Public relations preparations for 2003 invasion of Iraq: Difference between revisions
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stick to simple exposition of fact and not blatant POV from any side , Suskind should get only one mention - and MSNBC stated it was 'Suskind's opinion' , entire article appears to be POV SYNTH at best |
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{{Lead rewrite|date=April 2009}} |
{{Lead rewrite|date=April 2009}} |
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In late 2001, |
In late 2001, a the Pentagon's [[Office of Strategic Influence]] was formed. In February 2002, amid a backlash of public outcry after a New York Times article, Defense Secretary [[Donald Rumsfeld]] said he lacked knowledge of the program and the OSI was closed down.<ref>[http://www.fair.org/extra/0204/osi.html] [http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2Dop%2Darkin24nov24001455§ion=%2Fnews%2Fopinion%2Fcommentary]</ref> </ref> |
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In January 2003, President George W. Bush |
In January 2003, President George W. Bush announced "the creation of a White House 'Office of Global Communications' to broadcast the United States' message worldwide ahead of possible war on Iraq."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5874357%255E1702,00.html }}</ref> According to the [[White House]], the office was to disseminate the policies of the U.S. Government to media sources, domestic and foreign, and send "teams of communicators to international hot spots, areas of media interest."<ref>[http://www.startribune.com/stories/844/3612289.html]</ref> |
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==Government statements that set the stage for war== |
==Government statements that set the stage for war== |
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[[Image:Powell-anthrax-vial.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Colin Powell]] holding a model vial of anthrax while giving a presentation to the [[United Nations Security Council]].]] |
[[Image:Powell-anthrax-vial.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Colin Powell]] holding a model vial of anthrax while giving a presentation to the [[United Nations Security Council]].]] |
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"In the war on terror, Iraq is now the central front..." President Bush said on December 14, 2005 (Bush, George W. "President Discusses Iraqi Elections, Victory in the War on Terror." White House, Official Press Release). "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001..." (Bush, George W. "President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended" White House, Official Press Release, May 1, 2003]. In the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney suggested during a, "Meet the Press" interview that Iraq was involved in the September 11 attack: Iraq is, "the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9-11." [Davies, Frank. "Study: Misperceptions About Iraq War Contributed to Support For It." Knight-Ridder, October 3, 2003.) |
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===Orchestrated deception campaign=== |
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President Bush and Bush Administration officials made hundreds of false statements in an orchestrated public relations campaign to galvanize public opinion for the war, according to a study by two not-for-profit journalism organizations.<ref name="hosted.ap.org">Associated Press, January 23, 2008, "Study: Bush Led U.S. To War on ‘False Pretenses’", http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MISINFORMATION_STUDY?SITE=MITRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT archived at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/23/6551/</ref> For example, on at least 532 occasions top Bush Administration officials stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, or was trying to produce or obtain them, or had links to al Qaeda, or both. According to the study those statements were demonstrably false. The study concluded that the U.S. government's public relations campaign against the U.S. public thus led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.<ref name="hosted.ap.org"/> |
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In the [[2003 State of the Union address]], President Bush said "we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs".<ref>{{cite web|title=Third State of the Union Address|author=George W. Bush|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/George_W._Bush%27s_Third_State_of_the_Union_Address|quote=From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.}}</ref> On February 5, 2003, [[United States Secretary of State|U.S. Secretary of State]] [[Colin Powell]] addressed the [[United Nations General Assembly]], continuing U.S. efforts to gain UN authorization for an invasion.His [[United Nations Security Council and the Iraq War#Colin_Powell's presentation|presentation to the UN Security Council]], which contained a computer generated image of a ''mobile biological weapons laboratory''. However, this information was based on claims of [[Curveball (informant)|Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi codenamed "Curveball"]], an Iraqi emigrant living in [[Germany]] who later admitted that his claims had been false. |
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According to the study, U.S. news organizations facilitated the government's orchestrated campaign of false statements by their largely quite uncritical and deferential coverage of government statements, thus providing seemingly "independent" validation of the false statements in the minds of the U.S. public. “Some journalists and even entire news organizations have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical."<ref name="hosted.ap.org"/> |
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====A letter concocted by the CIA==== |
====A letter concocted by the CIA==== |
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{{main|Habbush letter}} |
{{main|Habbush letter}} |
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Based on the statements of several named CIA senior officials who spoke on record, |
Based on the statements of several named CIA senior officials who spoke on record, journalist [[Ron Suskind]]'s book "[[The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism]]" states that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter made to appear as a letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence, [[Tahir Jalil Habbush]], to Saddam Hussein and backdated to July 1, 2001.<ref>MSNBC, August 5, 2008, ttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26030573/ |
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reporting on findings of book by Ron Suskind, "The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism" published August 5, 2008</ref> |
reporting on findings of book by Ron Suskind, "The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism" published August 5, 2008</ref> |
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U.S. intelligence officials stated on the record that President Bush was informed unequivocally in January 2003 that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. However, eager for "evidence" justifying war against Iraq, the White House ordered the manufacture of a letter stating that 9/11 ringleader [[Mohamed Atta]] had trained for his mission in Iraq, thus purporting to establish with finally the existence of an operation link between Saddam and al-Qaeda. |
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<ref name="msnbc.msn.com">MSNBC, August 5, 2008, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26030573/ reporting on findings of book by Ron Suskind, "The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism" published August 5, 2008</ref> |
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Searching for a justification for invasion, Vice President Cheney's office had been pressuring the CIA to prove that an operation link existed between Saddam and al-Qaeda. Pursuant to the White House order, the CIA concocted the handwritten letter, with Habbush's name on it, and then hand-carried it agent to Baghdad for dissemination." |
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CIA Director [[George Tenet]] returned from the White House with the assignment written on White House stationery, and assigned the task to CIA operatives. CIA officers [[Robert Richer]] and John Maguire, were in charge of the [[Iraq Operations Group]]. They are both on the record in Suskind’s book confirming the existence of the fake Habbush letter. |
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The forged letter was released and written about by Western newssources, including the [[London Sunday Telegraph]], as evidence of Iraq government links to 9/11. [[NBC News]] reported the letter as “really concrete proof that al-Qaeda was working with Saddam.” |
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<ref name="msnbc.msn.com"/> During the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. "resettled" Habbush to a [[safe house]] in [[Jordan]] during and then paid him $5 million in what, according to Suskind, could only be considered "[[hush money]]".<ref name="huffingtonpost.com"/> |
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{{bquote|It is well established that, at my direction, CIA resisted efforts on the part of some in the Administration to paint a picture of Iraqi-Al Qa'ida connections that went beyond the evidence. The notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and have created and planted false evidence that was contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous.<ref>Blackledge, Brett. [http://www.webcitation.org/5Zx3o2vZH CIA officials deny fake Iraq-al-Qaida link letter] AP. August 5, 2008.</ref>}} |
{{bquote|It is well established that, at my direction, CIA resisted efforts on the part of some in the Administration to paint a picture of Iraqi-Al Qa'ida connections that went beyond the evidence. The notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and have created and planted false evidence that was contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous.<ref>Blackledge, Brett. [http://www.webcitation.org/5Zx3o2vZH CIA officials deny fake Iraq-al-Qaida link letter] AP. August 5, 2008.</ref>}} |
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====Yellowcake from Niger==== |
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{{main|Niger uranium forgeries}} |
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Allegedly, the Bush Administration also knowingly fraudulently asserted as evidence that the Hussein government had sought to purchase [[yellowcake uranium]] from [[Niger]].<ref>Lichtblau, Eric. "[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/politics/18niger.html?ex=1295240400&en=e12e8081c771c1c0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss 2002 Memo Doubted Uranium Sale Claim"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 18, 2006. Retrieved on May 10, 2007.</ref> On March 7, 2003, intelligence documents submitted as evidence to the [[International Atomic Energy Agency|IAEA]] were dismissed by the agency as forgeries, with the concurrence of outside experts. At the time, a U.S. official claimed that the evidence was submitted to the IAEA without knowledge of its provenance, and characterized any mistakes as "more likely due to incompetence not malice"; this explanation was deemed unsatisfactory by former CIA official and Iraq War critic [[Ray Close (CIA analyst)|Ray Close]].<ref>{{cite news |
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| url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/14/sprj.irq.documents/index.html |
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| title=Fake Iraq documents 'embarrassing' for U.S. |
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| publisher=CNN.com |
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| date=2003-03-14 |
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| accessdate=2007-05-10 |
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}}</ref> Those who oppose these critics of the invasion maintain the fraudulent documents were never central—or even relevant—in intelligence assessments regarding Iraq seeking uranium. |
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====The Downing Street memorandum==== |
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{{See also|Operation_Mass_Appeal}} |
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The 2005 release of the so-called [[Downing Street Memo]], a secret British document summarizing a 2002 meeting among British political, intelligence, and defence leaders also tended to show the US and Britain willing to "fix" intelligence as necessary to support the war against Iraq. According to the memo, Chief of the [[MI6|British Secret Intelligence Service]] Sir [[Richard Dearlove]] claimed that "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."<ref>Pincus, Walter. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/12/AR2005051201857.html "British Intelligence Warned of Iraq War"]. ''Washington Post'', Friday, May 13, 2005; Page A18. Retrieved on April 5, 2007.</ref> |
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====Non-existent capabilities of unmanned Iraqi drones==== |
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In October, 2002, a few days before the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] vote on the [[Legality of the Iraq War#United States|Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution]], about 75 senators were told in [[closed session]] that [[Saddam Hussein]] had the means of delivering [[Biological weapon|biological]] and [[chemical weapons]] of mass destruction by [[unmanned aerial vehicle]] (UAV) drones that could be launched from ships off the Atlantic coast to attack [[East Coast of the United States|U.S. eastern seaboard cities]]. [[Colin Powell]] suggested in his presentation to the United Nations that UAVs were transported out of Iraq and could be launched against the U.S. In fact, Iraq had no offensive UAV fleet or any capability of putting UAVs on ships.<ref>Senator [[Bill Nelson]] (January 28, 2004) [http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2004_cr/s012804b.html "New Information on Iraq's Possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction",] ''Congressional Record''</ref> Iraq's UAV fleet consisted of less than a handful of outdated Czech training drones.<ref>Lowe, C. (December 16, 2003) [http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000690.html "Senator: White House Warned of UAV Attack,"] ''Defense Tech''</ref> At the time, there was a vigorous dispute within the intelligence community as to whether the CIA's conclusions about Iraq's UAV fleet were accurate. The [[U.S. Air Force]] agency most familiar with UAVs denied outright that Iraq possessed any offensive UAV capability.<ref>Hammond, J. (November 14, 2005) [http://www.yirmeyahureview.com/articles/iraq_uavs.htm "The U.S. 'intelligence failure' and Iraq's UAVs"] ''The Yirmeyahu Review''</ref> |
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====The Manning Memo==== |
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[[Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]] of Britain and President Bush met at the White House on Jan. 31, 2003, and [[David Manning]], Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser, took notes of the meeting later leaked in Britain to the public by a [[whistleblower]]. These notes are known as the "Manning Memo" (different from the "Downing Street Memo," although David Manning was involved with producing both). The Manning Memo states that Bush and Blair had decided that they would invade Iraq even if the UN weapons inspectors found no WMD in Iraq as Bush and Blair alleged. Bush and Blair "penciled in" March 10 as the day they would commence the war. The president and the prime minister acknowledged that no WMD had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of no WMD being found by their desired war date, Bush suggested several ways to provoke a war, including a proposal to paint a United States U2 surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations and flying it in Iraqi air space in the hopes that Iraq would fire on it, and a proposal to assassinate the Iraqi head of state, Mr. Hussein. The Iraqi response could then be used to mobilize public opinion for war.<ref name="nytimes.com">New York Times, March 27, 2006, "Bush Was Set on Path to War, British Memo Says" http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/international/europe/27memo.html</ref><ref>MSNBC, March 27, 2006, "Memo: U.S., Britain bent on war in Iraq" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12041516/</ref> Bush and Blair also agreed to continue to push aggressively for a second UN Security Council resolution, one that would authorize the use of force, however, the UN Security Council failed to pass the second resolution.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> Bush and Blair agreed that "The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would twist arms and even threaten," according to the Memo.<ref>BBC News, March 27, 2006, Bush-blair War Memo Revealed, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4849744.stm</ref> |
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==Success of the public relations campaign== |
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The U.S. government's public relations campaign was largely successful in getting the American public to accept false beliefs to support the war. Approximately 70% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein had a role in the 9/11 attacks, even though the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of this. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32862-2003Sep5?language=printer] As late as 2006, 85% of U.S. troops in Iraq said the U.S. mission was mainly "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks." [http://zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1075]. |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Revision as of 14:55, 11 March 2013
 | The article's lead section may need to be rewritten. (April 2009) |
In late 2001, a the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence was formed. In February 2002, amid a backlash of public outcry after a New York Times article, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he lacked knowledge of the program and the OSI was closed down.[1] </ref>
In January 2003, President George W. Bush announced "the creation of a White House 'Office of Global Communications' to broadcast the United States' message worldwide ahead of possible war on Iraq."[2] According to the White House, the office was to disseminate the policies of the U.S. Government to media sources, domestic and foreign, and send "teams of communicators to international hot spots, areas of media interest."[3]
Government statements that set the stage for war
"In the war on terror, Iraq is now the central front..." President Bush said on December 14, 2005 (Bush, George W. "President Discusses Iraqi Elections, Victory in the War on Terror." White House, Official Press Release). "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001..." (Bush, George W. "President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended" White House, Official Press Release, May 1, 2003]. In the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney suggested during a, "Meet the Press" interview that Iraq was involved in the September 11 attack: Iraq is, "the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9-11." [Davies, Frank. "Study: Misperceptions About Iraq War Contributed to Support For It." Knight-Ridder, October 3, 2003.)
Evidence
A letter concocted by the CIA
Based on the statements of several named CIA senior officials who spoke on record, journalist Ron Suskind's book "The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism" states that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter made to appear as a letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence, Tahir Jalil Habbush, to Saddam Hussein and backdated to July 1, 2001.[4]
August 5, 2008, the White House issued a statement on behalf of George Tenet, Robert Richer and John Maguire, addressing Suskind's allegation. Tenet said:
It is well established that, at my direction, CIA resisted efforts on the part of some in the Administration to paint a picture of Iraqi-Al Qa'ida connections that went beyond the evidence. The notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and have created and planted false evidence that was contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous.[5]
See also
- At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
- U.S. plan to invade Iraq
- American popular opinion of war on Iraq
- Worldwide government positions on war on Iraq
- Popular opposition to war on Iraq
- Protests against the 2003 Iraq war
- The UN Security Council and the Iraq war
- Karen Kwiatkowski
- White House Iraq Group
References
- ^ [1] [2]
- ^ http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5874357%255E1702,00.html.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ [3]
- ^ MSNBC, August 5, 2008, ttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26030573/ reporting on findings of book by Ron Suskind, "The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism" published August 5, 2008
- ^ Blackledge, Brett. CIA officials deny fake Iraq-al-Qaida link letter AP. August 5, 2008.
External links
- Truth from These Podia: Summary of a Study of Strategic Influence, Perception Management, Strategic Information Warfare and Strategic Psychological Operations in Gulf II, by Sam Gardiner, Colonel, USAF (Retired) (beginning of a 56-page report available in six PDF files)
- Selection of links and resources on media coverage of the war in Iraq, Provided by The Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College.