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The US military has been more than willing to mislead the American public to pursue their agendas in the past.
Remember this kind of thing?
THE US military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program.
The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush Administration tie the war to the organisation responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The documents say that the US campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. US authorities claim some success with the effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.
For the past two years US military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicise Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "US home audience" as a target of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role might have been overemphasised by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist.
In a transcript of the meeting, Colonel Harvey said, "Our own focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will - made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
The military's propaganda program has largely been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the US media. One "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page in February, 2004. The report also ran in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Filkins said he was not told there was a psychological operations campaign aimed at Zarqawi, but he assumed the military was releasing the letter "because it had decided it was in its best interest to have it publicised".
He said he was sceptical about the document's authenticity then, and remains so now.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/zarqawi-used-in-us-propaganda-blitz/2006/04/10/1144521269057.html?page=2
The claims being made about ISIS deserve to be met with a high degree of scrutiny.
It's too bad our Fourth Estate has been largely replaced with corporatist media conglomerates who are more than willing to dance to the beat of the MIC's war drums.
Remember this kind of thing?
THE US military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program.
The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush Administration tie the war to the organisation responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The documents say that the US campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. US authorities claim some success with the effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.
For the past two years US military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicise Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "US home audience" as a target of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role might have been overemphasised by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist.
In a transcript of the meeting, Colonel Harvey said, "Our own focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will - made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
The military's propaganda program has largely been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the US media. One "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page in February, 2004. The report also ran in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Filkins said he was not told there was a psychological operations campaign aimed at Zarqawi, but he assumed the military was releasing the letter "because it had decided it was in its best interest to have it publicised".
He said he was sceptical about the document's authenticity then, and remains so now.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/zarqawi-used-in-us-propaganda-blitz/2006/04/10/1144521269057.html?page=2
The claims being made about ISIS deserve to be met with a high degree of scrutiny.
It's too bad our Fourth Estate has been largely replaced with corporatist media conglomerates who are more than willing to dance to the beat of the MIC's war drums.
