Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"In a difficult security situation, we need to fight the terrorists by all means, and one of the main means is the media. We need them all to co-operate, even the private sector. It's for national security," said Ibrahim Janabi, a former Iraqi intelligence officer who Prime Minister Iyad Allawi just appointed as the head of the new Higher Media Commission.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The Iraqi Kurdish region's "leaders try to project a united front in Baghdad and abroad, but few Kurds in the north or Arabs in the south have forgotten that" the Kurdish Democratic Party and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan "spent four of their Saddam-free years fighting a civil war." Now, the KDP "has retained Barbour Griffith & Rogers as its lobbyist to ensure that Iraqi Kurdistan maintains its autonomy" and to push for "the return of oil-rich Kirkuk,"
Submitted by Laura Miller on
Several key advocates for the invasion of Iraq are now profiting from Iraq's reconstruction the Los Angeles Times reports. "As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi, and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and moral duty.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Iraqi defectors who stepped forward with stories about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction were coached by senior figures in Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, according to a former INC field leader. To back up his claim, Muhammad al-Zubaidi has provided his handwritten diaries from 2001 and 2002, and his existing reports on the statements originally made by the defectors.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Peter Bergen, a professor of international studies and author of a recent book about Osama Bin Laden, takes a look at Laurie Mylroie of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), whose theory that Iraq was behind Al Qaeda exerted strong influence on the Bush administration's decision for war. "She is a conspiracy theorist whose political conceits have consistently been proved wrong," Bergen says.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
In our book, Weapons of Mass Deception, we wrote that the famous toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue, a moment that seemed to symbolize victory for U.S. troops in Iraq, was staged by the U.S. army. Now the army has admitted it.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
U.S. military censors are vetting video and audio footage of Saddam Hussein's Baghdad trial, according to Variety. Some of the edited footage provided to U.S. news networks might have come from Defense Department cameras, the only ones allowed to record sound.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Perhaps no list of reporters has commanded such attention in Washington since Richard Nixon compiled his enemies list more than thirty years ago," writes Douglas McCollam, discussing the reporters whose names and phone numbers appear in a confidential July 2002 memorandum from the Iraqi National Congress (INC). The memo lists 108 news stories that were influenced by INC-supplied defectors.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
The "handover of power" to Iraq is "a publicity stunt and has almost no substance to it," says Middle East history professor Juan Cole. "Gwen Ifill said on US television on Sunday that she had talked to Condaleeza Rice, and that her hope was that when something went wrong in Iraq, the journalists would now grill Allawi about it rather than the Bush administration. (Or words to that effect.) Ifill seems to me to have given away the whole Bush show. That's what this whole thing is about. It is Public Relations and manipulation of journalists. Let's see if they fall for it."
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"A private British firm that won a $293 million contract from the Pentagon for coordinating security in Iraq is headed by a retired British commando with a reputation for illicit arms deals in Africa and for commanding a murderous military unit in Northern Ireland," reports Charles M. Sennott. The firm is owned by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former British military officer.
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