Fox news at it Again

[Mad Mike]

As a citizen, it's pretty much all of our responsibility to make sure we're not getting the wool pulled over our eyes, whether it's ten percent of us or fifty percent of us.

History teaches us lessons that should help us know better.

~Bang

Unfortunately at this point it's not a rational effort to ensure that news is reported correctly, it's a witch hunt.

You don't see the same level of anger at MSNBC which is equally as bad. The rest all do it to some degree. Pretty much every other news station leans left and together they have far more viewers than fox does alone. Yet even though FOX is almost completely alone as a right leaning news source (or maybe because of that) they get slammed for every little thing.

As an independent who likes hearing both sides of an argument, I'm thankful that at least one station will give me something other than the left side of the story. I may not always agree but at least I can hear it and judge for myself. Without FOX it would be all left - all of the time.

Do I want them held accountable? Hell yes. But I want ALL of them held accountable and I don't see any push to make that happen.

Here's a headline repeated by almost every single news source in one fashion or another.

Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/alqaeda.saddam/

The U.S. military's first and only study looking into ties between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda showed no connection between the two, according to a military report released by the Pentagon.

Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda

http://blogs.abcnews.com/rapidreport/2008/03/report-shows-no.html

Based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion and thousands of hours of interrogations of former officials in Saddam's government now in US custody, the government report is the first official acknowledgment from the US military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to al Qaeda.

The NYT actually comes closer to the truth in that at least they chose their wording more carefully.

Study Finds No Qaeda-Hussein Tie

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/world/middleeast/14saddam.html

WASHINGTON — There was no direct operational connection between Saddam Hussein’s government and Al Qaeda before the war in Iraq, says a Pentagon-sponsored study released Wednesday.

But the fact is that 90% of the American public was completely mislead by the these stories. The American public was denied the facts.

From the report: Iraqi Perspectives Project

http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/iraqi/index.html

Iraqi Perspectives Project. Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi

Documents. Volume 1 (Redacted)

Pentagon_Report_V1.pdf

INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSES

Joint Advanced Warfighting Program

Kevin M. Woods, Project Leader

with James Lacey

The Iraqi Perspectives Project. In September 2003 the Commander, United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), asked the Joint Advanced Warfighting Program (JAWP) at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) to help develop the operational and strategic lessons from OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) from the perspectives of former senior Iraqi decision-makers. By creating a historical narrative of the events surrounding OIF, interviewing captured prisoners, and reviewing translations of enemy documents and media archives, IDA researchers were able to report on the inner workings-and sometimes delusional behavior en masse-of the Saddam Hussein regime. For this paper, the JAWP Iraqi Perspectives Project (IPP) research team screened more than 600,000 original captured documents I and several thousand hours of audio and video footage archived in a US Department of Defense (DOD) database called Harmony.

Abstract

Captured Iraqi documents have uncovered evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism, including a variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist, and Islamic terrorist organizations. While these documents do not reveal direct coordination and assistance between the Saddam regime and the al Qaeda network, they do indicate that Saddam was willing to use, albeit cautiously, operatives affiliated with al Qaeda as long as Saddam could have these terrorist–operatives monitored closely. Because Saddam’s security organizations and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network operated with similar aims (at least in the short term), considerable overlap was inevitable when monitoring, contacting, financing, and training the same outside groups. This created both the appearance of and, in some ways, a “de facto” link between the organizations. At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust. Though the execution of Iraqi terror plots was not always successful, evidence shows that Saddam’s use of terrorist tactics and his support for terrorist groups remained strong up until the

collapse of the regime.

_______________________________

Quotes....

_______________________________

Iraq was a long-standing supporter of international terrorism. The existence

of a memorandum (Extract 10) from the lIS to Saddam, written a decade

before OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, provides detailed evidence of that support. Several of the organizations listed in this memorandum were designated as international terrorist organizations by the US Department of State. 31

We list herein the organizations that our agency [iIS] cooperates with and have relations with various elements in many parts of the Arab world and who also have the expertise to carry out assignments indicated in the above

directive [the cited directive has not been discovered yet].

Fatah - Revolutionary Council (Abu-Nidal's Organization)

Established in 1973 after a split with the Fatah organization. [LJed by Sabri

al-Bana who used to be head of the Fatah office in Baghdad. The organization's political beliefs are based on violence and assassinations. We have been in contact with the organization since 1973 and have provided financial and logistical support, such as vehicles. They have members in many Arab countries, but we did not assign them any operations in the war

[1991] despite their willingness to assist.

Palestine Liberation Front

Established in 1983 by Abu aI-Abbas. Currently has an office in Baghdad. They were assigned and carried out commando operations for us against

American interests in the [1991] war.

Force 17

Security agency specializing in operations inside the occupied territories (Palestine). We have good relations with them and they maintain an office in Baghdad. They were not assigned to conduct any commando operations during the war; nevertheless, they were assigned to collect intelligence information and they provided valuable information.

Renewal and Jihad Organization

Secret Islamic Palestinian Organization established after the war. It believes in armed jihad against the Americans and Western interests. They also believe our leader [saddam Hussein], may God protect him, is the true leader in the war against the infidels. The organization's leaders live in Jordan... when they visited Iraq two months ago they demonstrated a willingness to carry out operations against American interests at any time.

The Palestinian Abd al-Bari al-Duwaik (aka Abu Dawoud)

Was a representative of the Popular Front organization-abroad operations. He currently lives in Cyprus, and he was assigned to carry out a number of commando operations during the [1991] war which he did. Our relationship with him is outstanding and we can benefit by him carrying out operations for us.

Islamic Jihad Organization [Egyptian Islamic Jihad]

In a meeting in the Sudan we agreed to renew our relations with the Islamic Jihad Organization in Egypt. Our information on the group is as follows: It was established in 1979. Its goal is to apply the Islamic shari' a law and establish Islamic rule. It is considered one of the most brutal Egyptian organizations. It carried out numerous successful operations, including the assassination of Sadat. We have previously met with the organization's representative and we agreed on a plan to carry out commando operations against the Egyptian regime.

(My Note: Ayman al-Zawahiri is a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, and was the second and last "emir" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. In 1998 al-Zawahiri formally merged Egyptian Islamic Jihad into al-Qaeda. According to reports by a former al-Qaeda member, he has worked in the al-Qaeda organization since its inception and was a senior member of the group's shura council. He is often described as a "lieutenant" to Osama bin Laden, though bin Laden's chosen biographer has referred to him as the "real brains" of al-Qaeda.)

Islamic Ulama Group - Islamic Scholars Group

It was established in 1948 and is very influential in large areas of Pakistan, especially in the northern districts. They rely on financial support from Iraq and Libya. The party is led by Ahmad Nu'mani. He has strong relations with our agency since 1981 and is ready to carry out any assignment

we task him with.

The Afghani Islamic Party

It was founded in 1974 when its leader [Gulbuddin Hekmatyar] escaped from Afghanistan to Pakistan. It is considered one of the extreme political religious movements against the West, and one of the strongest Sunni parties in Afghanistan. The organization relies on financial support from Iraq and we have had good relations with Hikmatyar since 1989

Jam'iyat Ulama Pakistan - Pakistan Scholars Group

Established in 1970, its goals are religious and political reform. It is well

known in Pakistan and well into India. The organization maintains offices

in England and Holland. Our agency has had relations with them since 1987. They were not tasked with commando operations during the war, but were tasked to undertake protest demonstrations against American aggression in several countries. They did undertake activities for this purpose. 32

_______________________________

Captured Iraqi archives reveal that Saddam was training Arab fighters (non-Iraqi) in Iraqi training camps more than a decade prior to OPERATION DESERT STORM (1991). A Saddam memorandum directed the IIS to submit a list of foreign nationals who were trained in Iraq and carried out operations during the 1991 war against the United States. 33 In response, the IIS sent a list of one-hundred names of foreign national fighters, categorized by country

-----------------------------------

Two other memoranda in this folder are from Saddam through his Presidential Secretary to a member of the Revolutionary Council and to the IIS Director, respectively.

• In the first, from January 1993, and coinciding with the start of the US humanitarian intervention in Somalia, the Presidential Secretary informed the council member of Saddam's decision to "form a group to start hunting Americans present on Arab soil; especially Somalia."

• In the second memorandum, Saddam orders the IIS Director to revise a plan the IIS director had previously forwarded to include setting up operations inside Somalia.44 The overlap between bin Laden's and

Saddam's interests in Somalia provides a tactical example of the parallel

between Iraq and radical Islam: at the same time Saddam was ordering action in Somalia aimed at the American presence, Osama bin Laden was doing the same thing.

___________________________

Iraq and Iran were not the only states that wanted to use Palestinian terrorist organizations for their own purposes. For Saddam, these groups were often the means toward a common end and a tool to influence or manipulate an ally. One such example was a Palestinian Liberation Front leader, Abu aI-Abbas who lived in Iraq under Saddam's protection. He originally fled to Iraq to avoid an Italian warrant imposing five life terms for his part in the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro and the murder of an American citizen. 66 Abu alAbbas was captured later by US forces as they entered Baghdad in April 2003. 67

While in Iraq, Abbas often traveled to Gaza and reported back to

Saddam on the conditions of the Palestinians and the various terrorist organizations there. In one note, he asks for Saddam's help in developing methods for the Palestinians to infiltrate Israeli military and security operations in order to "analyze the weak points in the enemy structure so as to select potential targets and our future hits.,,7

__________________________

Other documents show Saddam's terror organizations could be

deadly. They were willing to target not only Western interests but also to directly attack Americans. Uday Hussein reports to his father the results of one such terrorist strike that specifically targeted American aid workers with the UN

_________________________

When attacking Western interests, the competitive terror cartel came into play, particularly in the late 1990s. Captured documents reveal that the regime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of al Qaeda-as long as that organization's near-term goals supported Saddam's longterm vision. A directive (Extract 24) from the Director for International Intelligence in the IIS to an Iraqi operative in Bahrain orders him to investigate a particular terrorist group there, The Army of Muhammad.

"[July 2001]

We have learned of a group calling themselves The Army ofMuhammad... has

threatened Kuwaiti authorities and plans to attack American and Western interests ...We need detailed information about this group, their activities, their objectives, and their most distinguished leaders. We need to know [to] whom they belong to and with whom they are connected. Give this subject your utmost attention."

"Information available to us is that the group is under the wings of bin

Laden. They receive their directions from Yemen. Their objectives are the

. 83 same as bIll Laden..."

A later note84 lists the group's objectives, among them:

• Jihad in the name of God.

• Striking the embassies and other Jewish and American interests anywhere in the world.

• Attacking the American and British military bases in the Arab land.

• Striking American embassies and interests unless the Americans pull out their forces from the Arab lands and discontinue their support for Israel.

• Disrupting oil exports [to] the Americans from Arab countries and

threatening tankers carrying oil to them.

A later memorandum from the same collection85 to the Director of the IIS reports that the Army of Muhammad is endeavoring to receive assistance [from Iraq] to implement its objectives, and that the local IIS station has been told to deal with them in accordance with priorities previously established. The IIS agent goes on to inform the Director that "this organization is an offshoot of bin Laden, but that their objectives are similar but with different names that can be a way of camouflaging the organization."

None of this information was ever presented to the American public so *THEY* could decide how important it may or may not be.

Hooray journalism.

[aREDSKIN]

Hyperbole, possibly. Here's my question, why don't you call them to be better along side the rest of us rather than excusing their awful behavior? I just don't get that.

At 34 you too young to have been expose to all the same type of behavior that predates Fox. The print media is littered with much worse "intentional deceptions" that affect more than what Fox can reach. I've seen it over the decades the difference in my mind is that the "mainstream media", which does not include Fox, has forever claim to be an "objective" arbiter of gov't malfeasance and corruption etc. That's their self anointed battle cry. They are not even close to that, in fact they are enablers, advocates, partisans and dissemblers. They have a POV that they foster, perpetuate and advocate at the expense of the unvarnished truth. So "awful behavior" is relative and the market will decide when to force them to clean up their act. It's a business after all.

[Ellis]

great post, Mike.

[dchogs]

At 34 you too young to have been expose to all the same type of behavior that predates Fox. The print media is littered with much worse "intentional deceptions" that affect more than what Fox can reach. I've seen it over the decades the difference in my mind is that...

seriously? i've seen the age card used (sometimes properly and sometimes not) on ES before, but never when the age difference is 5 years (assuming that aR and Ashbury have correctly reported their birthdays).

[LaxBuddy21]

Anyone who uses one media source as their sole source of information is an idiot no matter what side you are on. ALL media outlets have their biases. Some are more pronounced than others. If you want to get unbiased reporting, check out a few different media outlets and whatever common ground is there between the stories is what is true. Everything else for the most part is slant and speculation. Then use your brain (that thing in your head) to make up your own mind about what it means or what you believe. Too many people take what they are told as gospel and forget how to think and reason. Its pathetic!!!!

[btfoom]

It will still take a long, long time for FoxNews to catch up with recovery.org!!

[Baculus]

Unfortunately at this point it's not a rational effort to ensure that news is reported correctly, it's a witch hunt.

I totally disagree. Criticizing Fox News Channel for repeatedly (and perhaps knowingly) distorting news stories is perfectly valid (and legal) criticism. Fox bills itself as "Fair and Balanced," so we should expect as much from them.

How is it a negative to have these expectations? And what is stopping anyone else (such as Jon Stewart) from doing the same with CNN, MSBC, or any other media source?

Now, compare this to Fox news "hunting" for those who don't fit their ideology, whether it is those with anti-war sentiments,"red baiting" as they look for communists., or whoever Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck decide to attack.

THAT is a real witch hunt, an irony that you completely missed.

I think you are defending Fox because they supported Bush and his foreign policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they align with your ideology on this issue.

You don't see the same level of anger at MSNBC which is equally as bad.

Because MSBC does not do this as often as Fox. They are NOT equally as bad. There are MANY more examples of Fox making these sort of "errors."

The rest all do it to some degree.

Everyone makes an error on occasion. Everyone doesn't mislabel politicians or misuse old footage to support their particular story. (In the last two instances of Fox doing this, they showed old footage to inflate the numbers as claimed by Beck and Hannity.)

Seriously -- are you even paying attention to what Fox does when it abuses their position as a news media channel?

Pretty much every other news station leans left and together they have far more viewers than fox does alone. Yet even though FOX is almost completely alone as a right leaning news source (or maybe because of that) they get slammed for every little thing.

Irrelevant. Fox is slammed because they use rubbishy, questionable tactics. You don't hear other conservative media slammed as frequently as Fox for their tactics (as opposed to their content), do you?

The "other news station leans left" is a red herring.

As an independent who likes hearing both sides of an argument, I'm thankful that at least one station will give me something other than the left side of the story. I may not always agree but at least I can hear it and judge for myself. Without FOX it would be all left - all of the time.

I still question your "Independence," due to your quick-to-the-ramparts defense of Fox News and your insistence on portraying all other media as "left." As if conservative radio isn't alive and well. As if no other conservative TV shows are in existence. As if several papers owned by Rupert Murdoct don't print daily editions. As if a million conservative blogs and websites don't fill up Cyberspace.

Please. The "woe is me all media is leftist and against me" doesn't fly.

Do I want them held accountable? Hell yes. But I want ALL of them held accountable and I don't see any push to make that happen.

If only you would hold Fox accountable. That would be a good "independent" start!

Hooray journalism.

Not sure why you showed those links. Even the Bush White House eventually said the ties between Iraq and Al-Qaida were not strong.

[Burgold]

What's interesting is that 40 years ago, this was probably excusable... I think a lot more stock footage was used because it was harder to get site film from point A to point B, develop it and cut it in a meaningul way. Think about the difference between hand splicing tape, development, and pjopping a disc in a computer and just cutting and pasting.

The question of when stock footage is kosher I think has changed considerably, but at any rate, I think they used to caption it or were supposed to caption it when they were using similar material to give a feel for the news event.

I do agree with Bang that it is very unlikely that they grabbed the wrong file. They way we log them where I freelance makes it all but impossible. Now, mistakes can happen esp. if you are rushing to put together a news story, and there can be a lot of chaos in a news room... so, to a degree this is forgiveable... but the chance of it being a mistake is very slight. The chance that it is a mistake that all the people who sign off on a news peace sign off on (news pieces almost never are submitted and aired... except for the live stuff and we're obviously talking about a "produced" or canned piece... without going before a number of eyes.

[aREDSKIN]

What's interesting is that 40 years ago, this was probably excusable... I think a lot more stock footage was used because it was harder to get site film from point A to point B, develop it and cut it in a meaningul way. Think about the difference between hand splicing tape, development, and pjopping a disc in a computer and just cutting and pasting.

The question of when stock footage is kosher I think has changed considerably, but at any rate, I think they used to caption it or were supposed to caption it when they were using similar material to give a feel for the news event.

I do agree with Bang that it is very unlikely that they grabbed the wrong file. They way we log them where I freelance makes it all but impossible. Now, mistakes can happen esp. if you are rushing to put together a news story, and there can be a lot of chaos in a news room... so, to a degree this is forgiveable... but the chance of it being a mistake is very slight. The chance that it is a mistake that all the people who sign off on a news peace sign off on (news pieces almost never are submitted and aired... except for the live stuff and we're obviously talking about a "produced" or canned piece... without going before a number of eyes.

Who's eyes are those is the question. Is there any way to find out?

[Bang]

Whoever is credited as the show producer or news editor. I'd say responsibility ultimately lies with them.

~Bang

[Burgold]

Who's eyes are those is the question. Is there any way to find out?

Yup. Asst. Producer. Producer. Director. Editor. Assignment Editor. And sometimes News Director. Plus, of course reporter.

In my case, the pool is a little smaller. Mine will go through me, my producer, and often a news director for final sign off, but it's rare that something goes through less than three sets of eyes. Now, you can make an argument that bias may slip through, but those eyes are looking hard for mistakes and inconsistencies.