btnG=Search