Whitewashing the Massacre in Najaf
Wednesday, 31 January 2007
By Mike Whitney
Say what you will about the corporate media; they still havn’t lost their appetite for carnage.
01/31/07 "ICHBlog" -- - So far, there are 2 things that we can say with certainty about the massacre of 250 Iraqis outside Najaf on Monday. First, we know that there is no solid evidence to support the official version of events. And, second, we know that every media outlet in the United States slavishly provided the government’s version to their readers without fact-checking or providing eyewitness testimony.
This proves that those who argue that mainstream news is “filtered” are sadly mistaken. There is no filter between the military and media; it’s a direct channel. In fact, all of the traditional obstacles have been swept away so the fairy tales which originate at the Pentagon end up on America’s front pages with as little interference as possible.
In the present case, we were told that “hundreds of gunmen from a ‘messianic cult’ (Soldiers of Heaven) planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill clerics on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar”. We are expected to believe that they put their wives and children in the line of fire so they could conceal their real intention to lay siege to the city. (AP)
This is absurd. How many men would willingly drag their families into battle? In truth, these same tribes make the pilgrimage to Najaf every year to express their devotion to Imam Hussein and to celebrate the Shiite holiday of Ashura. There was nothing out of the ordinary in their behavior.
According to the Associated Press: “Their aim was to kill as many leading clerics as possible, including the main ayatollahs, which would include Iraq’s main spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani….Najaf government officials indicated that the militants included both Shiite and Sunni extremists, as well as foreign fighters.”
Again, more unsubstantiated nonsense.
What we know now, is that there were no foreign fighters, no Yemenis, no Saudis, no Afghans, and no Al Qaida. (as was originally stated) It was a group of Shiites who were rivals of the leading Shiite-led government (the SCIRI and Da’wa parties which represent Muqtada al Sadr and Abdel Aziz al-Hakim) and who don’t follow the Iranian born Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They are Iraqi nationalists and suspicious of Iranian involvement in the new Iraqi government of Nouri al Maliki.
So what really happened? >>>cont
LinkHere
By Mike Whitney
Say what you will about the corporate media; they still havn’t lost their appetite for carnage.
01/31/07 "ICHBlog" -- - So far, there are 2 things that we can say with certainty about the massacre of 250 Iraqis outside Najaf on Monday. First, we know that there is no solid evidence to support the official version of events. And, second, we know that every media outlet in the United States slavishly provided the government’s version to their readers without fact-checking or providing eyewitness testimony.
This proves that those who argue that mainstream news is “filtered” are sadly mistaken. There is no filter between the military and media; it’s a direct channel. In fact, all of the traditional obstacles have been swept away so the fairy tales which originate at the Pentagon end up on America’s front pages with as little interference as possible.
In the present case, we were told that “hundreds of gunmen from a ‘messianic cult’ (Soldiers of Heaven) planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill clerics on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar”. We are expected to believe that they put their wives and children in the line of fire so they could conceal their real intention to lay siege to the city. (AP)
This is absurd. How many men would willingly drag their families into battle? In truth, these same tribes make the pilgrimage to Najaf every year to express their devotion to Imam Hussein and to celebrate the Shiite holiday of Ashura. There was nothing out of the ordinary in their behavior.
According to the Associated Press: “Their aim was to kill as many leading clerics as possible, including the main ayatollahs, which would include Iraq’s main spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani….Najaf government officials indicated that the militants included both Shiite and Sunni extremists, as well as foreign fighters.”
Again, more unsubstantiated nonsense.
What we know now, is that there were no foreign fighters, no Yemenis, no Saudis, no Afghans, and no Al Qaida. (as was originally stated) It was a group of Shiites who were rivals of the leading Shiite-led government (the SCIRI and Da’wa parties which represent Muqtada al Sadr and Abdel Aziz al-Hakim) and who don’t follow the Iranian born Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They are Iraqi nationalists and suspicious of Iranian involvement in the new Iraqi government of Nouri al Maliki.
So what really happened? >>>cont
LinkHere
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 9:51 PM
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