Iraq Broadcasts Foreigners' Confessions

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites)'s government television station broadcast confessions of what it said were Arab and foreign terrorists who infiltrated the country's porous borders to fight against U.S.-led coalition forces.


The confessions, aired several times over the weekend, were publicized as U.S. and Iraqi forces amassed around Fallujah for an anticipated showdown with fighters in the insurgent stronghold.


Iraqi officials say the fight there is against foreign fighters and "terrorists," and not the people of Fallujah.


The station, Iraqiya, showed 19 Arab males aged 20 to 40, dressed in blue jumpsuits and lined up against a wall while the camera panned their pale, bearded faces.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=1&u=/ap/20041107/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_arab_terrorists

Are these the under 45 men that were detained after fleeing Fallujah?? :puke:

[Cocoa]

1. this strikes me as illegal

I expected a passage in the story quoting someone from Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.

:shrug:

[maddezmom]

2. IRAQI-NAM

:(

[maddezmom]

3. 6 Iraqi journalists joining U.S. troops

6 Iraqi journalists joining U.S. troops

U.S. leaders hope they will show insurgents as anti-Iraqi terrorists, not freedom fighters.

By Tom Lasseter

Inquirer Foreign Staff


NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - Mudhhir al-Zahery, a dapper 47-year-old Iraqi in a sweater vest and dress slacks, stood in the mud and gravel and stared at the young U.S. Marines walking around with their M-16s.

A reporter for a Baghdad newspaper, Zahery was about to take his place in the U.S. battle plan to win control of Fallujah. One of six Iraqi journalists who will be "embedded" with U.S. and Iraqi troops, he will file reports that U.S. commanders hope will persuade Iraqis that insurgents in towns such as Fallujah are anti-Iraqi terrorists, not nationalist resistance fighters.

"When I left , I said goodbye to my wife, and she was crying because Fallujah is very dangerous," Zahery said. "My family is praying to God that the war does not happen."

First Lt. Lyle Gilbert, a spokesman for the First Marine Expeditionary Force, said many of the problems American soldiers faced in Iraq, particularly in Fallujah, were the result of a disinformation campaign waged by insurgents to drive a wedge between the population and the U.S. presence.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/10116731.htm?1c

[leftchick]

5. yeah, that'll work....

God! Who thinks of these hairbrained schemes anyway? It has to be rummy...

[Briar]

4. Show trials

just like Stalin.

[maddezmom]

9. and what happens if the US military or US contractors are killed in this

battle foir Fallujah? Oh yea, that's how the entire thing started. :shrug:

[Judi Lynn]

6. Who wrote this?

From the article:

The station, Iraqiya, showed 19 Arab males aged 20 to 40, dressed in blue jumpsuits and lined up against a wall while the camera panned their pale, bearded faces.

An announcer read a statement accusing the prisoners "of carrying out mass killings, sabotage, inciting sectarianism and racism, destroying the economic and the social infrastructure of our people to take us back to the Dark Ages."

What part of the population in Iraq has a sense of identification with the Dark Ages, which, as I feebly grasp the term, related directly to mainstream goddamned EUROPE?

Is it not likely some AMERICAN wrote that? Jeezus H. Christ on a go-cart. How utterly obnoxious. Whoever it was, was thinking of being heard by American readers, rather than Iraqi citizens.

[Cocoa]

7. al Iraqiya is the U.S.'s propaganda outlet

and Iraqis know it, and don't watch it.

[Judi Lynn]

10. I see! Didn't know. Really don't blame them, either!

I'd surely avoid a network run by outsiders who were occupying my country.

Thanks for the info.

[maddezmom]

12. pure propaganda...look what AP added to story

The broadcasts were seen as a means of preparing the population for the coming attack on Fallujah, where the government says it's after foreigners and "terrorists" not city residents who are not involved in the insurgency.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. During the Dark Ages

The Muslim empires were citadels of science, discovery, and learning; practiced civic equality, even if under a theocratic monarchy; allowed women to exist independently of their fathers and husbands; and guaranteed freedom of religion.

Except, of course, when a demented local tyrant decided that his word would be law.

Some things never change, eh?

--bkl

[Rose Siding]

15. That would make a great letter to that paper

[ixion]

8. another tactic from 1984

confessing their 'sins' against the empire. :puke:

[BeHereNow]

13. Oh, for a minute I thought

Bush and his cabinet were finally being
brought to justice for their war crimes against
the Iraqi people...
bhn

[maddezmom]

14. kick