CBS Uses Al Qaeda Video?

Posted By Blackfive

CBS Chief Foreign Correspondent in Baghdad, Lara Logan, first appeals for help in getting a key story about the battles around Haifa street put on the CBS Evening News instead of just published on the CBS News website...when it appears that part of her footage is straight from Al Qaeda.

Michelle Malkin is following this.

Newsbusters is on it, too.

Wow.

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Comments

[Ymarsakar]

The media doesn't require much to manipulate. Some exclusives, a few combat footages... cheap, easy, and accessible if you wish to contract your propaganda operations out to a third party. The media is your one fire bet to great deals.

[Laughing Wolf]

Beat me to it... Wow indeed. Damning even. I just wish I thought a serious investigation would be made, but what I expect is resounding silence (or a few platitudes at best) from Poynter, E&P, and others on this. If true, and the evidence is very convincing that it is, it is a violation of every canon of journalism and even of television journalism (sorry, a bit of print bias there from the old days). If true, it also makes the argument that the MSM *is* doing propaganda for the enemy much more believeable for the masses. As for me, I've long felt that way... Expect a scream of outrage from AHSP in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

[Mommynator]

Disgusting.

[Laughing Wolf]

Forgot to mention that it is just further proof of Mr. Wolf's arguments as put forth in his last two posts...

[Lands’nGrooves (aka tim)]

I’m glad this has happened. The cat is out of the bag and finally everyone can see them for who they truly are - enemy collaborators.

Keep up the good work CBS.

Courage.

[smaj]

Nothing surprises me with the MSM. I seem to recall CNN having similar situtation 2-3 months ago whereby they too knowingly or unknowingly (so they say) showed an al qaeda video. They initially denied complicity with the anti-american propaganda until is was proven (by bloggers or course) that the video was al qaeda complete with their logo. Lara Logan should be
"Easoned" out at CBS.

[Old Tanker]

Ymarsakar,

The media doesn't require much to manipulate.....unless you're from the DOD, then they never take you at your word.....

[Miss Ladybug]

Has anyone seen the comments on the MediaChannel page? The first on (from 1/25 @ 5:42pm):

STOP the KILLING
Create Earth Ball Homes
In Iraq, New Orleans Etc.
more info Pass It On At…
http://www.EarthBall.org
.
Thank U, another, Solar Powered - Earth Citizen

Gotta love the whole "Earth Citizen" thing....

[jim]

Bet The Society of Professional Journalist's won't revoke her membership.

[Marc]

CBS gets their video from the terrorists and attempts to claim that they "obtained it"?; Time Magazine gets video and interviews from a student jounalist,... no wait, a human rights group, oops!... Hold the phone, a one man human rights group,... DANG!, someone who gave a false name and now no one knows anything.

Except of course, that 8 Marines have lost their careers and those who didn't buckle under from the pressure will most likely be made out to be scapegoats for the very same MSM.

I love my country to the death but what we do to our servicemen and women is horrific.

Does anyone is Washington have a backbone anymore???

- Marc

[Biermann62]

This coming from Logan does not suprise me at all, she's Katie Curic's little puppet.

[Mr. Wolf]

I think she needs to be more worried about whether or not HDNet has openings with Rather...

Wolf

[Eric Shirley]

Thank God for blogs. These freakin people are animals.

[MaryAnn]

Yeah, CNN Sniper Video Redux.

I.am.so.sick.of.this.

[alexa kim]

Here's what I posted at media channel dot org in response to their petition on her behalf (please forgive the typos):

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Posted on 30 Jan 2007 at 8:49 pm by alexa kim

As when CNN used the enemy’s sniper video showing the killing of one of My Soldiers, Ms Logan apparently wants to use the enemy’s propoganda flick and pass it off has hard-won journalism? Sorry, not good enough.

My Soldiers do not paint a rosey picture of how it is in Iraq, they tell whole story, the stuff the MSM leaves out.

Iraw is the deadliest place for journalist, of all time. Knowing this, very few of them venture out to actually shoot their own footage and build an honest to goodness report. Can’t blame them. Too much. Actually, I blame them entirely. If My Soldiers, the IA, the Iraqis themselves can risk being out there, so can they. Afraid of being kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam? Don’t blame you. Just don’t pretend to be filing a bona fide report using the enemy’s work.

I will not watch the video nor will I ever watch CBS again if they air it. I, literally, stopped watching CNN when they aired the enemy’s sniper video.

I, too, strongly recommend you read Michael Yon to learn what’s really going on.

My MSM doesn’t get it. I don’t trust you anymore!

[bodemillerjokes]

For militarists, you guys sure are a P.C. bunch of whiners.

[Ymarsakar]

The media doesn't require much to manipulate.....unless you're from the DOD, then they never take you at your word.....

Posted by: Old Tanker | Jan 30, 2007 2:50:02 PM

DOD's got something called twice fire shock. Meaning they've been burned over the media once, in which they tried to propagandize the numbers, now they don't want to do it anymore. Vietnam and Desert Storm. Desert storm, no reporters, meant all that "great combat footage" was not shown. Desert storm no reporters allowed because of experience at Viet. Then Gulf War II, imbeds allowed, great footage, same result as Vietnam in the end. So twice fire shocked.

The problem it seems, is that the DOD tries to treat information like they treat OPSEC. That is not how you manipulate reporters who you know are on the enemy's side. This isn't just ignorance. Those who want to be on the US side, can be triangulated based upon their reports, their sources, and their methods.

The reason why I say the media is easy to manipulate, is because of these recommendations that I believe we should use against the information.

A proper counter-information campaign in which the DOD feeds "false stories" to the media, via leaks from government sources. A sort of double agent. The leaker is operating under direct Presidential or DOD orders, but because they are ostensibly breaking the "OPSEC", it buys them brownie points amongst the media, the AP, and Reuters.They love exclusives, they cannot resist. In this case, it will be a trap.

The objective should be to get the media to report intensely negative news. Reports of American atrocities, cities being poisoned, destroyed, ransacked.

Then, the moment that they air this "exclusive" of "dastardly US deeds", the DOD then releases out on the net via any nmber of video sharing technologies or sites, the "real deal". The real deal will provide DOD with more creds, more prestige, and more trust amongst the American population. And we only giving the media what they want, which are lies that say what they desire to be true. What the media desires to be true is US humiliation and defeat. So we shall give it to them. As Dan Rather was given what he desired and wished.

Iraqi sources should also be integrated into this strategy to feed the media propaganda wing of the enemy, with Iraqi horror stories, full of very nicely done "home" videos. (staged at US bases and in the US of course)

Even if the media suspects that they are being duped, they won't care. If they tried to find their sources... would that happen? And if they found them and outed them, how many more sources would that reporter get in the future? Like all conscientious propaganda operations, it should be a win win for us, and a lose lose for the enemy.

If the media says "we've been duped", they will then be required to out their source. And since the media doesn't check their sources.. the DOD can easily fabricate identities to be discarded, or simply delay the media with red tape. The harder the media pushes, the more light will be shed on how they vet their sources, which hurts their connections to dictators like Saddam as well as enemy insurgents.

The media are easy to manipulate in my view because they are undisciplined, unprofessional, childish, guillible, and weak. They oh so want to believe, that it is ridiculous how easy it is to tell them things they like to hear and steer them in a way that the puppet master desires.

The President is too honest, so he won't get into the deception game of disinformation information given to the media. The DOD is twice shy because of the weird history of media and how they have been unable to deal with it, previous propaganda operations being a tarnish of Pentagon reputation (bad career move), so they won't do it.

But it must be done. If you are afraid of failure, then you might as well fold. Failure in this war means death. So unless people want to die, they had better find a way to either nullify the enemy propagand arm or subvert it to our uses.

[Peg C.]

We gave up all network news in our house years ago, but someone has to keep an eye on these repugnant people.

[Miss Ladybug]

Ymar~

I don't like your disinformation campaign idea. I could only see this backfiring on the DoD. And if all the media was reporting was an endless stream of reports on alleged "US atrocities" (for how long??), the American public would turn on the US military, because we don't do atrocities. I think I've heard people with background in PsyOps say that is always best to use the truth, because if you get caught using lies, it will be much worse. We don't need to give the left another stick with which to beat the military - they do enough damage on their own already.

[Ymarsakar]

the American public would turn on the US military, because we don't do atrocities.

That alone hasn't convinced many people that the US is innocent. Just as it does not convince many people that Israel is innocent.

The point is. It is better to take the initiative in a fight, even if the fight is information and propaganda based, rather than wait around for the enemy to come up with an attack plan that catches you by surprise.

If you take the initiative, if you are the one planning the attack, then you can plan farther ahead than the one on defense. For example, it takes time to come up with a very professional done segment or video to counter your opponent's new speech. The planning done ahead of time is very useful, but first you have to know that it is there to plan for it. I am sure that Dan Rather would have been in a much happier place right now had he known of the attacks he would recieve in the future, because then he would have taken steps to counter them.

I think I've heard people with background in PsyOps say that is always best to use the truth, because if you get caught using lies,

As I pointed out, the DOD won't be using the lies, it will be the media who will broadcasting the lies. The DOD will be broadcasting the Real Deal. The media will not get the real deal. That is not so different from what we have right now with blogs. The media gives us lies, the blogs gives us the real deal. But the blogs don't have the resources that a single Army commercial had in development.

It is better to use the truth if the truth serves your interests the best. But there are ways to tell the truth so that people hear, and then there are ways to tell the truth so that your opponent twists your words to make you look like a fool.

We don't need to give the left another stick with which to beat the military - they do enough damage on their own already.

But they aren't doing damage on their own. As Michael Yon reported awhile ago on the media, the media get their information counts from government sources.... from the pentagon. The PR branch of the Pentagon releases facts and figures to the reporters... that is why the reporters report various operations and what not.

The media is already using the stick of casualty lists given to them by the Pentagon to beat the DOD with... the only question, what is the DOD going to do about it? Banning folks like Michael Yon from the process=not the solution. Going with the status quo... also not a solution.

If I recall correctly, Yon said this about the Z man letter. That he heard about it and could have gotten the scoop out if he was allowed to, but he obeyed the military's wishes and kept it undercover. So as Yon said, when the military did release it to the press... the press covered it up, put it in the back pages, and there goes a strategic victory and update to the vision in Iraq... in smokes.

The media is already using the DOD's sources to beat the military upside the head with.

[Ghost of Habu, The Pit Viper]

Blatantly pushing AQ propaganda off as an "exclusive" on a major US TV media outlet when everything they do is already under heavy scrutiny does not look to make for a wise career move.

The real story isn't Lara Logan's attempt at half baked journalism, the real story is that somebody, somewhere at CBS did their job & gave a "heads up" to somebody further up the ladder & told them that this was a bad story. And if pushed on the big stage, that it would come back to them with a vengence.

Honestly, let's give CBS some limited degree of credit here - although not too much is deserved, because it still got pushed through their good offices onto the Internet. But still, somebody in the organization deserves some kudos for recognizing the piece for what it was, or more likely, for what it would bring down on their heads.

Now if I'm in little miss Lara's shoes/boots, I've got to be wondering what level of a career I can salvage after this cluster. If she got duped this easy, her long-term prospects are shaky at best.

Hot looking "talking head" type news media types are a dime a dozen, and are easily replacable. In a likelyhood, eventually she'll be turned into an object lesson for journalists to do one's homework & sweat the details when working a story.

My .02

[Miss Ladybug]

Ymar~

You're missing the point I was trying to make. You said A proper counter-information campaign in which the DOD feeds "false stories" to the media, via leaks from government sources.

What makes you think that this wouldn't get found out. We currently have a problem with leaks of state secrets - why would this project be any different. I seem to recall (I'd have to do some checking), but aren't disinformation campaigns originating with the government illegal when aimed at the American public? This is who the "end user" of the information would be.

Yes, something needs to be done as far as Information Warfare, but deliberately planting countless false reports of wrongdoing by American servicemembers is the wrong way to go about it, in my opinion.

You said But they aren't doing damage on their own. As Michael Yon reported awhile ago on the media, the media get their information counts from government sources.... from the pentagon. The PR branch of the Pentagon releases facts and figures to the reporters... that is why the reporters report various operations and what not.

The media does this because they are lazy. I've read all of Mike Yon's dispatches, and remember the one in which he talks about a report about a mission that was militarily successful, but had US fatalities gets distilled down to "## soldiers/Marines were killed in Al-wherever yesterday", completely without context. But they also don't seem to have a problem with airing/printing terrorist propaganda - the CNN sniper footage, this CBS report, the "burning six". DoD shouldn't make matters worse by creating more reports that are beneficial to our enemies. DoD needs to do a better job of getting news of casualties in context to the military gains, in addition to reports of CA successes, like schools, increases in electricity production, the booming economy. The Pentagon has a hard enough time dealing with crap like what happened at Abu Ghraib and the accusations against the Haditha Marines, and the handful of individual soldiers who have abused/murdered detainees.

[bthun]

If no one objects, I'll attempt to turn off the bold italics font. Old eyes and bold italics do not agree for long. Thank goodness for 9x & 50+ objective lens.

[bthun]

Sorry for the dribble, looks like someone beat me to it.

[kat-missouri]

Okay, I am probably about to be beat to death for these comments but...

1) I've watched CBS news almost every night and, I've got to tell you that Lara Logan has been out with the troops and under fire. She also has been very good at doing the basic reporting without adding too much "directive opinion". So, I don't think that Lara Logan is intentionally using AQ propaganda video and omitting mentioning it. So, I would hate to see a big "lynch Lara" campaign get started on the conspiracy that she is so anti-war she'd willing show enemy propaganda.

2) I read CBS's response to the questions. The gentleman answering the questions could have been a politician. Essentially, he was right, these videos get passed around and any number of people use it. However, what he fails to mention that the "passing around" as already noted, is often among the "snuff film" Jihadi/Takfiri crowd.

3) What this really pointed to was another instance of "too hot not to run". That maybe the biggest failing of all of the Media outlets. They are very bad at vetting the sources. They blame it on war, but they surely must know they are taking serious chances. The worst part is that the media outlets will not say that this is a problem in anyway. Largely because "trust" is their operative word and no company, whatever hoity-toity cultural idealism it claims (the eyes and ears of the public) is going to readily admit to those kinds of errors if they can avoid it. Their reputation is money. No trust, bad rep...no money.

[Ymarsakar]

Two reasons. The media doesn't check their sources. And when asked for their sources, they become rather defensive. If such sources are outed, then all their other sources will or will soon be outed in the same manner.

There are consequences for relying upon anonymous sources, or there should be after all.

The Pentagon has a hard enough time dealing with crap like what happened at Abu Ghraib and the accusations against the Haditha Marines, and the handful of individual soldiers who have abused/murdered detainees.

One reason being that they didn't see it coming ahead of time, because they don't have any contacts in the media worth talking about that would give them a headsup in terms of intel, and also because they were sitting in a passive position waiting for something to happen.

CBS after all, I believe, confirmed the story through military channels. They use such legitimacy for their own ends, it is certainly useful to turn the tables around a bit.

We currently have a problem with leaks of state secrets - why would this project be any different.

The objective of disinformation is to flood an opposition's data gathering ability with false negatives, or false positives. To the extent that they no longer know what is true or what is false. Therefore they doubt, not only the sources you feed them, but all of their sources. What will the media do if 65% of the time that they have a "leaked source story", that they are unsure as to whether it is true or not? The media relies upon the fact that 100% of leaked evidence is true, meaning they exist, although not exactly as portrayed. That is why they use leaked materials, because they aren't harmed in the process.

The usual standard for reporters is that if a source gives you bad information, you burn the source. A good rule for reporting. But, as we see, the media doesn't burn their sources if their sources turn out to be wrong, if only because the media doesn't want to face the possibility of being taken. Like Oprah was taken by that novelist.

So what it comes out to is, the most unethical journalists then become the most vulnerable to disinformation, because their ideology prevents them from seeking the truth let alone finding it.

If people truly want the leaks to stop, then they must make it so that leaks don't benefit the media or the leakers. Prosecution will get the leakers, but the media are protected by several layers concerning prosecution. So disinformation traps are the way to go to punish the media for publishing leaked secrets, by using their immorality against them.

They will not voluntarily accede to necessity and go on board with this war. You must make them do so, just as you must make our enemies stop fighting us. They will do nothing beneficial to us without being made to do so. The AP has shown that to us, in some small part.

but deliberately planting countless false reports of wrongdoing by American servicemembers is the wrong way to go about it, in my opinion.

Find something else that the media will publish without waiting to check the backgrounds of the source, it will be just as acceptable to me.

The goal is to discredit the media by contrasting their lack of truthfullness with the reality on the ground. You can do so on a defensive footing, waiting for the media to cook something up and then try to defend against it, or you can engineer an incident and gain control that way. Defense or offense, that choice has always been available to the US. And it still is.

[Blackfive]

kat - I agree with you. and the spin is on. and we don't know if logan knew anything about the film footage inserted into her report or not.

but it's CBS News and I'm not about to just give them a pass. they should be earning our trust everyday.

[Miss Ladybug]

B5~

The media lost my trust a long time again, and they are nowhere close to getting it back. I pretty much follow Fox News Channel, milblogs and other conservative blogs for my current events. Don't read the local or any other paper, or subscribe to news magazines like Time/Newsweek. Even on foxnews.com, I check to see if the story is "home grown" or from AP.

[newyank]

I just saw the CBS report and all I can think is, this is some kind of a joke by CBS right? They can't possibly take this so-called journalist seriously can they?

That report was really nothing more than enemy propaganda. That reporter quoted one "Iraqi man" (AQ operative) as saying the U.S. brought "mass destruction" to Baghdad. Is she an idiot who can't recognize propaganda when she sees it, or she just some dumb-*$$ lefty who doesn't care?

[alexa kim]

I believe that America has been too naive and honest to understand the usefulness of disseminating disinformation in order to trap our enemies. Americans tend to demand that we never be lied to by our government, ever. Well, I often hope that I am being lied to. I am hoping that the media is being used, for good instead of evil, in order to fool our enemies. One of the reasons we are vulnerable to sucker punches like 9/11 is because we're always blabbing everything all over the place, to our own detriment. NYT, LA Times, et al. couldn't care less who gets hurt as long as they get the 'get.' It plays a part in whether or not our friends will tell us anything in advance about their ops because they know we're not allowed to keep secrets. Lest we offend the sensibilities of our naive and silly public and our 'right to know.'
Please. Let's all smarten up. Please? Turn about is fair play. Use the liar's tool against him, fight fire with fire.

It doesn't hurt my feelings for my government to lie to me in order to spear my enemy. In fact, I hope we have the 'nads to do it so skillfully that the enemy doesn't know what happened until it's too late. Then I'm told what really happened, as the head of my enemy is delivered on a plate. Sweet. (Yikes, I sound bloodthirsty. Well, I am -- for that of my enemies.)

In fact, it would garner the admiration and trust of our more sophisticated friends, 'cos now they know we can be (a) trusted with a secret and (b) we're grown ups now.

Now, do I think I'm not being lied to now? Of course not. I just think I'm being lied to about the wrong stuff. Like when a boondoggle is 'earmarked' deep inside the 500 pages of some totally unrelated bill and I end up paying for it.

Lie to me to save lives, please.

[alexa kim]

Oh, I forgot to add: the nonsense that we're causing the increased violence in Iraq is mass mental illness.

The TERRORISTS, CAR-BOMBERS and INSURGENTS are the ones responsible for increasing their violence. They can stop at any time. They can choose peace at any time. THEY are responsible for increasing the violence, not us.

I hate when people blame the GOOD GUYS for the bad acts of the bad actors. It's like people blaming the police when they chase a bad guy and the BAD GUY runs harder and hurts people. HE (or SHE) RAN INTO THE INNOCENT PEOPLE. They had 60 chances in every minute to decide to pull over. But no. And the stupid public turns on the POLICE like rabid dogs. No wonder more police forces are being instructed to retreat likes weenies. Because the public, who should be backing them up, will blame them when something goes wrong, instead of blaming the bad guys. It's sickening.

[Scrapiron]

I'm glad to see that all of the hype about Abu Ghraib is coming home to roost. What the soldiers did there was nothing more than hazing that goes on at every college in the U.S. No better, no worse.
This week a couple of college students got long prison terms for hazing and that's just a start. I will demand they be tried on felonies every time I find out about a hazing incident. If enough of the 'elites' kids go to prison for the same thing the soldiers at Abu Ghraib did maybe at least a small part of the stupidity will stop. Left wingers burn the soldiers, we burn the left wingers kids. Not a fair trade putting a worthless piece of sh** in jail for each hero that goes but it'll work out.

[Ymarsakar]

An incident that I believe is important to recall for alexa's post, is the fictional/non-fictional story about Winston and Coventry.

Whatever the methodology, this would be an enormous intelligence coup for the NSA. It was also a secret in itself. If the Iranians ever learned that the NSA was reading their messages, they would stop using the broken encryption machines, and the NSA's source of Iranian secrets would dry up. The secret that the NSA could read the Iranian secrets was more important than any specific Iranian secrets that the NSA could read.

The result was that the U.S. would often learn secrets they couldn't act upon, as action would give away their secret. During World War II, the Allies would go to great lengths to make sure the Germans never realized that their codes were broken. The Allies would learn about U-boat positions, but wouldn't bomb the U-boats until they spotted the U-boat by some other means...otherwise the Nazis might get suspicious.

There's a story about Winston Churchill and the bombing of Coventry: supposedly he knew the city would be bombed but could not warn its citizens. The story is apocryphal, but is a good indication of the extreme measures countries take to protect the secret that they can read an enemy's secrets.

And there are many stories of slip-ups. In 1986, after the bombing of a Berlin disco, then-President Reagan said that he had irrefutable evidence that Qadaffi was behind the attack. Libyan intelligence realized that their diplomatic codes were broken, and changed them. The result was an enormous setback for U.S. intelligence, all for just a slip of the tongue.

Iranian intelligence supposedly tried to test Chalabi's claim by sending a message about an Iranian weapons cache. If the U.S. acted on this information, then the Iranians would know that its codes were broken. The U.S. didn't, which showed they're very smart about this. Maybe they knew the Iranians suspected, or maybe they were waiting to manufacture a plausible fictitious reason for knowing about the weapons cache.

So now the NSA's secret is out. The Iranians have undoubtedly changed their encryption machines, and the NSA has lost its source of Iranian secrets. But little else is known. Who told Chalabi? Only a few people would know this important U.S. secret, and the snitch is certainly guilty of treason. Maybe Chalabi never knew, and never told the Iranians. Maybe the Iranians figured it out some other way, and they are pretending that Chalabi told them in order to protect some other intelligence source of theirs.

These spygames tend to be rather... convoluted if you keep reading here.

NSA and Iran

It gives a good sense of how easy secrets can be leaked and exposed, and how important they can be.

[douglas]

She's likely just an airhead lefty dupe. But she's embedded- someone find out with what unit and warn them that she's working with suspect stringers, please.

[douglas]

Oh, the Irony: CBS uses AQ propaganda video without questioning the source, while from the NY Times:
"In Washington, counterprotesters also converged on the mall in smaller numbers, but the antiwar demonstration was largely peaceful.

There were a few tense moments, however, including an encounter involving Joshua Sparling, 25, who was on crutches and who said he was a corporal with the 82nd Airborne Division and lost his right leg below the knee in Ramadi, Iraq."

Think they put the qualifier "who said" in front of quotes from 'Iraqis' critical of the U.S.?

[bodemillerjokes]

And your point is?

[jordan]

Funny, douglas, I caught that, too. He was the only decent human in that whole story, and yet he "claimed" he was 82nd Airborne. Of course, the poseurs like Watada never "claim", they are always taken at their word.

Sparling's status w/82 Airborne would be so simple and easy to verify, in addition to which there are many stories about his evac and hospital treatment. Good grief, a couple of clicks, and it's confirmed, but they can't be bothered. Easier to malign the person by casting doubt on the "claim". I suppose it's because the veterans they usually run into ARE faking.

[Skywarner]

"Is she an idiot who can't recognize propaganda when she sees it, or she just some dumb-*$$ lefty who doesn't care?"

Lara Logan is both to one degree or another, but, she's also a hottie.

Nevertheless, she's in over her head on this story. Either she was foolish beyond compare, or she actively knew the source of the video. Heh, it's almost like watching CNN.

[Blackfive]

Well, to be frank here, Sparling's status is probably one of the easiest verifications to make. Heck, even I have visited him twice. Both times, he had other paratroopers in to visit him from his unit.

I'll start quoting "The New York Times, who said it was a paper of record, quoted Dick Durbin..."

[Mr. Wolf]

Mr Y-

You said: "One reason being that they didn't see it coming ahead of time, because they don't have any contacts in the media worth talking about that would give them a headsup in terms of intel, and also because they were sitting in a passive position waiting for something to happen."

Hate to disagree, but as one of just a small handful who had access early on, this is not the case. We had the info early, got calls from CBS/60 Minutes about it, but the leadership (again) refused to listen to their own professionals- to include their own JAG. This could have resulted in a far different 'perception offensive' had they listened to us.

Wolf

[Ymarsakar]

Concerning Abu Ghraib, I do remember that CBS did call the military about that ahead of time. If I have something wrong then I'll need to correct it.

So what did the professionals and the JAG recommend that they do about CBS and the problem?

[arch]

The three major networks, like their print counterparts, are hemoraging customers and for good reason - News is supposed to be accurate. What these clowns broadcast and publish should not be protected under the First Amendment.

CBS is, in my view, the worst. After Dan Rather used crudely forged memos to discredit Bush, why would any reasonably informed citizen believe anything CBS put on the news? I'm still waiting for Cronkite to admit that he was wrong about Tet.

With the exception of college football, we have not watched a show on CBS, NBC or ABC in a decade. Fox and the Wall Street Journal are the only main stream media with any credibility. Shamefully, my wife reads USA Today.

[Esoterik]

arch-
Everyone needs to get their daily comics from somewhere, right?

[Michael]

OffTopic, to: Michael in Mi, Terri, et al., and others. I tried to comment the other day in response to you all about a rally in DC, but got locked up on the network and am just now getting back.

I appreciate everyone's comments that day. We are winning this war, slowyly, day by day against an insurgency that was well planned and has grown by the Baathist in Syria, Iranian Mullahs, and the Sunni Al Qaeda networks of terrorist around the world from Sudan suicide bombers to Egyptians.

Michael in MI. You're correct. It would be hard for the majority of working families. But what if we turned it into a vacation around the 4th of July? This may mean some cannot come to the event with such little time ahead for planning. But, those who cannot attend can help - that is if we determine it is doable. Plus, we could make arrangements for celebrations around the country to coincide with the DC event.

The Anti-American, Communist Supported rally headlined by Communist Sympathisor Hanoi Jane is reported to have turned out 30K by Fox. Lets assume CutNruN reported 60K. A rough estimate they got maybe 45K. That is nothing today for a protest in a land of 300Million. Pro-Life rally got One Hundred Thousand.

I realize this is a long shot, but most pundits, experts agree. Summer is the next milestone for the war in Iraq. Plus, I am inspired by all the Millions of Aussies who turned out all over their country celebrating Aussie National Day, sending a clear message to the terrorist and Islamic radicals to sod off. That they are proud of their heritage.

We should be proud of our nation and our heritage. The intellectual elites did nothing as millions died in Russia(around 20-40 million), China(around 60 million), Africa(millions in Sudan, Rwanda, etc.) and in the Middle East. They complain and whine and the UN does nothing. Because it is nothing more than a place for Tyrants and Communist nations to block real freedoms and progress.

Please see this link to Aussie celebration: http://www.publiuspundit.com/?p=3153
Read how millions turned out for their country to send a message loud and clear to the radical Islamic racist and bigots in their country and support their nation.

Can't we do the same? Instead of the woe is our nation, whine, complain and blame America crowd?

Certainly we can!

Again, I ask the question. If the Communist parties can turn out 30-45K for a rally in DC. Then why can't American loving, Soldier Supporting, hardworking every day Americans do the same? The Aussies sent a message. We need to do the same!

I've never done anything like this before. The largest experience I have is taking a Sunday school class of 4 adults to about 75 members, but that was with two others truly helping that made the difference. I don't consider myself to be a great organizer. I'm willing to try and start this idea and I'll volunteer to help and eventually make the haul to DC. But the truth is we need good organizers with extremely good connections in high up places of Media and Entertainment. The question is can we get the right people involved to do this?

Our soldiers and families make sacrifices every single day. I think if we get a larger crowd of 100,000 at least to go then it is worth it. It certainly makes a larger statement than the Anti-American, President Bashing, Anti-Iraq-Freedom rally.

AT the very least it sends a message that says we love and support our troops. If this does take off and grow. They will get the message that normal people are performing a grass-roots effort and that will help too over the months leading up to the rally.

But, it is a message for our troops, for our country and in support of American beliefs of freedom. I do not want it to be the anger fest, insult fest, or political bashing that the leftist, communist rally is. I do not want it to contain hate messages like those seen at the Communist sponsored rally with Jane Fonda.

Some ideas:

Like Michael in MI stated. Start small with the Blogs. See if we can get buy in from larger names and if there are connections that can be made which can get the larger ball rolling. There are organizations already out there who have done this. If we get buy in, form a working body to move forward.

Get the Buy in from

Veterans Groups
Hollywood actors(like Sinise and Willis)
Nashville C&W stars(this is critical - they love our country and so do their fans - and I'm loving C&W more every day)
Groups like Patriot Guards
Christian Groups
Biker Groups (yeah, I'll never forget the thousands of Bikers in NYC supporting our veterans when few did one day after I returned from the Statue of Liberty. They had taken over the financial district that weekend)
Musicians of all kinds who do support our troops and country.
Over 50 celebrities, producers and directors in Hollywood were courageous in supporting Israel. Reach out to them(Huntress?).
NASCAR - thats Millions from Florida to Michigan, Texas and the Carolinas!
WWF and Wrestling Champions again - Millions!
Iraqis who support America and their Diplomats to Thank America for new freedom
Iranian Citizens exiled who support America
Lebanese(get the picture?)
Darfur and Sudanese
Muslims who support America and Freedom!
Finally and not least surely - Politicans to join in support - who cannot? But I'd like to try and get Indpendent thinkers and statesmen like Joe Momentum Lieberman. He fought the extreme left and WON in liberal New England Connecticut.
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That is a short list off the top of my head. But as you can see. It will be both a celebration of freedom, of our nation, of those who support us, and the American people supporting their soldiers and families. And it will represent all of America, the true melting pot. From Christians and Muslims, Jews and Gentils, Athist and Agnostics, Hindu and Buddhist. Man, Women and child, Black, White, Red and Yellow. It represents our fathers and forefathers who came to these shores yearning for freedom of religion, of peace, from oppression, from communism, from radical tyrants.

Well, you get the idea. There are millions who actually support our troops. The Media would have us believe we Do Not want to Win. They actively frame stories toward their own biased worldviews. That we are a nation of quitters. They would have us believe that millions do not care. That is a lie. There is also another fundamental propaganda lie being told - That we do not care about death of American soldiers. That is a huge LIE! And it is a propaganda 101 tactic to demoralize our country and us who support war against terrorist and rogue nations. Please note that the same Communist organizations that freely protested about Vietnam in the 60s are at it again protesting against America in this Global War on Terror. Lastly, the propaganda tactic of repeating lies often enough that it eventually sinks into the mind and the masses believe it. This rally serves to stop that BS. It serves to show that we all can come together despite the Media Headbutting of negative misinformation campaigns about our country.

This time is different. We have an all volunteer armed services. They are among the best soldiers this country has ever produced and they care about America, about Iraqi freedom and about our future. They're not hippies, lost, doing drugs, tuning out and turning on like the hippies of the past. They're not buying in to the biased Media hype. They're not buying into Jane Fonda types or old hippies like Neil Young who is fading away. As much as I may have enjoyed his music, his politics stinks and so does his burnt out ideas.

We have a different media today and the internet. The Big Three no longer rule. Fox News will televise the event if we make it big enough and therefore the others cannot ignore it. Talk Radio can rally millions in support and spread the message to the faithful of this nation who truly believe we stand for good.

The Mission is to send clear messages:

1) Support our Soldiers Just Cause(yes, it is Just - they volunteered believing in our country) and thank each and everyone of them for volunteering to defend this nation(and to recognize the death of our soldiers in all the war fronts including Afghanistan, instead of political power plays and propaganda counting of numbers in one single country that our Media and politicians do.)
2) Support our Nation's Just Cause(to fight Tyrants and terrorist - this is a no brainer)
3) Support Iraqi, Afghani, Lebanon, Darfur Freedoms against terrorist and oppressive regimes like Iran, Taliban, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda who want to rule over them.
4) Send a message loud and clear to our enemies that everyday, hardworking Americans do not back down and know what is at stake and that we believe and have faith in our country.
5) Support those nations(Canada, Austrailia, Japan, South Korea, UK and so many others) that support us in Iraq and Afghanistan that we are not giving up in this long war and send a message to the world. That America is strong and will not be pushed around by naysayers, doomsayers, appeasers, intellectual snobs, and backstabbers. We will especially not back down to Communist in our country or old KGB cronies abroad.

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The event would have veterens from the past(WWII, Korea, Vietnam, 1st Gulf), present(Iraq, Afghanistan) and future(those who have recently volunteered and signed up). It would have C&W stars singing, and yes - God Bless America. For those Hollywood stars courageous enough to come out - a committment to see their movies. For any musicians of all types to sing and contribute.

I am nobody special and don't pretend to be. But I am tired of the Media talking heads telling me we're losing, that our nation is wrong, and we are stupid for 60 million who voted for Victory in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, around the world against terror. I am not stupid. I do have a heart and I care about these soldiers, their families and sacrifices. And I cannot think of a better way, but to show up in large numbers in DC to march on our nations capital to show this to the spiritually blind politicians who are using partisan politics to dump on our nation around the world and in our media. I am sick of the Defeatist, appeasing terrorist attitudes that think all ideas are relative and all nations and actions the same. They are not. This country can stand for good, if we the American people make it stand for good. Hanoi Jane could not answer the hard question about millions dying in Vietnam or Cambodia.

She does not represent me or America. She is a minority and her rally was bought and paid for by extremist on the left.

One final thought. The celebration would also raise money to Support Our Troops and Families thru those valid organizations which have proven successful. We would actually be truly supporting them instead of just saying "we care" like CodePink who emotionally harms our soldiers and their families by protesting in front of hospitals. CodePink does not acknowledge these are all volunteers.

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Well, rather long winded. But, if any are truly interested, let me know. I'm not sure it can be pulled off, but we'll never know if we don't try.

Again, we need those skilled at doing this. But maybe if enough of us pull together in a grass-roots effort across bloggers, we can get the skilled involved and roll this into a larger and larger rallying point around our soldiers who want to win and those who desire victory not just for us, but for freedom of the 12 million Iraqis who voted for freedom.

After the 60's drug culture and confusion(dazed and confused), the 70s lost generation came along(that was mine) and there was no cause - except drugs and loud music. If we look back at history and are honest, we realize that the Communist supported and financed the drugs in South America that were shipped into our nation. Today, we're much smarter, our kids are smarter, and we have a better balanced media to not buy into the 60's acid crowd like mentality. We have an all volunteer armed forces who are dedicated to this country and are professionals.

We need to stand by them. And we need to stand for the freedoms of this country, and the just cause of freedom for a people that have been long oppressed. We are at a unique point in history, where We the People can make a difference.

I'm not sure how to start this or am I sure it can succeed. But I'm willing to try. For those interested, please email:

ShiyrOYasha at the yahoo.com address. It stands for Sing of Victory, or SongO'Victory in Hebrew, from Psalm 98:1. It merely symbolizes my belief that Words matter and lead to action. We sing of the Victory that is before us. And we trust that our cause is just.

Hannity I believe got over 20,000 at a rally in New Jersey supporting our troops. Why can't we make it 200,000???

Well... thats it and sorry if this was too long. But I felt I needed to respond. All ideas are on the table and nothing is written in stone. I'm just trying to spur a grass roots effort that does not allow Communist and far left appeasers be the last thing our soldiers here while they're in battle. They deserve more and its time We the People do more.

[Chuck]

WHORE!

[Mommynator]

Esoterik: you can get your daily comics online. :D

[alexa kim]

Michael, please see "I Told you So, Part II" (earlier post here at B5).

[Ellen]

For some reason in downtown Miami today, pretty young girls were handing out some type of CBS news flyer magazine. I was set to take one, saw the CBS logo and told the young girls what I thought of Lara Logan and CBS News. They just looked at me with the slack Gen-X glazed stare...twits....

[Esoterik]

Ellen-
Like you think they even knew what you where talking about? Now if it where "American Model," they would have brightened up.

[Esoterik]

There is groundswell developing at Free Republic.

On March 17, CANSWER enlisting the help of UFPJ, World Can't Wait, and other groups are planning a celebratory anniversary march on the Pentagon from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Jihad Jane and of course Sheehan are exspected to be in attendance.

There appears to be organizational effort to meet this Left Feast with an appropriate counter.

LINK

[bodemillerjokes]

A groundswell? Maybe you'll get a whole 50 people to show up LOL

[Anon.]

Wow. Apparently just raising this subject motivates some to violence.