Jun 09 2006

Haditha: The Media As Benedict Arnold

Published by at 10:03 am under All General Discussions,Iraq

Our good friend Clarice Feldman has compiled a listing of key events discovered by the blog Sweetness & Light from the Haditha charade that exposes the US news media as an out and out ally of the terrorist propaganda efforts. The news coming from Haditha is not one of massacre by US forces, it is of betrayal and alliances with our enemies by our media. A snippet:

Tim McGirk of Time wrote about the incident at Haditha for the March 27 issue of the magazine. He unsuccessfully lobbied his editors to use the term “massacre” in the story. McGirk seems hardly a neutral reporter. He spent the first Thanksgiving after 9/11 in Afghanistan dining with the Taliban and concluding of this celebratory meal:

Our missing colleagues finally arrive, and I leave thinking that maybe this evening wasn’t very different from the original Thanksgiving: people from two warring cultures sharing a meal together and realizing, briefly, that we’re not so different after all.

Right, Tim. We all want to enslave women, bend the world to Sharia law, behead nonbelievers and otherwise carry on the honored traditions of the Taliban.

What we need is an investigation into the news media for allowing themselves or knowingly participating in this lie and slander against our troops. Anyone who knew there were issues with the people making claims should be called to explain why they hid these issues from us. It is time to demand minimal standards from the media and then challenge them when they cannot meet these standards. And if they cannot meet these standards, then they cannot be treated with any special priveleges by our government that we the people provide to the media.

Addendum:  Seems great minds think alike – not that I am a great mind of course.

35 responses so far

35 Responses to “Haditha: The Media As Benedict Arnold”

  1. crosspatch says:

    Uhm, this must not be allowed to happen, folks.

    Murtha interested in majority leader post

    Saw it linked to at Hot Air

  2. bloodyspartan says:

    I want to know why an investigation and training were instituted well after the supposed crime scene had been contaminated.

    Our Government is doing us and our military a great disservice.

    We all know they are guilty of treason, maybe we can actually try a few and punish them.

  3. Terrye says:

    Crosspatch.:

    Yes any Republican thinking of staying home in November needs to think Murtha in a leadership position.

  4. crosspatch says:

    I want to know why an investigation and training were instituted well after the supposed crime scene had been contaminated.

    Because no accusations of wrongdoing were brought until long after the event. Go and read some of the material that has been linked to and what has been said in this thread.

    The very people bringing forth the accusations were interviewed months earlier and never said a peep about any misdeeds. They never mentioned it to the news media and they never mentioned it to “human rights” groups. You can’t investigate until you have a complaint. There was no complaint to be investigated until long after the events supposedly happened. That is part of what is casting doubt on the accusations.

  5. MerlinOS2 says:

    Personally, I say this analysis can cast doubt.

    But stepping back a bit here, I think it may be instructive to look at the type of sources supporting the MSM conclusions.
    I note immediately a strange lack of “Intelligence community” sourcing of unnamed people………Hmmmmmmmm the “Heyden Effect”, no senior government officials, are there any “White house” sources.

    A review in this light may be instrutive.

    Having said that , if this should be eventually be landed in the way she tends to lean toward, what would be the impact.

    Blogs I have read realated to this subject that it would be resulting in the self imposed nuclear option of the MSM.

    Taking that as an assumption of fact, for the sake of argument, how would that effect the midterm election senarios?

    Like I said, I haven’t concluded the possibilities yet, but it does present some very drastic liabilities to the MSM if this is a smokescreen.

    Time will tell all, but I see enough signs on other sites that I visit that maybe there is some basis to the charges. I am still open to what will prevail.

    Just looking at what could happen if Claire is onto something.

    If she is correct this is going to be a major occurrance of the feces hitting the fan.

    I will wait and see and reserve judgement. But what she proposes is not beyond reason or tinhat speculation.

    We all have to wait for clarity. It is the only option we have. Then we can truly evaluate the impact one way or another. That is life. We deal with it as it is presented. Something most adults do.

    If the media got it wrong I invoked to myself a non linked image to their plight in that event…

    I go back to the Mathew Brodrick character in the movie “War Games” when WOPPER asked him “Shall we play a Game”?

    Like that movie speculated, if only it was a game.

    Many shadows tossed about, but eventually the truth will out.

    Hopefully soon

  6. sbd says:

    I am glad this story is getting the right attention. FYI, the story about the reuter cameraman in Haditha was first reported by yours truly on Free Republic. Sweetness & Light has appoligized for not including the original source. I also posted the story on this site.

    I have found something that may be nothing, but seems rather suspicious. The person who was in charge of Iraqi TV was murdered just 2 weeks before the Hadithi story was published by Time. The official had the same last name as the alleged massacre victims in Hadithi. Was he related? Did he provide any of the film or photos used in the massacre alligation? Maybe he had footage to prove the contrary, but more than likely he had access to enough footage from Iraq to manufacture any evidence needed to fabricate this story.

    Xinhua General News Service
    March 11, 2006 Saturday 4:00 AM EST
    SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Political
    LENGTH: 101 words
    HEADLINE: Gunmen kill senior TV official in Baghdad
    DATELINE: BAGHDAD

    BODY: Unknown gunmen ambushed the car of the director in the government-backed Iraqia TV in western Baghdad on Saturday, a police source told Xinhua.

    “Unidentified armed men shot dead Amjad hamid Hassan, director of Iraqiya TV, near the al-Shurta tunnel,” Captain Ahmed Abdullah from Baghdad police said.

    He added that the attack took place at about 10:30 a.m. (0730 GMT).

    Iraqi security forces cordoned off the scene and an ambulance reached to evacuate the victims.

    The Iraqiya TV cut its regular programs and announced the news and started broadcasting holly Quran following the incident.

    LOAD-DATE: March 12, 2006

    SBD

  7. clarice says:

    A reader told me about a CNN program tonight:”This show which comes on at 9:00 Central….. at or very near the beginning of the show (hosted by John Roberts tonight) ….. they had a segment on about the Habitha “massacre” which in the main was pointing
    out some of the things (not nearly all) that are coming out that point to the differing facts now coming out!!

    Jamie McIntyre reported on some of the discrepancies and a former leader of that platoon was interviewed.
    CNN and their people were not saying that the new stories were correct,
    but something to be considered. But it was the nearest thing to fairness
    that they could have done. Anyway, it comes on again at 12:00 Central
    time…. so try to tape it if you can’t watch next showing. It’s worth it!!”

    SBD, I have no idea if there is a relation. It seems to me there are many people with similar surnames and I don’t know how that could be checked out. I’m sure Steve is sorry. Sometimes when I’m writing something I get a lot of interruptions and then have to get the story out even though I cannot recall who I should credit for a cite, but I sure try and I know Steve does, too.

  8. Please, let this be true….

    I will pray that the gathering storm of indignation, backed by facts, concerning the “Haditha Incident” is well founded….

  9. Frogg says:

    [quote]

    Haditha Media Errors Exposed

    June 8, 2006

    To keep this straight-forward, I’m taking this item by item. It proves there are false reports being told by some Iraqis as regards Haditha. Unfortunately, the AP and the MSM appear to be gleefully reporting them without checking their facts.

    From the AP today:

    [quote]
    At about the same time, a man who stepped out of his nearby house to see what was happening at Ayed Ahmed’s home was shot and wounded, according to al-Hadithi. Aws Fahmi, 43, was left to bleed on the street for about two hours before a female neighbor dragged him to safety, al-Hadithi told the AP. Fahmi’s family was not able to take him to a hospital until two days later, al-Hadithi said.[/quote]

    Someone must have forgotten that Aws Fahmi was quoted ten times in this WaPo piece from May27, as a witness. Not once did he claim to be involved, let alone shot. Are we to believe he forgot? Or that the WaPo wouldn’t tell the story of a man shot and left to die in the street by our Marines?

    [quote]
    Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home as Marines went from house to house killing members of three families … After the killings, Fahmi said, more Americans arrived at the scene. They shouted among themselves. The Marines cordoned off the block; then, and for at least the next day, Marines filed into the houses, looked around and came out.[/quote]

    In the WaPo piece Fahmi also claims to have observed events in part from his roof.

    [quote]
    Then one of the Marines took charge and began shouting, said Fahmi, who was watching from his roof.[/quote]

    But if you look at this account from the AP on June 3, you’ll see that it is now an Iraqi lawyer looking for cash, Khaled Salam Rsayef who is bringing all the new information out and claiming to have been the observer on the roof. The names are changed but the accounts are the same.

    [quote]
    Rsayef said his account of what happened was based on his personal observations from the rooftop of his home and windows.[/quote]

    Now look at these two different accounts below, both from the same eyewitness, the young girl who survived and was filmed by ABC calling for the execution of the Marines. She’s told at least two versions of her story and possibly as many as four.

    continue reading full blog article (too long to post in full)

    http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2006/06/haditha_lies_ex.html

    [/quote]

  10. Frogg says:

    [url=http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2006/06/haditha_lies_ex.html]This Blog post[/url] describes a ton of media error’s/questionable discrepancies/etc.

  11. Unraveling Haditha…

    Without an autopsy to obtain the forensic evidence to determine how the individuals died, there’s only circumstantial evidence implicating Marines. And that circumstantial evidence is showing signs that all is not what those implicating the Marines i….

  12. bloodyspartan says:

    Crosspatch.

    I meant the media not the military.

    Sorry for my inadequate brevity.

    The media should be tried and shot.

  13. ivehadit says:

    I really believe the media has moved beyond any semblance of truth and into slander. They act and then might ask for forgivness later.

    They are completely undeserving of recognition or honor, as maybe they once were….long ago, imho. They have become schills for the global socialist dems…just like The Guardian, et al in Britain.

  14. Aitch748 says:

    I’m at the point of thinking that any news that makes our side or the Bush administration look bad should just be discounted automatically as spin or a hoax. They lied about Abu Ghraib, they lied about Katrina, they’re lying about Haditha, and I’m just not interested in what they have to say anymore.

    I’m also unwilling to give the media credit for their corrections, because these corrections are deliberately buried where people won’t see it — way in the back of the newspaper. If they don’t want people seeing them, then they should not be given credit for them.

  15. crosspatch says:

    Or worse, the broadcast media will pump a story out on the hourly radio news for half a day, then issue a correction ONCE and drop the story.

    One example:

    Several months ago there was a story about some US troops that supposedly raided a mosque in Baghdad and killed a bunch of worshipers. That story was repeated by the global media for several days. It was upsetting a lot of people. The DoD was investigating so they couldn’t say anything and by not saying, it was starting to look like there was something to it.

    Then the commander of an Iraqi unit did an amazing thing. He went to the Baghdad bureau of CBS and demanded an interview. He told CBS that it was his unit that was involved in that raid and that no American units participated though there was one squad of Americans providing rear security for the raid. He said it wasn’t on a mosque, that the nearest mosque was six blocks away. He said they had taken fire from one of the buildings and cleared it. They had discovered a gang of kidnappers and killed them while freeing the hostage they were holding.

    My respect for the Iraqi army went way up that day. That Iraqi officer did the right thing. He went in and he set the record straight. Anyone listening to a CBS radio broadcast over the previous several days would have heard about how US troops were killing worshipers in mosques but only the people who were listening when that interview was aired would have heard the correct story because it was never spoken about again by CBS radio.

    They are spring-loaded to report anything that puts our troops in a bad light as fact and need to “check out” any good news. They are useless. They aren’t journalists.