Jan 02 2007

AP’s Propaganda Artist

13 responses so far

13 Responses to “AP’s Propaganda Artist”

1. HaroldHutchison says:

   January 2, 2007 at 2:02 pm

   It’s looking worse and worse for the AP.

2. crosspatch says:

   January 2, 2007 at 2:05 pm

   What I wish someone could dig into are these stories by Reuters that every day trot out some number of dead bodies found in Baghdad. They never attribute the reports to a source other than “an interior ministry source” who is never named.

   Examples:

   December 28: BAGHDAD – Police found 41 bodies in different parts of Baghdad over the past 24 hours, an Interior Ministry source said.

   December 27:BAGHDAD – A total of 40 bodies were found, shot dead and most showing signs of torture, in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry source said.

   December 26:BAGHDAD – A total of 40 bodies were found, shot dead and most of them showing signs of torture, on Monday in different districts of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

   December 25:BAGHDAD – A total of 29 bodies were found shot dead, with most showing signs of torture, in different districts of Baghdad on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

   Get the picture? Every day this one-sentance report that quotes no specific source, give no locations, provides no information about them (Sunni? Shiite? criminal?) …

   I believe that this is a manufactured number reported by someone with an agenda.

3. HaroldHutchison says:

   January 2, 2007 at 2:31 pm

   Crosspatch, it would be interesting to get some of the articles and see if CENTCOM can confirm those reports.

4. Wake up America>Stop Linking to AP Stories says:

   January 2, 2007 at 2:49 pm

   Stop Linking to AP Stories…

   Personally I believe that since WE are the readers of these articles and AP refuses to correct their mistakes, their lies or their faulty information, it is up to US to make, not only our voices, but our displeasure known….

5. For Enforcement says:

   January 2, 2007 at 3:01 pm

   I have long contended that the MSM stories can not be relied on. Everyone quotes them. Washington Journal, for example, reads from them every day. The should all be required to have a disclaimer:
   Caution: Read these News stories with skepticism, they have an equal chance of being 100% incorrect.

   A couple weeks ago, someone wrote an post that all the numbers were about 53. Same number nearly every day, and none were ever verified.

   Beware of anything anybody writes. I try to be truthful, but sometimes I’m wrong also.

6. topsecretk9@AJ says:

   January 2, 2007 at 3:02 pm

   I believe that this is a manufactured number reported by someone with an agenda.

   Document ISGQ—2005—00026108.pdf (link) dated July 25 2000 is a report from an Iraqi Intelligence officer to different Iraqi Intelligence Directorates talking about information provided to them from a trusted source that works in the Associated Press (AP). The information is about the formation a newly formed UN weapons inspectors team called UNMOVIC.

   We were informed from one of our sources (the degree of trust in him is good) who works in the American Associated Press Agency [emphasis added] that the agency broadcasted to through computer to its branches worldwide the following:
   1. The new agency for inspecting the Iraqi weapons (UNMOVIC) started on 11/7/2000 a training program for 4 weeks which includes historical, legal, administrative, and political subjects that are related to the weapons inspection in Iraq.
   2. The training include lectures about the ballistic missiles and the biological and chemical weapons and the import and export of weapons in addition to a session in security arrangements prepared by the American government.
   3. Hans Blix who head the new team mentioned that he will send a smaller team to Iraq in late August 2000 and the inspections operations will focus on choosing the locations that was under the control of the UNSCOM committee
   4. The agency adds that Iraq prevented the old committee from returning to Iraq and that high Iraq officials said they will not accept new inspectors from the new committee but some other left the possibility of negotiations open.
   5. The agency ends its article by saying that the sanctions against Iraq will not be lifted unless Iraq cooperate with the new inspectors and after it is decided that Iraq is free from weapons of mass destructions.
   Please review and benefit with regards
   Signature
   15
   M. SH.
   24/7/2000

   http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2006/09/captured_document_ap_employee.html

   Seven Spanish agents killed in Iraq
   ( 2003-11-30 09:15) (Agencies)

   Assailants ambushed a team of Spanish intelligence officers Saturday, killing seven agents in a bloody new attack on U.S. allies in Iraq. Two Japanese diplomats were shot to death in a separate attack.

   One Spanish agent escaped the assault in Mahmudiyah, 18 miles south of Baghdad. Journalists arrived on the scene and said a small crowd chanted praise for ousted president Saddam Hussein and some even kicked at the bodies…

   …In Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said some U.S.-trained Iraqi police and civilian informants appear to have conducted attacks on coalition targets.

   “We try to do the vetting (of Iraqi employees) as close as we can,” Sanchez said at a news conference in Baghdad. But he added: “There have been instances when police were conducting attacks against the coalition and against the people.“

7. topsecretk9@AJ says:

   January 2, 2007 at 3:03 pm

   Sorry, link to last story

   http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/30/content_285949.htm

8. crosspatch says:

   January 2, 2007 at 3:24 pm

   The problem is with those Reuters reports, I can’t find any confirmation. No other agency seems to report those numbers independently though some will quote the Reuters report. Now if the Interior Ministry has a spokesperson, there would be no problem with giving a name and if they issued a daily bulletin or something, there would be no problem with other agencies also getting those numbers.

   What I am seeing is a number being reported daily (interestingly, that number is absent or much lower when there are other large Baghdad casualty events such as a car bombing) by only Reuters with no named source.

   I believe I know the purpose of the number. It is designed to get aggregate casualty numbers up so that sites such as this one pick they up and tally them. Casualty rates are being used by some sites as some kind of a progress indicator for the war (nevermind that about 80% of Iraq is booming and relatively peaceful) and these numbers are being used to keep the number up. When other casualty events occur, we see the “Baghdad Bodies” number take a drop or completely absent for a day.

   It’s bogus. I am going to do a little more research and see if I can identify exactly when the Reuters’ Baghdad Bodies first started showing up.

9. Barbara says:

   January 4, 2007 at 4:37 am

   I quit reading and taking the newspaper two years ago when I realized that even my small town paper echoed the New York Times.

   I quit cable TV many years ago and only watched Fox but have even given that up because Fox is getting more leftists. I cannot bear to watch Alan Colmes or Shepherd Smith.

10. For Enforcement says:

    January 4, 2007 at 1:18 pm

    Yea and Shepherd is a good ole Mississippi boy too, don’t know how he got that far astray.

11. Barbara says:

    January 4, 2007 at 10:55 pm

    He went to New York City and got in with that bunch.

12. conesplif says:

    January 5, 2007 at 8:08 am

    Oooooops! Turns out Iraqi government was lying about the elusive Jamil Hussein:

    BAGHDAD (AP) — The Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media.

    Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied there was any such police employee as Capt. Jamil Hussein, said in an interview that Hussein is an officer assigned to the Khadra police station, as had been reported by The Associated Press.

    The captain, whose full name is Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, was one of the sources for an AP story in late November about the burning and shooting of six people during a sectarian attack at a Sunni mosque.

    The U.S. military and the Iraqi Interior Ministry raised the doubts about Hussein in questioning the veracity of the AP’s initial reporting on the incident, and the Iraqi ministry suggested that many news organization were giving a distorted, exaggerated picture of the conflict in Iraq.

    Don’t you just hate when that happens and all the propaganda you’ve been spewing turns out to be a leaping helping of bat guano? Michelle Malkin will not be amused!

13. conesplif says:

    January 6, 2007 at 4:57 am

    Final note:

    The body of an Associated Press employee was found shot in the back of the head Friday, six days after he was last seen by his family leaving for work. Ahmed Hadi Naji, 28, was the fourth AP staffer to die violently in the Iraq war and the second AP employee killed in less than a month. He had been a messenger and occasional cameraman for the AP for 2 1/2 years.

    Goshdarn that AP propaganda!