Fake news from Iraq
US military press release after a bombing on 13 July:
“The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the children and all of Iraq,” said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified. “They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists.”
US military press release after a bombing on 24 July:
“The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the ISF and all of Iraq. They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists,” said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified.
An administrative error, apparently. They’re looking into it.
In the meantime, perhaps certain people need to revise their policy of uncritically accepting news from US military press releases.
I think that advise could also be levied at Messers Murdoch & Packer, as well as The Prime Minister’s Dept :-)
Everyone- look surprised.
I’m betting you find the same thing in the 1990-91 war coverage as well.
I also suspect that the likelihood of the appearance of such news items critical of the war effort is inversely proportional to Shrub’s popularity poll figures.
This calls for an automated military press release generator. Just enter the name of the victims and the country you’re in, and receive one of six personalised messages.
Surely they could have pressed their one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified to add that he thought the bombing had nothing to do with the invasion of Iraq.
Gee - that [unidentified] bloke is really lucky to have survived those2 bomb attacks, you’d think he would have had something more to say after the 2nd time though…