Sunday, July 02, 2006

AP Watch 7/2

Continuing AP's effort to stir rumor into an international incident Bassem Mroue does his best to generate reaction from Sunni leaders concerning anonymously sourced allegations of rape and murder.

The first paragraph illustrates the impact of the reckless and subversive nature of AP reportinging:
An influential Sunni organization in Iraq said Sunday that allegations U.S. soldiers raped an Iraqi woman, then killed her and her family were "a sign of shame to the American invaders."
An anonymous allegation has now become the basis for a Sunni group to grab a little sympathetic internal press by sliding from "might have happened" to "did happen". This is how AP gets American servicemen killed - and why the American military needs to ascertain who the "military officials" anonymously spoon feeding AP might be. It's also a very good reason for every service member in Iraq to keep their distance from AP reporters. They aren't on America's side and they should be treated with the contempt that they work so hard to earn.

UPDATE CF in comments points to this piece at Sweetness & Light which clarifies that AP is taking moral direction from al Queada. It is a true shame that it is unsurprising that they do so. After all, what are allies for but to lend moral support against common enemies? The Iraqi government now controls the admission of foreigners. It would be in their interest to examine whether AP employees deserve to be classified as journalists or "foreign fighters" of the al Queada stripe.

SECOND UPDATE:CF in comments points to additional confirmation that both AP and the Washington Post are acting as propaganda shills for al Queada. Who are these "military officials" giving credence to the propaganda? Calling these 'reporters' liars is probably redundant but the military should not be providing resources to al Queada shills - let al Queada take care of their own.
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12 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree. If it turns out that they are wrong, what then? A big Oops?

vnjagvet said...

And it is why whoever is leaking this stuff needs to stop.

If it is CID or CIA operatives, they should be cashiered.

cf said...

It's not just anonymous. The group AP cited as moral authority is Al Qaeda. http://www.freerepublic.com/^http://sweetness-light.com/

Unknown said...

I have to say that I don't even know what is supposed to have happened. The story is so bizarre and facts are so not there, that I can not understand if the young men who were detained were supposed to have done this thing or heard about it, of the men who were killed by the terrorists were involved or what. So far as I know not even the Iraqis had suggested something like rape and murder happened and what came out, came out of a counseling session with a young man who was not present at the scene of the incident, but heard about it. I think. I am confused at enough at this point I don't know what to think. But this does need to stop.

cf said...

Better link:
AQ

Unknown said...

cf:

I read that link. I have to say I don't know for sure what happened. Did the kid repeat what he had heard soldiers say or Iraqis?

Rick Ballard said...

Terrye,

What possible difference could it make if the kid was repeating barracks rumor or Iraqi street rumor? Soldiers have actually been known to lie during barracks conversations. AP is doing nothing more than printing rumor - pure hearsay without factual or probitive value. It's straight propaganda and it's going to get people killed.

Unknown said...

Rick:

That is what I though and then when I read that "US officials report" as if there is no question that this happened I wonder. But it is the AP we are talking about so I guess the old grain of salt applies.

I wondered if maybe the gril knew the guys and that might have gotten her and her family in trouble with certain people, but who knows?

Rick Ballard said...

Terrye,

What I'm seeing is that all these "atrocity" stories involve more than one or two men. My bet is that there are standing orders that the minimum number of soldiers that go anywhere outside the wire is four. That's why we have had only a couple of prisoners taken and I would imagine that the soldiers are all for the rule. The probability of four soldiers plotting this type of thing seems very, very low. Cover for a visit to a prostitute? Could be. Cover for rape and murder - putting yourself at risk of capital punishment when three others might exchange their testimony for a lighter sentence? Extraordinarily doubtful.

Could a prostitute's neighbors set this up with a little help from al Queada? The probability climbs quite a bit higher.

I'll wait for the investigation to come to an end before doing a lot more guessing. I'm not working for al Queada - like AP is.

Unknown said...

Rick:

I hear ya.

Well it seems something must have happened but I do qquestion the timing. All of a sudden we hear all this stuff. And I wonder what the chances are that four men would even have the urge to do such a thing, rape and murder is the kind of thing that if frowned upon by just about everyone else. Well except Saddam ofcourse.

cf said...

It's worse--Newsbusters reports the Washington Post took the rape story straight from Al Qaeda.
http://newsbusters.org/node/6232

Unknown said...

cf:

Do you think they even know who they are dealing with?