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Deja Vu: NYT, US Propaganda and War with Iran

Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2008-05-05 20:42.

By John Stauber, http://www.prwatch.org/node/7294

Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher notes that New York Times military reporter Michael Gordon, "who contributed several false stories about Iraqi WMD in the run-up to the U.S. attack in Iraq," has been writing about Iran's alleged involvement in attacks against U.S. service members in Iraq. Gordon's latest article, "Hezbollah Trains Iraqis in Iran, Officials Say," is "based solely on unnamed sources," notes Mitchell.

An article from McClatchy's Baghdad bureau also contradicts Gordon's New York Times piece. McClatchy reports that the Iraqi government "seemed to distance itself from U.S. accusations towards Iran." Iraqi government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh said the government had formed a committee to find "tangible information" about Iranian activities in Iraq, instead of relying on "information based on speculation." Al-Dabbagh also told Agence France-Press that there is no "hard evidence" of Iranian support of insurgents in Iraq.

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner has seen this sort of poorly-sourced reporting before in the New York Times as part of the propaganda campaign led America directly into the disastrous quagmire in Iraq. Gardiner told me:

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This is so deja vu that it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Remember Salman Pak? That was the terrorist training camp in Iraq that was used over and over again to justify the invasion. The parallels to this new story are striking. At Salman Pak the story was that Hezbollah was being trained. In the new version, Hezbollah terrorists are the trainers. In the new story, the group size is 16 militants. At Salman Pak, the groups were smaller, around five individuals. At Salman Pak the foreigners were trained on the other side of the facility. In the Iranian camp, these foreigners are close enough so informants can hear their 'other dialects and languages.'

It feels like the story is part of a strategic communications plan. ... I expect the American officials -- at the beginning of the article, it was one official, but by the end there were officials -- expected an echo from the story. The echo from the Salman Pak story was repeated by CENTCOM briefers during the invasion and FOX news hosts were even repeating it a year later. This morning's New York Times piece has already been echoed by Reuters, Bloomberg and UPI.
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The New York Times has recently won deserved praise for its investigation by David Barstow into the illegal Pentagon military analyst program that sold and managed the attack and occupation of Iraq, embedding military propagandists for the Pentagon into the TV networks as commentators. This article by Michael Gordon is the polar opposite, reminiscent of the horrendous errors of judgment and bad journalism committed by Michael Gordon, Judith Miller and others at the New York Times who turned the paper into a conduit for phony stories that sold the war in Iraq. Here we go again?

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God Damn the NY Times

Submitted by Darwin26 on Tue, 2008-05-06 06:01.

i hope no one ever purchases this fucking rag ever again.
or better still - let the Vets of this Country draw and quarter the yellow journalists.

Darwin26
Viet Nam drafted Combat Veteran WIA '68
Co-State Coordinator PDA Montana
Billings Peace Seeker, member
MPFI, partner
PDA Fair Trade & Impeachment Teams
www.pdamontana.org
www.williamsstudiogallery.com

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NY Times

Submitted by youngharry on Tue, 2008-05-06 06:13.

Calls and emails need to be sent to the NY Times demandng no more propaganda from any reporter regarding Iran. ALL SOURCES NEED TO BE NAMED. NO MORE "SOMEONE SAYS". "PEOPLE SAY", "A SPOKESMAN FROM DOD SAYS", ETC.

NAME THE NAMES OF YOUR NEWS SOURCES.

Letters#nytimes.com

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We Have No Government

Submitted by SPORT2069 on Tue, 2008-05-06 13:32.

This Global Corporate control government and news media doesn't give a Damn if you like or believe what they tell you.
Bush/Cheney and his criminal mob had their plans already made up before they stole the elections starting in 2000.
They came out with their plans to delete the citizen's freedom, rights and setup their dictatorial powers from the start, because no one has these plans ready to implement as quickly and complete as they had.
It looks like these plans have been in the making for many years , because they have elected republicans on our democratic ticket to insure their control over our government.
Who in the hell can believe that the likes of Pelosi , Reid , The blue dog democrats and the others that are supporting Bush/Cheney's criminal crimes and corruption are democrats or have the democratic values at heart.
This destrution by Bush and this administration has been to fast , complete and anti-American policies not to have been in the works for many years.
They had already started to implemnet their plans on illegally spy on Americans in January of 2001, their plans for invading IRAQ, IRAN , SYRIA were already made up , they immediately started setting in place their stooges to control our court system , they started deleting the rights of citizens in the work place , their jobs safety , plans for given tax welfare to the elite and corporations, Bush even stated that our constitution was nothing but a G.D. piece of paper and he could and did anything he wished, they started to replace our government agencies/military soldiers/intelligent agencies/CIA/FBI/ with their private personal hand picked personal and now the court system is owned by them.
Our democratic leaders have turn their eyes and ears from the voice and values of their democratic voters and other citizens of this country.
Name one damn thing they have done to protect us , except for the BS and propaganda like the stimulus package and now the gas-tax holiday, which the taxes they will cut the Oil companies will replace and then when the road/bridges are not repaired Bush/Cheney will hand them over to private and foreign countries as he as already started and we will be paying tolls to use "our" road as we now are paying for gas.
Just look at the billions of dollars Bush and this administration has given in tax cuts to the banks and other financial personal which is pure tax cuts while throwing peanuts to the citizens.
When they gave our tax money to the Bear institution which was mostly reponsebly for the housing corruption shows they don't give a damn about the citizens of this country or what they think about their corruption.
Our democrats are a bunch of s... and liars.

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Here We Go Again By Jeff Morris-Saugerties, N.Y.- DeJaVu57

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2008-05-06 15:48.

VOTE ON BRANDING IRAN'S
REVOLUTINARY GUARD AS TERRORISTS
AND THE RECENT RETIREMENT OF ADMIRAL FALLON

It looks like another top brass Military person bites the dust for disagreeing with Bush policy concerning Iran. How many have been let go now just for disagreeing with the Decider/Denier. Could something be in the works soon regarding Iran? I sure hope Bu$hCo doesn't think this vote gives him another permission slip to invade another Middle East Country.

The Bush administration has clearly demonstrated in the past that if given an inch, they'll take a mile. Any strike against Iran would need the O.K. from Congress first. Congress declares War, not the President. If done without Congressional approval ,it violates the Constitution (Again..) Kind of like the same way his NSA warrant less spying program violated the Constitution. Which our Congress and Senate have still done little about. The beating of the War drums sure reminds me of the way the drums were beat in the run up to invading Iraq. First You demonize the leader, then You exaggerate any threat. Deja Vu here?

My fear is that BushCo will manufacture a phony incident, thus giving him an excuse for by-passing Congress. These neo-nutjobs in the White House need to be stopped this time. What troops are left for a fight with Iran? Our Military is already stretched to the breaking point. Does BushCo plan on sending our Boy Scouts next? It's time to end our nations "Long National Nightmare" of BushCo and his deranged vision of his "New Middle East!" Their Democracy by Force experiment has been bearing its bitter fruit for some time now. Let us not begin ,a third fight we will not win. This sure sounds like the same rhetoric that took us into Iraq, at play here again regarding Iran.

These draft dodging fools in this White House have learned nothing from their first disastrous mistake, when they "Decidered" to invade Iraq! Bringing nothing but death and destruction to a nation and people who had nothing to do with 9-11. PLEASE Congress, find a way for us to avoid doubling the disaster, or we just might ignite World War Three for sure!

Deferment Dick and his big oil buddies seem to have no limit to their greed. The New Iraqi Government needs their oil revenues to re-build what a five year American Military invasion and occupation has destroyed. I always thought that if we could only learn who was in attendance during Darth's closed door "Energy Task Force Meetings" back in 2001, we just might learn volumes about our REAL Middle East Foreign Policy, and why we REALLY invaded Iraq.

It's much more likely that Deferment Dick's buddies the (Sunni) Saudis are the ones supplying the (Sunni) Insurgents with weapons, not (Shiite Iran. STAY OUT OF IRAN!
and GET OUT OF IRAQ!....NOW!
Jeff Morris-Saugerties, N.Y.- DeJaVu57

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