[Shadow_Group] Fw: Propaganda Operations

Tue Nov 23 03:01:43 PST 2004

rense.com

On Executions, 
Beheadings And Other 
Propaganda Operations
By Larry Chin
Online Journal Associate Editor
11-20-4

The pattern has been consistent and obvious. Every news report or scandal
that has been detrimental to the Bush/Anglo-American war agenda has been
followed, within hours, with shocking executions (real and staged) that
are attributed to "terrorist insurgents," despite questionable
circumstances, non-verifiable evidence and unreliable sources, such as
"unnamed" intelligence and military officials. 

The parties responsible for these acts have not and likely will not be
identified, thanks in large part to deliberate US/Pentagon blackouts of
reporting from war zones, and disinformation-laden and Bush-controlled
corporate media. 

What is clear, regardless of the identities of the perpetrators, is that
the results have exclusively benefited the US/Bush administration war
machine, while completely undermining the political and public relations
objectives of anti-US/anti-occupation opposition movements and groups.
The methods used in the kidnapping and murder of Margaret Hassan, Nick
Berg and others neatly fit the profile of classic western intelligence
and counterinsurgency operations. 

Margaret Hassan 

Reports of the genocidal mass murder, atrocities and war crimes now being
committed by US forces in Fallujah (also see dispatches by Dahr Jamail
from Iraq) have been "countered" by a video of the apparent execution of
Margaret Hassan, a CARE relief official who was beloved and respected by
Iraqis and non-Iraqis alike. This act, blamed on insurgents, has prompted
outrage among Iraqis against rebel fighters. 

But was the Hassan killing part of a British intelligence operation? An
account by a Jordanian journalist: 

"The British have tried to insure against any potential backlash from the
general public and its own Labour MP's (in the event things go badly
wrong) by instructing its agents on the ground inside Iraq to kidnap
Margaret Hassan, the Care International charity worker. 

"The recent communiqué from the Mujaahideen has exposed the British
insurance policy and has denied any JTJ involvement in the kidnapping.
The kidnapping will send the message to the British public that the Iraqi
resistance is comprised of monsters and serial murderers-and there can be
no response other than wiping them from the face of the earth-thereby
prolonging the redeployment of the British troops in the region near
Baghdad." 

Indeed, the kidnapping and execution of Hassan make no sense, except as
an intelligence operation by US, British or US-allied operatives: 

"But why would the resistance kidnap somebody who has provided
humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq for 25 years? Is it
possible the Iraqi resistance wants to deny the Iraqi people humanitarian
assistance? Of course not. In America, the corporate media answers the
above question every day-the Iraqi resistance is fanatical, murderous,
nothing more than a loose confederation of terrorists, criminals, Islamic
madmen, demented sadists who blow up car bombs in crowded market squares
and kill women and children, their own neighbors. However, there is
another possible explanation: the kidnapping of Margaret Hassan is part
of a counterinsurgency operation devised to make the resistance look bad
and thus turn world opinion against it." 

For over 20 years, Hassan herself was one of the most powerful voices on
the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. And recently, she was a critic of the
occupation. In a previous videotape, Hassan pleaded for the British to
get out of Iraq. She was a public relations liability. 

Toretta and Pari Kidnappings 

In September 2004, two young Italian humanitarian aid workers, Simona
Toretta and Simona Pari, were kidnapped under suspicious circumstances.
This was blamed on insurgents and/or terrorists connected to Zarqawi. 

According to an investigation by the UK Guardian, Iraqi insurgents were
not behind the kidnapping of the two Italian aid workers: 

"The Guardian said the kidnapping of Simona Torretta and Simona Pari has
the mark of an undercover foreign operation in a bid to discredit the
unabated Iraqi resistance against US occupation forces. 

"The mass-circulation newspaper adds more suspicion on foreign
involvement in the operation as it was carried out only few meters from
the heavily patrolled Green Zone with no interference from Iraqi police
or US military. 

"The Guardian maintains that the weapons used in the operation were more
sophisticated than those usually used by the Iraqi resistance as the
kidnappers used AK-47s, shotguns and pistols with silencers and stun
guns, while the Iraqi resistance fighters always use the rusty
Kalashnikovs. 

"Most striking, according to the British daily, the kidnappers wore Iraqi
National Guard uniforms and identified themselves as working for [Iraqi
Prime Minister] Iyad Allawi." 

Nick Berg Execution 

In the spring of 2004, Nick Berg was "executed" by US or US-allied
intelligence operatives to divert attention from the torture scandals at
Abu Ghraib. 

There is also ample evidence that the videotaped execution of Nicholas
Berg in the spring of 2004 was a complete fabrication, based on a
detailed analysis by La Voz de Aztlan. Despite this, and other
debunkings, the Berg beheading remains a lurid image that prompts
"anti-terrorist" hatred. 

Daniel Pearl 

The killing of journalist Daniel Pearl was similarly twisted to benefit
the "war on terrorism" propaganda, and to ignite fury against alleged
al-Qaeda terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks. 

Just as Margaret Hassan was a public relations problem that needed to be
nipped in the bud, Pearl was a nuisance. He had been pursuing links
between terrorism, terrorist groups and intelligence agencies, and was
going after Pakistan's ISI (a virtual CIA branch), shortly before he was
murdered. 

The mushrooming Post-9/11 Nightmare 

It is clear that most, if not all, of the conveniently-timed kidnappings
and executions, false terror alerts, Osama Bin Laden videos, "al-Qaeda"
arrests, constant Zarqawi drumbeat (also see here)-have been staged and
exploited for Anglo-American war propaganda, timed in order to 1)
distract from the truth of unilateral Anglo-American aggression, 2) turn
world opinion against those resisting US-led war and occupation, and3)
maintain the fear, shock and hate-based myth of "terrorism" and "the
fanatical outside enemy." 

At the same time, what cannot be ignored is that violent outrage on the
part of the victims of US-led aggression will spiral out of control-if it
has not already. As US-led aggression has continued to escalate, it has
driven its victims to increasingly desperate acts of resistance and
self-preservation. By design. 

As Mike Ruppert writes in Crossing the Rubicon: "Even if there weren't
[terrorists] before 9/11 (and there were), the US has gone out of its way
to create animosity against this country that is in full flower all over
the globe." From the "war on terrorism" to the bombing, invasion and
occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. From the massacre at Mazar-I-Sharif
to the torture cells of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Today in Iraq,
American soldiers are killing with fanatical bloodlust--grotesquely
demonstrated by the daily slaughter in Fallujah, the mosque murders, and
the earlier incidents such as the "mercy killing" of innocent Iraqis
unloading a garbage truck. 

In this nightmarish world of endless and expanding war, and continuous
cycles of provocation and response, it becomes difficult, if not
impossible, to distinguish the brutality of criminal aggressors from acts
of resistance to this aggression. Just as Israel and Palestine have been
locked into unending cycles of unpredictable and uncontrollable violence
for decades, the entire world, lit by the 9/11 "war on terrorism" powder
keg, is set for the same. 

This war, and the propaganda that fuels it, must be stopped. 

_____ 

Larry Chin is a freelance journalist and an Online Journal Associate
Editor. 

The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not necessarily
reflect those of Online Journal. Email editor at onlinejournal.com<mailto:editor at onlinejournal.com> 

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports<http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports> 
/112004Chin/112004chin.html

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